Community Workshop: Reviewer Applications 101

Thinking about applying to become a Top.gg Reviewer?

Every so often, Top.gg opens recruitment for new volunteers to contribute to our platform. Reviewers help us make sure that the projects listed on Top.gg are suitable for our community and meet our guidelines. While you might immediately associate reviewing on Top.gg with Discord bots, we also support other types of projects, including Discord servers and Roblox experiences, with more on the way!

We recently hosted a community workshop all about Reviewer applications, so this article is a recap of some of the tips, tricks and advice we shared during the session.

What does a Top.gg Reviewer actually do?

As a Reviewer, you'll be looking at projects submitted to Top.gg and deciding whether they should be approved or declined based on our guidelines. You'll also sometimes need to communicate with developers when there are questions or disputes around those decisions.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well... not always.

Our guidelines can't possibly include an example for every single weird and wonderful thing that someone might submit to Top.gg. There will be times when you need to investigate something a little further, look at the wider context, interpret a guideline and use your own judgement to decide what to do.

Because of this, we're looking for people who can work independently, are curious, can communicate professionally and are open to feedback. You also need to be comfortable with the fact that sometimes there won't be a handbook example that perfectly matches the situation sitting in front of you.

Do I need to be a developer?

No! You don't need coding or development experience to become a Reviewer.

We have an onboarding process that will teach you how reviewing works. Of course, it can be helpful if you already understand things like Discord bots and servers, permissions and intents, or Discord's Developer Policy and Community Guidelines, but we don't expect you to arrive knowing everything. Previous content moderation experience isn't essential either.

Maybe your experience comes from school, university or work. Maybe you've volunteered somewhere, helped run a gaming community or spent far too many hours managing a guild. There are plenty of experiences that can give you skills relevant to reviewing without ever having had "Moderator" written next to your username. We're interested in what you can bring to the role and your ability to learn.

What are the requirements?

• You must be at least 18 years old. Reviewers sign agreements with us, have access to confidential and internal information, and may come across content that isn't suitable for children.
• You'll also need to be comfortable working professionally in English. You'll be reading guidelines, agreements and instructions, as well as communicating with developers and other members of the team. If you know other languages, even better! Top.gg has users from all over the world, and languages such as Hindi, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Vietnamese regularly appear across the platform.
• We also ask for your timezone when you apply. Please put your actual timezone. There isn't a secret "best" timezone that makes your application more likely to be accepted. We use it to understand your availability and to help pair you with a mentor who is actually going to be around when you are.

How much time does reviewing take?

Being a Reviewer is not a full-time salaried job, and we definitely don't expect you to spend your entire day reviewing projects.

This is a flexible, voluntary and unpaid opportunity. We know people have jobs, school, university and generally lives outside of Top.gg.

There are still responsibilities that you'll need to keep on top of each week. When you first join, you can expect to spend more time learning the ropes. This might be around 7 to 10 hours per week during onboarding while you're working with your mentor, learning the handbook and getting feedback on your reviews. It gets quicker as you get used to everything.

So when we ask how many hours you can dedicate to reviewing, just be honest. Saying you can volunteer 40 hours every week doesn't make your application better than someone who gives us a smaller amount of time that they can actually commit to.

Onto the application...

One of the simplest pieces of advice we can give you is: Take your time.

• Read the questions properly before you answer them. Some have more than one part, and we've seen people write a great answer to half of a question while completely forgetting the other half.
• Give us examples where you can. Explain why you would do something rather than only telling us what you'd do. Give your application a read through before you submit it.
• And please use proper English.

This doesn't mean we're going to reject you because you missed a comma somewhere. You don't need to write like a lawyer either. We just need to see that you can communicate professionally. Try to avoid treating the application like a Discord DM filled with slang, abbreviations and emojis.

Most importantly, be yourself.

Can I use AI?

We strongly recommend writing your answers yourself.

Imagine you use AI to fully generate your answers. Then your friend Mike uses AI to generate his. Then Mikela ALSO decides to use AI for hers. Suddenly we're reading three applications that are technically very well written, but they all have the same structure, use similar phrases and give us the same sort of answers. And when we're reading lots of applications, this becomes really obvious.

For many of you, the application is your one chance to introduce yourself to us before we decide who moves forward. We want to hear about your experiences and how you would approach something. It doesn't need to sound perfect.

This doesn't mean you can't use AI to proofread something you've already written or help fix your grammar. Just don't let it replace you in your own application.

I'm terrible at writing and interviewing! What can I do?

Introducing the STAR method! This method can be a really useful way to structure your answers, and help you think critically about how you are framing your experiences and examples.

S - Situation

What was happening? Explain the situation in 1-2 sentences so that enough context is given.

T - Task

What was your role? What were you responsible for?

A - Action

This is the most important part, explain exactly the steps that you took to resolve the situation or how your handled it.

R - Result

What happened after? What was the outcome? What did you learn?

Exploring your Thought Process

There are a few scenario questions in the application, and these are particularly important to us. You might be asked what you'd do after making an incorrect decision, what you'd do if you noticed somebody else had made a mistake, how you'd deal with an argumentative developer, or what you'd do with confidential information. With these questions, don't jump straight to the end.

For example:

"I'd tell a manager."

Okay. But what happened before that?

What did you check first? What information did you look at? Did you check the handbook? What options did you consider? Is there anything you could do yourself? Who would you communicate with? At what point did you decide you actually needed to escalate it?

And what happens afterwards? We want you to take us from A to Z.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't ask for help. Please ask for help when you need it! You're not expected to magically know everything.

We just want to see that asking a manager isn't your answer to absolutely everything. Reviewers work independently a lot of the time, so understanding how you reach a decision is really important to us.

Advice and Comments from Current Volunteers

Lastly...

You don't need to know or prepare EVERYTHING before applying.

You don't need to be a developer.

You don't need years of Discord moderation experience.

You don't need perfect interview skills.

You don't need to know exactly what to do in every possible situation.

That's why we have onboarding. That's why you have a mentor. That's why there's a team around you.

So, if you're thinking about applying:

Take your time. Give us real examples. Show us how you think.

And please, be yourself.