# Community moderation tools that keep your members safe > Decide who gets in with join by approval and membership questions. Set rules that flag banned words, hold a new member’s first posts and block links. Then handle every report, flag and post waiting for approval in one queue. ## Decide who joins and what gets posted Moderation starts before anyone posts. Choose who can join, set the rules every post and comment is checked against, and give members a way to flag problems to you. - **A private community with join by approval**: Set Who can join to By approval and people ask to join instead of walking straight in. Add membership questions, then approve or decline each request with the answers in front of you. - **Rules that catch problems for you**: Add up to 200 banned words and phrases and choose what a match does: flag it for review or hide it until you approve it. Hold a new contributor’s first posts, and block links. - **Members can report and block**: Members report a post, comment or reply with one of seven reasons, and it lands in your queue. They can also block someone, which hides that person’s posts and comments from them both ways. ## Everything you need to moderate an online community Moderation sits in every Vonza community, beside Members, Events and Chat. The rail shows how many items are open, so you see at a glance when something needs you. - **Reported**: Everything members report, with each reason and note. The reasons are Spam, Harassment or bullying, Hate speech, Nudity or sexual content, False information, Off-topic and Something else. - **Flagged**: Posts and comments that match a banned word or phrase. Words are matched as whole words, in any case. - **Pending approval**: A new contributor’s first posts wait here until you approve them. Choose from 0 (off) to 20 posts. - **Block links**: Treat any post or comment with a web address as a match, so link spam is flagged or held like a banned word. - **Warn, mute or ban**: Send the author a warning as a direct message, mute them for a number of days, or ban them, which pauses their membership. - **Audit log**: Every moderation action is recorded with when, who, the action, the person and your notes, including what the rules did on their own. - **Comment controls**: On any post you can hide comments from members or close comments, so a heated thread cools down without being deleted. - **Your team is never moderated**: Owners, admins and founders are never moderated. Pick community moderators from the people on your platform in Settings. ## Six actions, one queue Each item shows what it is, where it was posted, why it is in the queue and who wrote it. Act on the content, then on the person if you need to. Approve and Hide run at once; the rest ask you to confirm. - Approve: it is live again, or for the first time - Hide: hidden from members, nothing deleted - Delete: removed for everyone, cannot be restored - Warn: a direct message from you to the author - Mute: 1, 3, 7 or 30 days, or any number up to 365 - Ban: the membership is paused until you resume it ## How to moderate your community on Vonza Set access and rules once, then work the queue as items come in. 1. **Choose who can join**: In Settings, set Who can join to Anyone or By approval. With By approval, turn on membership questions and add the ones applicants answer. 2. **Write your rules**: Open Moderation, then Rules. Add banned words, choose Flag for review or Hide until approved, set the first-post approval and switch on Block links. 3. **Work the queue**: Reported, Flagged and Pending approval each show a count. Approve, hide or delete the content, and warn, mute or ban the author. 4. **Check the audit log**: Every action, yours and the rules’, is listed with when it happened and who did it, so your whole team can see what was decided. ## Questions about community moderation ### What community moderation tools does Vonza include? Every Vonza community has a Moderation area with a queue in five tabs: Reported, Flagged, Pending approval, Rules and Audit log. You can approve, hide or delete content and warn, mute or ban its author. Rules cover banned words, approval of a new contributor’s first posts and blocking links. Members can report content and block each other, and access can be set to By approval with membership questions. ### How do I make a private community where members need approval? In Settings, set Who can join to By approval. People then ask to join instead of joining straight away, and their requests appear under Members, where you approve or decline each one. If you later switch back to Anyone, Vonza offers to let everyone who is still waiting in at once, or to keep them for you to review. ### What membership questions can I ask people who want to join? Membership questions are available when Who can join is set to By approval. Each question can be a Short answer, Multiple choice (with 2 to 20 choices), an Email or a Phone number, and you can switch each one on or off. The answers are shown on the join request when you review it. ### How do banned words work? Under Moderation, then Rules, you can add up to 200 banned words and phrases, each under 60 characters. They are matched as whole words, in any case. You choose what a match does: Flag for review keeps the post up and puts it in the Flagged tab, while Hide until approved keeps it from members until you approve it. Block links treats any post or comment with a web address as a match. ### Can I approve a new member’s first posts before they go live? Yes. Set how many of a new contributor’s first posts need approval, from 0 (off) up to 20. Those posts wait in the Pending approval tab until you approve or delete them. ### What happens when I mute or ban someone? A muted member can’t post or comment in the community until the mute ends. You pick 1, 3, 7 or 30 days, or any number of days up to 365, and you can unmute them early from Rules. A ban pauses their membership, so they lose access to the community until you resume them from Members. ### How do members report a post or another member? Members use Report on a post, comment or reply, or on a member’s profile, and pick one of seven reasons: Spam, Harassment or bullying, Hate speech, Nudity or sexual content, False information, Off-topic or Something else, with optional details. The report goes to your Reported tab. The author isn’t told who reported. ### Can members block each other? Yes. When a member blocks someone, neither sees the other’s posts, comments or stories, and neither can message the other. The blocked person isn’t told, and the member can unblock them at any time from their You page. Community staff cannot be blocked. ### Are owners and admins moderated too? No. Owners, admins and founders are never moderated: the rules do not flag or hold their posts, and the warn, mute and ban actions do not appear for them. Community moderators you add in Settings can work the queue with you, and every action lands in the audit log. ## Related pages - [Online Community Platform](https://vonza.com/best-community-platform): Everything in Vonza Community: spaces, posts, events, chat, the member portal and selling access. - [Community Chat and Messaging](https://vonza.com/community-chat): One-to-one messages between members, with photos, files, reporting and blocking. - [Community Engagement Tools](https://vonza.com/community-engagement-tools): Polls, reactions, stories, scheduled posts and post ideas that keep members talking. - [Paid Community Platform](https://vonza.com/paid-community-platform): Sell community memberships with free, one-time, subscription and installment plans. - [Online Community Templates](https://vonza.com/community-templates): Start from six community templates and four sales-page templates. - [Membership Sites](https://vonza.com/membership-sites): Gate courses, content and communities behind a membership on your own site. - [Community Platform for Churches](https://vonza.com/community-platform-for-churches): A private church community joined by approval, with read-only announcements. - [Community Platform for Associations](https://vonza.com/community-platform-for-associations): Approve members with membership questions before they join your association.