Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) gives Admins the ability to moderate the content that displays in their community. Moderation is the ability to preview and then approve or reject user-generated content.
This is a crucial content-management feature for online communities because it gives Admins and their trusted agents control over what user-generated content does and doesn't appear in the community, so that they can minimize the occurrences of questionable and offensive content.
Appoint Moderators
Admins can assign the Moderator role to trusted users who then can also review, edit, and approve/deny content. Moderator is an out-of-the-box Role with the necessary permission (among others) already applied.
- Navigate to Dashboard > Settings > Membership > Roles & Permissions.
To appoint the Moderator Role to a user:
- Navigate to Dashboard > Moderation > Users.
- On the Manage Users page, click the pencil icon for the user you want to appoint.
- On the Edit User modal, scroll down to Check all roles that apply to this user: and check the box for Moderator.
- Click Save.
- Repeat these steps to add more Moderators.
✔️ TIP: Return to the Manage Roles & Permissions page and verify the count in the USERS column for the Moderator Role. (Learn how to manage your Roles & Permissions.)
Your Moderators can review, edit, and approve/reject user-generated content in your Vanilla community.
Moderation options
There are a number of ways that Admins and Moderators can moderate user-generated community content. This section highlights some of these options.
Inline moderation
This is located in individual discussions and comments, typically via an ellipsis (...) menu.
There is a set of options that Admins and Moderators can use to moderate the content of individual discussions and comments.
📝 NOTE: Admins and Moderators can also multi-select discussions and then manage them in "bulk."
- To learn more, see the Inline Moderation section in:
https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/342
This is located in Dashboard > Moderation > Site.
Each community user is listed on the Manage Users page and has an edit option (a pencil icon). Admins can edit the user listing and ban the user if their behavior has warranted such a measure. Ban Rules can be used on a larger scale.
Content management
This is located in Dashboard > Moderation > Content.
There is a set of tools (such as Moderation Queue and Spam Queue) that Admins and Moderators can use in order to focus moderation efforts directly on items that impact the site's content.
These queues get populated by trusted members "flagging" content, making it easier for Admins and Moderators moderators to take care of issues before they become problems. Allowing the community to self-moderate reduces the workload on Admins and Moderators, and involves the community in deciding what content is and is not acceptable.
Moderation tools and addons
There are a number of addons (such as Troll Management, Warnings & Notes, Stop Forum Spam, and Civil Tongue) that are specifically designed to enhance your moderation efforts.
Admins can use the Pre-Moderated Category addon (in Addons > Pre-Moderated Category) to set Categories as being pre-moderated so that all new discussions and/or comments in the selected Categories are automatically sent to the Moderation Queue.
Check out the article below to learn more:
Additional resources
Click the link below to access a video expanding on what you learned in this article.
