A group's permissions are not one switch. Photographs, videos, files, music, voice messages, stickers, GIFs, links, polls and embedded previews can each be allowed or denied separately for ordinary members.
Which means moderation does not have to be a choice between a free-for-all and a read-only room.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Allow and deny each kind of content separately.
- check_circle Restrict one member without changing the group.
- check_circle Pick the settings that stop spam without stopping conversation.
- check_circle Explain the rules so people do not think it is broken.
Each content type has its own switch, and each applies to ordinary members rather than to admins.
rule Deny the vector, not the conversation
Spam in a group is nearly always a link or a forwarded promotional message. Denying links to ordinary members removes most of the reason to join uninvited and costs a normal conversation almost nothing — people who need to share one can ask, or be promoted.
Compare that with turning off photographs, which stops actual conversation dead in most groups. The granularity exists so you can make that distinction rather than reaching for a blunt instrument.
Restrictions also work per person. One member who keeps posting video can lose video without the other four hundred noticing, and for a fixed period rather than permanently.
Four settings and what each costs
Two are cheap and effective; two are expensive and rarely worth it.
link_off The one to deny
image The expensive ones
emoji_emotions Stickers and GIFs
person Restricting an individual
Deny links to everybody and everything to the one person. Never the other way round.
settings Setting them
- Open the group settings, then permissions Each content type has its own switch.
- Deny links for ordinary members The cheapest effective change.
- Leave photographs on Unless the group has a specific reason.
- Use slow mode rather than denying media To control volume.
- Restrict one person rather than everybody For a set period.
- Write the rules in the pinned message So a blocked message is explicable.
This page is what members may do. The curriculum step is what admins may do: the separate rights, giving each moderator only what they need, and reading the audit log that records how those rights were used.
At a glance
- 1Member permissions
Allow or block each kind of content separately.
- 2One member
Restrict a single person for a set time.
- 3Explain
Tell members what is allowed so it does not look broken.
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