Moderation
What the team can do with content and with people (edit, delete, pin, remove), who can do what, the approval queue, and how to set community guidelines that work.
Moderating is looking after how people get along: taking down what breaks the rules, highlighting what matters and dealing with people who get in the way. On Memberfy, that's the job of owners, admins and moderators, who see every space, including private ones.
What it's for
| Situation | Example |
|---|---|
| A post that breaks the rules | Advertising in a school's Feed |
| An offensive comment | On an article in a Content space |
| A notice everyone needs to see | The coworking space's new opening hours |
| A wrong picture in the gallery | A photo from another event |
| A person who shouldn't stay | Someone who keeps spamming |
How it works
What each role can moderate
| Action | Moderator | Admin | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edit or delete someone else's Content post | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Edit or delete someone else's comment | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Edit or delete someone else's Gallery image | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Edit or delete someone else's Feed status | — | ✔ | ✔ |
| Pin to top and Unpin in the Feed | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Edit an event | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Delete an event | — | ✔ | ✔ |
| Tag members | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Remove someone from the community | — | ✔ | ✔ (including admins) |
| See the approval queue | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Buttons per item
Each post, comment and image comes with what you can do with it. The edit and delete menu shows up for the author and for whoever can moderate that item, and doesn't show up for other members.
Pin to top
In the Feed, Pin to top keeps an item highlighted, above the others, until someone chooses Unpin. Use it for announcements, rules and welcome messages.
The approval queue
The platform has a queue of pending items (content, statuses, events, courses and gallery images), with approve and reject, plus moderation figures. The idea is that, in a space with prior approval, nothing appears until someone on the team approves it.
Coming soon Prior approval isn't switched on yet: the Require approval before publishing toggle in the space's settings and the Content Moderation toggle in Settings don't hold back what gets published yet. The queue screen is also on its way; for now, it's available through the API. Until then, moderate after publishing, or use Who can post = Staff in spaces where only the team should publish.
Who can post where
The strongest way to avoid trouble is to decide who publishes in each space, with Who can post: Anyone, Staff or Admins. An announcements space set to Staff needs no post moderation, only comment moderation. See Spaces.
Step by step
Take down a post or comment
Role: moderator, admin or owner.
- Open the item.
- In the item's menu (the three dots), choose Edit to fix it or Delete to take it down.
- Confirm.
Pin an announcement
Role: moderator, admin or owner.
- Publish the announcement in the Feed (or in a Content space).
- In the item's menu, Pin to top.
Remove someone
Role: admin or owner.
Administration › Members, the person's menu, Remove Member. See Manage members.
Community guidelines that work
- Write the rules down in a post pinned to the Feed or in a Start here Content space.
- Be specific: "no product promotion outside the #Showcase space" works better than "no spam".
- Say what happens to people who break them: a warning, the post deleted, removal.
- Make room for what you forbid: if you don't want ads in the Feed, create a Showcase space where they're welcome.
- Have more than one moderator, so nobody carries it alone and you cover more hours.
Examples
A school with 500 students. A general Feed with Who can post = Anyone, two moderators (senior students), rules pinned to the top. An Announcements space set to Staff: only the school posts, everyone comments.
A customer community. An open Questions space; the support team, with the Moderator role, answers and pins the most useful answers.
Common errors and how to fix them
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| The moderator can't delete a Feed status | For Feed statuses, only admins and owners can delete someone else's; the moderator deletes the comments |
| The moderator doesn't see the remove member button | Removing is for admins and above |
| I turned on "Require approval" and posts still appear immediately | Prior approval isn't switched on yet (see above) |
| You do not have permission to delete this status | Ask an admin |
Frequently asked questions
Does the author find out the post was deleted? There is no automatic notice. If needed, talk to the person.
Can I block words? There is no word filter.
Can a moderator moderate private spaces? Yes. Moderators see every space.
In the API
GET /api/moderation/{contents,status,events,courses,gallery}/pending, PUT /api/moderation/{type}/{id} and GET /api/moderation/stats (moderator and above); PUT /api/feed/{type}/{id}/pin. See Moderation.