A moderated forum refers to an online forum for discussion in which all posts are pre-approved by a moderator before posting to the group. Some people prefer this type of forum to an unmoderated one, as the moderator can prevent not only spam, but also inappropriate, rude, offensive, or off-topic posts.
A moderated forum is sometimes preferable to an unmoderated one, as the moderator has the power to prevent spam.
The Internet has always been known for its unmoderated and uncensored landscape. Nobody “owns” the Internet and no police service is in charge of controlling it. Rather, it is based primarily on voluntary cooperation, both at the network level and at the level of social interaction. To this end, most social forums on the Internet have a set of rules or protocols that members must follow.
Moderated forums may limit who can post or how often.
While the idea of voluntary cooperation is ideally attractive to responsible people around the world and has been a great success, its strength is also its weakness. Irresponsible people can use unmoderated forums for their own ends to harass, harangue, and otherwise thwart a forum’s rulebook, at least temporarily, by choosing to ignore network etiquette. In most cases, trolls like this can be ignored and eventually moved on, but there are situations where a moderated forum is more productive.
A support group is an excellent example of the good use of a moderated forum. People seeking help from others who may be sick or in difficult circumstances are spared distractions by having a moderator filter messages for the group. The moderator’s job is not to judge legitimate responses or messages for the group, but simply to prevent messages from entering that do not comply with the basic rules of the forum.
While the example above is particularly relevant, there are plenty of forums dedicated to more inactive topics that are also moderated. This is especially true now that web forums have become commonplace, routinely offered by website hosting providers to anyone who can point and click. This type of moderated forum is generally more selective and the domain owner usually acts as a moderator in their own chat forum.
Other types of forums fall somewhere in between. Media sites, such as news outlets or sites dedicated to specific TV shows, may allow all posts to be reviewed and read by a moderator after the fact, perhaps within 48 hours. The offending posts are then removed. In some cases, posts may not be read by a moderator unless someone complains. Another option exercised in managing a moderated forum is to use filtering software that removes posts that contain profanity or other questionable content.
Some people don’t appreciate a moderated forum, as the Internet has always represented the cutting edge of freedom. It is seen as a kind of censorship or surveillance in this case. However, Internet traffic has grown enormously since the mid-1990s, and with that enormous growth comes a proportional percentage of those who do not wish to respect netiquette.
A support group is a good example of using a moderated forum.
