How do community rules and moderators work?
On this page
Every community has an owner (the person who created it) and can have moderators the owner adds. Owners and moderators keep the community on track with Mod tools: rules, tags, join requests, bans, a mod log, and actions on posts.
Open Mod tools
On the community page, tap Mod tools (a number on it means join requests are waiting). The tabs are:
- Settings (owner only): name, description, welcome voice note, icon, banner, public or private, and Delete this community.
- Rules: up to 15 rules with optional details, in the order you set, plus an optional Record the rules voice note. Tap Save rules.
- Tags: up to 20 tags with colors, some marked Mods only. Deleting a tag removes it from posts that had it. Tap Save tags.
- Requests (private communities): read each request and its message, then Approve or Decline.
- Bans: ban by @username, for 1 day, 7 days, 30 days or permanently, with a reason they'll see. Unban any time.
- Mod log: a record of every mod action, who did it and when.
- Moderators: the owner adds moderators by searching members, or removes them.
Why rules matter
Rules appear on the community page. Members can pick a rule when they report a post, and moderators can pick one as the reason when they remove a post.
Actions on a post
Moderators get extra items in a post's ⋯ menu:
- Pin to the top / Unpin: up to 2 pinned posts at once. The author is notified.
- Lock comments / Unlock comments: stops new comments.
- Remove post: hides it from the community. Pick a reason (a rule, Spam, Off-topic, Duplicate post) or write one. The author is notified and sees the reason.
- Restore post: brings a removed post back.
- Change tag, and editing or deleting posts that break the rules.
Reports and appeals
Reports from members about your communities land in My communities → Reports. From each report you can Open it, Remove post or Delete comment, Ban the author from the community, or Dismiss it. Appeals about your community's decisions are in the Appeals tab.
Rules for moderators
- Only members can be made moderators, and banned members must be unbanned first.
- Moderators can't be banned. Remove them as a moderator first.
- Nobody can ban the owner.
- Only the owner adds or removes moderators, changes Settings, or deletes the community. People are notified when they're made or removed as a moderator.
- Moderator powers only apply to that community. They don't give any site-wide role.
Banned members can still read public posts, but they can't post, comment, vote or rejoin until the ban ends or is lifted.