Aurora: Enable content moderation and set content moderation defaults
Community moderators review and process large volumes of member-generated content. Moderation is an important part of keeping a community a safe and engaging space for your members to participate. Depending on how you configure the moderation settings, content can also be auto-approved and skip the moderation process. The moderation process depends on the defaults you set for various boards. Admins can set these moderation defaults for forum discussions and replies, blog comments, ideas and their comments, event and event comments, media, and knowledge base comments at the community, category, and board levels. Auto-approved: The content is auto-approved and made public without going through moderation review unless flagged. Recommended for trusted areas that are self-regulated by a small group of members. Selective: The content is made public to the community without going through moderation. However, moderators can selectively review this content later, and based on the review, the content stays or is removed from the community. Required: The content must go through moderation for review, and based on the moderator's evaluation, the content is either published or removed from the community. By default, Selective moderation is set for all boards. Understanding the different moderation types Before configuring the content moderation defaults, you must understand the benefits and risks of each option: Auto-approved: Set Auto-approved for places that are designed for open discussions without any need for regulating the content posted by members. Use this option in places that are self-regulated by a small group of members who are accountable for their actions. However, we still recommend you implement the moderation process within the community to avoid spreading inappropriate information. Selective: Similar to Auto-approved, the Selective moderation process also encourages open communication among members in that they can publish content immediately without prior review. Moderators can still review the published content to ensure the posted content is appropriate and adheres to the community’s principles. Use this option in places where members expect fast-paced and live interaction without having to wait long for the moderation process to complete. However, when moderation is delayed, there is the potential risk of inappropriate content (abuse or spam) being posted that impacts readers and disrupts the community. Compared to the Required moderation process, this process is less effective in avoiding spam and abusive content. Required: Required moderation is the best way to combat spam and abusive content because the content is sent to the moderation before it’s made public in the community. This also protects your community’s reputation and creates a safe space for your members by ensuring the appropriate content is posted in the community. However, this process relies on additional resources to review the content, which may delay making the content public. This can disappoint members who want their content to be made public quickly. Set content moderation defaults at community level Sign in to the community as an Admin. Open the Account menu and go to Settings > Features. Select Moderation. The Moderation Types settings displays spam and content moderation settings. Here, you can set default moderation types for discussions, ideas, replies or comments on discussions, blog posts, knowledge base articles, events, and media. The screenshot below displays the Moderation Types, numbered for clarity. Select Edit for any of these options. A window to edit the moderation type opens. From here, you can: assign the moderation type for all members override this setting for specific roles with another moderation type value specify the roles that will bypass moderation The following is an example for moderating discussions and replies. The Community moderation type field for discussions and replies by all members fall under the Selective moderation type, and they are made public but go through moderation process. The Role-based Override field is set to Required for the roles selected in the Apply only to the following roles field. Discussions and replies by members with these roles are hidden until reviewed and approved by a moderator. The roles added to the Exclude Roles field automatically bypasses any moderation action. Similarly, you can set default statuses for other content types at the community level. Set content moderation defaults at category, group, or board levels The Moderation Types set at the community level are inherited to the category, group, and board levels. You can override these options at various levels as needed. Based on the inheritance, the settings applied at different levels are inherited to child places from their parent levels. For example, the content moderation defaults set at category or group levels are inherited to their child places. Learn more about setting inheritance. Let’s look at an example in which you want to set content moderation defaults at category level. To set content moderation defaults at category level: Open the Account menu and go to Settings > Community Structure. On the Community Structure page, select the category where you want to set the content moderation defaults. In the category settings, go to the Moderation section and set Content moderation types for content review as required. When you’ve adjusted a setting for a child place, a PARENT OVERRIDE indicator is displayed next to that setting for the child place to indicate that it overrides the settings of its parent. Similarly, you can set content moderation defaults at the group and board levels. Based on these board-level settings, when members post content on the community, the content is immediately routed to the Moderation for review. When a board is set to Required moderation and members post content on this board, a confirmation message is displayed on the post indicating that post will be published as soon as it is approved from moderators: From the Moderation tab, moderators can review content for appropriateness. They can then approve or reject it, and also message authors of the posts. Learn more about moderating content. Note: it is not possible to set different moderation levels for comments(or replies) and main posts Grant permissions to moderate content Moderation permissions should be granted only to roles assigned to trusted individuals. To manage this permission: Navigate to Admin > Settings > Users > Roles and Permissions. In the row of the role for which you want to manage this permission, select the Options menu and then Edit. In the Permissions area, below Moderation, locate Moderate Content. Select Grant or Deny as required.Aurora: Update community vanity URL
There are several actions you must take before we can change a vanity name on our end. The change is straightforward if your community is a non-SSO community, but if you use SSO there's a broader range of things to cover. As always, all changes should first be tested on stage if possible, and this is especially true if you're using SSO. Note: We highly recommend contacting our Professional Services team to complete this process, especially when using a custom SSO setup. Preparation Create a CNAME in your DNS. Point the CNAME at your internal community hostname (for example, communityid.community.com). Allow 48 hours to pass after steps 1 and 2 so the DNS can propagate the internet. Update the community URL Check your community settings and change any hard-coded URLs pointing to the old vanity name. A redirect largely covers this, but eliminating any non-needed page requests/redirects is always a recommended best practice. If you're using SSO and this change affects your SSO sign-in/sign-out/registration URLs, be sure to update them in Community Settings > System > Account and Privacy after the change is made on the Khoros side. IMPORTANT: if you're using SSO, make sure this domain change will not affect your authentication process. In most cases, SSO is domain-centric and works only for requests coming from the domain specified in the cookie, so if the domain is not updated in your SSO it could completely break authentication. For example, if your community URL was community.abc.com and your SSO was set for requests only from .abc.com, changing your vanity name to community.def.com would break authentication, since a cookie from one domain cannot be read by another. You need to update your SSO to ensure it's set to work with the new domain. If you're using a Salesforce integration, check with whomever handled that integration to ensure the change won't cause any unwanted problems. In some cases, that person might have to make changes to accommodate the change. Multiple vanity names are not officially supported, but if you plan to use more than one vanity name you MUST contact Khoros Support to have all of your domains added to a vanity domain allowlist. Any domain not in the allowlist redirects back to the active vanity name we have on record. After all of the above have been reviewed, tested, and you're ready to proceed, the remaining is completed by Khoros: Update the vanity name. Add any desired redirects (301) from the old vanity name to the new one so anyone who has bookmarks/favorites is redirected to the same page using the new domain. Add any other optional redirects you'd like in place. Depending on the number and/or type of redirects requested (for instance, more than a dozen), this may require an engagement through our Professional Services group. Restart the community during the next available maintenance window to apply changes. As noted, if you're using SSO we need to coordinate with you so that you can make any required SSO changes on your end at the same time we update the hostname on our end.Aurora: Reporting inappropriate content and member profiles
It is essential to maintain the cleanliness of the online communities and ensure a curated experience free from inappropriate content such as objectionable images, abusive language, spam, harassment, and more. The Report Content feature aligns with DSA standards, empowering community members to report undesirable content. They can report community posts (including comments and replies), Events, Private Messages, and User Profiles. Anonymous reporting is available for both posts (including comments and replies) and User Profiles, ensuring a safer and more compliant online community experience. Note: To enable this feature, contact Support. Let’s walk through an example on how to report a post. Go to the community post that you want to report. Open the Options menu. Select Report. A window opens: Select a Reason and optionally add details. Click Report. You receive a confirmation that the report has been sent to the moderation team for review. Moderators can view this report in the Manage Content dashboard. They can then take appropriate action on the report from here. Similarly, you can report: Private Messages: Moderators can take appropriate action from the Manage Content page. Member Profiles: Moderators can take action from the Abuse tab: Report content anonymously: When users report a post/member anonymously (without signing in), they'll be prompted to enter their Name and Email address. This feature comes with a reCAPTCHA protection. If they have a registered email ID, members are asked to sign in before reporting; if not, they can proceed with reporting the content anonymously. Note: To enable reCAPTCHA protection, contact SupportAurora: Search for specific content on the Moderation tab
On the Moderation tab, you can filter and search for specific posts that are sent for moderation. You can filter the content by moderation status, publication status, and content types. You can also filter by the title or author of the post. To filter for specific content in the Moderation tab: Sign in to your community as a Moderator. Open the Account menu and go to Manage > Moderation. The Moderation tab is displayed with the list of posts and comments (replies) sent for moderation. To narrow the results displayed, click Filters. In the Moderation Status section, select any of the following: Unmoderated: Displays the posts, replies, and comments that are sent for moderation. By default, this option is selected. Rejected: Displays the posts, replies, comments, and private messages that have been rejected. You can take further actions on rejected posts or private messages. Learn more about viewing rejected posts on the Moderation tab. If the Moderation status is set to Unmoderated, you can further filter the results by: Status: Select the publication status (Published or Unpublished) of the post. Found In: Select the content types (Forums, Blog Comments, Knowledge Base Comments, Ideas, and Event Comments) you want to see. To see everything, select All. If the Moderation status is set to Rejected, you can further filter the results by: Posts and Replies: Displays posts, replies, and comments that have been rejected. You can also select the Reject Reason for which the posts were rejected (Spam, Abuse, or Other) and can search based on the Keyword and Author of the post. Private Messages: Displays private messages that have been rejected. To facilitate faster search results while moderating content, a filter for media is available on the Moderation tab in the Mange Content dashboard. The Moderation tab is updated based on the provided search criteria.Aurora: Message members on moderation actions to their posts
Moderators can send a private message to the members who posted the content to improve communication of these moderation actions. After you send the message, you can view the message in your Inbox Sent folder and also carry further conversation with the member. Learn more about Inbox.Aurora: Edit posts sent for moderation
From the Moderation tab, you can directly edit the posts, comments, or replies that you find inappropriate and do not adhere to the community principles. While editing content, you must ensure not to modify the context of the content that the author of the post is trying to convey. Also, you can message members to inform them about your moderation actions on the posts.Aurora: Review rejected posts or private messages
From the Moderation tab, you can review posts or private messages that are rejected as Spam, Abuse, or other reasons. This list includes posts rejected by moderators through the Moderation tab as well as the posts rejected as spam through the community user interface or by the system. It also includes private messages that are confirmed as abuse from the Abuse management tab. Review rejected posts Review rejected private messages Review rejected posts Sign in to the community as a Moderator. Open the Account menu and go to Manage > Moderation. The Moderation tab is displayed with the list of posts and comments (replies) sent for moderation. To view rejected posts, go to Filters and select the following: For the Moderation Status, select Rejected. Under Found In, select Posts and Replies. For the Reject Reason, select the reason for which the posts were rejected (Spam, Abuse, or Other). You can further filter the search based on the Keyword and Author of the posts. For each rejected post, you can see its: Title Author Date Rejected Reason why the post was rejected Who rejected the post (a moderator or the system) From the Moderation tab, moderators can take several actions on rejected posts. These actions vary based on the Reason for which the post was rejected. Possible actions include: Recover posts mistakenly marked as Spam: From the Moderation tab, you can mark posts as not spam. To mark a post as not spam, open the Options menu next to the post rejected as spam and select Mark as not Spam. You can recover these posts from the Spam tab. After you mark a post as not spam, it is available in the community. It will also be removed from the Moderation and Spam management tabs. Ignore abuse for mistakenly reported posts: From the Moderation tab, you can mark posts as not abuse by opening the Options menu next to the post rejected as abuse and select Mark as not Abuse. After you mark the post as not abuse, the post is viewable on the community and removed from the Moderation tab. Recover posts rejected for other reasons: From the Moderation tab, you can recover posts rejected for other reasons. To recover a post, open the Options menu next to the post rejected for other reasons and select Approve. After you mark the post as approved, the post is viewable in the community and removed from the Moderation tab. Review private messages Sign in to the community as a Moderator. Open the Account menu and go to Manage > Moderation. To view rejected private messages, go to Filters and select the following: For the Moderation Status, select Rejected. Under Found In, select Private Messages. The Moderation tab is displayed with the list of private messages sent for moderation. From the Moderation tab, you can ignore abuse for mistakenly reported private messages. To ignore abuse for a private message, open the Options menu next to the message from the list and select Mark as not Abuse.Aurora: Approve or reject posts sent for moderation
Periodically, you must review the posts captured in the moderation. You can evaluate these posts and approve or reject them from the Moderation tab in the Manage Content dashboard. Actions you can take include: Approve posts Reject posts Message members about their posts Approve posts From the Moderation tab, you can approve posts or replies that are appropriate and adhere to the community principles. After you approve posts and replies, the content is published or stays in the community based on the moderation settings. They are also removed from the Moderation tab. Reject posts From the Moderation tab, you can reject posts or replies that you find inappropriate and that do not adhere to the community principles. You can reject these posts or replies as spam, abuse, or for any other reasons. Posts that are rejected as spam are moved to the Spam tab. After you reject posts or replies, they are removed from the community and moderation. In the Moderation tab, you can search these rejected posts using the Rejected filter and take further action. To approve or reject posts on the Moderation tab: Sign in to your community as a Moderator. Open the Account menu and select Manage > Moderation. The Moderation tab is displayed with the list of posts, comments, and replies sent for moderation. Select the Title of any posts to view the content. You can approve or reject a post using these options: To approve a post, open the Options menu next to the post and select Approve. The Approve window opens. Select Approve. A confirmation message is displayed indicating that the post has been approved. To reject a post, open the Options menu next to the post and select Reject. The Reject Content window opens where you can reject the post as Spam, Abuse, or for Other reasons. Select any of these options and select Reject. Based on the selected option, a confirmation message is displayed indicating that the post has been rejected as spam, abuse, or for other reasons. Approve or Reject content from the post page When a board is set to Required or Selective moderation and members post content on this board, moderators can directly approve or reject the content from the post page as shown below: For forum replies, blog comments, knowledge base comments, event comments, and idea comments, a message is displayed for the respective comment or reply indicating that the comment or reply is awaiting for moderation. To moderate the comment or reply through the Moderation tab, select Manage Moderation link. To approve or reject the comment or reply from the respective post, open the Options menu and select Approve or Reject as required: Note: While reviewing posts in the Moderation tab, you can Message Members who posted the respective content to get more information or notify your actions on the content.About Aurora Moderation
It is important for your community to be a positive space where members feel welcome, safe, and engaged. To foster this environment, moderators constantly monitor community activity by reviewing content for appropriateness, based on the guidelines you’ve put in place for your community. Using the Moderation tab in the Manage Content dashboard, moderators can quickly review and process large volumes of member-generated content. Depending on how you’ve set up your moderation process, content can be reviewed either before or after it is published to the community. From the Moderation tab, you can moderate forum discussion posts and their replies, ideas and their comments, as well as comments on blogs, knowledge bases, and events. Also, you can view the posts or private messages that are rejected as spam, abuse, or for other reasons and take further action on these posts or private messages. Moderation process You can set the moderation mode at the board level. Required: Moderators must moderate content to make it available in the community. (This was previously known as pre-moderation in Communities Classic.) Selective: The content is published, but moderators can moderate it after publication. (This was previously known as post-moderation in Communities Classic.) Auto-approved: Content does not require moderation and is approved automatically. Learn more about configuring moderation modes for various content types. When members post content on the community, the content is immediately routed to the Moderation, based on the moderation settings for that board. Note: When a board is set to Required moderation and members post content on this board, a confirmation message is displayed on the post indicating that post will be published as soon as it is approved from moderators: View Moderation tab Members with elevated permissions (Admins and Moderators) can access the Moderation tab in the Manage Content dashboard. Note that you must enable content moderation at the community level to view the Moderation tab. Members will see the Spam, Abuse, and Moderation tabs. The Moderation tab is where you can review content. By default, the Moderation tab is displayed with the list of unmoderated posts, where the Moderation status is set to unmoderated. The Moderation tab lists: Title: title of the post, reply, or comment Author: authors of the posts and replies Date: the date on which the post or reply is sent for moderation. Status: the publication status (Published or Unpublished) of the posts and replies. Number of views, likes, and comments for each post, reply, or comment. Note: You can sort this list based on the Date. From the Moderation tab, moderators can evaluate the posts and replies. approve or reject posts and replies message authors about their content. ban members When approved, posts are published in the community or remain in the community based on the moderation settings at board level. They are then removed from the Moderation tab. When rejected, the posts are removed from the community. The posts that are rejected as spam can also be viewed in the Spam tab. Learn more about approving or rejecting posts sent for moderation. To view the rejected posts or private messages, go to Filters and set Moderation Status as Rejected. From the Moderation tab, you can: Open any post to view the content Search and filter posts Approve or reject posts Message members on moderation actions about their posts Review the posts or private messages that have been rejected as Spam, Abuse, or other reasons Ban members Refer to the Khoros Communities Moderation Essentials course for training on this feature.Set community to offline mode
If you are performing maintenance on your community, you may want to prevent activity from taking place as you resolve issues. With offline mode, you can present a notice to visitors so they know maintenance is underway and that they cannot participate until the community comes back online. When the community is in offline mode, members cannot: sign in read content create new posts or reply to any content like posts, mark posts as solutions, tag posts, or edit posts reply to messages in their inbox or create new private messages follow or manage existing follows update their member settings Members can still receive email notifications if content is posted by admins during the time the community is offline. When the community is in offline mode, admins are still able to: sign in to the community post content modify site settings update the theme use back-end functionality such as APIs Enable offline mode Open the Account menu and go to Settings > System. Below General, toggle on Enable community offline mode. Confirm this action by selecting Take Community Offline. Customize your maintenance page You can customize the title and message on your maintenance page so that your visitors know what to expect when they reach your community while it is offline. To customize the message: On Settings > System > General, below Enable community offline mode, select Edit beside Title and Description. In the Edit Offline Text window, edit the Title and Description as desired. Select Save.
