In an age where we carefully curate who we socialize with and the content we read (assisted by ever-present social media algorithms) online communities are one of the few places where we have the opportunity to interact with people beyond our own personal digital bubbles. This trend has only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The murder of George Floyd has ignited conversation across communities about longstanding issues of racial violence and inequity, but online communities are no stranger to difficult conversations like these and the highly-charged conversations that come from them. 

Community managers and moderators are on the front lines of these online conversations playing a critical, but often very difficult, role where there aren't simple best-practices to follow. How we moderate these conversations have implications both for the health of communities and on the role our communities play in addressing the issues at hand. In this lunchtime chat we'll discuss different strategies for moderating communities during times of crisis, what our role is and what it should be, and learn from each others' successes and mistakes.