This guide details how to manage topics, handle flags, use the Review Queue, and configure content approval settings in Discourse. It covers de-escalation techniques, flag handling workflows, and moderation tools for maintaining content quality.
Required user level: Moderator (some settings require Administrator level)
Discourse moderation guide series:
- Part 1: Getting Started
- Part 2: Managing Users
- Part 3: Managing Content (this guide)
Discourse provides robust tools for managing content quality and topic structure. This guide covers how to manage topics, handle inappropriate content via flags, use the Review Queue effectively, and configure content approval.
Managing Topics
Public discussion on Discourse takes place inside of topics. Each topic has a title and category, and it is important that the discussion within relates to the title and category.
Poor Title or Incorrect Category
If users provide a poor title or select the wrong category, you can edit the topic to update one or both. Scroll to the top of the topic and click the pencil next to the title. From there, the title and category can be modified.
Off-Topic Digression
Topics, especially longer ones, have a tendency to veer off-topic. When this happens, you can select posts to move to a new topic or an existing topic on the subject. This helps keep the discussion “on-topic”.
Then select where to move the posts:
Duplicate Topic
Sometimes users will start a new topic when one already exists. If the posts in the duplicate topic add to the discussion, they can be moved to the existing one. Moving all posts in a topic will automatically close the topic.
Heated, Difficult, or Non-Productive Discussion
If discussion in a topic is no longer productive or focused on the topic, but instead on “attacking” other users rather than ideas, moderators should step in.
Make a Staff Post. Many times, a simple reminder is enough to solve the issue. You can create a post reminding users to be polite, warn them they’re talking in circles, etc., and then use the post admin wrench to mark the post a staff post. This indicates to users that the post is the official position of the site.
Add a Staff Notice. Staff notices are call-outs that appear about posts, and can be used to remind users of forum rules, call out an important post, and more.
Set a Topic Timer. If the staff post doesn’t help, or discussion seems so heated that a reminder won’t help, you can “pause” the topic. Use the topic admin wrench to set a topic timer:
You can then choose when to close the topic, preventing new posts, and display a notice when the topic will reopen.
Set Slow Mode. If users are engaging in rapid-fire replies, you can encourage more thoughtful conversation by enabling Slow Mode. This sets a waiting period for each user between replies.
Each user will see a message when trying to post a second message within the waiting period.
Users trying to edit a former post during slow mode as a stealth tactic will also be blocked during the enforced waiting period and will see this message when trying to save an edit.
To enable Slow Mode on a topic, use the topic admin wrench and select Set Slow Mode.
Then configure Slow Mode by selecting how long you’d like users to have to wait between posts, with a custom duration available:
…and when you’d like Slow Mode to be automatically disabled:
Automatic disabling of Slow Mode can be scheduled for a few hours to a few months in the future, with a custom end date and time also available.
Inappropriate Content
On most forums, inappropriate content is rare.
Discourse allows all users to help keep the forums clean, appropriate, and on-topic via the Flag system. When a topic or post is seen that does not belong, users and moderators can flag it for review.
Flags
Flags can be your best friend or the entrance to a rabbit hole. When a user doesn’t like a post, they can choose to flag it for moderators. The flag dialog has several options:
- Message User: Opens a PM dialog to send a direct message to the user. This does not appear in the moderator review queue.
- Off-topic: Casts a flag.
- Inappropriate: Casts a flag.
- Spam: Casts a flag.
- Illegal: Allows for a custom message, a checkbox if the message is accurate and complete, and then casts the flag.
- Something Else: Allows for a custom message and casts a flag.
/admin/config/flags). The default flags are seeded by Discourse, but admins are not limited to these.
Once a flag is in the queue, moderators will see a red badge on their notifications menu and can open the flag queue:
Posts with 3 flags will be automatically hidden without waiting for moderator action.
Yes, there is a limit on the number of flags a user can use per day that’s set by the max flags per day site setting. There are also some related ... flags per day multiplier site settings that control how many flags users from different trust levels are able to use. If you wanted to increase or decrease this limit, you would just need to change the related site settings for these:
The Review Queue
The Review Queue is a page that merges all types of reviewable items in core Discourse (Users, Queued Posts, and Flags) into one consolidated review queue. Any post that gets flagged will show up in the Review Queue, and Staff Users can access the review queue by clicking on the “Review” button from the sidebar, or the header dropdown navigation menu if enabled in your site settings.
In the review queue, reviewable items are scored behind the scenes and the highest priority items are shown first. Staff members and higher trust level users produce higher priority items. You can quick filter the reviewable items by Status, or Type:
…or various other options:
New Review Queue Features
The review queue was recently refreshed with a new layout and additional features:
- Moderator Notes & Timeline: Moderators can record thoughts and communicate with each other directly on each reviewable via notes. Notes are displayed in the Timeline tab along with other chronological data about the reviewable.
- Insights Tab: Shows granular data about the reviewable, such as the number of times the post has been flagged, the flagged user’s trust level, the number of times the user has been flagged, and the number of posts the user has written.
- Improved Layout: Filters are now at the top of the page for more display space.
Handling Flags
When reviewing a flagged post in the review queue, you are presented with two main action bundles: Yes and No.
- Yes (Agree Bundle):
Confirms the flag is valid. Depending on the context, this bundle may offer options such as:- Agree and hide the post.
- Agree and keep the post visible.
- Agree and edit the post.
- Delete the post and agree with the flag.
- Delete the post and replies and agree.
- Agree and silence the user.
- Agree and suspend the user.
- Delete the user account.
- Agree and restore a previously deleted user’s post.
- No (Disagree Bundle):
Rejects the flag. Options may include:- Disagree and restore a hidden post.
- Disagree with the flag.
- Ignore the flag (post remains hidden if it was already hidden).
- Delete the post and ignore the flag.
- Delete the post, replies, and ignore the flag.
Be extra careful when dealing with flagged PMs
If a flag has a mail icon next to the topic title 
, be careful - the flagged post is in a personal message. Consider sending a new message to the user addressing their behavior, as moderators will lose access to the PM once the flag is resolved, unless you add yourself to the participant list. Hopefully, it may just be a forum member asking to convert a PM into a public topic. If you suspect there’s a wider problem, bring it up to your colleagues so an administrator can investigate.
You might be wondering why flags can be the entrance to a rabbit hole. 99% of the time flags are easy to handle — the post is clearly spam, a user needs some help, etc. However, sometimes the issue can be harder to address. Maybe a user is continually swearing in their posts and abusing others after being warned. Maybe the request isn’t easy to solve. In those cases, don’t be afraid to reach out to your fellow moderators, or the forum owners for advice and support.
Unless you are the only moderator, you shouldn’t ever feel like you have to make a decision on your own; that’s why you have a team. The auto-created staff category is a great place to have discussion with your team in private. At the same time, don’t hesitate to make your own decisions — you were made a moderator because you are trusted to do the right thing.
You can increase the likelihood that a post or topic will be hidden based on flags by setting your hide post sensitivity site setting to High. This doesn’t guarantee that the post will be hidden as Discourse performs a calculation based on how previous flags were handled on your site. For example, a post that is flagged by a user who has previously had their flags rejected by your site’s staff is less likely to be hidden than a post flagged by a user whose previous flags have been agreed to by your staff.
The algorithm that is used to determine whether or not a post will be hidden is somewhat complex. Its goal is to make sure that posts flagged by users with a good record of flagging are hidden, but to prevent posts that are flagged maliciously from being hidden. The system will learn over time as more posts on your site are flagged and as flags are handled by your site’s staff.
There isn’t a way to turn it off, but you can tweak how it works through your site’s settings. To see all site settings related to flags, enter the text flag into your site’s settings search box:
Also note that Discourse does not automatically close a topic if it receives a flag, even if you have set the num flaggers to close topic site setting to 1. Before closing the topic, the code checks the accuracy of the previous flags that have been submitted by the user (or users) who have flagged the topic. A user’s flagging accuracy is based on whether or not previous flags created by the user have been agreed to by your site’s staff. If the user’s flags have mostly been agreed to, there is a high likelihood that the topic will be closed. If some of the user’s previous flags have been disagreed with, there is a good chance that the topic will require more flags before it is automatically closed.
When deciding whether or not to close the topic, Discourse looks at the trust level of the users who have flagged the topic. If the topic has been flagged by trust level 3 users, there is a greater chance that it will be closed than if it has only been flagged by users with a lower trust level. The reasoning for the above is to prevent malicious users from being able to close topics on your site by flagging them. Discourse will learn over time about your user’s flagging accuracy. The end result should be that flags created by your site’s most trusted users will result in topics being closed after a single flag (or whatever value you choose to use for the num flaggers to close topic site setting), but flags created by new users on your site, or by users who do not have a good track record of creating accurate flags will not cause a topic to be automatically closed.
Moderator Notifications
When a Private Message is sent to the review queue, a notification along with a private message (and in some cases an email) is sent to the 3 most active moderators about this action. When posts or topics are sent to the review queue, notifications are sent to all users in the moderators group but to no particular moderator. Note that in this case notifications will be sent to all moderators, but emails will only be sent to moderators who are “watching” the “Moderators” group.
By default the notification level is set to Tracking and each moderator can change their own notification level preference by accessing the Moderators inbox at /u/my/messages/group/moderators:
You can change the global level to Watching for all moderators from the Moderators group settings:
Content Moderation (Approval)
By default, users can create topics and replies without the need to have their content approved. For most sites, this is ideal so users can communicate back and forth with each other without the need to wait for approval by the moderation team.
However, in some cases content approval by the moderation team prior to posting may be warranted. Should content approval be enabled, it’s encouraged to have an active moderator team to review and approve content, to avoid posts sitting in the queue for too long.
Site-wide Approval
Approval of content across the entire site can be enabled via site settings. Site owners can choose to have the first x topics or posts by a user require approval (the approve post count site setting), that all topics/posts by users who are not members of certain groups require approval (approve unless allowed groups), or that new topics (but not posts/replies) by users who are not members of certain groups require approval (approve new topics unless allowed groups).
Category Approval
Approval of content can also be configured for specific categories. This can be useful if certain categories tend to attract heated/difficult discussions, unusual amounts of human spamming, or otherwise need extra moderation attention. Site owners can configure all new topics and/or all new replies to require moderator approval before being posted through the Moderation tab in the Advanced settings section of a category:
Archiving Messages
When you archive a mod message in the moderator inbox, it gets archived for everyone so:
- Agree on a schedule between mods how long a mod message should stay in the inbox so all moderators globally can still stay informed of the actions of other mods.
- Decide which types of mod messages can be archived by the current shift of moderators without informing all moderators globally (rude flags, something else flags, …) and moderators who want to be informed of everything should read the archive after reading the mod inbox.