Warning Systems

The warning system allows you to formally warn members for unwanted behavior and apply consequences either automatically through predefined rules or manually by moderators. This helps ensure moderation is consistent, transparent, and scalable as your community grows.

The Warning System

The warning system consists of three main areas: Reasons, Actions, and Settings. These are managed from the following location in the Admin CP

Members → Content Moderation → Warnings

Each section is outlined in detail below.

Reasons

When you first enter the warnings area, you’ll be shown the Reasons tab. This contains a list of all predefined reasons that moderators can select when issuing a warning.

Each reason defines:

• The reason name (e.g. Spam, Abusive Language)

• The number of warning points assigned

• Whether the warning points expire, and after how long

• Whether or not achievment points are also deducted

• Moderator override abilities

• Notes which are automatically filled in for a member

You can create a new reason using the Create New button in the top-right corner, or edit an existing reason using the pencil icon next to it.

Actions

Actions work alongside warning reasons and define what happens when a member reaches a certain number of warning points.

These are managed from the Actions tab and allow you to automatically apply restrictions such as:

• Moderating a member’s content

• Preventing posting or messaging

• Temporarily banning the member

• Applying permanent restrictions
  

For example, you might configure an action that places a member’s content into moderation for 1 day once they reach 10 warning points.

When creating or editing an action, you can also choose whether moderators are allowed to override the automatic action when issuing a warning.

Warning Settings

The Settings tab controls the overall behavior of the warning system. From here you can:

• Enable or disable the warning system entirely

• Exclude specific member groups from receiving warnings

• Control whether members can see their own warning points and reasons

• Control whether members must acknowledge warnings before continuing to use the site
  

The 'User must acknowledge' option is particularly important and is explained further below.

Issuing Warnings

Warnings can be issued directly from a member’s profile, either:

• From the mini-profile (member card), or

• From the full profile view
  

When viewing a member’s full profile, you can also see a list of any existing warnings they have received, as shown below

When issuing a warning, moderators are presented with a dialog where they can:

• Select one of the predefined warning reasons

• Assign a custom reason (if permissions allow)

• Add a note for moderators (internal only)

• Add a note for the member (visible to the member)

• Apply a specific penalty

Moderator notes are only visible to staff, while member notes are shown to the warned user as part of the warning notification.

After issuing the warning, moderators can review its details and, if necessary, revoke it at a later time.

If your settings require members to acknowledge warnings, they will see a prominent notification bar at the top of the site after receiving one.

The member must click the notification, review the warning details, and acknowledge it before they can continue using the community normally.

This ensures members are fully aware of the warning and the reason it was issued.

Manual Actions

In some cases, automatic actions may not be sufficient. Administrators can manually apply restrictions or bans directly from a member’s account, by looking up the member and clicking the pencil icon to edit that member in the Admin CP

Members → Members

Within a member’s account, the Warnings & Restrictions section shows:

• Current warning level

• Any active restrictions

By selecting Edit, administrators can manually apply or remove restrictions such as:

• Preventing posting

• Restricting status updates

• Limiting messaging

These controls provide fine-grained moderation for individual cases.

Banning & Ban Filters

As a last resort, members can be banned from the site. This can be done directly from the Warnings & Restrictions section of a member’s account.

When banning a member, you can:

• Specify the duration of the ban

• Optionally ban the associated IP address

• Move the member to another group if required
  

When IP banning is enabled, the IP address is added to your ban filters, which are managed from:

Members → Member Settings → Ban Settings

From here, you can restrict:

• IP addresses

• Email domains

• Specific usernames or patterns

This is useful for blocking disposable email services or preventing usernames containing reserved terms such as admin or mod.

Wildcard characters (*) can be used to match partial values.
For example, *admin* would prevent usernames like I_am_admin_user from being registered.