If you are fortunate enough to be on one of our publisher plans, you will see more options in your left nav. If you're interested in upgrading your plan, please contact [email protected].
Where are my comments?
To find your comments index, log in to your SquareOffs account, and click on the comment icon, located close to the top of the left nav. Here, you can navigate between Pending, Approved, Removed, and All Comments.
Pending comments are not published and must be approved for visibility on the SquareOff. Comments are moved to the Pending section based on previously determined settings.
The last column in the comments table is labeled Scroll to the right of the Pending section and click Approve or Remove on each comment to publish to your site or remove permanently from your SquareOff. If you change your mind later, you can always go to the removed tab to mark previously removed comments as approved and display them on your SquareOff.
If a user would like to comment, are they obliged to sign-in?
Yes, users do need to sign in to comment. We do this primarily to keep it a healthy conversation, as it helps prevent offensive comments and spam. It also helps foster community, where users are interacting with familiar faces.
End users can create an account via Google or Facebook in the embed and this does create a SquareOffs account. Publishers and creators can also create an account with their email address at SquareOffs.com, but we've chosen social auth on the embed for quick and easy sign-in.
How does SquareOffs moderate comments?
We provide a self-serve platform to moderate comments and also have our own standards. Our platform moderates comments using three methods:
AI moderation
Our AI moderation applies a toxicity score to each comment from 0 to 1, with 1 being the most inappropriate. As a company, we currently set a threshold of .7, but each account can make this more stringent based on your preference.
This tech was developed using machine learning that was optimized using millions of comments across various sites and how moderators managed those comments.
Flagged words filter
Database of inappropriate language.
Social moderation
End users flagging a comment as inappropriate
Our default threshold is 3 here, but this can be turned up, down, or off.
If a comment doesn't pass any of the above, it is dropped into a "Pending" queue for review by an administrator and hidden in the comment stream. From there, the admin can approve (reinstate it) or remove the comment.
We're big on preventing any type of bullying. For there to be a healthy debate, people need to feel safe to voice their opinion. All of this being said, the fact that you're framing the conversation with a question, ensuring that people sign in to comment, and the AI moderation, leads to very low rates of actually having to remove a comment. Our average is around 0.5% of comments being removed.
Our own community management at SquareOffs will notice anything scoring particularly high and they take into account our Community Guidelines. For minor insults, we warn the user twice via email. If there is a third or major offense, we disable the user's account. Please keep it respectful, as we'd prefer to have you as part of the conversation!