Community Moderation
Community moderation ensures the forum remains helpful and respectful. Users can report content for admin review. Admins respond with graduated actions — warning, temporary ban, or permanent ban — following a three-strike framework. All moderation actions are logged in an immutable audit trail.
Reporting Content
Any logged-in user can report a thread or reply. Reporting submits the content to the admin moderation review queue for human evaluation.
| Report Reason | Description |
|---|---|
| Spam | Unsolicited advertising, repetitive posts, or automated bot-like posting |
| Off-topic | Content clearly unrelated to the section or package it's posted in |
| Offensive or abusive language | Harassment, hate speech, personal attacks, or profanity |
| Misleading information | Factually incorrect claims about packages, the platform, or other publishers |
| Policy violation | Content that violates MarketHub community guidelines (e.g., sharing credentials, soliciting votes for reviews) |
Admin Review Queue
Reported content enters the admin moderation queue in the Admin Portal. Admins review each report in the order received. For each reported item, the reviewing admin can:
Dismiss Report
Content does not violate policy. No action is taken. The report is closed and recorded. The reporter is not notified of the dismissal reason.
Hide Content
Content is hidden from public view but not deleted. The content author can still see it. Used for borderline content pending further review.
Delete Content
Content is permanently removed. The author receives a notification stating the content was removed for policy violation. Deletion triggers the three-strike counter.
Issue Warning
A formal warning is sent to the user's account. Warning is a prerequisite for further action. Three warnings escalate to a temporary ban.
Three-Strike System
| Strike | Consequence | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Strike 1 | Formal warning issued — user is notified that a future violation will result in a temporary ban | Warning persists on the account permanently |
| Strike 2 | Temporary ban from posting in the community — user can still read all content but cannot post, reply, or vote | 7 days by default; admin can adjust (1–30 days) |
| Strike 3 | Permanent ban from community posting — user retains read access but can no longer participate | Permanent; can only be lifted by admin review |
Egregious policy violations — such as hate speech, sharing malicious content, or deliberate impersonation — can result in an immediate permanent ban without prior strikes. The admin must document the reason in the moderation log, and a second admin must confirm the immediate permanent ban.
Publisher Moderation (Package Forums)
Package publishers have limited moderation authority within their own package's forum:
- Can do: Hide off-topic posts, lock threads, pin threads, remove replies that violate their forum guidelines
- Cannot do: Issue warnings, ban users, delete posts entirely (hiding is the extent of publisher content action)
- Escalation: Publishers can flag a report as "urgent" in the report submission, which moves it to the top of the admin review queue
Moderation Audit Log
Every moderation action is recorded in the audit log with:
- The admin or publisher who took the action
- The specific action taken (hide, delete, warn, ban)
- The target user and target content
- The timestamp of the action
- The reason provided by the moderator
The moderation audit log is accessible to admin-level users in the Admin Portal. It is immutable — actions cannot be retroactively edited or removed from the log.