Moderated forums on UUA.org are managed through the use of "groups." A group includes the pages for the moderated forum and the people who have permission to post on or moderate the pages. Both people and content can "belong" to a group. People can be either members or administrator members within a group. Being a forum moderator means that you are an administrator member of the group that contains the forum.

Use the "Subscribe: New Posts and Comments" link at the bottom of the forum home page to receive email notfications about all new activity on the board.

Moderation Tools on the Group Admin Page

While logged in to UUA.org, you can access the group admin page, where your moderation tools live, from your groups page. The URL of the group admin page is usually the forum URL + "/admin".

Each forum is made up of discussions, which are general areas of discussion. For example, the GA Forum has a discussion about being a delegate and how how to prepare, as shown in the figure.

People can create two kinds of content on UUA.org discussion forums:

• Discussion posts, which are pages that start a new topic within a discussion
• Comments on discussion post pages, which appear on the same page as the post

Both discussion posts and comments are held for moderation until you approve them, following the instructions below.

Discussion Posts

Publishing Discussion Posts

If discussion posts are awaiting your review, a list of "Unpublished Posts" appears on the group administation page.

1. Click the post title to read it.
2. Click the "Moderate" tab at the top of the post.
3. In the "Moderation actions" column, set the moderation state to "Published" and click the "Apply" button.
4. Click the "View Published" tab to see the published post.

If you're concerned about the post, follow the moderation guidelines as established by the UUA staff group responsible for the forum. This may include:

• Contacting the author: Click the author's user name to see their profile page. You may click the "Send a Message" link to send an email about your concerns. The UUA.org website will send an email to the author but your name and email address won't be included automatically, so be sure to include them in the message.
• Editing a post: If it is within your moderation guidelines to do so, or with agreement from the post's author, you may click the "Edit draft" tab on the discussion page to make minor adjustments to the post.

Unpublishing Posts

1. Click the post's "Moderate" tab and click the "Unpublish" link in the "Moderation actions" column.
2. Select "Retired" (for a post that will not be republished) or "Needs Review" (for a post that remains awaiting approval; perhaps so you can talk it over with other moderators) as the moderation state and then click the "Unpublish" button.

Comments

Publishing Comments

If comments are awaiting your review, a list of "Unapproved Comments" appears on the group administration page.

Click the comment title to read it on its discussion page.

Use the "Approve" button at the top of the comment (just after the "Awaiting approval" notification, it looks like a yellow checkmark within a circle).

If you're concerned about the comment, follow the forum's moderation guidelines. This may include:

• Contacting the author: Use the "Send a Message" link from their profile page.
• Editing a comment: If appropriate, you may use the "Edit" button (under the comment, the edit button looks like a pencil within a circle) to make minor adjustments to the comment. From the edit screen, you can approve the comment by clicking "Administration" and selecting "Published" before clicking the "Save" button.

Unpublishing Comments

If a previously-approved comment ought to be unpublished:

1. Click its "Flag" button (under the comment, it looks like a flag within a circle) to mark it as inappropriate.
2. Click the comment's "Edit" button to display its edit page.
3. Click "Administration" and select "Unpublished".
4. Click the "Save" button.

In order to republish a comment later, you will need to "unflag" it first: use the same "Flag" button a second time.

Members of the Group

Depending on your group's settings, people may require approval in order to join the group. If memberships are awaiting approval, a list of "Pending Memberships" appears on the group administration page.

Approving a Membership

1. Click the "edit" link after the person's user name in the pending list (click on their name to visit their profile page, which may contain more information about the person, and from which you can send them a message).
2. Change the person's status to "Active" before using the "Update membership" button at the bottom of the page.

Adding a Person to Your Group

1. Have them create a UUA.org account and give you their user name. (Your user name can be found in the black bar at the top of UUA.org when you're logged in to the site.)
2. Find the "Active Members" list on your group administration page, and click the "Add" link there.
3. Type the new member's user name into the "User name" box, then click the "Add users" button at the bottom of the page.

Member Roles

If a role isn't defined for a person within the group, they are simply a member of the group. Due to the security implications of administrator privileges, don't give anyone "administrator member" role without consultating the UUA staff.

Blocking Members

Blocked or removed group members only in accordance with UUA website use policies and/or the moderation guidelines of the group.

Questions?

The UUA Web Team is ready to help! Email web@uua.org.