Proposal: Define SLAs for moderation team responsiveness

[bmuenzenmeyer]

Part of the moderation policy review framed by openjs-foundation/summit#511, for discussion at the Moderation Roundtable on October 1 (if not resolves to consensus prior).

There are no response time expectations for moderation

The Moderation Policy describes what the moderation team can do but never says how quickly. There are no timelines for acknowledging reports, responding to issues in nodejs/moderation, acting on @nodejs/moderation tags, or onboarding new members. This matters if our community is to be kept safe and we can more confidently model inclusivity and trust.

A recent self-nomination took 7 months to resolve. A collaborator who reports harassment has no idea when someone will look at it. A @nodejs/moderation tag in an issue can go unacknowledged indefinitely.

Proposed SLAs (Service Level Agreement)

Draft timelines for four common moderation surfaces. All times are calendar time.

1. Responding to reports (report@nodejs.org and private emails)

Step	SLA
Acknowledge receipt to reporter	24 hours
Begin incident response process	48 hours

2. Responding to issues in nodejs/moderation

Step	SLA
Acknowledge the issue	24 hours
Assign a moderator to resolve (if action is needed)	48 hours

The goal here is to help drive conversation in this repo where we typically have open-ended "is this spam?" discussions, that don't have clear steps to resolve.

3. Responding to @nodejs/moderation tags across the org

Step	SLA
Acknowledge the tag	24 hours
Triage: resolve in-thread or open a tracking issue in nodejs/moderation	48 hours

Note

This is the most nebulous reporting mechanism, but when it happens it's typically in response to an ongoing, active argument or potential CoC violation. Discussion should perhaps first confirm this is a valid reporting mechanism at all.

4. Onboarding new moderation team members

Step	SLA
Acknowledge nomination	7 days
TSC vote (on agenda or async)	30 days from submission
Permissions granted after approval	7 days
Total: nomination to active member	45 days maximum

If any step exceeds its SLA, the nominee or any moderation team member may escalate to the TSC chair.

Open questions

• Are these numbers realistic with current team capacity and time zone coverage?
• How do we ensure SLA conformance without placing undue burden on volunteers? (See forthcoming proposal on moderation team chair role.)

Action items

• Consensus on SLA numbers
• Edit onboarding checklist
• Add SLAs to the Moderation Policy via PR