Moderation Policy
We strive to provide our users with a pleasant and productive environment in which our users can share and discuss video game mods and media. In order to accomplish this, we must enforce various and evolving standards in regards to usage of our services and the nature of the user-submitted content. These standards are enforced by Nexus Mods employees as well as a group of appointed volunteers ("moderators") in the following referred to as “staff”.
This document describes the various methods that staff may choose to employ in an attempt to ensure that user-submitted content complies with our various policies and guidelines, as described at our
Help Center. Staff reserve the right to remove, edit, or modify user-submitted content to ensure compliance with our policies and guidelines which, in turn, are subject to our interpretation.
Please note: due to the sheer volume of content uploaded to our site on a daily basis, we employ a reactive approach to moderation. This means that we rely on
community reports to highlight rule violations, which we then review and take action on. This in turn means that the mere existence of content uploaded to the site does not imply that said content is in compliance with our rules, nor that it is approved. We explicitly do
not operate based on an "others are doing it, therefore it is ok to do it" approach.
One Account per User
The efficiency of our moderation approach and moderation tools is dependent on the principle of each user being linked to a single account. It is therefore forbidden to register or use more than a single account per user without pre-approval by staff. Users with multiple accounts may have one or all of their accounts suspended. In the event of alternative accounts being used to evade a ban or restrictions on a main account, all accounts belonging to the offending user are subject to suspension (i.e. a ban) and any (pending) unban appeals are forfeit.
Moderation History
Every user on Nexus Mods has a Moderation History, which stores all the administrative actions taken against said user. This can include a given user’s track record of informal notices, informal warnings, formal warnings, account restrictions, bans, ban lifts and unban requests.
Informal warnings may be issued at the discretion of staff to inform users of minor infractions of our guidelines or policies that may or may not result in further administrative actions as described in the following sections of this document. Though these warnings will not be made public, they may be referenced by staff indefinitely.
Formal Warnings
Formal warnings may be issued by staff to inform a user of violations of our guidelines or policies. In order to promote accountability among our users and staff, these warnings may be viewed publicly on our forum. These warnings may be associated with your account indefinitely and may be referenced by staff. Formal warnings may also be accompanied by temporary or permanent account restrictions, as described further below.
Users who receive multiple warnings may be subject to account suspension (in the context of the site and in the following referred to as “ban”). However, staff reserve the right to ban users without warning at their sole discretion e.g. in the event of gross misconduct at the part of the account holder.
Account Restrictions
Based on the severity or frequency of infractions, restrictions may be placed on user accounts that prevent the use of particular features of our website and services. These restrictions may be temporary or permanent. Restrictions can affect the following services:
- Mod page creation and uploads
- Usage of file tools
- File downloads
- Forum and comment posting (in general or on a specific file page)
- Image uploads
- Mod and image endorsements
- Private messaging
Such restrictions can be imposed and lifted at the discretion of staff. Account restrictions as listed above are always accompanied by a corresponding Formal Warning and become part of the user’s Moderation History.
Account Suspension / Bans
Regardless of account status such as membership status or Moderation History, infractions of our Terms of Service and/or various guidelines and standards may result in account suspension at the discretion of staff. Commonly known as a "ban", account suspension effectively prevents a user from accessing many of the services offered by Nexus Mods by disabling the associated account indefinitely. Account bans can be appealed by filing an Unban Request which is subject to review by staff.
Public Records of Moderation and Accountability
Formal warnings, bans, and the reasoning behind these administrative actions are publicised on our forums for the sake of transparency. We endeavour to ensure that our moderation remains transparent in order to give users insight into the way we handle moderation on the site.
Complaints Regarding Moderation
Complaints against staff action should not be voiced publicly and doing so may result in a formal warning or account suspension.
In the event that you feel staff have misjudged a situation and/or unjustly removed a file, or otherwise acted outside of what would be permissible for staff based on our policies and guidelines, you are free to submit a report to the Nexus Mods Community Management Team by contacting support@nexusmods.com.
Please, be aware that reports against staff are treated very seriously. Misleading and/or fraudulent reports of staff action are considered severe infractions of our guidelines and will result in respective administrative action against the user filing the report.
Our staff and moderators have the right to carry out their duties enforcing our Terms of Service without harassment, insult or hassle. If a user attacks a member of the moderation team in any way they will be banned from our service and may forfeit any right to appeal the decision.
Unban Requests
Users who wish to reactivate a previously suspended account may file a one-time unban appeal which will be reviewed by Nexus Mods staff and may, or may not, result in the reactivation of the account, at the discretion of staff.
File Moderation
Files may be placed in moderation for any reason deemed appropriate by staff including but not limited to permission disputes, review for inappropriate content, copyright or trademark violations. Additionally, user-submitted files that do not pass security checks such as virus scans will be systematically placed in moderation to be reviewed by staff.
Files that have been placed in moderation are effectively hidden from public view while remaining on our services, allowing staff to investigate and identify any content that may violate our policies and guidelines. While a file is in moderation, the uploader will be unable to upload or edit the file page unless explicitly specified by staff.
Staff may inform the uploader of the file in question of the reason for why it has been placed in moderation. Users who have one or several files placed in moderation are encouraged to provide staff with pertinent information, evidence, screenshots etc. that may assist staff during the investigation process.
Moderation may be lifted from files in circumstances where the file in question is deemed acceptable for distribution on our websites and services. However, if the file is found to be in violation of our policies or guidelines, it may be removed permanently and the uploader might receive a notice, warning, or ban as described above - at the discretion of staff.
