To keep a public room under control, it is necessary to have the right moderation tools.


Any room admin can access the operator menu from the chat's Actions menu or using the right mouse button (context):

From this menu, you can take the following actions:

  • Kick  a user from the room, they will be evicted immediately,  you can optionally provide a reason that will be visible by the user and the rest of the room
  • Kick and Ban:  you will reject any attempts from the expelled user to enter back the room.
  • Gag:  This will remove the ability to post messages in the room for the user.  Also, all recent messages from this user will be hidden.
  • Ungag: will remove the limitation to post messages to a previously gagged user.
  • Give Op status:  you will give full administration rights to the room.  Use this option with much care.   We recommend to limit the number of administrator to the most trusted and committed users only.
  • Take Op status:  this will remove the administration rights to the selected user.  The room's owner cannot be removed administrative rights.
  • Give Helper status: Helper users will not have full administrative rights over the rooms, but once inside the room, they can help moderate it by hiding posts.   As operators, they are marked specially in the user's list showing others their status.
  • Take Helper status:  will remove the helper status for the selected user.
  • Close room:  the room will be closed and everyone will get a message in that regard.  It is a very advisable thing to close the room when the last operator leaves it, as not to leave the room unmoderated.   An empty room will be closed automatically.

     To open a room, the user must be a room admin.


Many of these actions are also available from My Rooms in the Users tab.  In the case of Banning users, it is very advisable doing it from inside the chat.

Hiding posts

If a post is considered inappropriate it may be hidden, to do so, any room operator or helper can click on the right side button that appears when hovering over the post:

This will hide the post for everyone except the user that posted it and their friends (following contacts).

Any operator will be able to click the hidden post to see what was posted.

Everyone logging the room at the time will also get the post removed from their logs.


Room ownership

What differs a room owner from a normal room admin is the fact that the owner can delete a public room and cannot be removed admin rights.   This is to prevent room take-overs from a rebellious admin.   But still, as any admin can change any room setting, it is advisable to backup your room settings often and avoid giving administration rights to people you don't fully trust.

If a room owner wants to step down or decides they don't want the room anymore, it is a good idea to either delete the public room or Transfer the room ownership to another room admin.  This can be accomplished from My Rooms, in the basic properties tab.