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8. Moderating Participation Submissions
=======================================

Updated 1 month ago

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   When community members submit ideas, questions, or feedback through your participation tools, you control whether those submissions go live immediately or need to be reviewed first. This is called **moderation**.

The three moderation options
----------------------------

Every participation tool with public-facing submissions has a moderation setting. There are three options:

**Option****What happens**[**Publish immediately**](/articles/9184083413647-View-moderate-and-export-participation-tool-submissions)Submissions go live on the public site as soon as they are submitted. No review step.[**Automatic moderation**](/articles/9184083413647-View-moderate-and-export-participation-tool-submissions)Submissions are automatically checked against community guidelines. If they pass, they are published. If they fail, they are rejected.[**Manual moderation**](/articles/9184083413647-View-moderate-and-export-participation-tool-submissions)Submissions stay hidden from the public until a team member reviews and publishes or rejects each one.For a full breakdown of how each moderation workflow functions — including what happens when a submission fails automatic moderation — see [View, moderate, and export participation tool submissions](/articles/9184083413647-View-moderate-and-export-participation-tool-submissions).

Which tools use moderation
--------------------------

Moderation applies to participation tools where community submissions are **publicly visible** to other visitors:

**Tool****Has moderation?****Why**[Idea boards](/articles/9184062005007-Create-and-edit-an-idea-board)YesIdeas are displayed publicly and can be voted on[Q&A boards](/articles/12347854585743-Create-and-edit-a-Q-A-board)YesQuestions are displayed publicly with official responses[Map feedback](/articles/10028992146575-Create-and-edit-a-map-feedback)YesFeedback pins are visible to other visitors on the map[Surveys](/articles/9182830898191-Create-and-edit-a-survey)NoResponses are private — only visible to your team in the admin[Polls](/articles/9184031782799-Create-and-edit-poll)NoVotes are aggregated — individual responses are not displayed[Budgets](/articles/14158973375759-Getting-started-with-Budgets)NoParticipants allocate a budget — individual allocations are not displayed publiclySetting your site-wide default
------------------------------

You can choose a default moderation setting that applies automatically whenever a new participation tool is created. To update it:

1. Click **Settings** in the left-hand menu.
2. Under **Configuration**, click **Participation**.
3. Find the **Default submission moderation** dropdown.
4. Select your preferred option: **Publish immediately**, **Automatic moderation**, or **Manual moderation**.
5. Click **Save**.

This default is applied when creating new tools. You can always override it on a per-tool basis.

For more on the Settings page, see [Settings](/articles/9175641395215-Settings).

Setting moderation per tool
---------------------------

![](/storage/WbgwGuZ7MOmwMJ0ouO7H9CdrV93ftyVyOHVx5SnK.png)

Each participation tool can have its own moderation setting, overriding the site default. To change it:

1. Open your project and navigate to the participation tool (e.g. **Q&A boards**).
2. Click the **ellipsis** next to the tool and select **Edit**, or click into the tool and select the **Edit** tab.
3. In the right-hand sidebar, find the moderation dropdown (labelled **Question moderation** on Q&A boards, or similar on other tools).
4. Select your preferred option.
5. Click **Save** or **Publish**.

Reviewing submissions
---------------------

![](/storage/8TE7XfWYSi5YuBZAvg1pFsDgFDkAwT4YmttE6KqU.png)

When moderation is enabled (automatic or manual), submissions will appear in the tool's **Submissions** tab for your team to review. To review a submission:

1. Open your project from the **Projects** menu.
2. Under **Participation**, click the tool type (e.g. **Q&A boards**).
3. Click on the tool to open it — you'll land on the **Submissions** tab.
4. Find the submission in the list and click **View**.

Approving or rejecting a submission
-----------------------------------

![](/storage/THUf2VU5Gl8DgiIRKPJ3P2uoFPlFBDMa2Nepz9oO.png)

From the submission detail screen, you can moderate the submission:

1. Review the submitted content under **Moderate question**.
2. To approve it, click **Publish**. The submission becomes visible on the public site.
3. To reject it, click **Reject**. The submission will not appear publicly.
4. Add a revision message if prompted and click **Confirm**.

You can also tag submissions with sentiment labels (Positive, Negative, Neutral) and add tags for categorisation — helpful for reporting later.

Responding to a submission
--------------------------

![](/storage/4w1WlvC7jqCarZWu12JfuTlZKWcIB9OK4ZSABC4f.png)

Some tools — like **Q&A boards** — allow your team to write an official response that appears publicly alongside the community member's submission. To respond:

1. Open a submission by clicking **View** from the submissions list.
2. Scroll to the **Submission response** section.
3. Write your response using the rich text editor.
4. Click **Publish** to make the response visible on the public site.

When you publish a response on a Q&A board, the person who submitted the question receives a notification. Only the first publication triggers a notification — editing an already-published response does not. For more, see [Create and edit a Q&A board](/articles/12347854585743-Create-and-edit-a-Q-A-board).

How it looks on the public site
-------------------------------

![](/storage/3KzXP54aqj46LFLbL1burirr8YvJlszEpjxPDmca.png)

Once a submission and response are published, they appear on the public project page. On a Q&A board, visitors will see:

1. The community member's question with a timestamp.
2. A vote button so other visitors can up-vote the question.
3. Your team's official response, labelled with your team name and an **Official Response** badge.

The team name displayed on official responses can be customised in **Settings → Configuration → Comment**. See [Settings](/articles/9175641395215-Settings) for details.

Viewing moderation logs
-----------------------

Every moderation action is recorded. To view the history for a submission:

1. Open the submission detail view.
2. Click the **Logs** tab.

This shows a timeline of all status changes and actions taken on that submission.

For a complete guide to viewing, moderating, and exporting submissions, see [View, moderate, and export participation tool submissions](/articles/9184083413647-View-moderate-and-export-participation-tool-submissions).

What's next?
------------

Now that you know how to manage submissions, the next article covers how to use reporting and analytics to understand your community's engagement.

**Next:** [9. Intro to Reporting & Analytics](/articles/intro-to-reporting-analytics)

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