be fair. treat everyone equally. be kind, try not to get your feelings hurt even when people intentionally try to hurt yours. have easy to understand, clear, easily accessible rules. apply them even-handedly, even to yourself. it’s best if there isn’t some huge list of rules but like, people will push boundaries. your job is to enforce the will of the community, not your will, so poll the community to get their opinions.

this isn’t the mods’ petty fiefdom, it’s all of our petty fiefdom. it’s the posters and commenters that make the community what it is. a lot of mods forget that.