A simple contract to govern your online community better. Share admin powers and take decisions together — don't let big tech make the rules.
Every year, humanity invests trillions of hours into online spaces like Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats, or subreddits. Online communities are now inseparable from society itself, as places where people organize themselves socially and politically.
But we don't own these spaces — big tech does. And big tech delegates total power over them to a handful of people: the admins.
Good admins make a good community. But admins aren't always good. Bad admins can boot members out without cause, delete posts arbitrarily, change the rules from one day to the next, abuse the community for commercial gain, or simply delete it overnight.
That's where the ModGov contract comes in. It's a simple constitution that admins and other moderators of a community sign up to, agreeing to exercise their power collectively through majority votes, and to allow members to appeal if they think something's not right.
We can't change the fact that the online communities we love are owned by big tech. But through one simple, hopeful agreement, we can move these spaces away from a techno-feudal power structure towards a more democratic future.
Our Create tool lets you create your own ModGov contract customized for your community, letting you decide how exactly you want to implement ModGov.
Once your admins and moderators have signed the contract, your community elects their first ModGov committee through your chosen election mechanic.
Govern your online community collectively with minimal hassle. The ModGov contract allows voting on the big decisions through simple 'likes' on messages, and delegating the minor tasks so that you don't have to jointly approve every little thing.
A moderator coup
The GameStop short squeeze made r/WallStreetBets world-famous. A few moderators tried to cash in with movie and media deals, while others resisted. Lead mods were removed overnight in what the community called a coup — then reinstated, then removed again, until Reddit itself had to step in. There were no internal rules for voting, financial transparency, or leadership transitions.
Reddit, moderators, and members
In June 2023, moderators of major subreddits protested Reddit's new API pricing by taking their communities private. Many acted in a manner that they felt was honorable, but members of their subreddits had no formal say in how the protests were conducted or what the terms would be.
Founders vs. volunteers
The Buy Nothing gift-economy movement grew to thousands of local Facebook groups, all run by volunteers. In 2021, the founders tried to centralize control and launch an official app. Volunteer admins rebelled and splintered into independent collectives. Without any shared governance contract, there was no way to resolve the dispute — only to split.
One man vs. 7,000 citizens
As friend of ModGov Jonathan Bellack recounts, NJ 11th for Change was a 7,000-member Facebook group organizing for political accountability in New Jersey. A dozen volunteers served as an informal board — but the group's original creator resented being outnumbered. After one bad leadership meeting, he booted every other admin. Facebook had no policy for overruling a group creator. The organizers lost months of momentum rebuilding from scratch.
A committee with defined terms, clear election procedures, and removal processes.
Voting thresholds for ordinary decisions and structural changes, with quorum requirements.
Implementation deadlines and consequences when decisions aren't carried out.
Built-in arbitration procedures for when you need them.
Clear procedures for when founders leave or become inactive, ensuring community continuity.
Visibility for members into decisions being taken, to build trust.
People who sign the ModGov contract agree to go to arbitration if they disagree over something in it. Arbitration is a less expensive, less painful way to resolve differences between people than going to court, and can result in binding outcomes.
We've designed the initial ModGov contract with Facebook groups, subreddits and WhatsApp chats in mind. We believe many of the principles and mechanics will work for other platforms, but we intend to verify that in future work.
We hope not. The ModGov contract allows voting simply through 'likes' on a message, or a WhatsApp poll, and lets you keep formal votes for the things that matter (or when one person objects).
We think that's a great idea! The amazing folks at MetaGov and New_ Public already spend a lot of time thinking about this. But while we're excited for everything they build, we're also aware that getting the whole world off big tech's platforms is...going to be hard. That's why we're turning to the power of contract law to help govern existing spaces better.
Every community is different. The contract includes sensible defaults but lets you customize key parts like committee size, term lengths, voting thresholds, implementation periods, and more.