Reports, Appeals & Trust Scores

Why Moderation Needs Feedback Loops

Moderation is not just about punishing bad behavior. It is about creating a fair, transparent system where members understand the rules, can report violations, and have a path to reinstatement if they are penalized. Without these feedback loops, moderation feels arbitrary and authoritarian, which drives good members away. With them, moderation becomes a community partnership where members help identify problems and the system provides second chances for people who make mistakes.

BotWave implements this through three connected systems: reports let members flag problems for admin review, appeals let banned users request reinstatement, and trust scores provide a data driven view of each member's reputation based on their behavior and activity over time. Together they create a moderation system that is firm but fair, and that scales with your community.

Member Reports

The /report command lets any member flag a message for admin attention. When a member replies to a problematic message and types /report spam or /report harassment, the bot forwards the reported message and reason to the admin team. This gives your moderation team eyes on problems they might otherwise miss, especially in large or fast moving groups where admins cannot read every message.

The /reports command lets admins toggle report forwarding on or off. When enabled, reports go to the configured log channel or to admins via direct message. This ensures that no report goes unnoticed, and the admin team can respond quickly to problems before they escalate. Members who feel heard are more likely to stay engaged and contribute positively to the community.

The Appeals System

When a user is banned, they can submit an appeal with /appeal. The appeal includes a reason field where the user explains why they believe the ban was unjust or why they deserve a second chance. Appeals are reviewed by the admin team, who can approve or deny them. The /appealstatus command lets users check the status of their appeal at any time, providing transparency into the review process.

The appeals system is critical for maintaining community trust. People make mistakes, and a moderation system that offers no path to reinstatement creates permanent resentment. By giving banned users a voice and a process, you demonstrate that your community values fairness. Even if an appeal is denied, the user knows their case was reviewed, which is far better than being silently banned with no recourse.

Trust Scores

Trust scores are a quantitative measure of each member's reputation, calculated from their behavior and activity over time. The /trust command shows a user's current trust score, and /trusts displays a leaderboard of the most trusted members in the group. Trust scores increase with positive behavior like helping others, contributing useful content, and maintaining a clean record, and decrease with violations, warnings, and reports.

Admins can manually adjust trust scores with /trustset when circumstances warrant it, such as rewarding a member for exceptional community service or penalizing someone for behavior that did not technically break a rule but was clearly harmful. The /skiptrust command lets admins exempt certain roles from trust score requirements, and /skipbots does the same for bot accounts.

Trust scores are particularly powerful when combined with the join request manager. You can set a minimum trust score for auto approval, meaning only users with a proven track record of good behavior in other federated groups can join without manual review. This creates a network effect where good behavior in one group benefits the user across the entire federation.

Progressive Discipline

The trust score system enables progressive discipline, where penalties escalate based on a user's track record. A first time offender with a high trust score might receive a warning, while a repeat offender with a low trust score faces an immediate ban. This approach is far more effective than one size fits all penalties because it distinguishes between people who made an honest mistake and people who are consistently disruptive.

The /progressive command toggles progressive discipline mode. When enabled, the bot automatically adjusts the severity of actions based on the user's trust score and warning history. This reduces the admin workload while producing fairer, more nuanced moderation outcomes.

Available Commands