When a member breaks your community's rules, you can warn them, suspend them for a while, ban them, remove them, or restrict them in a single space. This article compares the options and shows where to use each one.
Who can do this: Owners and admins, from a member's profile. Moderators can suspend or ban only by resolving a report, and can lift bans and suspensions. Space admins and space moderators can restrict members in their own space. · Where: Web (admin console and space settings). Space restrictions also work in the app. · Plan: No plan requirement.
Compare ban, suspend, and other restrictions
| Action | What the member experiences | How it ends |
|---|---|---|
| Warn | Gets a notification with the reason category you pick. Their account keeps working. The warning goes on their record. Warnings can't be appealed. | Nothing to end |
| Suspend | Can't sign in or use the community. A suspension can't be appealed. | Automatically after the suspension period, or when you lift it |
| Ban | Loses access to the community and can appeal. | When you lift it or approve their appeal |
| Remove from community | Is signed out and loses their access groups, space memberships, and course enrollments. It isn't a ban, so they can join again. | Not applicable |
| Ban Member (one space) | Can't post, comment, or chat in that space. Their earlier content stays visible. | When a space admin or moderator unbans them |
| Mute Member (one space) | Can't post, comment, or chat in that space for 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, or permanently. | Automatically when the time is up, or when unmuted |
Warn, suspend, or ban from a member's profile
- Go to Admin → Members → All Members and open the member.
- Open the actions menu (⋯) at the top of the member's page.
- Choose an action:
- Warn: optionally choose the Reason shown to the member (community guidelines violation, spam, harassment or abuse, illegal content, or off topic), add a Moderator note, and click Send warning. The note is required and only your team sees it; the member sees only the reason category.
- Suspend: enter a Duration (Days) (7 by default) and an optional reason, then click Confirm Suspend.
- Ban: add an optional reason, then click Confirm Ban. The member sees this reason on the appeal page, so write it for them to read.
You can also suspend or ban from a member's row menu in the member list, or select several members and use Suspend or Ban for all of them.
You can't act on yourself or the community owner. Only the owner can suspend or ban an admin. Warn and Remove from community are for owners and admins only, and they can't be used on anyone with a staff role.
Suspend or ban a member from a report
In Admin → Moderation → Reports Queue, open a report about a user and choose Suspend User or Ban User. These actions are available only on reports about a user, not on reports about a post. This is how moderators suspend or ban, because they can't open member profiles.
- A moderator note is required. If you ban the member, they see this note as the ban reason on their appeal page, so write it for them to read.
- A suspension from a report always lasts 7 days. To choose a different length, an owner or admin can suspend from the member's profile instead.
Lift a ban or suspension
- Go to Admin → Moderation → Banned & Suspended.
- Choose the Banned or Suspended tab. Each row shows the Member, the Reason, Since, and Until. Bans show Indefinite.
- Click Lift ban or Lift suspension, then confirm.
Owners and admins can also choose Unban or Unsuspend from the member's profile. Approving a member's appeal lifts their ban automatically.
What a banned or suspended member sees
- A suspended member who tries to sign in sees "Your account is suspended until {date}. You'll be able to sign in again after that." A suspension can't be appealed.
- A banned member who tries to sign in is taken to an appeal page that shows the ban reason. They can explain why the ban should be lifted, and their appeal appears in Admin → Moderation → Appeals. See Appeal a moderation decision and Review member appeals.
- A warned member gets the notification "You received a warning from a moderator:" followed by the reason category. They can't appeal a warning; a member who disagrees can contact your admins.
Restrict a member in one space
Space admins and space moderators can restrict a member in one space without affecting the rest of the community:
- Web: open the space, click Manage → Members, open the member's menu, and choose Ban Member, Mute Member, or Remove from space.
- App: open the space's menu and tap Manage space → Members.
- From a report: in the space's review queue, choose Ban author from space.
The member gets a notification and sees a banner in the space, such as "You're muted in this space until {deadline}." See Add space moderators.
Remove a member without banning them
Remove from community is in the same actions menu on a member's profile. It signs the member out everywhere and removes their access groups, space memberships, and course enrollments and progress, but their posts stay. By default they get an email saying they were removed, without a reason. If they join again through your community's usual way of joining, they get their old account and posts back. To keep someone out, ban them instead. You can't remove a member who is banned or suspended. See Find and manage members.
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