<p>The success of online communities relies on users’ adherence to community norms, which are often ambiguous and hard to identify and follow. Supporting discussions about norms can help users learn about norms and engage in the norm-evolving process. We aim to understand the dynamics of discussions around community norms and investigate how mechanisms can be designed to scaffold norm-related discussions and regulations. In this paper, we present a mixed-methods study based on a dataset curated from Meta Stack Overflow, which consists of norm-related discussions surrounding a heavily moderated knowledge-based online community, Stack Overflow. Through thematic analyses of 187 questions, 313 answers, and 2,738 comments in the discussion threads, we unveil (1) what triggers norm-related discussions and (2) how people strategically initiate and respond to discussions around norms. Our taxonomy of “whats and hows” of norm-related discussions establishes a foundation for future work to further inspect the nuances and deliberate moderation mechanisms. We also explore the association between the narrative of discussion initiations and discussion sentiments through the lens of construal level theory. Based on our findings, we outline implications and next steps to help online communities establish a healthy and welcoming environment for norm-related discussions.</p>