What can moderators do to users?

Support
1

Hi,

I just wanted to confirm the default permissions behaviour in Discourse.

Can moderators delete user accounts, or is that restricted to admins only?

I just wanted to confirm there are no edge cases (for example users with zero posts).

We are running Discourse 2026.3.0-latest with only official plugins.

Thanks!

2

Why not try? :slight_smile:

Also see:

3

Thanks - I tested this on my own forum and confirmed that moderators can delete users.

For my use case I would prefer that only admins can delete accounts.

Is there a recommended way to prevent moderators from deleting (or anonymising) users (for example a site setting, theme component, or plugin), or is moderation policy normally used for this?

Thanks!

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4

Is that the only moderator ability you’d want to limit?

Or would it make sense to use Category Moderators? Those permissions stop short of delete user and a few other things.

5

this table shows everything moderators and other trust levels can do

also worth noting that all staff admin activity is recorded in the staff action logs at admin/logs/staff_action_logs

2 Likes