Approving & moderating photos

Content Moderation is your command center for everything that goes public in the gallery: reviewing new uploads (approve or hide), running bulk actions, handling reported content, banning guests and – with AI enabled – organizing detected person clusters. This guide is for hosts, admins and moderators.

Note

Moderation is not a page inside the admin area (event control panel). It lives in the public gallery context at the route /moderation and is unlocked from the moderator role upward – so helpers can moderate without getting full admin access.

When photos land in moderation at all

Two paths put a photo in the queue:

• Approval is required: With the Photo Approval System switched on, every new upload first arrives as pending in moderation and only becomes public after you approve it. You’ll find this switch under Privacy & moderation.
• Orphaned content: Even without required approval, the Media tab appears as soon as there are pending or hidden photos – for example because the AI content filter (NSFW) automatically hid an upload, or you hid something earlier.

If approval is off and there is no such orphaned content, the Media tab simply isn’t there – that’s normal.

How to reach moderation

Guests, moderators and hosts all move around in the same gallery. You get to moderation through the profile menu in the top right.

1. Tap your profile picture or avatar in the top right. The profile menu opens.

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   You reach moderation through the profile menu in the top right.

2. Choose the Moderation entry (blue flag icon). You only see this entry with the moderator role or higher (admin/owner). A red badge on the entry shows the combined count of open reports and pending media – so you can tell at a glance whether there’s work to do.

3. You land on the Content Moderation page with the subtitle “Review and manage submitted content”.

Caution

If you instead see Access Denied (“You need moderator permissions to access this page.”) with a Back to Gallery button, you don’t have the moderator role. The owner has to assign it – see Roles & permissions.

The moderation overview

Above the tabs you see the Moderation Overview with three counters:

• Pending Review (yellow, clock icon) – waiting for your review.
• Unpublished (gray, crossed-out eye) – hidden/denied, but not deleted.
• Published (green, checkmark) – publicly visible in the gallery.

The Refresh button in the top right reloads the counters and list. If a yellow warning banner sits at the very top (“N pending report(s) need your attention.”), there are open reports – one click jumps straight to the Reports tab.

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The moderation overview shows what needs your attention at a glance.

Tip

The page works in real time: it subscribes to the moderation room, so new uploads and reports appear without reloading. That lets several moderators work in parallel without stepping on each other.

The tabs at a glance

Depending on feature and role you see up to four tabs. The active tab is also in the address bar (?section=…), so you can link straight to it.

• Media: review new photos. Visible when approval is required or orphaned content exists.
• Face Clusters: organize detected people. Only with the AI feature active and face recognition switched on.
• Banned Users: manage restricted/banned guests. Always present.
• Reports: handle content flagged by guests. Always present; a red badge counts open reports.

The “Media” tab – approve or hide photos

This is the core. Inside Media there’s a second tab bar by status:

• Pending (clock, yellow counter) – waiting for review.
• Unpublished (crossed-out eye, gray counter) – hidden/denied.
• Published (checkmark, green counter) – publicly visible.

Reviewing a single photo

Each card shows the uploader name (or Anonymous), the upload time (e.g. “2h”, “3d”) and possibly a purple Live badge – then the photo came from a photo booth or camera via live upload, not from an app guest. The Expand icon opens the large view/slideshow.

1. Open the Pending status tab. Each card has two round buttons.

2. Approve (green checkmark) publishes the photo instantly – it appears in the gallery for all guests.

3. Deny (red X) hides the photo. It moves to Unpublished and becomes invisible to guests, but is not deleted.

4. A success or error toast confirms the action; counters and list update immediately.

The available buttons depend on the status tab:

• Pending: Approve (publish) and Deny (hide).
• Published: Unpublish – takes an already published photo back out of the gallery.
• Unpublished: Publish – publishes a previously hidden photo after all.

Several photos at once (bulk actions)

Click cards to select them (selection ring + checkmark overlay). As soon as at least one card is selected, the blue bulk bar appears with the text “N items selected”:

• Publish Selected (green) – available in Pending and Unpublished.
• Unpublish Selected (gray) – only in the Published tab.
• Clear – clears the selection.

Note

Bulk actions run one after another. With very many photos it takes a moment – please don’t double-click, just wait a beat. Switching the status tab clears the selection automatically.

State model & empty states

A photo goes through: pending → published (approve) or pending → unpublished (hide). Hidden photos are not deleted – they stay in the Unpublished tab and can be published again anytime. Permanent deletion only happens via reports or the recycle bin.

Once everything is handled, each tab reports “All caught up! No pending items.”, “No unpublished content.” or “No published content yet.”. The list loads more photos automatically as you scroll (“Loading more…”).

The “Reports” tab

This tab is always present. Here too there are inner status tabs:

• Pending (clock, red counter) – not yet handled.
• Action taken (checkmark) – a measure already taken.
• Dismissed (warning triangle) – dismissed as unfounded.

Each report shows a thumbnail (click opens the large view via View media), a reason badge – Person in image, Inappropriate, Copyright or Other –, an optional message from the reporter, plus the reporter name (or Anonymous) and date.

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In the Reports tab you handle content that guests have flagged.

For open (pending) reports you have three options. Right-click or long-press a card opens the same actions as a context menu.

1. Dismiss (X) – dismiss the report, the photo stays online. For mistaken or trivial reports.

2. Unpublish (crossed-out eye) – takes the photo out of the gallery without deleting it. This button only appears with the content-moderation feature (premium).

3. Delete (trash) – opens the Delete media? confirmation dialog (“This will move the media to the recycle bin.”). The photo moves to the recycle bin and can be restored.

Tip

GDPR practice: handle reports with the reason Person in image (data-subject rights) promptly – usually with Unpublish or Delete. See how guests flag content in Reporting & moderating content.

If nothing is open, “No reports to review” appears.

The “Banned Users” tab

Here you manage restricted and banned guests. At the top you’ll find the heading Banned Users and a search field (“Search users…”). Five filter tabs, each with a red count, narrow the list:

• All – everyone with any ban.
• Uploads (photo icon) – upload ban.
• Comments (speech bubble) – comment ban.
• Nickname – nickname change banned.
• Profile Picture – profile picture change banned.

Each user card shows the avatar, name (or Anonymous User), the active ban badges (Upload Ban / Comment Ban / Nickname Ban / Profile Picture Ban) and, if set, the stored ban reason. Manage opens the full profile/moderation dialog where you set bans or lift them again.

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In the Banned Users tab you see all restricted guests and manage their bans.

The note at the bottom reminds you: “Click Manage to view full profile and unban users.” If no one is banned, it reads “No banned users” / “All users are currently in good standing”.

Note

The actual banning – with the categories uploads, comments, nickname change and profile picture change plus an optional reason – is described step by step in its own guide, Ban & restrict users.

The “Face Clusters” tab – premium/AI

This tab only appears when your plan includes AI face processing and face recognition is switched on for the event. It shows the automatically detected person clusters as a grid – there you name people, merge duplicate clusters, split wrongly grouped ones, hide irrelevant ones and set cover images.

Managing the clusters is covered step by step in its own guide, Managing face clusters. Background on face recognition (including the NSFW filter and how to enable it): AI processing.

The moderation panel: moderate right in the gallery

You don’t have to switch to the moderation page for every little thing. With a moderator role you have the most important actions right in the gallery and in fullscreen.

• In the gallery: a photo that isn’t approved yet shows you – and only you as a moderator – an “Approval Pending” overlay on the tile, with buttons to approve or hide it. That way you clear pending items without leaving the view. Guests don’t see this overlay.
• In fullscreen / the slideshow: open a photo large and the ⋮ menu carries an extra moderation section with Publish / Unpublish and Delete (recycle bin). The exact entries depend on status and feature.

Tip

For the systematic pass – counters, bulk actions, reports – the moderation page (this guide) stays the right tool. The panel in the gallery is meant for quick single decisions while browsing.

Troubleshooting

• No Media tab visible → approval is off and there is no orphaned content. That’s normal. To enable: Privacy & moderation.
• Unpublish button missing in Reports → only with the content-moderation feature (premium). Without it, Dismiss and Delete remain.
• Face Clusters tab missing → AI feature not in the plan, or face recognition off for the event.
• Access Denied → your role is lower than moderator. The owner has to grant it.
• Purple Live badge on cards → the upload came from a photo booth/camera (live upload), not from an app guest.
• Bulk action seems “stuck” → processing runs one after another. Wait a moment, don’t double-click.

Tip

Recommended workflow: first clear the warning banner and Reports, then work through Pending. Rule of thumb: “When in doubt, hide rather than delete” – Unpublished is reversible, Delete goes to the recycle bin. For large events use several moderators; the real-time queue prevents duplicate work.