---
title: "Chat Moderation - Audience Engagement"
url: "https://support.sardius.media/knowledge-base/chat-moderation-audience-engagement"
category: "Chat"
updated: 2026-08-20
summary: "Learn optimal ways to engage your audience during a chat session with your live event."
---

# Chat Moderation - Audience Engagement

**Video**

> **Transcript:** Welcome back to our onboarding video series. In this video, we're going to demonstrate how to manage a live chat experience for your event. The features demonstrated in this video will only apply to channels where a chat room has been enabled during a live event. Let's start by accessing your channel’s chat moderation area. To do this, you can hover over the bottom of the card and click the Moderate Chat icon. Let's take a quick tour of the chat moderation area. At the top, you can select the specific chat room to moderate, but only if your channel has more than one chat room. For instance, if your channel is configured to host breakout sessions or watch parties, you'll be able to select between those views here. If there are no additional rooms, then this area will be blank. To the right, you'll see a player preview area so you can watch the stream along with your viewers. Below that is the polls area where your moderators can manage polls for your audience. At the top of the left side, there is a section to set a display name for yourself. For instance, my name is Andrew, but I'd rather be seen as Andy so I can enter that here. Below this are the available rooms. First we have the main room called Everyone. Below that is the Question and Answer room. And then you will have Direct Messages. Users in your chat cannot direct message each other, but they can direct message moderators. if a user does message a moderator, all moderators will be able to see those messages and respond to them appropriately. Below this, you can see a list of All Viewers, a list of Muted Viewers, and a Reaction Counter, which tracks the usage of emojis and reactions during an event. Finally, in the middle, we have the chat experience itself. So let's talk real quick about some of the things moderators can do. Chat moderators can pin a message to the top of the chat room. It will remain there until it is unpinned. The pin message will not move, especially as the chat room fills up and scrolls past. Only one message can be pinned at a time. Moderators can post hyperlinks in the chat. This is helpful if the moderators want to direct chat users to additional resources, websites or survey forms. Users themselves cannot share hyperlinks due to how our system filters chat messages. Moderators can reply directly to an individual's message by clicking the reply to message button. Once you click reply, the original message and the reply will show separately in chat. Once a message has been sent, moderators and chat users can select from the available emoji and reaction icons to react to the message. These icons are black and white when they haven't been selected, and if an emoji has been selected by you, a blue box will appear around the icon, which itself is now colored. If an emoji was selected by others, the icon becomes colored. Moderators can use the @ symbol followed by a user's name, to directly get that user's attention. The viewer who is tagged will see their name highlighted in blue. Moderators will be able to edit a message they've sent by hovering over the message and clicking the edit icon. Moderators can hover over a message and select the trash can icon to delete any message that was sent, including messages from other moderators. As mentioned earlier, chat users cannot direct message other chat users, but users can message moderators and moderators can message individual users. For the user, once a direct message is started, they can see a moderators tab at the top of their chat window. For the moderators, they will be able to see this direct message in the left sidebar of the chat moderation area. To message a user hover over their comment, click direct message and it opens. A red notification will appear when a new message is received. If your chat room has the Q\&A tab enabled in your channel settings, you can turn any comment or message into a question. To do this, hover over the message and click the question mark icon. The message will then be displayed in the Q\&A room, along with an opportunity to answer that question. Moderators can mute viewers who are detracting from the overall event experience or otherwise being inappropriate. To silence the viewer, hover over one of their messages and select the mute user icon. To unmute, simply hover over their comment and click the checkmark next to their name. While muted, only moderators can see their messages and direct message the muted user. When muted, you will see the viewer's name in the muted users section of the moderation sidebar. When a viewer is muted, they can still continue to send messages, but these will not be visible in the public chat window for all users. Only moderators will still be able to see any comments that that muted viewer makes. Congratulations. You are now ready to manage your chat room during a live event. We do have some additional information on best practices for your chat, which we have linked on this page. We'll see you in the next video.

Chat offers a variety of audience engagement features, including the ability to: 

- Chat with other attendees
- React to specific messages 
- Reply to a specific message within Chat
- Edit a message after it’s been sent
- @mention someone who is an active Chat user
- React using a general sentiment
- Direct Message the Moderation team

### **Chatting with Other Attendees**

Adding Chat to your online event increases overall engagement of your audience. By encouraging them to engage with other attendees, comment and react to event content, or clarify questions with your Moderation team, you help them feel more connected during your event. 

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. 

![chat1](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/3ecd318ec5ca8a48.png)

### **Responding to Others in Chat**

There are several ways in which a user can respond to a specific message within Chat. 

#### **Responding to a Message**

The most direct way to respond, is to use the Reply feature. This feature will help Chat users link the response to the original message, as shown below

![chat2](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/1438c7b796d5f128.png)

When wanting to reply to a specific message, chat users can access the reply modal by clicking on the person icon next to the message

![chat3](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/4cd77cca999cde97.png)

A reply modal will then appear

![chat4](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/c354cd8b11ce5250.png)

If you need to edit your message after it has been sent, you can do so here

![chat5](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/00acbe2dbf9a4e9e.png)

#### **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. Chat user suggestions, based on the current active Chat users, may appear to select from.

![chat6](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/d8e8f16b679a046e.png)

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

![chat7](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/8d2e9c38fec219ec.png)

### **Direct Messaging the Moderation Team**

For online events, our Chat feature offers direct messaging capability between attendees and the Moderation team. 

There are two main options available for this direct messaging feature:

1. Direct Messages must be initiated first by a Moderator (the Moderator toggle appears when a Moderator direct messages an attendee)
2. Attendees can first Direct Message Moderators (the Moderator toggle in Chat is always visible)

> **Note:** _**Note:**_ Please discuss any preferences you have related to this feature with the Sardius team.

The Moderation room is a private Direct Message room between the Chat user & the Moderation Team.

> **Tip:** _**Helpful Tip:**_ Only Moderators and attendees can direct message one another privately.

![chat8](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/add865f9afbdee34.jpeg)

Here’s an example of how conversations appear in this private room

![chat9](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/d5c5e6059a05b8d9.png)

### **Other Important Features**

#### **Bad Word Filter**

Sardius Media’s Chat filter includes a “banned words” filter. The filter includes a list of inappropriate words, along with variations of those words. If user comments include any of the content being filtered for, a message will appear indicating their message will not be delivered in Chat

![chat10](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/fd4b7af874b0c0dc.png)

### **Watch Parties (aka Chat Rooms)**

![chat11](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/accd8131fbbf17c9.png)

For events that have larger audiences, it is helpful to segment your audience into different groups. We can do this through the use of Watch Parties/Chat Rooms, in which your audience can select to join a Watch Party/Chat Room upon entering Chat.

> **Tip:** _**Helpful Tip:**_ This feature is especially helpful with global audiences, when you may want to segment your audience based on Region or language.

When an event doesn’t include Watch Parties/Chat Rooms, users simply land in one main Chat room that is used by all attendees.

### **Chat Announcement Feature**

Depending on the layout you are using, you may also have the option to add a brief announcement to Chat. The announcement appears as a small banner in Chat whenever Chat is opened on the site. The message appears for a short duration and then disappears.

We recommend including a short customizable _Welcome Message_ for your audience. For longer messages, have a Moderator pin messages of continued importance. 

> **Note:** _This feature is only included in select layouts and needs to be activated for an event._  _If you wish to include a customized message here, please communicate that with your Online Event Coordinator._

![chat12](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/f7cab2f8f9c85636.png)

### **Screen Names**

Our Chat feature also includes the option to allow users to change their screen name during an event (instead of displaying the name they registered with). 

> **Tip:** _**Helpful Tip:**_ This may be helpful during events that have special considerations or security concerns for their attendees.

> **Note:** _This feature needs to be activated for an event._ _If you want to give this option to your audience, please communicate that with your Online Event Coordinator._

When Chat opens during an event, attendees will be prompted to set their Screen Name for the event (Once they do so, it will be remembered every time they enter Chat- so they only have to update it once). 

![chat13](https://support.sardius.media/kb-media/12536fb5ce5d571a.png)