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Question is as in the title:

Is there a way for moderators to contact MO users personally?

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    $\begingroup$ Why do you want to know? $\endgroup$
    – Todd Trimble Mod
    Commented Jun 21, 2020 at 16:45
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    $\begingroup$ @ToddTrimble I see many posts which had so much of a heated discussion.. Then, after some days, those comments gets deleted.. So, does moderators contact those people personally and then ask to maintain “being nice” policy or just remove the comments with out any message exchange? $\endgroup$
    – Praphulla Koushik
    Commented Jun 21, 2020 at 17:01
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    $\begingroup$ Okay, I misunderstood what you meant. As Anton explained, there is an internal messaging system where moderators can reach accounts about issues. But I don't equate that with contacting people personally, in the sense of knowing their names, etc. $\endgroup$
    – Todd Trimble Mod
    Commented Jun 21, 2020 at 20:08
  • $\begingroup$ @ToddTrimble Ok. $\endgroup$
    – Praphulla Koushik
    Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 3:50

2 Answers 2

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Yes, moderators can contact a user that has an account in the community they are moderating using private messages. When the moderator contacts a user, the user can also reply (once) to the moderator within the same interface.

Also, moderators can create private chat rooms that are more suitable for prolonged conversations.

For more details, see this Moderator FAQ entry from the main Meta.

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  • $\begingroup$ I could not guess where does the user see message from the moderator. Is it clearly visible just like any @mentions or responses to our posts? $\endgroup$
    – Praphulla Koushik
    Commented Jun 21, 2020 at 17:05
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    $\begingroup$ @PraphullaKoushik yes, it would be visible as a notification in the inbox. Also, it usually generates an email notification. Notice, moderators contact users privately only sometimes. It is not a default action. $\endgroup$
    – Anton Menshov
    Commented Jun 21, 2020 at 17:46
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    $\begingroup$ @PraphullaKoushik See also: What does receiving a mod message look like? You can find some pointers to the basic info about moderator messages in the corresponding tag-info. You can also browse the questions tagged moderator-messages on Meta Stack Exchange, in case some of them are of interest. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Jun 21, 2020 at 17:53
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In response to Praphulla's comment below the question: normally moderators are made aware of conflicts because someone has flagged them for attention. A common type of flag presents mods with the ability to delete or edit a comment, or otherwise decline the flag. Most of the time it doesn't rise to the level where a mod sends an explicit message to the account whose behavior catalyzed the flag; usually such moderator messages are reserved for serious issues which may be about ongoing behavior, as opposed to temporary flare-ups. On other occasions, a mod may move a long stream of comments (e.g. arguments) which are not crucial to the post over to 'chat', and delete some or all of such comments under the post.

Just as a reminder: if users want to reach moderators about an issue that is not comfortably handled publicly (e.g., in meta), they can write to [email protected].

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    $\begingroup$ Ok. I understand. I was not sure how does the user know that a moderator is trying to reach them.. What I understand from Anton's answer is, a moderator can message the user, and if a moderator contacts some one, they get a notification just like any notification on the users posts(@mentions).. $\endgroup$
    – Praphulla Koushik
    Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 3:55
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    $\begingroup$ Yes, that's right. $\endgroup$
    – Todd Trimble Mod
    Commented Jun 22, 2020 at 12:34

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