How do I moderate reader comments effectively?
Use the Comments dashboard, spam filters, and pre-moderation mode to keep your reader conversations healthy without spending hours every day on cleanup.
VeloCMS comment moderation works through Admin → Comments, where you see a real-time queue of pending, approved, and spam comments across all your posts. The built-in spam filter catches most automated junk automatically — you mainly need to review the Pending tab if you have pre-moderation on, or spot-check the Approved tab to remove anything that slipped through.
What does the comment moderation dashboard show me?
The dashboard has three tabs. Pending holds comments waiting for your approval (only populated when pre-moderation is enabled). Approved shows every live comment with a quick delete or spam-flag button. Spam contains comments the system has already auto-blocked — review this occasionally to make sure legitimate comments didn't land here by mistake. Each row shows the comment text, the commenter's name and email, the post it was left on, and the timestamp. You can filter by post title if you want to see all the comments on a specific article.
How do I permanently block a commenter?
Find any comment from that person and click the three-dot menu on the right side of the row. Choose Block commenter. This adds their email address to your block list — all future comments from that address are silently rejected, and if they're a registered reader their ability to post comments is revoked immediately. The block is tenant-scoped, meaning it only affects your blog. You can review and remove blocks from Settings → Engagement → Blocked commenters at any time.
Should I use pre-moderation for all posts or just certain ones?
It depends on your traffic and the sensitivity of your content. Pre-moderation on every post means nothing appears until you explicitly approve it — great for controversial topics but it adds a delay that can kill the conversational energy of a fast-moving thread. A smarter approach for most publishers is to leave global pre-moderation off but enable it per post when you're publishing something you expect to attract inflammatory responses. You can also set a word count threshold: very short comments (under 15 words) are often just 'Great post!' noise or spam — auto-holding those for review cuts moderation time noticeably.
Can I set up keyword filters to automatically reject certain comments?
Yes. Under Settings → Engagement → Comment filters, you can add a list of words or phrases that automatically reject or hold for review any comment containing them. This is most useful for catching spam that the automated filter misses (like specific product names that scammers keep pushing) or for setting community norms around language. The filter is case-insensitive and supports partial word matching — adding 'casino' catches 'online casino', 'casino bonus', and similar variations without you needing to list every permutation.
The most effective comment moderation strategy is a combination: automated spam filter on, keyword filters for your most common spam patterns, pre-moderation only on posts you know will attract trouble, and a quick daily check of the Approved tab to catch anything unusual. Most publishers spend under 5 minutes per day on this once the filters are dialed in.