Banning & restricting users

If a single person misbehaves, you don’t have to throttle the whole event. Instead of turning on approval for everyone, you can restrict one person in a targeted way – and decide exactly what stays allowed. There are four independent ban categories; each can be set individually and lifted individually.

There are three routes to get there. Which one suits you depends mostly on whether you have access to the admin area.

Who can ban?

Bans can be issued by the event owner, admins, and moderators with moderation rights. You can only ban people below you – equal or higher roles (e.g. other admins) can’t be banned; for them the moderation section simply doesn’t appear. It doesn’t appear on your own profile either. See Roles & permissions.

The four ban categories

For each person you decide independently what to block:

In the Select ban categories dialog you tick what the person may no longer do: 1 Uploads, 2 Comments. Nickname Changes and Profile Pictures follow below. Combine them freely – only what you tick here gets blocked.

Category	What happens
Uploads	User will not be able to upload photos or videos.
Comments	User will not be able to post comments or replies.
Nickname Changes	User will not be able to change their nickname.
Profile Pictures	User will not be able to upload a new profile picture.

The categories combine freely. You can block only comments and keep uploads allowed – or set several categories at once. For every ban you can optionally add a reason.

Remove profile picture is not a ban

Alongside the bans there is a separate action, Remove Profile Picture. It deletes the current avatar image immediately, but it does not stop the person from uploading a new one. To prevent that for good, combine it with the Profile Pictures category.

Route A — Straight from the person’s profile

The most important route – and for moderators without admin access the only practical one, because the registered-users list lives in the admin area, which moderators don’t see. You need no list here: you restrict the person exactly where you noticed them.

1. Anywhere in the gallery, tap the person’s name or profile picture – under a comment, in the activity feed, in a photo’s image details, or on the leaderboard. Their profile opens.

2. Scroll down in the profile to the Moderation Controls card (shield icon). It only appears if you are allowed to moderate this person.

3. If the person is already under a ban, you’ll see the red box Currently banned from: with a coloured chip per category – all four categories are listed here, including nickname and profile-picture bans.

4. Click Ban User (red) or Unban User (green). The ban dialog opens – see The dialog in two modes.

5. The same card also holds the Remove Profile Picture action, as long as the person currently has a profile picture.

Tip

The profile route works for every role with moderation rights and on every device. It is also faster than the admin route whenever you already have the problematic photo or comment in front of you.

Route B — Via Registered Users (admin area)

The systematic route when you want to search for a specific person – but it requires access to the admin area.

1. Open your event’s admin area (profile menu top right → Admin Portal).

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   The profile menu top right takes you into the admin and moderation area. ① your points and solved tasks, ② Profile options with My Profile, Language, Theme and Help, ③ Management with Account Settings, Moderation and Admin Portal – this section is missing until you hold a role for it, ④ Account with Sign out.

2. In the sidebar, click Registered Users.

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   The registered users list is the admin entry point for banning an individual person: ① search by name or email, ② narrow it down by role, ③ sort the list, ④ check the role on the card. Clicking the card opens the details dialog, where you set the ban per area – uploads, comments and more.

3. Find the person via the search field. The role filter, the Registered checkbox and the sort order help too. If needed, switch between card and table view.

4. Click the user card – not the right-click menu, which only offers details and copy email, no ban action. The person’s detail dialog opens.

5. Scroll down in the dialog to the collapsible Moderation section (shield icon; a small badge shows the number of active bans) and expand it.

6. Click Ban User or Unban User.

The ban badges in the admin list are incomplete

In the card view of registered users only two badges appear: Upload Ban and Comment Ban. Nickname and profile-picture bans are not shown there – the card then looks unremarkable even though the person is restricted. The table view carries no ban badges at all.

Only two places are complete: the Moderation Controls card on the profile page (Route A) and the Banned Users tab (Route C). If you want to know what someone is really banned from, look there.

The moderation section in the detail dialog

Once expanded, the section shows – depending on the person’s state – these elements:

• Ban User (red) – appears only while at least one category is still free.
• Unban User (green) – appears only when active bans already exist.
• Remove Profile Picture (blue) – appears only when the person currently has a profile picture.
• Status box: with active bans, a red box Currently banned from: with a chip per category. If all four categories are free, a green box reads No bans active - user has full access. That green box exists only here in the admin dialog, not on the profile page.

The expanded Moderation section: the red Ban User button and below it the green box “No bans active - user has full access”. Unban User and Remove Profile Picture are missing here because this person is neither banned nor has a profile picture.

Tip

The main Save button of the detail dialog only covers the person’s nickname, role and points. Ban and unban actions are confirmed in their own dialog and take effect immediately – you don’t need to save anything separately afterwards.

Route B starts here: the card’s three-dot menu leads straight to the ban actions.

The dialog in two modes

The ban mode, opened here from the admin detail dialog. Uploads is ticked; below the categories sit the optional Reason field and the buttons Cancel and Confirm Ban.

Banning and unbanning run through the same dialog, which merely switches between two modes. That explains why both look alike and why there is no reason field when unbanning.

	Ban mode	Unban mode
Title	Ban User	Unban User
Subtitle	Select what … should be banned from	Select what … should be unbanned from
List heading	Select ban categories	Select categories to unban
Cards shown	only the categories not yet banned	only the active bans
Reason field	present	missing
Confirm	Confirm Ban (red)	Confirm Unban (green)

Further details that apply in both modes:

• Multiple selection is allowed. Each category is a clickable card with a checkbox, icon, label and short description. One click on the confirm button writes all selected categories in a single operation.
• Partial unbanning works. You can lift the upload ban and keep the comment ban, for example.
• The confirm button stays disabled while no category is selected.
• Reason (optional): free-text field, up to 500 characters; there is no character counter. The help text reads “Provide a reason for this ban (visible to other moderators)”. The reason applies to every category chosen in this step, is visible to your team, and later appears in the Banned Users tab.
• Cancel closes the dialog without changes. The action takes effect immediately, and a toast confirms it.

Cleaning up in the same step

A ban only stops what comes next. Everything the person has already uploaded or written stays up – and that is usually the very reason for the ban. So in Ban mode the dialog offers to clear it out in one go.

Once you select a category, an indented cleanup checkbox appears underneath it – but only when there is actually something there. It is never pre-checked: taking content down is a separate decision from stopping the person.

Only from the profile or the comment menu

The cleanup checkboxes exist only in the dialog variant you open via View Profile → Ban User or from the menu on a comment. The ban dialog from Registered Users → card → Moderation does not have them – there you only ban, and the content stays up. If you want both in one step, go through the profile.

Under which category	Checkbox label	What happens
Uploads (only when visible photos exist)	“Also hide their N visible photos”	“Moves them to Unpublished – you can publish them again at any time.”
Comments (only when comments exist)	“Also delete their N comments”	“Permanent, including replies to them. This cannot be undone.”

As soon as Uploads is ticked, the cleanup row unfolds underneath it 1: “Also hide their 12 visible photos”, with the note that the images only move to Unpublished. Without a ticked category – and without existing content – the row is not there at all.

Deleting comments is permanent

The photo option is harmless: it only moves the images to Unpublished, and you can publish them again from the Media tab whenever you like. Deleting the comments is not – it removes the replies to them as well and cannot be brought back. That is why this checkbox is marked in red.

The cleanup runs after the ban. That way a failure there can never leave a person who lost their content but was never actually banned. The outcome is appended to the confirmation toast: “N photos hidden”, “N comments deleted”.

In Unban mode these checkboxes don’t exist – hidden photos are published again where you publish everything else: in the Media tab, see Approving & moderating photos.

Small wording differences

Depending on whether you open the dialog from the profile or from the admin detail dialog, individual labels differ slightly – for example the German interface says “Benutzer entsperren” in one place and “Sperre aufheben” in the other. In English both places use Unban User and Currently banned from:, so you will not notice a difference.

Example

A guest is posting insulting comments under several photos, but his own pictures are perfectly fine.

You open the ban dialog from his profile and tick the Comments category only – you leave Uploads alone, so he can keep contributing photos. As the reason you write Insulting comments, repeatedly.

Indented below the category, the red checkbox “Also delete their 7 comments” appears. It is not preselected, and that is deliberate: deleting is permanent and takes other guests’ replies with it. If you really want those comments gone, you tick it – the toast afterwards reads “7 comments deleted”.

What the ban does not do: his existing photos stay visible. The Uploads category would offer the harmless variant “Also hide their N visible photos”, which only moves them to Unpublished – you don’t need it here.

Route C — Overview of everyone banned

The Banned Users tab is the overview of every ban in the event. It lives in moderation – not in registered users – and is reachable without admin access.

1. Open moderation. As a moderator via the profile menu top right → Moderation; as a host or admin via the admin sidebar → Gallery group → Review & Reports. Both open the same page.

2. Switch to the Banned Users tab. In the admin sidebar it is also a sub-entry you can click directly.

   Phone

   

   Computer

   

   The Banned Users tab shows every ban at a glance – filtered by category.

3. Filter as needed via the sub-tabs All, Uploads, Comments, Nickname and Profile Picture (each with a counter). Use the Search users… field to find a specific person.

4. Each card shows an avatar, the name (or Anonymous User), all four possible ban badges – Upload Ban, Comment Ban, Nickname Ban, Profile Picture Ban – and below them the reasons stored per category.

5. Click Manage on the person. Their profile dialog opens on top of the moderation page – you set and lift the bans there exactly as in Route A, without leaving the list. If you really want their profile page, click the name instead.

If nobody is banned, the tab shows the empty state No banned users with the note “All users are currently in good standing”.

No premium for the ban tab

The Banned Users tab is always visible – even without the paid content moderation. Only the Media tab on the same page depends on required approval. Banning and unbanning therefore work regardless of your plan.

FAQ & troubleshooting

• I don’t see the Moderation Controls card. You lack the rights, the person ranks equal to or above you, or you are looking at your own profile.
• “Ban User” is missing even though the person is open. Then all four categories are already banned – only unbanning remains.
• I have no admin access and can’t find the user list. Correct – that list lives in the admin area. Use Route A via the profile, or Route C via the Banned Users tab.
• No badge on the user card, yet the person is banned. The card view only shows upload and comment bans. Check the profile or the Banned Users tab.
• A banned guest still uploads. Bans apply per person in the event. If someone creates a brand-new anonymous guest account, that bypasses the ban. For widespread problems, event-wide measures work better – see Approving & moderating photos and Moderation & safety.
• Error “Action failed”. Usually a brief network or permission hiccup – just try again.

Best practices

Tip

• Always add a reason. It keeps it clear for your whole team why someone was restricted.
• Choose the smallest possible ban. Someone who only spams comments doesn’t need an upload ban.
• Give a second chance. Bans can be lifted later, in a targeted and partial way.
• Offensive avatars: remove the profile picture and ban the Profile Pictures category – otherwise the next one is uploaded right away.
• When cleaning up, hide first. The photo checkbox is reversible, the comment checkbox is not. When in doubt, hide the photos now and look at the comments individually later.
• Widespread problems are better solved with required approval than with dozens of individual bans.

Related topics

• Approving & moderating photos – publish or unpublish media, handle reports
• Managing registered users – the admin entry point to the detail dialog
• Roles & permissions – who may moderate and ban
• Moderation & safety – event-wide alternatives to individual bans
• Profile & nickname – what the guest experiences when nickname or profile picture is banned
• Liking & commenting – the effect of a comment ban from the guest’s side