Gradual has deployed several native moderation features that automatically moderate posts and comments so they are appropriate and work to deter spamming:

Admins to the dashboard & forum moderators are exempt from this auto-moderation as they are assumed trusted users.

From within Moderation → Forum Moderation, you can control your content moderation strategy.

These settings only affect forum content and do not impact chat and Q features in events and channels.

Profanity Filter: Works to block posts and comments containing profane language based on a standard library of profane terms in English using Gradual

The default setting is on and admins cannot disable this setting.

External Content Moderation: Works to block posts and comments containing inappropriate image content, ASCII text, etc. using Microsoft Content Moderator

The default setting is on and admins cannot disable this setting.

Anti-spam Protection: Works to block spam and phishing text and content using the Akismet tool (this is a black box tool that works as a third party moderation for Gradual).

The default setting is on and admins CAN disable this setting.

Appoint community members as Forum Moderators to feature, review, report, and delete posts comments in your community's Forum.

The Forum Moderators can pin, and unpin posts, report, sink and delete posts and comments on the front end. If they are also an admin, with access to the full dashboard, they can review reported posts and comments and take action on them in the dashboard.

If your Forum is restricted to certain Spaces, ensure the Forum Moderators are assigned to the space to access and moderate the conversations.

Pinning a post can be done from the main home page or within the post.

You can pin up to five posts to the forum, and to each board.

Any posts that are deleted, and deleted and marked spam by users who are Forum Moderators can be seen in the dashboard, and Forum Moderators with admin access to the dashboard can republish if needed.

Deleting a post can be done from the main home page or within the post.

If you want to block members from commenting on a post, you can lock it from the front end as a Forum moderator. This can be done immediately when the post is created, or after it has received some comments. It can be reversed at any time by Forum moderators, too.

Locking a post can be done from the main home page or within the post.

Use the sink feature to move a post to the bottom of the Hot section of forums, regardless of votes or activity. This does not affect the post position in other areas of forums.

Any comments that are deleted, and deleted and marked spam by users who are Forum Moderators can be seen in the dashboard, and Forum Moderators with admin access to the dashboard can republish if needed.

Deleting a comment must be done within the post.

Forum Moderators can be any member of the community and do not need to have dashboard admin access (in Permissions) or collaborator access to moderate Forum on the front end. There is currently no cap on the number of moderators you can add here, and granting them access to moderate the Forum will not grant them any additional access to the main or collaborator dashboard.

Dashboard admins are not automatically granted Forum Moderator permissions and must be added as a Forum Moderator in Forum Settings to be able to pin, unpin, and delete posts and comments on the front end, and review and moderate the reports in the dashboard.

Add Forum Moderators in the dashboard, in the Forum menu, in Forum Settings.

There is a new permission that assigns the above features and controls of forum moderator, but only to specific boards. Learn more about forum boards and how to assign forum board moderators here.

Admins who are also assigned as Forum Moderators can review and manage forum content in the dashboard from Forum Moderation.

In the main dashboard, this page includes moderation across the community forum. In a club dashboard, moderation actions apply only to that club’s forum.

This section includes four moderation tabs: Pending Posts, Pending Comments, Reported Posts, and Reported Comments. These tabs allow moderators to review forum content, take action, and remove content when needed.

Each tab also shows the content author so moderators can more easily identify posts or comments from the same member. Posts show the Poster column, and comments show the Commenter column. Moderators can also search by author name in all four tabs.

From this list, select the title of the post or comment to open the review details. From here, you can select the post or comment hyperlink to see it on the front end, see the poster, and when they posted. For reported content, you can also review any report(s) made against the post or comment and see who made the report and when. If the content was flagged by Gradual’s moderation tools, the moderation details will also show the exact profanity words or blocked URLs that triggered moderation. When more than one word or URL is detected, all detected items will be listed.

You can then make a decision and take action. Depending on the tab, moderators can Approve, Ignore, Delete, or Delete and mark spam. In the main dashboard, moderators can also use Change board for pending posts. Moderators can take these actions one item at a time or in bulk. To take action in bulk, select the checkbox next to each item, or use the checkbox at the top of the list to select all items shown on the current page.

For moderators with permission on the board, flagged words and blocked URLs are highlighted directly in the post or comment content during review. On a post detail page, highlights appear in the post title, post body, and comments. On a comment detail page, highlights appear in the comment text.

By selecting 'Ignore' this post will remain in the Forum.

Select the title of any post or comment in the moderation list to open its review details. From there, moderators can open the post or comment in the forum, see who posted it, and review the related moderation details.