There are many ways to moderate your Community to keep a respectful, and safe environment.
Blocking:
Members can Block other members. This means they will stop seeing content from blocked members - and the blocked member will be unable to see content from the member who blocked them. The block option is available on the member profile of the member you want to block.
Members can block someone using the three dots menu on the profile page of the member they want to block.
However, if a member wants to un-block another member, they'll need to reach out to you as the Host with who it is they need to un-block. You can then take that information and reach out to support@disciplemedia.com for us to go ahead and make that change.
Reports:
Members can report other member's Posts and Comments as well as member accounts. These reports will get sent to the Moderation section in the Console, where you can review them and take action accordingly.
You can learn more about managing this here.
Any member can be made a trusted reporter which means when they report a piece of content, it will be automatically and permanently un-published. This is a great tool if you want to recruit some of your members to quickly remove undesirable content.
You can learn about this here.
Content can be reported using the three dots menu next to them.
Shadowban and Disable:
A Host can shadowban members, meaning they can login and Post, but their content won’t be visible to other members. The member isn’t notified they’ve been shadowbanned. As host, you can still see Posts they make from the Console.
When a Shadowban is removed, any Posts made during that time will become visible again (unless you unpublished them).
The shadowban feature is available in two places:
- The Console on the members profile (see the image below).
- Members who have the Moderator permission can also shadowban from the Community itself.
- Please note, this is only available in the Web Platform currently.
A Host can also Disable, any member via the Console. This stops the member being able to login or use the Community, but they aren’t sent any notification that their account has been disabled.
You can enable a member again when the moderation issue has been resolved, or leave the account disabled to stop them being able to login or signing up again with the same email address.
If you choose the option to un-publish all of their content when disabling their account, it cannot automatically be re-published when enabling their account, so make sure you are certain that this is a decision you are sure about.
The Disable feature is also available in the Console when in the specific members profile. Members with the Moderator permission can also disable accounts from the Community itself through the Web platform.
Delete:
A Host can delete a member account altogether (and all of their content at the same time should you want to).
HOWEVER, an account cannot be restored once deleted, but a member can sign up again with the same email address. The member is sent an email letting them know their account has been deleted.
Members can be deleted from the member list page in the Console, and you can learn more about this here.
Email Confirmation & CAPTCHA:
The Email Confirmation feature is available for your Community to ensure only members with a valid email address can access your Community. This can help stop spam or bot accounts from negatively impacting your members. An account that hasn’t confirmed their email address cannot Post or engage in the Community.
Email Confirmation is off by default, but we recommend switching it on before you launch your Community, or if you start to see problems with spam or unwanted content.
You can also add a CAPTCHA test to the Email Confirmation process to help stop automated registrations from confirming their email and then Posting in your Community.
Both of these features are available to enable in the Console, by heading to the Configure section and selecting Privacy & Security from the left hand menu.
Signup Protection:
If you see high volumes of suspicious signups occurring, you can enable the signup protection setting. It adds extra checks for suspicious activity when someone signs up.
However, this setting could also stop genuine users signing up too, so by default it’s off, and you should use it with caution.
This feature can be enabled enable in the Console, by heading to the Configure section and selecting Privacy & Security from the left hand menu.
Trusted Reporters:
Any Community member can be made a Trusted Reporter so when they report a piece of content, it will be automatically un-published. This is a great tool if you want to recruit some of your members to help moderate your Community.
A trusted reporter will generate a report to theModeration queue for you to review the report reason and decide if you need to take more action than the content being un-published.
You can always choose to re-publish a Post, by visiting the Posts page in the Console.
Moderators:
Any member who is assigned the Moderator permission can Shadowban and Disable members from the Web community. This means if they spot a problematic member in the process of browsing or engaging in your Community, they can quickly Shadowban or Disable them without having to go to the Console.
Moderation Queue:
A report of content or a member goes into the Moderation section in the Console. This gives you the ability to see the issues being reported by your members, review, and take action if required.
You can learn more about this feature here.
Disciple Tips:
- If a member has done something worth blocking them for - it’s a good idea to encourage members to report them too so you can investigate and take any other appropriate action.
- If you are removing a user for breaking your Community guidelines or rules, we recommend using Disable, not Delete - as this stops them signing back up with the same email address.
- Whenever you do any shadowbanning or un-publishing of Posts, we advise to get in touch with the problematic member to explain what they have done wrong and what action has been taken. This gives the member the opportunity to adjust their behaviour in future.
- Many Communities use a ‘3 strikes’ approach for behaviour management, allowing members 3 warnings before issuing a temporary or permanent ban.