The steps

1. Remove or warn. First-time, low-severity issues such as an off-topic comment or a borderline-quality post. Remove the content, and warn if it helps.
2. Timeout or mute. Repeated or moderate issues.
3. Temporary ban. Repeated issues that have already had a timeout, or a moderate violation that deserves more than one.
4. Permanent ban. Severe or malicious violations, or a pattern that hasn't stopped.

The Code of Conduct doesn't fix durations. Scale them with severity and history, and put the reasoning in the reason field.

Severe violations

These can go straight to a temporary or permanent ban, with no warning needed:

• Hate speech, and harassment, exclusion, microaggressions or invalidating someone's identity [1.2].
• Threats, inciting violence, and justifying rape or death [1.1].
• Doxxing [4.1], and intimate media shared without consent, which is also reported to the platform [4.1].
• Overtly predatory or creepy DMs [1.4].
• Brigading and calls to brigade [2.2], and real-life disruption such as organising protests or events through the community [2.4].

Bad-faith complaints about server branding and announcements [7.1] are removed immediately without discussion. That's removal, not an automatic ban.

Compromised accounts

Look for: compromised accounts posting the same generic scam or promo message, such as the copy-pasted "MrBeast" giveaway text.

Action: permanent ban, straight away. No warning, and no need to delete the messages first. Use Rule 2.3 - compromised account as the reason [2.3].

1.1Violence, suicide & serious crimes

Look for: calls for, or glorification of, violence against any person, group or animal; threats; justifying rape, death or similar crimes; promoting suicide or self-harm, or joking about it; jokes about serious crimes or inappropriate comments about minors; making light of pedophilia or CSA, including memes of accused public figures where the joke has nothing to do with their work.

Action: remove. Threats, incitement and justifying rape or death are severe, so ban without warning. For jokes, warn first and escalate with history.

1.2Inclusivity & hateful conduct

Look for: hate speech, hateful imagery, slurs, stereotyping or bigotry based on race, ethnicity, birthplace, language, state, country, gender, sexual orientation, religion, caste or appearance; coded language and dog-whistles; harassment, exclusion, microaggressions, or invalidating someone's identity; jokes about orientation, gender or sex; mocking a religious figure to troll (modern-day public figures who claim godhood are exempt).

Action: remove. Treat the first group as severe: temporary or permanent ban without a prior warning. Jokes about orientation, gender or sex are held to a stricter standard, and even mildly offensive ones can mean a lengthy timeout or a ban regardless of intent. Mocking a religious figure is a removal and a warning or timeout, depending on history.

1.3Remember the human

Look for: personal attacks, name-calling, shill allegations, ad-hominem attacks, harmful tropes, dehumanising or degrading anyone, and retaliating instead of reporting.

Action: remove, and warn on a first offence. Repeats go to a timeout and up the ladder. "They started it" isn't a defence, so act on everyone who broke the rule, not just the first person.

1.4Harassment & bullying

Look for: bullying, creepy or predatory behaviour, and unsolicited DMs, especially contact that continues after the person asked them to stop.

Action: overtly predatory or creepy DMs are an immediate ban with no warning. Other unsolicited contact becomes harassment once it persists after being asked to stop: warn first, then timeout or ban if it continues. You can't see DMs, so ask the reporter for screenshots and attach them as proof.

2.1Community environment

Look for: content that discourages people from expressing themselves or lowers the value of the conversation, propaganda, derailing a thread with off-topic comments, and karma farming.

Action: remove at discretion. Severity decides whether it stops at removal or goes further.

2.2Content manipulation

Look for: vote manipulation; ban evasion; impersonation or any deceptive identity (parody accounts and fictional identities are fine); calls for brigading or witch-hunting; getting around AutoModerator with modified words or screenshots of deleted messages.

Action: remove submissions from an account that's evading a ban, and the account may be banned again. If the person wants their original ban reconsidered, they contact the mods with their original username. Brigading is severe, and everyone in a group found raiding another community can be banned here too. Before acting on an AutoModerator circumvention, check whether the original removal was a false flag: screenshots of a harmless removed message are allowed.

2.3Spam & trolling

Look for: inflammatory or baiting content, link-dumping, posting in rapid succession, low-effort flooding, excessive emoji or GIFs on Discord, malicious links, fake engagement, and trolling.

Action: remove, and warn on a first offence. For floods on Discord, a short mute is usually enough. Compromised accounts posting generic spam, like the copy-pasted "MrBeast" text, are banned on sight with no warning (see Compromised accounts).

2.4Real-life disruption

Look for: anything that could cause actual disruption, such as organising a protest or inviting people to an event through the community.

Action: remove and ban. The Code of Conduct says immediate bans.

2.5No CFBR

Look for: "commenting for better reach" threads.

Action: purge the thread and issue a strike to the poster. Note the strike on the member (!usernotes on Discord) so it can be counted later.

3.1Relevance

Look for: posts with no connection to academia or schooling, and Discord messages in the wrong channel.

Action: this is a guideline and only occasionally enforced. On Discord, ask the member to move to the right channel; they're expected to cooperate. Don't punish for this unless they refuse.

3.2Quality

Look for: random videos with little or no explanation, text posts of two or three words, and posts that add nothing to the community.

Action: remove. No punishment needed.

3.3Reposts

Look for: an already-posted link, or a different link with the same information.

Action: remove the repost and keep whichever post has the most engagement, or the older one in a tie. Duplicates caused by Reddit or network glitches: keep one. If a repost carries real new information, point the poster to the original's comments. Constantly updating topics can get a megathread on request, and major topics affecting many people may get an exception.

3.4Old content

Look for: old notices or outdated information presented as current.

Action: remove, and link the current information if you have it. Check Rule 8 too.

3.5Trends

Look for: a trend that has run its course or is crowding out real CBSE discussion.

Action: remove. Trends expire on their own, whether or not a mod has called it.

4.1PII, intimate & illegal media

Look for: doxxing (full name, location, email or phone, passwords, social handles, or anything else that identifies a person) shared without their consent, with public figures as the exception; intimate media shared without consent; transactions for illegal content such as drugs; pirated content, including links to pirated books, courses or material and to Telegram or WhatsApp groups and drives that share it. Discussion of illegal topics is fine.

Action: remove immediately. Doxxing is severe: ban. Intimate media without consent: ban and report it to the platform immediately, and be especially strict where minors are involved. Illegal transactions and pirated content: remove.

4.2Explicit or discomfiting media

Look for: pornography, erotica and other arousing or fictional NSFW content; sexual fantasies or fetishes, even when everyone in the conversation is comfortable; extreme gore that isn't blurred; NSFW or NSFL content that isn't marked; accounts that participate in NSFW subreddits (posting, commenting, or subscribing).

Action: remove. For porn and similar content, warn or temporarily ban depending on intensity. For gore, ask for it to be blurred or remove it. Casual discussion of adult topics is allowed at your discretion, and the more extreme it gets the more likely it is to go. Accounts active in NSFW subreddits get a permanent ban, with the explanation sent through ModMail.

4.3Self-promotion & selling

Look for: advertisements, surveys, and any promotion of paid or free products or services that hasn't been verified through ModMail; buying, selling or trading books, study materials, courses and similar products.

Action: remove immediately. Posting it again after a decline means stricter action. If someone asks to promote something, handle it in ModMail and record the outcome. Buying, selling and trading posts are removed.

4.4Fundraisers & surveys

Look for: fundraisers, especially ones using third-party payment methods or crowdfunding apps, and surveys or any links that ask for user data.

Action: every fundraiser needs approval through ModMail. Health-condition fundraisers get a lighter check, but all of them need clear, verifiable information before you approve. Surveys have to be verified in advance or they're removed.

4.5Political or religious discussion

Look for: mainstream, religious or gender politics, or other inflammatory political topics. Also religious debates, as opposed to casual mentions, and any reservation-related post.

Action: these are mostly removed, with exceptions only where the discussion stays healthy. Politics tied to syllabus content is your call, based on the value it adds. Casual religious references ("May [X] bless you for this exam") and festival comments are fine. If a thread turns into a religious debate, lock it. Reservation-related posts are removed.

5.1Language policy

Look for: content in a language others in the thread can't follow. Every language spoken in India is allowed.

Action: ask the author to provide a translation. It's mandatory once a mod asks. If it's ignored, remove the content and warn.

6.1Titling

Look for: titles that don't accurately and completely describe the post. "Help Needed" isn't acceptable; a help post should name the subject, the chapter and the basics of the question.

Action: ask the poster to fix the title, or remove the post. No punishment.

6.2Flair & roles

Look for: Discord identity roles, such as class and pronoun roles, that don't genuinely fit the member. Reddit flair is encouraged but optional.

Action: ask the member to correct the role, and remove it if they don't. Escalate only for repeated misuse.

7.1Meta content

Look for: posts about the community, its users or its moderation that go beyond a slight mention; feedback raised outside ModMail and the monthly meta threads; discussion that reopens past conflicts; links to posts in other subreddits that aren't NP links; personal attacks or grudge-driven callouts aimed at mods or community executives; bad-faith questioning, complaining, trolling or debates about server themes, branding, or awareness and solidarity announcements.

Action: remove and point the member to ModMail or the meta thread. Branding and announcement complaints in bad faith are removed immediately without discussion. For attacks on mods, don't take the case yourself if you're the target; another mod decides. Fix non-NP links by replacing www.reddit.com with np.reddit.com.

7.2Other social media content

Look for: content from Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Quora, LinkedIn, X/Twitter and similar.

Action: your discretion. Judge it by the rules that would apply to the same content posted directly.

8.1Fact-check first

Look for: news, circulars, exam dates, syllabus changes or official updates that haven't been checked against official CBSE portals (cbse.gov.in) or an accredited publication, and rumours that cause confusion or academic panic.

Action: remove, and point to the official source if you can find it.

8.2Cite your sources

Look for: claims about grading criteria, paper leaks, datesheet releases or exam cancellations with no direct link to an official source, and screenshots of circulars that don't clearly show the official signature, circular number and date.

Action: remove unverified or doctored media promptly and ask for a source. Escalate if it's repeated or clearly deliberate.

Punishing

!ban  [user] [duration] [reason] [-r]
!kick [user] [reason] [-r]
!mute [user] [duration] [reason] [-r]
!warn [user] [duration] [reason] [-r]

• Leave the duration out and the server default applies, so set it yourself.
• Always give a reason. A good format is the rule and a short description, such as Rule 2.3 - link spam in #general. It's stored on the case and is what the appeal reviewer will read.
• -r opens the punishment in a review window before it runs. Use it whenever you're not sure.
• If reply-to-punish is on, replying to a message with the command punishes its author and saves the message as verified proof.
• Mutes can be linked to Discord timeouts. Discord caps timeouts at 28 days, and Sapphire renews longer ones automatically.

Examples

!warn @user Rule 1.4 - kept DMing after being asked to stop
!mute @user 12h Rule 2.3 - link spam in #general
!ban @user 7d Rule 1.2 - slur in #general
!ban @user Rule 4.1 - doxxing another member

If the server has predefined reasons, you can use an alias instead of typing the reason, for example !mute @user r1. They're managed with !predefinedreasons.

Undoing

!unban  <user> [reason]
!unmute <user> [reason]
!unwarn <user>

• !unmute closes all of a member's open mutes, and !unwarn closes all of their warns. Check !warns first if you only meant to remove one.
• To reverse a single punishment, close its case with !caseclose instead.

Cases & case IDs

Every punishment gets a unique case ID. A case stores the ID, type (WARN, MUTE, KICK or BAN), the member, the reason, the duration, when it was created, who issued it, your proof, the member's last message (saved automatically as verified proof), and notes. It also keeps their last five messages per channel. A case is open until it expires or someone closes it.

!caseinfo [case id]
!caselist [user] [user]
!caseupdate [case id] [reason|time [reason]]
!caseclose <case id> [reason]
!casedelete <case id>
!setproof [case id] <proof>
!warns [user]
!usernotes <user> [note to add]
!userinfo [user]

• Check !warns, !caselist and !usernotes before you punish anyone. That's the history the ladder depends on.
• Proof should usually be a screenshot or a message link. Add it with !setproof if the automatic proof isn't enough.
• Prefer !caseclose to !casedelete. Closing keeps the history, and deleting removes it. Only delete a case that was made by mistake.
• When you appeal-review or change a case, use !caseupdate or !usernotes so the reason for the change is on record.

Channel tools

!lock [channel] [reason] [+v|+t|+s]
!unlock [channel] [reason] [+s]
!lockall [reason] [+v|+t|+s]
!unlockall [reason] [+l|+s]
!purge <count|time|message url/id> [between second message url/id|user] [user]
!setslowmode [channel] <time>

• !lock stops members sending messages or joining voice. Locking a voice channel disconnects everyone in it.
• +v and +t also revoke view and thread permissions, and +s locks silently, with no message in the channel.
• !lockall locks the channels set in the Sapphire dashboard. !unlockall +l unlocks only the ones !lockall locked.
• !purge deletes the last N messages, the last few minutes of messages, everything up to a message, or everything between two messages. Add a user to delete only theirs. Check the range first.

Bulk tools

!massban  <user1> [user2] ...
!masskick <user1> [user2] ...
!massmute <user1> [user2] ...
!masswarn <user1> [user2] ...

!nameban  <name> [-f]
!namekick <name> [-f]
!namemute <name> [-f]
!namewarn <name> [-f]

!timeban  <created|joined> <time ago> [duration] [reason]
!timekick <created|joined> <time ago> [reason]
!timemute <created|joined> <time ago> [duration] [reason]
!timewarn <created|joined> <time ago> [reason]

• These act on many members at once. They're for raids and spam waves, not for ordinary cases.
• The mass commands take several users, and the duration and reason are set after you run them.
• The name commands match everyone whose username or nickname starts with the name. Add -f to match the full name anywhere.
• The time commands match everyone whose account was created, or who joined, within the time you give.
• Double-check who the command will hit before you confirm.

Reports

!report <user|message url> <reason> [comment]
!report-blacklist <show|add|remove> [user id]
!report-ignoreall
!report-sendmissing

• Members use !report. Reports show up in the mod channel with buttons to accept or ignore, run a command, open a case, or delete the message.
• !report-blacklist stops a member from using the command. !report-ignoreall clears every open report without notifying the reporters.
• Report messages aren't meant to be deleted. !report-sendmissing brings back any that were.

Removing content

Remove the post or comment and choose a removal reason that names the rule. For low-severity issues, removal plus a warning is the first step.

Banning

Choose permanent or set a length. Put the rule and a short description in the private mod note, in the same format as on Discord (Rule 2.3 - link spam). The note you include in the ban message is shown to the user, so keep it factual and leave out personal details.

Locking threads

Lock a thread that turns into a religious debate [4.5] rather than removing it. Remove only the comments that break a rule.

Handling an appeal

1. Read the case (!caseinfo) or the Reddit mod note and modlog.
2. Read the content again, in context, against the rule that was cited.
3. Decide to uphold, reduce or reverse. Reverse or reduce when the action was a mistake or doesn't fit the member's history. "I didn't mean it" alone doesn't change the outcome, because intent isn't a mitigating factor.
4. Reply with the outcome and the rule number. Keep it short and don't argue.
5. Record the decision on the case (!caseupdate or !usernotes), and reverse with !unban, !unmute or !caseclose if needed.

If you issued the original action, ask another mod to review the appeal.

What else comes in through ModMail

• Promotion, fundraiser and survey approvals [4.3] [4.4].
• Feedback about the community or moderation [7.1].
• Ban-evasion reinstatement requests, which need the original username [2.2].

One mod owns each thread. Reply on the same platform it came from, stay calm and brief, and never share a member's personal information.

Removal or warning

Hi - your {post/comment} was removed under [Rule {X.Y}](https://rcbse.com/coc/#rule-{X-Y}) of the Code of Conduct: {one line on what was wrong}.

{No further action. / You've also been warned. / You've been timed out for {duration}.}

If you think this was a mistake, you can appeal through ModMail.

Ban

You've been banned from r/CBSE {for N days / permanently} under [Rule {X.Y}](https://rcbse.com/coc/#rule-{X-Y}): {one line on what was wrong}.

You can appeal through Reddit ModMail. Include the content in question and why you believe the action was a mistake.

Appeal upheld

Thanks for appealing. We've reviewed the case and the action under [Rule {X.Y}](https://rcbse.com/coc/#rule-{X-Y}) stands: {one line on why}.

Appeal reversed or reduced

Thanks for appealing. We've reviewed the case and {reversed the action / reduced it to X}. {One line on why.}

Approved (promotion, fundraiser or survey)

Thanks for reaching out. This is approved, so you can post it.

Declined (promotion, fundraiser or survey)

Thanks for reaching out. We can't approve this as it stands: {reason}.

Please don't post it until it's approved, because unapproved promotion is removed.