Mod Abuse Clarified

Mod abuse is something that thankfully rarely happens here on Black Hat World. However, we do want to make it clear about the reasons you may find yourself with a warning for mod abuse.

Asking A Moderator To Overrule Another Moderator

If you do feel your warning was not issued correctly, you can open a support ticket using support.blackhatworld.com.

Messaging Multiple Moderators For The Same Issue

We can understand if this is done because you don't know who's online and who isn't, but you should know that you're meant to open a support ticket using https://support.blackhatworld.com/ for issues rather than message a moderator.

This is only considered mod abuse if you've messaged multiple moderators in hopes of getting a faster response or a different response that overrules another moderator's decision.

Doxxing Moderators

Doxxing is simply revealing the private information of our moderators or using that information to harass our moderators in any way. We consider it mod abuse regardless of the accuracy of the information or how the information was gathered in the first place.

Complaining Publicly About a Specific warning or Moderator

Common attempted workarounds we've seen for this include the following:

"I wasn't complaining, I was merely stating facts"

"I was just trying to see if anyone else had this same warning"

"I was just trying to see if anyone else had this issue with this moderator"

"I wanted to see what the community had to say about this"

Be aware that these workarounds some have attempted do not work, and will result in a mod abuse warning.

Aggression Against Support Desk Agents

Being aggressive to our support desk agents will result in a warning on your BHW account.

By aggression, we mean the following:

Name-calling staff members or support agents.

Anything else listed in this article.

Be aware that escalating a ticket by requesting a senior support desk agent is not abuse, although it may delay your issue being resolved

Misusing The Report Functionality

That is, sending in bulk reports frivolously.

It's important to note that you won't accidentally get a warning for misusing the report button. For example, a member sending in 50 reports a day for a genuine issue is not misusing the report functionality. However, a member sending in 50 reports saying, "my BST got rejected, so it's only fair to remove this guy's BST because he sort of sells the same thing as me" is frivolous.

BHW article: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/mod-abuse-clarified.1475786/