Moderation Workflow for Local Groups

ControlShift's local groups tool allows your organization's supporters to join and lead local organizing teams in their area. Each local group has a dedicated forum where group members can start and contribute to discussions. Members of the group can also apply to become group organizers. Group organizers have advanced permissions; they help to moderate the forum, and they can create petitions and events on the group's behalf.

For admins supporting local groups, the main moderation tasks are approving new groups, approving new group organizer requests, and moderating flagged forum messages. Admins who wish to receive notifications about new moderations tasks, can configure their notification settings from their My Account page.

Moderating New Groups

Because ControlShift groups are member-led, one of the first moderation tasks for admins is approving the creation of a new group. Supporters who search for their closest local group will have the option of creating (and leading) a new group if there isn't one near them (or if they don't want to join a group that already exists). To create a new group, the supporter will be asked to provide their contact information, include information about their proposed group, and respond to the group organizer application question. (This question normally asks about the applicant's previous leadership experiences and why they're interested in becoming an organizer for the group.) All of this information will be sent to the moderation queue for admin approval.

To begin moderating new group requests, go to the admin homepage > Moderation (under Tasks). If needed, you can add a Type filter, which will allow you to only see New Group Requests.

From the list of open group requests, click Moderate to review the request. This will open a modal that allows you to review the application.

At the top of the modal is a dropdown of moderation statuses that will allow you to respond to the request.

Immediately below the header is the Claim bar. The Claim option allows you to claim the moderation task and let other admins know that you're reviewing it. Your organization and fellow admins can decide whether all moderation tasks should be claimed before being reviewed. Often, admins will only claim moderation tasks that require more time than usual. For example, if you're calling the potential group organizer to discuss their application, you may want to claim the task so that other admins know that they shouldn't review the request in the meantime.

Application information is displayed below the claim bar:

• Name: this is the user-chosen name for the new group
• Organiser: this section shows the user's contact information including their name, email address, and phone number. If needed, you can click the user's name to visit their member profile. The member profile has more information about the user including other actions that they've taken on the site (for example, other groups they're a member of, events they've RSVPed to, and petitions they've signed).
• Region: if your organization has regions enabled, this section will show the region that the group was automatically associated with based on its location. If needed, this region can be updated.
• Collection: this is the local group collection that the proposed local group is a part of.
• Location: if the local group is associated with a specific geography, the geography name will be displayed here. If the local group is tied to a point location, the location entered by the user will be shown here.
• New organiser questions: this section shows the user's response to the new organiser question.

When you've finished reviewing the application, click the Approved or Denied button. If you approve the application, the user will receive an email letting them know that their group is now live. If you choose to deny the application, you'll be asked to provide a reason for rejecting the application. This reason will be sent to the user in an email informing them that their application has been rejected.

If, while reviewing the application, you need to make edits to the group's name or description, you can do so by clicking the Preview link at the top of the modal. This will take you to the group's forum page. Click the Manage button to edit the group's information. Any changes you make in the manage page will be reflected in the moderation queue.

Moderating New Group Organizer Requests

A member of an existing group has the option of applying to become an organizer of the group. In addition to providing their contact information, the applicant is asked to respond to a question chosen by the organization. (This question normally asks about the applicant's previous leadership experiences and why they're interested in becoming an organizer for the group.) The user's response, and their account information, will be added to the moderation queue for admin approval.

To begin moderating new group organizer requests, go to the admin homepage > Moderation (under Tasks). If needed, you can add a Type filter, which will allow you to only see Group Organizer Requests.

From the list of open group organizer requests, click Moderate to review the request. This will open a modal that allows you to review the user's application.

At the top of the modal are Approved and Denied buttons that allow you to respond to the user's application.

Immediately below the header is the Claim bar. The Claim option allows you to claim the moderation task and let other admins know that you're reviewing it. Your organization and fellow admins can decide whether all moderation tasks should be claimed before being reviewed. Often, admins will only claim moderation tasks that require more time than usual. For example, if you're calling the potential group organizer to discuss their application, you may want to claim the task so that other admins know that they shouldn't review the request in the meantime.

Application information is displayed below the claim bar:

• Group: this is the group that the user is currently a member of and is applying to be an organizer for. If needed, you can click the group name to visit the group's page.
• User: this section shows the user's contact information, including their name, email address, and phone number. If needed, you can click the user's name to visit their member profile. The member profile has more information about the user including other actions that they've taken on the site (for example, other groups they're a member of, events they've RSVPed to, and petitions they've signed).
• New organiser questions: this section shows the user's response to the new organiser question.

When you've finished reviewing the application, click the Approved or Denied button. If you approve the application, the user will receive an email letting them know that their application has been approved. They'll also immediately have access to the group organizer's tools. If you choose to deny the application, you'll be asked to provide a reason for rejecting the application. This reason will be sent to the user in an email informing them that their application has been rejected.

When an application is rejected, the user will remain in the group as a regular member.

Moderating Forum Messages

One of the main responsibilities of a group organizer is to help admin staff to monitor their group's forum. If a group organizer sees an inappropriate message, they can flag it for further review by admins. Once the forum message has been flagged, it will be sent to the moderation queue.

To moderate flagged messages, go to the admin homepage > Moderation (under Tasks). If needed, you can add a Type filter, which will allow you to only see Forum Messages in need of moderation.

From the list of pending forum message moderation requests, click Moderate to review the message. This will open a modal with more information about the forum post.

At the top of the modal is a dropdown of moderation statuses that will allow you to moderate the forum post. There are also two further options: Require Pre-moderation and Remove member from group. If the user has a history of inappropriate messages, or if you just want an additional check on the user's future forum posts, you can choose to Require Pre-moderation. This means that all future messages from this user will need to be approved by admins before the message is displayed in the group forum. Admins can also choose to Remove member from group, which will kick the member out of the group.

Immediately below the header is the Claim bar. The Claim option allows you to claim the moderation task and let other admins know that you're working on reviewing it. Your organization and fellow admins can decide whether all moderation tasks should be claimed before being reviewed. Often, admins will only claim moderation tasks that require more time than usual. For example, if you're calling the user to discuss their post, you may want to claim the task so that other admins know that they shouldn't review the request in the meantime.

Below the claim bar, the flagged forum post is outlined in red and displayed in context. The Group section tells you which group the message is from. The Flags section tells you which admin(s) flagged the message as inappropriate and their reasons for the flag.

Once you've finished reviewing the post, you can choose to Approve or Reject  the message. Approved messages will remain visible to the group. Rejected messages will be deleted from the forum.

Messages from users with pre-moderation enabled will also appear in the moderation queue. The moderation modal for these messages will look largely the same as flagged messages but will not include the Flags section. If you approve the message, it will become visible to the group. If you reject the message, it will remain invisible to the group. Users whose posts require pre-moderation will see a message on the forum page while their post is awaiting admin review.

Group Events and Group Petitions

Q: What about local group events and local group petitions? Don't they require moderation too?

A: No, these events and petitions can only be created by approved group organizers. Because admins have previously decided that the group organizer is trustworthy enough to lead the group, we automatically moderate group-associated events and petitions to Good. This means that the events and petitions are fully visible on the platform. However, if needed, the moderation status of the event or petition can be updated by admins from the event RSVP or petition signature page.