How to deal with spam content

NationBuilder does a lot to prevent spam from getting into your nation, but if you notice spam getting in, use our report spam feature.

Updated over a week ago

Table of Contents

Report spam content

You can report the following types of user-submitted content as spam:

  • blog post

  • event

  • suggestion

  • comment

  • email sent to a broadcaster (when using NationBuilder Mailboxes)

Reporting content as spam will immediately and irrevocably delete it from your nation.

You can report spam from any activity stream in your control panel. The dashboard section of the control panel displays an activity stream for your nation (Dashboard > Activity).

Click on the arrow to the right of an activity. The "Report spam" option will appear as an option for user-submitted blog posts, events, suggestions, comments, and emails to broadcasters.

Click Report spam.

The activity listing will be removed and replaced by the question "Are you sure?"

Click Yes to report the spam and immediately, irrevocably delete the content. The item will be removed from activity streams. A notice will appear at the top of your control panel.

If you click No, the item will reappear in the activity stream and no action will be taken.

Report spam vs. delete activity

"Report spam" permanently and irrevocably deletes content from your nation.

"Delete activity" removes the activity from all public and private activity streams. The content itself is usually still visible on your website. Comments are the exception, since they are displayed on your website in an activity stream. When you delete a comment from an activity stream in your control panel, it will no longer display on your website. In your control panel, the comment section of a webpage will still include the comment deleted from activity streams. 

If you feel like an activity stream is overwhelmed with a particular type of activity, you can hide it from view. This is done from Settings > Defaults > Dashboards.  More information is available on how activity streams work.

Report spammer

If you notice one person has left a lot of spam on your website, you can report the person as a spammer and delete all content they've created.

From a list of profiles, click the arrow on the right side of the profile and then click Edit [person's name]. (You can also just click on the person's name to access their profile.)

This will take you to the Edit > Settings area of their profile.

In the bottom right corner you'll see three options. Click on Report spam.

A pop-up window will appear to confirm that you want to report spam, remove the person from your database, and delete all user-generated content posted by the person.

Click OK to permanently delete the content, remove the profile, and report spam. If you click Cancel, the profile will remain in your database. 

Related HOWTOs

Did this answer your question?