This <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dLvzMgP8-BFg25Y1eK1PF6sv5SpN0SbktGkPvUkPSbk/edit?usp=sharing">bounty proposal</a> aims to provide an incentive to authorized Polkadot Moderators for their round-the-clock contribution and support to the communities.&nbsp;
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The Community Moderation Team is a group of Ambassadors from the Polkadot and Kusama communities. The team originated as unpaid volunteers, after which they were occasionally tipped by the Kusama treasury. Later on, a bounty was <a href="https://kusama.polkassembly.io/bounty/14">requested</a> and <a href="https://kusama.polkassembly.io/motion/528">funded</a> on Kusama in August 2022) and <a href="https://kusama.subsquare.io/referenda/referendum/29">topped up</a> thereafter (in January 2023). Within the original roadmap, there were plans to migrate to Polkadot after the structure and evaluation mechanism matures.
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The Community Moderators provide a dedicated daily service, actively monitoring new member joinings to ensure the community is protected from fraudsters. They guide users with first-line direction and support while promptly identifying and regulating or banning obvious scammers to maintain a safe environment for all.
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Since the beginning of the bounty on Kusama, the structure and review system of the moderation team activities have improved significantly. A couple of changes have been made to help improve the objectivity of reviews and rewards and better understand how large the team needs to be to sustain the various platforms, etc.&nbsp;
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The team comprises thirteen (13) members with a significant level of involvement in the ecosystem. This ensures that they are able to keep abreast with recent advancements in the ecosystem and can effectively assist the community as needed. You can find the list of members <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dLvzMgP8-BFg25Y1eK1PF6sv5SpN0SbktGkPvUkPSbk/edit#bookmark=id.2qahdz1n39m1">here</a>.
In light of extending responsibilities to the Polkadot Forum, this estimates an average of four Moderators per platform per day including overlaps. This implies a six-hour shift to attain 24-hour coverage for all the platforms. Despite this, only two hours of work per day will be rewarded in line with previous top-ups. We're also extending our moderatorial activities to the Polkadot forum and Polkassembly. Based on the number of platforms that are being (and will be) moderated and given that the aim is to monitor the official channels on a 24/7 basis across all time zones, we have determined that thirteen (13) is the minimum optimal team size.
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This bounty proposes a 6-month budget of $112,320 (25,004.45 DOT) to support 15 hours of work per week for each moderator for the period of August 2023 to January 2024.&nbsp;The EMA-7 rate for conversion ($4.492/DOT) was taken on the 26th of August 2023.
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The proposal document can be found <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dLvzMgP8-BFg25Y1eK1PF6sv5SpN0SbktGkPvUkPSbk/edit?usp=sharing">here</a>.
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We strongly encourage community members to at least review the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dLvzMgP8-BFg25Y1eK1PF6sv5SpN0SbktGkPvUkPSbk/edit#bookmark=id.yrw8o1dzdxoq">context</a> and <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dLvzMgP8-BFg25Y1eK1PF6sv5SpN0SbktGkPvUkPSbk/edit#bookmark=id.x5u4pc1hrko1">Q&amp;A</a> sections of the proposal. These parts contain insights and details that contribute to a full understanding of the proposal's intent and structure.
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Transparency, alignment with community values, and a clear focus on fostering a respectful, informed community environment are at the core of this proposal. We look forward to your engagement and feedback. Thank you.