Deciding to actively moderate your community is a difficult enough decision for many, but choosing the type of moderation that is right for their community can be infinitely harder. Tea Social, in our ongoing mission to make your life just that little bit easier, are happy to run you through each system and it’s pros and cons.

Pre-moderationThis is the strictest form of moderation, meaning that every bit of content submitted by a user must be looked at by a moderator and passed before it can go live on the site. As such, it’s essentially the safest for your community as nothing you’re unhappy with should ever appear on your site. However, as there is inevitably a delay between the user posting and a moderator checking it over, it causes discussions to be more disjointed, which almost invariably will drive many users away. Because of this, pre-moderation is really only suitable for the most at-risk communities.

Post-moderation This is the most commonly used form of moderation. Content goes live on the site immediately, and a moderator reads the content a short time later. This generally leads to good quality discussions as people can easily chat back and forth with each other, and anything problematic is dealt with in a prompt manner. For the busiest communities though, there is a risk that potentially problematic content can be live on the site for longer than you might like.

Reactive moderation This is the most “hands off” strategy one can take toward moderation while still attempting to police the community. Users are allowed to get on and post, while other users can report any posts that they consider to be in breach of the rules. These reports are then looked at by a moderator who takes action accordingly. While this will often lead to the happiest users, the site runs the risk of having undesirable content remaining live purely because no one reports it.

As you can see, each form has it’s distinct advantages and disadvantages, and which form you need will depend on the type of community you are trying to build. As always, Tea Social are happy to help you work out exactly what you might need, so why not get in touch?