Moderating your publication

Readers comment and post in your spaces, and some of it needs a decision. You set the rules once, then work through what is waiting in one queue. Everything you decide only applies in your own publication, and the person is always told why.

Set your rules

Open the Settings of your publication in the Studio and choose Moderation.

• Hold comments for approval has three choices: Hold none, Hold a reader's first comments and Hold every comment. A held comment is seen only by its author until you approve it. Comments from you and your editors are never held.
• Hold replies from the fediverse: replies coming in from other servers wait for you.
• Hold comments with a link: spam often carries a link.
• Hold comments with these words: one word or phrase per line, with Add a word. Capitals and accents do not matter, and only whole words count, so "ass" never catches "class".

Choose Save. When you approve a reader's first held comment, that reader is trusted in your publication and their next comments are no longer held by the first-comment rule.

Peakub also holds a comment by itself when someone posts a lot in a short time or when their account is restricted. These show in your queue with the reason, for example Held: too many comments in a short time.

The queue

What readers reported and what your rules held is in Audience, Moderation in the Studio, for the whole publication. A book club has the same queue, narrowed to the club, in its Discussion block.

The queue has two tabs: Waiting for you and Decided. Each item shows the text, how many reports it has with their reasons and notes, and what rule held it. The most serious come first. You never see who reported.

For each item in Waiting for you:

• Approve publishes a held comment or post.
• Dismiss reports keeps the content and closes the reports.
• Hide takes it out for everyone but its author. They are told why and can appeal.
• Remove takes it out for good. They are told why and can appeal.
• Ban the author keeps them from commenting or posting in your publication.

Hide, Remove and Ban ask for a Reason and What do you tell them?, a few words the author will read. In Decided, Undo reverses a hide, a remove or a ban, and the author is told.

Some reports are Peakub's to decide, the most serious ones for example. You see them marked "Peakub is deciding this one. You can see it, not act on it."

Ban someone

From the ... menu of someone's comment, choose Ban from publication. Give a reason and a few words for them. As the owner of several publications, you also see Ban from all my publications, which bans them from every publication you own at once.

A banned person can no longer comment or post in the publication. In Settings, Moderation, the list Banned and refused shows who is banned, and Remove lets them back. They are told when a ban is lifted.

Refuse another publication

On another publication's page, the ... menu shows Block this publication to people who run a publication. Choose from which of your publications to block it. It is not told. The choice is kept in Banned and refused (shown as Publication refused), where Remove lifts it, and the page's menu then reads Unblock this publication. The places where it takes effect, your book clubs and coverages, recommendations, cross-posts and invitations to a collective, are being connected one by one.

Why it is fair to your readers

Every hide, removal and ban comes with a reason and an explanation, written by you, that the author can read in their moderation notices and contest. Peakub looks at appeals against your decisions. See Notices, appeals and your reports.

To declare how AI helped on a piece, see Declaring how AI helped.