Chat Moderation

Note: For Best Practices in Chat Moderation, click here.

Accessing the Admin Moderation Panel

Once you have been added as a Moderator for your event, you will receive an e-mail from Sardius Control Panel inviting you to create your log-in credentials.

Go to https://cp.sardius.media/auth/login
Use the e-mail address you received the invitation at as your Username & create a Password

The direct access link sent from Sardius Media is only active for 72 hours, so please be sure to log-in during the designated window of time. If you miss that window, you will need to access the website above and use the “Forgot Password” link to gain access. Note: Your Username is your email address.

Helpful Tip: If you have been a Moderator for a previous event hosted by Sardius Media, you will log-in using the credentials you previously set-up (your Username is your email address). If you don’t remember your password, please use the Forgot Password link.

Accessing Chat

Moderators can access both Chat and Q&A from the main Chat window.

Once you have logged in, from the left sidebar, click on Channels and navigate to your event channel.

On the bottom of your event channel, you will see the CHAT icon, depicted by the chat bubble.

Click on the Moderate Chat icon.

If you get a message indicating that “There is no live event. Messages will use the next event in the Calendar,” click OKAY.

Note: This message appears when there is no live stream occurring when you enter Chat.

Once you enter Chat, you will have the option to change how your name displays within Chat.

If you want to change how your name appears (ie. show your First Name only), use the Display Name Override field to do so. If a tag has been added based on your event role, it will display after your name in the Chat area as shown in the image here.

Helpful Tip: The default setting is to show your First & Last Name within Chat.

There are two primary areas accessible from the Sardius Control Panel Moderation area:

Chat Room(s): designated as “Everyone” in the left toolbar.
1. This includes Chat Watch Party rooms. Please reference the area below about Watch Parties for more info.
2. If you are a Chat Moderator, you will access your room here.
Q&A Room: designated as “Question & Answer” Note: If your event is not using Q&A, that section will not be active.

Also seen in the left toolbar:

Direct Messages: Chat has a direct messaging capability. All private direct messaging between Viewers and the Moderation team is done in this alternate window.
All Viewers: Lists Viewers who have landed on the Watch Page within the last 12 hrs. This list does not live update, but will refresh when the page is loaded again (aka when a Moderator refreshes their screen).
Helpful Tip: If a user is using a “screen name” option set for the event, this section will display their screen name, rather than the name they registered for the event with.
Muted Viewers: Lists Viewers that Moderators have restricted engagement by “muting” them
Reaction Counter: Tracks the number of reactions occurring in the main Chat room reactions counter

Watch Parties and/or Individual Breakout Chat Rooms

Helpful Tip: If your event has Watch Parties or individual Breakout Chat rooms, you will first need to access the designated room before going to either the “Everyone” Public Room or Q&A room to Moderate in your assigned area.

Access your assigned room by finding it in the dropdown menu at the top of the Moderation area.

General Chat/Q&A Features

The following Chat features are available for both the Chat audience as well as the Moderation team.

Helpful Tip: The screenshots for these features all reflect how the functionality appears for users in Chat (ie. event attendees)

Reactions

One of the ways we can help event audiences feel more connected is by creating opportunities for them to express their general sentiment or react to other attendees’ chat engagement.

Both event attendees and Moderators can react to individual chat messages.

Note: General Sentiment reactions are not available in the Q&A room.

How reactions appear in Chat:

When you react to someone’s message, your reaction will appear in color with a blue box around it
When someone else reacts to their message, the reaction becomes colored

Mention Someone in a Comment

Another way to respond to other Chat users - while getting their attention- is to use the @mention feature.

To use this feature, users can simply type the @ symbol, followed by the person’s name in the Chat who they want to direct the message to.

Helpful Tip: Chat user suggestions, based on the current active Chat users, may appear to select from.

The Viewer who was @messaged will see their name highlighted in blue, to help get their visual attention in Chat

Chat Moderation

Chat Moderation primarily occurs in the main Chat area, depicted as “Everyone” in the left toolbar.

Basic Moderation Features

Delete Pin Convert to Mute Direct Edit Reply to

Question User Message Message

Pinned Messages

To get started, we recommend you pin a Welcome Message to the Main Chat room at the start of the event.

To pin a message that you have sent to the Chat Room, click on the Push Pin icon that appears when hovering over your message:

This will pin the message to the top of your Chat room. This message will remain at the top of Chat, even as new messages flow into the room and begin to scroll up for your Viewing audience:

Helpful Tip: Pinned Messages can also be used to highlight important event info, quote speakers, solicit feedback or prepare the audience for what is next in the program. Feel free to get creative with how you use this feature for your event!

Only one message can be pinned at a time in a Chat room.

To unpin a message, hover over your message in the Chat Moderation admin area and select the “Unpin Message” option.

You can change the pinned messages as often as you’d like during your event.

Hyperlinking Messages

Moderators have the ability to hyperlink messages. If a URL is posted by a Moderator within Chat or as a pinned message, a hyperlink will be available for Chat users.

Helpful Tip: This is most helpful when Moderators want to direct Chat users to additional resources, Speaker websites or to a web-based feedback form.

Any URLs posted by Chat members who are not part of the Moderation team will not be hyperlinked. This is an additional filter our system provides to help Moderators keep chat information targeted and appropriate, as determined by the Moderation team.

Muting Users

On occasion, you may need to “mute” or silence a user who may not be positively contributing to event engagement or who may be making inappropriate comments.

To silence a viewer, use the “Mute User” icon above their comment.

Muted Viewers will show up under the Restricted Viewers in the left sidebar.

If you want to reverse the action, and unmute a Viewer, simply click the little checkmark by their name.

Note: When a user is “muted”, their future comments will not be visible in the public forum but Moderators will still be able to see any additional comments that a Muted Viewer makes. Additionally, the viewer will be unaware that their comments are being filtered, as they will still be able to comment in their own chat window (without those comments being visible in the public forum).

Messages by muted users will show as “Muted” in the Moderation Control Panel

If you would like to Direct Message a muted user, you can do so from the Muted Viewers area of the Sidebar.

Simply click on the Chat bubble icon to direct message the individual user.

You will then be taken to the Direct Message room with the individual user. You will know you are in a Direct Message room with the individual user (as noted by the name highlighted) here in the left sidebar

Additional functionality of Direct Messaging is addressed later in this document.

Deleting Comments

If you find you need to delete an inappropriate comment, use the trash can icon to do so.

Note: If you mute a user, be sure to also delete any inappropriate comments they may have made prior to being muted.

Direct Messaging with individual Viewers

Direct Messaging is possible between individual chat users and Moderators. Chat users are unable to privately message other chat users, but can respond directly to other peoples comments within the public Chat area.

Moderators have the ability to Direct Message chat users. Chat users can also initiate that private communication with Moderators.

Users can initiate private communication with the Moderation Team by entering the Moderators area at the top of the Chat. As conversation occurs with the Moderation Team, if the user is in the main Chat area, a red notification will appear beside the Moderators toggle at the top of the Chat giving a visual indication that a new message has been sent from a Moderator to the chat user.

When a Chat User is direct messaging the Moderation Team, those messages can be found under the Direct Messages area here in the Control Panel

Helpful Tip: While Monitoring Chat, we recommend you keep this Direct Messages area expanded so you will see the visual notifications appear beside user names as they communicate with your team.

You can have DM conversations with multiple people at once by switching between the conversations by clicking on each individual user’s name listed under Direct Messages.

If you are in the Direct Messages area and new messages occur in the Main Chat area or the Q&A room, you will also see visual notifications appear beside those rooms as well.

Helpful Tip: Direct Messages are not visible to others on the Watch Page, but are visible to all Moderators (basically, viewers DM with the Moderation team, not an individual Moderator)

Direct Messaging always occurs in this private room.

Depending on the settings you’ve requested for the event, the Moderators tab will either:

Always be present- This occurs if you’ve requested that Viewers have the ability to initiate Direct Messaging with Moderators.
Appear when a Moderator direct messages a Viewer- This occurs if you’ve requested that only the Moderation team can initiate direct messaging between a Viewer and the Moderation team.

Edit Feature

If you would like to edit a sent message, simply hover over the message and click the pencil icon.

A modal will appear that allows you to edit your message. Don’t forget to update the message when finished

Reply to Message

Alternatively, you can reply directly to a chat user’s specific message by hovering over the message and clicking on the “Reply to Message” icon represented as two chat bubbles:

Once you do, a modal will appear allowing you to reply directly to the message.

Don’t forget to click “Reply” to send your message.

Messages that you have replied directly to will appear in Chat as shown below. Both the original message and the Reply are shown together, to make following the conversation easier for Viewers.

Converting a Comment to a Public Question

Note: This functionality only exists if the Q&A room is enabled for your event.

If you are using a traditional Question & Answer forum for your event (and the Q&A room toggle is enabled), you can convert a Viewer comment within the main Chat room into a public Question that will appear in the Q&A room.

Comments converted into Questions will appear as a public question in the Q&A room.

Question & Answer (Q&A) Room

Note: This section is only relevant if you are using the Q&A room for your event.

How does the Q&A room work?

Most of the Chat features described above function the same in the Q&A room.

The main functionality differences of the Q&A room are:

Moderators cannot pin messages in the Q&A room
Answers are linked directly to Questions in the Q&A room
Messages typed directly into the Q&A room all remain private messages- unless made public by a Moderator (this allows Moderation teams to filter and decide what questions to make public to the audience)
Comments ‘converted into questions’ from the main Chat room all appear as public messages in the Q&A room
Chat users can send Questions anonymously in the Q&A room

Using the Q&A Room

To access the Q&A room from the Admin Moderation Panel, click on “Question & Answer” under Public Rooms in the left sidebar

This will take you into the Q&A room, where you will see comments coming in as Private messages

You can make any private message a public one by clicking on “Make Public”

Messages that have been made public, no longer show the tag “Private”

To answer a message, highlight the message from the list and click on “Answer”

A modal will appear with some options for formatting your reply

Click on “Send Answer” to post your answer

On the Event Site, the message appears as follows to the Chat user

IMPORTANT: You can answer any question, regardless if it is private or public. This allows you to engage with your attendee’s questions, while highlighting those questions (made public by you) that you deem most relevant to the wider audience attending your event.