Moderate your public Forums

[Eric Suesz]

Now live: You'll find this available as an option to enable in your Content > Controls section.

If you've ever wanted to have complete control over new discussions that are posted to your network, we have a new option for you: turning on forum moderation for all new discussion posts. 

How it works

This new functionality is very similar to how blog post moderation works, so if you've ever turned on blog moderation, you're already familiar with the idea. Basically, if you turn this on…

• All forum discussions — in both the main forum and public group forums — will need to be approved before they are published.
• You'll moderate forum discussions in the same location where you moderate new groups, blogs, members, etc.
• Both Network Creators and Admins will have the ability to moderate new discussions. The Forum Moderator Role will also be empowered with this level of moderation.
• Private groups are exempt from this type of forum moderation (whether on a public or private network).

Who will want to use this?

For the most part, this will probably only be desirable for Network Creators who have extra-strict privacy concerns. For example, perhaps you run a network for students and need to be assured that all content is appropriate for the entire audience before it is live. Maybe your healthcare-oriented network has had problems in the past with members who have unwittingly shared private health-related data in the main forum when you prefer that they share it in private groups set up specifically for that purpose.

The trade-off with this option

Having this additional level of moderation could dissuade members (particularly new members) from wanting to post new discussions. If people feel that all of their discussions have to be approved by someone before anyone else can respond, they may decide it's too much trouble or that it feels too much like pre-emptive censorship. Ultimately, it's up to you as the Network Creator whether or not you want to turn on full forum moderation. This feature is entirely optional, and we anticipate that most Network Creators won't want to go to the trouble of moderating all new discussions. But, we've added it for those of you who do want this level of control.

We've added this functionality based on a relatively small number of requests we've received over time here on the Creators Network. At this point, we don't plan on expanding this functionality further, but we'll watch to see how many people adopt it and how they're using it.

[Eric Suesz]

Okay, Badan. I am not able to reproduce this. It seems to be working okay. Any chance you can submit a ticket and include some detail that shows this not working as expected? That would be really helpful. 

[Eric Suesz]

Update, Badan. We were able to reproduce this! So, it is in our bug-tracking system. Hoping we can get it fixed soon.

[F Hilaire NGOUNE]

ok i am okay with you, let's go on!!!

[Linda S]

Love it!

thank you for listening!!!

[Mauricio BM]

This is great, but I don't see were is this CONTROL on my network.  Is this already available? 

[Eric Suesz]

You'll find this available as an option to enable in your Content > Controls section.

[Mauricio BM]

Thanks Eric! I think it would be great if you add an option so users can't open new discussions unless there are moderators.

Look for example at this Creators forum there are a lot of duplicated themes and is difficult to look for a certain item. If only the moderators can open new discussions could be more organized, with fewer discussions and more clean to search items

Users usually respond to some subject by open a new discussion and not by responding directly to it.

What do you think about it?

PD: Sorry about my english.

[Eric Suesz]

I definitely would not want to restrict our members in that way. Online communities and online forums are always going to be messy, will always contain duplicates, similar conversations, etc. If it's difficult to find what you're looking for, I think the answer would be to improve search and not restrict members from participating in the way that makes the most sense to them. I would never consider using this feature for the Creators Network. People wouldn't stand for that type of restriction. 

[Mauricio BM]

Hello Eric:

I think is not a matter of restriction, but is really important to organice some forums.

I mean speccially in Group Forums, because the group has some goal, and people open indiscriminately new discussions because they don't understand that the have to answer in the same discussion and not open a new one.

Why don't you consider this option to creators when we open a new group. For example if I open a new discussion about this same item we wouldn't be able to follow up this item, don't you think. Imagine everyone opening new discussions for the same item. Is imposible to organice a follow up some goal.  Well in my networks this is happening all the time, and is very difficult to follow the discussions. Thanks for considering this important enhancement.