IMPORTANT: The DSA compliance features discussed in the article require the Community Management Dashboard and DSA mode to be enabled in your community.
Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) includes optional Digital Services Act (DSA) functionality that offers communities a clearer and more robust moderation workflow for both users and moderators.
These enhanced features are designed for communities with DSA-related compliance needs, but they also help any community that wants more transparent trust-and-safety workflows.
NOTE: These DSA enhancements build upon Vanilla's out-of-the-box moderation features, and it is assumed you are already familiar with them. if not, refer to our articles about banning users, community warnings, and the Community Management Dashboard.
The purpose of this article is to highlight how these moderation features are enhanced when Vanilla's DSA mode is enabled, as well as the new functionality available.
Turn DSA mode ON/OFF
DSA features are not available in communities, by default. To manage whether your community uses Vanilla's DSA workflows:
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Moderation > Settings > Content Settings.
- Click the Enforce DSA Compliance Requirements (EU) toggle on or off.
What changes when the toggle is ON/OFF
- When ON, Vanilla moves moderators and users through an expanded moderation lifecycle: more required explanation, more user-facing communication, an appeals process, and better transparency around what happened and why.
- When OFF, Vanilla uses its normal moderation workflows, but it does not enforce the DSA-specific compliance features. Appeals are not possible, guest reporting is unavailable, trusted-reporter priority behavior is inactive, and moderators are not forced to provide the same level of user-facing explanation.
The sections below explain in more detail what changes when DSA mode is enabled.
Guests can report content
When DSA mode is enabled, guests (i.e., users who are not signed in) can report discussions and comments.
How a guest reports changes based on your community’s Post layout setting:
- If your community uses Legacy Post Layouts, guests can report a post by clicking the flag icon below the post and then selecting Report.
- If your community uses Custom Post Layouts, guests can report either via the post’s ellipsis (...) menu > Report option or by clicking the post's flag icon.
Guests must complete all required fields before they can submit the report:
Where do Guest reports go?
After a Guest submits a report, it's routed through the same moderation flow as any other report: Vanilla creates a report in the Community Management Dashboard, and moderators can review it on the Dashboard > Moderation > Posts > Reports page. From there, a report can be dismissed, reviewed further, or escalated.
The Guest receives a confirmation email immediately after submitting the report. When moderation is complete, Vanilla sends a follow-up decision email with the outcome of the review.
New role: Trusted Reporters
When DSA mode is enabled, Vanilla creates the Trusted Reporter role on the Settings > Membership > Roles & Permissions page.
You can assign this role like any other: manual assignment or via automated methods like Ranks, SSO, and API.
When a user with the Trusted Reporter role reports a piece of content, said content is escalated immediately without waiting for normal report-threshold logic.
NOTE: If DSA mode is later turned off, the Trusted Reporter role remains in your system but no longer triggers this special escalation behavior.
More transparent content removal notices
When DSA mode is enabled, moderation actions are easier for users to understand. Instead of a user's removed content simply disappearing, Vanilla shows a content removal notice (see image below) that explains what happened and allows the affected user to appeal.
The removal notice shows details such as the moderator who took action, the date of removal, the removal reason, and a moderator message to the affected user.
NOTE: This removal notice only displays to moderators and the affected user. For the affected user, an Appeal button is available to begin the appeal process, while moderators can track the appeal status with the pill at the top right.
Guests and regular community users simply see a "This post has been deleted" notice.
Expanded clarity for moderation notifications
DSA-related notifications give users additional clarity when moderation actions affect their content or account. When moderators manually ban a user or when warnings result in a user's account being restricted or banned, Vanilla sends a standalone email instead of relying only on private messages, and the notification gives users an opportunity to appeal.
These moderation notifications can also use AI Translations when that feature is enabled and the user’s preferred language differs from the original language. Translation support covers DSA-related emails, on-site moderation messaging, content removal notices, and moderator-entered reasons that are shown to the user.
User appeals
An appeal is allowed only when the DSA workflow is enabled and the action is one of Vanilla’s appeal-eligible moderation actions:
- content removal,
- an account restriction, or
- a ban.
NOTE: Warnings that don't result in an account restriction or ban cannot be appealed.
Each warning applies a configurable number of "penalty" points to a user's account. Warnings only becomes appealable if they causes a restriction. Restrictions begin when the user reaches 3 or more active penalty points. At 3 or 4 points, the user is restricted; at 5 points, the user is banned and follows the ban appeal flow.
How can users appeal?
Users can appeal eligible moderation decisions:
- through the content removal notice displayed on the removed content's page (shown below) or
- through the email notification they receive after a content removal, account restriction, or ban action.
In the appeal form, users can provide additional context or clarification for the moderation team to review.
NOTE: Appeals are limited to one appeal per action or restriction, and content-removal appeals expire after 30 days.
How moderators manage appeals
After a user appeals their content removal, account restriction, or ban, it is sent to the the Community Management Dashboard, on the Moderation > Posts > User Appeals page, for moderators to manage.
On this page, each appeal displays as a card that shows its appeal number, the current status, the content title, who originally reported the content, who submitted the appeal, and who the appeal is assigned to.
From this page, you can:
- Assign an appeal to a moderator (more on this in the section below).
- Filter by status, appeal type, assigned moderator, appealing user, and date range to make it easy to find specific appeals to manage.
- Click an appeal's (…) menu to update its status to In Review or Pending.
- Click an appeal's View Details link to review the related content, the original moderation reason, and the user’s appeal message. From here, you can provide an official appeal decision message before approving or rejecting an appeal.
While an appeal is active/unresolved, moderators cannot do any of the following outside the appeal workflow:
- restore removed content,
- unban the user,
- remove the restriction,
- delete the original moderated content, or
- edit the original moderated content.
Assign an appeal
Appeals that have not yet been handled (rejected or approved) can be assigned to a moderator for review and processing.
To do so:
- Click the "user menu" at the bottom left of the appeal card. (You can also assign a moderator when viewing an appeal's details page.)
- Select the desired assignee from the list.
NOTE: The moderator who removed the content, banned the user, or imposed the restriction cannot manage that appeal.
Only the assignee of an appeal can reject or approve it. The original moderator cannot approve, reject, or assign the appeal to themselves, and other users cannot assign the appeal back to them.
These restrictions are in place to ensure multiple moderators are required to manage the appeals workflow, helping to promote fairness.
Review an appeal
Clicking an appeal's View Details link to review the full moderation and appeal history:
- the post that was reported (along with a link to view it in the community),
- the original message sent to the user by the moderator at the time of reporting,
- and the user's appeal message.
Lastly, moderators can reject or approve the appeal and provide an Appeal Decision message to explain the reasoning behind their decision to the user. (This message is required.)
- If rejected, the content remains removed from the community.
- If approved, the content is restored and available once again in the community.
Banning and warnings
Vanilla supports two related moderation tools for managing user behavior:
- Warnings help moderators document and respond to problematic behavior.
- Bans are used when a user should temporarily or permanently lose access to the community, either directly or as the result of repeated warning activity.
Moderators can warn and ban users from the user's profile or the Manage Users page (Dashboard > Moderation > Users > Manage Users).
Banning differences with DSA
When a moderator bans a user while DSA mode is enabled, they are required to include a message to the user explaining why they're being banned. While this message can be sent without DSA mode enabled, it is optional. Forcing moderators to include this additional information makes it clearer to the user why the ban occurred.
In addition:
- a notice banner is displayed to admins and moderators on the user's profile and
- an email is sent to the user that explains the ban and gives the user the opportunity to appeal.
If the ban is the result of accumulated warning points, the ban can be temporary rather than permanent. Vanilla’s warning system supports point expiration, which means a user can stop being banned after enough warning points expire.
Warning differences with DSA
NOTE: Warnings are a feature of the Warnings & Notes addon, which lets moderators record rule violations, apply warning levels, and keep private moderation notes for internal follow-up.
When a moderator warns a user while DSA mode is enabled, they are required to select the infringed rule the user broke. While moderators are free to highlight the infringed rule without DSA mode enabled, it is optional. Forcing moderators to include this additional information makes it clearer to the user why the warning occurred.
A standard warning does not automatically restrict or ban a user or create an appeal path on its own. Instead, it documents the issue, communicates expectations to the user, and contributes to the user’s overall warning level. Depending on how your warning types and thresholds are configured, repeated warnings can lead to a restriction or a ban.
What happens when a user is warned
What the user experiences depends on the outcome of the warning:
- If the warning is non-restrictive, Vanilla continues to use the existing warning workflow: the user is warned, but there is no appeal link and no DSA-style restriction notice.
- If the warning results in a restriction or ban, the workflow becomes more visible. In DSA mode, moderators are required to highlight the infringed rule (and provide a message to the user). Vanilla then uses that information to generate a clearer statement of reasons, a restriction notice in the community, and a standalone email that gives the user an opportunity to appeal.
Private Message Protection
When DSA mode is enabled, a private message protection option allows moderators and admins to disable private messaging for a specific community user.
Moderators and Admins who belong to a role with the Garden > Internal Info > View permission can manage this option for a user in a few ways:
- from a user's profile (on the Edit Profile Fields page),
- from the Manage Users dashboard page, and
- even via API/SSO.
Turn Private Message Protection ON/OFF
For the purposes of this article, we'll highlight the Manage Users dashboard page.
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Moderation > Users > Manage Users page.
- Locate the user and click the pencil (edit) icon to view their account details.
- Scroll down and check the Disable Private Messages box to turn this feature ON/OFF.
- Click Save to apply this change to their account.
What does Private Message Protection do?
When Disable Private Messages is enabled for a user:
- They can no longer start new private-message conversations with regular community users;
- regular community members can no longer start new private-message conversations with them;
- Moderators and admins with Garden > Moderation > Manage or Garden > Settings > Manage permissions are exempt, so they can still message the flagged user, and the flagged user can still message them.
NOTE: Once enabled, this applies only to new private-message attempts and does not remove or rewrite older conversation threads.
In addition, the restriction applies to private messaging only; it does not remove the member’s existing public content or automatically prevent the member from participating in public community areas.