Post approval, moderation and circle votes

Moderation in Circle runs at two levels: the platform verifies and polices support claims, and each circle polices its own room. This article covers the circle level, plus the voting tool circles use to decide things together.

The post approval queue

A circle can require approval before promoted posts appear in its stream. When that is on:

• Posts from the owner and from moderators go live immediately.
• Posts from plain members land as pending, and the person promoting sees which circles their post is waiting in.
• A moderator approves or rejects, optionally with a reason of up to 300 characters.
• The poster is notified either way, and a rejection carries the reason when one was given.

Moderators can work through the queue one by one or in bulk from the Live posts view.

Reporting a post

Any Circle member can report a promoted post once, for one of three reasons:

Reason	Use it for
Spam	Repetitive, off-topic or purely promotional junk
NSFW	Adult or otherwise inappropriate content
Unrelated	Content that does not belong in this community

Two reports hide the post from the feed pending review. A hidden post stops accepting support and disappears from circle streams.

The rules themselves ban adult, political, hateful and misleading content, see Rules, daily limits and what gets you removed.

Cleaning up the stream

• Wall notes and chat messages can be deleted by their author, by the circle owner or by a moderator.
• Promoted posts are not deleted by moderators, they are rejected from that circle or reported, and they expire on their own after 7 days or at 25 verified supports.

Removing and banning members

Action	Who can do it	Effect
Remove	Owner and moderators	The member is out and can rejoin after 24 hours
Ban	Owner and moderators	The member is out and cannot rejoin until unbanned
Unban	Owner and moderators	Lifts the ban, the person may request to join again

Guardrails: nobody can remove or ban the owner or themselves, and a moderator cannot remove or ban another moderator, only the owner can. The affected member is notified in both cases.

Circle votes

Votes are one member, one vote, with a deadline, and the result derives from the deadline rather than from anyone closing it.

Opening a vote

1. Any active member of the circle can open one from the Votes view.
2. Title up to 140 characters, optional body up to 2,000 characters.
3. Deadline from 1 hour to 30 days.
4. Every active member is notified that a vote is open.

Limits

Rule	Value
Open votes per member, per circle	2
Open votes for the circle owner	5
Choices	For, against, abstain
Changing your vote	Allowed until the deadline

Results

• Counts and turnout are visible to every member while the vote runs.
• Individual ballots are visible to the owner and moderators only.
• At the deadline the outcome is passed (more for than against), rejected (more against than for) or tied.
• Whoever opened the vote, the owner or a moderator can cancel it before it closes.

Votes are advisory by design: nothing in the product is switched automatically by a result. They exist so a circle can settle a question openly rather than in a chat argument.

Good moderation habits

1. Say why. A rejection with a reason teaches, a silent one annoys.
2. Turn approval on only if you need it. It slows everyone down, and the poster’s Hype is already spent by the time the post reaches your queue.
3. Warn before removing. The standing banner and the minimum support rate warning already tell low-support members where they stand, see Support rounds and your standing in a circle.
4. Use a vote for anything that changes the circle’s character, like switching from public to private.