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experience-cloud-moderation

Set up or tune Experience Cloud content moderation: keyword/criteria rules, member reputation system, moderation queue. Triggers: 'set up community content moderation', 'configure reputation levels', 'flagging rules Experience Cloud', 'moderation queue setup', 'keyword blocking community', 'approve community posts before publishing'. NOT for publishing or scheduling CMS articles on the site — use admin/experience-cloud-cms-content. NOT for deciding which behaviours to reward or how to name reputation tiers — use admin/community-engagement-strategy.

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Experience Cloud Moderation

Use this skill to configure the three-layer moderation system for an Experience Cloud community: automated rule-based content filtering, a reputation system that assigns levels and points to members, and a moderation queue where human moderators review flagged or held content. Activate when a practitioner needs to control what community members can post, build trust through member reputation, or establish a review workflow before content goes live.


Before Starting

Gather this context before working on anything in this domain:


Core Concepts

Rule-Based Automated Moderation

Moderation rules are created in Setup > Experience Cloud Sites > Moderation. Each rule defines:

Rules are evaluated in the order they appear in Setup. The first matching rule wins; subsequent rules are not evaluated for the same content item. Order matters and should be intentional — place high-priority Block rules above lower-priority Flag rules.

Keyword rules match partial words unless wildcards are explicitly excluded. A keyword of "spam" will match "spammy" and "asparagus" does not match unless it appears in the keyword list literally. Test keyword lists in a sandbox before activating in production.

Four Moderation Actions and Their User Impact

ActionWhat HappensVisible to Author?Visible to Others?
BlockPost or comment is rejected at submissionAuthor sees rejection messageNever posted
ReplaceOffending text is substituted with * or custom textAuthor sees altered versionAltered version shown
FlagItem is posted and marked for moderator reviewYes — post is liveYes — post is live
ReviewItem is held pending approvalYes — author sees own postNo — hidden until approved

Review is the most restrictive action. Content under Review is invisible to all community members except the author (who can see it but not edit it) and any user with the Moderate Experiences Feeds permission. This makes Review suitable for new-member or high-risk keyword scenarios where live visibility before approval is unacceptable.

Reputation System

Each site supports up to 10 reputation levels. Each level has:

Points are awarded for specific member actions: posting, commenting, liking, receiving likes, having a best answer selected, and logging in. The point value for each action is configurable per site. Points are not retroactive — configuring levels after site launch does not award points for past activity.

Reputation levels can be used as Member Criteria in moderation rules. For example: require Review action for posts by members below Level 2 to throttle spam from new accounts.

Moderation Queue

The moderation queue (Chatter > Moderation or the Feed Moderation page in Experience Workspaces) aggregates all content in Review status or explicitly flagged via the Flag action. To access it a user must have the Moderate Experiences Feeds permission — this is a granular permission within the Salesforce user license, not an Experience Cloud-specific setting. Moderators can Approve (make content live), Delete, or Dismiss (remove flag without deleting).


Common Patterns

Pattern: Throttle New-Member Posts with Review Action

When to use: Community launches and the team wants to prevent spam from brand-new accounts before they have established any reputation.

How it works:

  1. Create a Member Criteria rule targeting members with fewer than 5 posts and a join date within the last 7 days (or reputation below Level 2).
  2. Set the action to Review.
  3. Assign the Moderate Experiences Feeds permission to community managers.
  4. New member posts are held until a moderator approves them. Approved posts are visible immediately.

Why not Flag instead: Flag leaves the post live for other members to see. A spam post under Flag is visible to the entire community until a moderator acts. Review prevents public exposure entirely.

Pattern: Keyword Block for Prohibited Terms

When to use: Compliance or community guidelines prohibit specific words (profanity, competitor names, regulated terms).

How it works:

  1. Create a keyword list under Setup > Experience Cloud Sites > Keyword Lists. Add exact terms and common variants.
  2. Create a Moderation Rule that references the keyword list, applies to Posts and Comments, and uses the Block action.
  3. Place this rule at the top of the rule order so it fires before any Flag or Review rules.

Why not Replace: Replace is suitable for borderline content where the post intent is acceptable but specific language is not. For strictly prohibited content, Block gives the clearest signal to the author and prevents any altered version of the problematic post from reaching other members.

Pattern: Reputation-Gated Contribution Levels

When to use: The community wants to increase trust as members demonstrate engagement over time — e.g., allow posting links only after reaching a certain reputation threshold.

How it works:

  1. Define 5–10 reputation levels under Experience Workspaces > Reputation.
  2. Set point values for relevant actions (posting, commenting, best answer).
  3. Create Member Criteria rules tied to reputation level thresholds for high-risk content types (e.g., posts containing URLs require Review if member is below Level 3).
  4. As members earn points and advance levels, restrictive moderation rules no longer apply to them.

Decision Guidance

SituationRecommended ActionReason
Post contains a prohibited term and must never be visibleBlockRejects submission entirely; no version of the post reaches other members
Post language is borderline but intent is acceptableReplaceSubstitutes offending text; post remains with corrected wording
Post is suspicious but should be reviewable before removalFlagPost goes live; moderators can evaluate in queue without hiding from community
New member posts that must not be visible until approvedReviewHolds content from all community members until moderator approves
Reputation needed before relaxing moderation rulesReputation + Member Criteria ruleLevels gate rule application automatically as members accumulate points

Step-by-step instructions for an AI agent or practitioner setting up Experience Cloud moderation:

  1. Identify moderation requirements. Confirm the site name, which content types need moderation (posts, comments, files), which keywords or member conditions are in scope, and the desired action for each scenario. Get moderator names or profiles for permission assignment.
  2. Assign the Moderate Experiences Feeds permission. In Setup > Permission Sets (or the relevant profile), grant "Moderate Experiences Feeds" to all designated moderators. Without this permission, the moderation queue is inaccessible and moderators cannot take action on Review-status content. The Setup label and the metadata API name differ: the permission serialises into a .permissionset or .profile file as <name>ModerateNetworkFeeds</name>, not as any camel-casing of the label. Search deployment metadata for ModerateNetworkFeeds; searching for ModerateExperiencesFeeds matches nothing and will make a correctly configured org look unconfigured.
  3. Configure keyword lists. Navigate to Setup > Experience Cloud Sites > [Site] > Moderation > Keyword Lists. Create one or more keyword lists. Test terms in a sandbox to confirm partial-match behavior is acceptable before enabling in production.
  4. Create and order moderation rules. Under Moderation Rules, create rules for each keyword list and/or member criteria scenario. Assign the correct action (Block / Replace / Flag / Review). Reorder rules so the most restrictive (Block) appears first. Verify rule order reflects intent.
  5. Configure reputation levels and points. In Experience Workspaces > Reputation, define up to 10 levels with meaningful names and point thresholds. Set point values for each member action (post, comment, like, best answer, login). If using reputation as a criteria in moderation rules, confirm levels are active before rules referencing them go live.

Review Checklist

Run through these before marking work in this area complete:


Salesforce-Specific Gotchas

Non-obvious platform behaviors that cause real production problems:

  1. Review-status content is invisible to everyone except the author and moderators — Stakeholders often assume Flag and Review behave the same way (the post is live but marked). They do not. Content under Review is not visible to any community member other than the author. If a community manager asks "why can't I see the new post?" — the member likely hit a Review rule and the manager does not have the Moderate Experiences Feeds permission.
  2. Reputation points are not retroactive — If reputation levels are configured after members have been active in the community, no historical points are awarded. Members who have been active for months may start at Level 1. Plan reputation configuration before or at launch, not as a post-launch addition.
  3. Moderation rules fire in order; the first match wins — If a Block rule appears below a Flag rule and content matches both, only the Flag action fires. Admins who add a new Block rule at the bottom of the list may be surprised that flagged content is still appearing live. Always review rule order after adding or editing rules.
  4. Keyword rules match partial words by default — A keyword of "ban" will match "banner", "abandon", and "band". Review keyword lists carefully and use specific multi-word phrases where precision is required.
  5. The Moderate Experiences Feeds permission is a Salesforce platform permission, not an Experience Cloud role — It is assigned through permission sets or profiles in the internal org, not through community member roles. External community members (Customer Community or Partner Community licenses) typically cannot be granted this permission unless they are also internal Salesforce users.

Output Artifacts

ArtifactDescription
Moderation rules configurationOrdered list of active rules with criteria type, action, and content type per site
Keyword listsNamed keyword lists referenced by moderation rules
Reputation configurationUp to 10 levels with point thresholds and per-action point values
Permission assignment recordList of users or permission sets assigned the Moderate Experiences Feeds permission
Moderation queue access guideBrief instructions for moderators on accessing and processing the queue

Package files