What scalable moderation policies and tools work for an indie game community?

[LukeT]

I've recently volunteered to help moderate a rapidly growing online community for indie game developers, which has been thriving but is starting to see an increase in heated debates, low-effort self-promotion, and occasional personal attacks. Our small mod team is reactive rather than proactive, and we need to establish clearer forum moderation best practices and scalable systems before the community culture deteriorates. For experienced moderators of technical or creative communities, how did you develop and communicate a consistent enforcement policy that feels fair to members? What tools or automations did you implement to handle common issues like spam or thread necromancy, and how did you balance transparency in your actions with the need to sometimes handle things privately to avoid public drama?