Microsoft Q&A moderation
Accessing the moderation queue
Moderators will notice a second button labeled "Moderator Tools" adjacent to the "Ask a Question" button in the header. By selecting this button, moderators will be directed to the moderation queue.
Moderation queue
The moderation queue has two tabs:
- Moderated: Moderators can see all the content that has been manually reported by other users.
- Deleted: Moderators can see all the content that has been deleted.
In both pages, you can:
- Filter the content by "Suspended users" or "Non-suspended users".
- Sort the content by "Newest", "Oldest", or "By user".
Processing reported content
In this page, you will see all the content other users have reported for moderation. Here are the actions you can take:
- Edit content: You can edit the content to remove any content that doesn't follow the guidelines. Note that when you submit the updated content, the content is no longer reported and it gets restored on the site.
- Approve content: You might find the content was reported by mistake, so you can restore it back to the site.
- Delete content: The content should not be on the site, so you delete it, and users cannot see it (except for moderators).
- Suspend/Unsuspend user: The user is violating our site’s code of conduct. This action is reversable.
Processing deleted content
There are a few scenarios where the moderators might want to see the full list of content that has been deleted. For example, a moderator might need to understand why content was deleted or restore it after removing inappropriate material.
To view the list, navigate to the moderation queue and select the "Deleted" tab. This section displays all deleted content along with detailed information, including the identity of the person who deleted the content, the time of deletion, and the reason for the deletion.
Actions on the Deleted content page
- Edit content: You can edit the content to remove any parts that do not adhere to the guidelines. When you submit the updated content, it will be restored and no longer deleted.
- Undo delete: The content may have been deleted by mistake, so you can restore it.
Suspending users
Moderators on Microsoft Q&A can suspend users who are violating our site code of conduct. Suspending users is a reversible action, and details on removing the suspension are included below.
What actions can a suspended user NOT do?
- Ask a question
- Add an answer
- Add a comment
- Edit their content
- Report content
- Accept answer
- Vote on comments
- Rate questions
- Rate answers
What actions can suspended users still do?
- Share a question thread
- Save a question thread to a collection
- Follow a question thread, user, or tag
Note
Suspending a user doesn't delete any of their content from the site. This requires an additional step to remove the user's posts. For more information, see Deleting content on Microsoft Q&A.
Suspend a user
A moderator can suspend a user from either the "Reported" or the "Deleted" tab.
- The user information appears in the center of the reported/deleted content card.
- Select the “Suspend user” button.
- A modal appears asking you to confirm the action. Select “Yes, suspend user” to confirm the action and suspend the user.
Undo suspending a user
A moderator can undo suspend a user from either the "Reported" or the "Deleted" tab. Doing that will allow the suspended users to participate on the Q&A site again.
For suspended users, the “Suspend user” button is removed and replaced by the “Unsuspend user” button.
- The user information appears in the center of the reported/deleted content card.
- Select the “Unsuspend user” button.
- A modal appears asking you to confirm the action. Select “Yes, unsuspend user” to confirm the action and restore their permissions on Q&A.
Note
Removing a user suspension does not restore their deleted content.