Feature Spotlight: Group Mod Features

Posted by Kim on July 15, 2020, 9:00am

Along with all the fun of running plots, hosting stimulating discussions and forming fast friendships, there's also a certain amount of responsibility that comes with starting your own RPR Group. When you create a group, you take on the burden of making sure that that group is moderated in a way that keeps it safe for all your members.

We've actually had some community-wide discussions in the past about how to run a RP Group, ideas for rules to have in place, how to recruit group moderators to help you, and more. This is absolutely recommended reading for everyone who has started an RPR group, or is thinking of starting one.

In this article, we're going to focus in a little more about the tools available to group moderation teams.

Designating Moderators

Here's how to turn a group member into a group moderator! Start on your group's editing overview, and head over to the members section.

Go to the "Permissions" tab.

Find the member who is going to receive the moderation permission in the "Recipients" input. You can type a name to do a search, but if you have a small number of members, you may find they are already in the drop down.

Then, choose "Moderator" from the permission dropdown and press "Go"

Ta-da! Your group has a new moderator!

If you made a mistake and need to revoke the moderator permissions, scroll down that same page to your list of moderators and click the X next to their name.

Done and dusted.

Can a Group Founder Ever NOT be a Moderator?

Yes! As of 2.0, it is possible for a group founder to remove their own moderator privileges in their own group. If you do this, you will temporarily lose access to many of the moderation tools, forums and pages designated for moderators only, etc.

This was not always the case, but was added to allow group founders to take brief vacations from moderating. Moderating can be very stressful, and we all need breathers now and again. (Similarly -- you can choose to remove yourself as a GM of the group, if you want to let another member run plots and remove yourself from potential spoilers!)

If you discover that you don't seem to have access to moderation tools that you expect to have access to as group founder, it may be that you don't have moderator permissions at the moment. Just pop into the group member permissions page, and give them back to yourself.

Okay, so now that you've got moderator powers, what does that get you?

Moderating Group Forum Topics And Posts

If you've got moderator permissions in a group, you'll see a range of new buttons at the top and bottom of every forum topic.

Stick: This option makes the topic "sticky." It will stick to the top of the forum, even if other topics have more recent posts in them. This can be a good way to create a rules or announcement topic specific to one forum.
Lock: This does not remove the topic, but it freezes it in time - it prevents anyone from replying to it or making edits to their previous posts in it. A good way to end a conversation that was productive, but is now getting out of hand or just going in circles.
Delete: This button removes the ENTIRE topic. All the posts in it.
Move: This will let you move the topic to another forum in the group, if your group has more than one forum. Great for moving topics that are good, but in the wrong place.

You will also see two additional buttons on individual forum posts...

Deleting the first post in a topic is the same as deleting the entire topic. All posts will be removed.
Deleting any other post in a topic will just remove that one post, leaving the posts before and after it untouched.

"Mod edit" will allow you to make changes to someone else's forum posts.

Comments on Announcements and Events

As a group moderator, you'll also be able to remove comments from group announcements and events:

Unfortunately, you can't yet edit a group comment. This is definitely a planned feature though! I know you're wanting it.

Group Time Outs

If you are having a problem with a player that isn't yet so severe that you want them completely gone from the group, but you do feel that they need time to cool down wherein they cannot post to the group, what you want is a Time Out.

A time out applies a temporary gag to a group member. They will be unable to start or reply to forum topics, or to leave comments on group announcements and events, until their time out is over.

To give a time out, you're going to need to go to that person's record page in the group moderation center. The group moderation center is accessed with the gear icon on the top right of group profiles pages.

HOWEVER, the easiest way to go directly to someone's mod center record is with the quick link on one of their group posts.

Tap the "Give Timeout" button

Choose a duration for the time out.

You can give a timeout that is as short as 30 minutes if someone just needs a quick breather, or as long as a month if someone really needs time to think about their behavior.

Group Blocks

If a player has crossed the line and is no longer welcome in your group at all, now or in the future, use the Group Block feature - this will not only remove the person from your group, it will also prevent them from re-joining or applying to rejoin. It also prevents them from joining or applying to rejoin as anonymous characters, so they can't bother you again.

To block someone from your group, first go to the group editing overview page, and head over to the members section.

Now, switch to the "Blocks" tab.

Search for and select the member you want to block, then hit the "Go" button. They will be completely removed from the group, and unable to re-join or re-apply.

I hope this overview was helpful to you! Next week, we're going to take a deep dive into the Group Moderation Center, and look at how helpful record keeping can be to a moderation team. If you can't wait for more discussion on moderating your RP group successful, make sure you check out the running a RP Group help article.

Post tags: Feature Explanations

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