Forum Moderation allows you to control the messages that are posted on your board.

Getting Started

To enable Forum Moderation, you'll start with these steps:

Go to your forum's Control Center, to the Word Filter section. Click the radio button (the circle) that says, "Filter Words - Words you suppress will appear in the forum as ####. Use this setting with Forum Moderation, to trigger moderation when objectionable words appear."

Then scroll down a little, to where you see a box. There may be some words in there already that Talk City has filtered system-wide. Put a pipe (|) after each word you want to add to your list, but don't leave any spaces. Do not put a pipe after the very last word. Your list will look like this:

apples|oranges|avocados|grapes

Scroll down to the bottom, click "Submit".

The written instructions for word filtering look more complicated than they really are. Once you get used to adding words to the filter, you can try the fancier combinations listed.

Next, go into Forum Moderation, and choose either:

"Only objectionable messages will be moderated. Word Filtering must be set to Filter Words" or,

"All messages will be moderated."

Click submit.

If you choose to moderate all messages, you'll probably want to use "Grant Voice" with it. That will allow all posters that have posted in the last 30 days (except those you've gagged or locked out) to bypass the moderation queue. You can find the "Voice" flag in Set Privileges, at the bottom of the screen, as well as being the last choice on each post that is trapped in the moderation queue. If you choose "objectionable messages", then only those posts that contain words you've set in the word filter will be trapped in moderation.

Some effective forum hosts take the release of posts from moderation a step further. They either caution their new chatters that all messages in the forum will first go into moderation, or they post a welcome after the message has been released, and the new member has been given a Voice flag. When the post is released, they try to make new members feel very special, and explain that the post was held in moderation, was reviewed by forum staff, and meets the standards and guidelines of the forum. They welcome the poster graciously, as opposed to just letting the post be "posted" with nothing said. Members who first join in chat, can be granted a Voice flag after the chat moderator gives their manager, (A-flagged staff members) the word to Grant Voice.

Some forums don't use moderation for fear they will offend or turn away a "newbie" that they really would like to have at their forums. Maybe more ideas like those mentioned here, will be helpful to forums to overcome their resistance, and find that fine balance between effective forum hosting using the moderation tools, and the more extreme measures of constant deletions, or limited access folders. This might prove to be a better solution for your forum than making most of your folders authorized access only.

If you do moderate all messages, remember to check in your Forum Moderation queue frequently, to release messages throughout the day. Grant Voice if your posters seem legitimate, and their subsequent posts will never even hit the moderation queue.