Using the spam filter to prevent spam in Help Center

The Help Center spam filter prevents new and edited end-user posts and comments that appear to be spam from being published to your Help Center. Suspicious content is sent to a spam queue where you can review and manage the content.

You must be a Guide admin to enable the spam filter and manage the spam queue.

Note: If spam is not filtered, and appears in your Help Center, you can manually remove it by marking it as spam (see Marking content as spam and removing). The filter learns to better identify spam based on what you've marked.

This article covers the following topics:

• Enabling the spam filter
• Receiving notifications for content in the spam queue
• Managing your spam queue
• Updating your custom theme to support the spam filter

Related article:

• Spam filter to preventing and managing spam

Enabling the spam filter

The spam filter is enabled by default when you create your Help Center. The spam filter prevents new and edited end-user posts and comments that appear to be spam from being published to your Help Center.

You cannot disable the spam filter, but you can receive notifications when content is sent to the spam queue, and also manage the content that is sent to the spam queue, for example, by marking content as not spam.

Note: If you're using a custom Help Center theme that was created before April 1, 2014, you need to update your theme to use the spam filter (see Updating your custom theme to support the spam filter).

Receiving notifications for content in the spam queue

You can subscribe to the spam queue so that you are alerted when there is content in the queue. The queue is checked every two hours, and if there is content in the queue, you will receive an email notification.

Note: When you subscribe to the spam queue, you also subscribe to the content moderation queue, if you are on Guide Professional and have content moderation enabled.

To receive notifications for the spam queue

1. In Guide, click the Moderate Content () icon in the sidebar, then select Spam.
2. Click Follow in the upper-right corner.

   You will receive a notification if there is content in the spam queue when it is checked every two hours. You will also receive notifications for the content moderation queue, if it's enabled.

Managing your spam queue

From your spam queue, you can delete content, suspend the user, or mark content as not spam. You can bulk delete all the content in the spam queue at the same time if you want to.

If you don't take action on content in your spam queue, it is deleted after 30 days.

To manage content in the spam queue

1. In Guide, click the Moderate Content () icon in the sidebar, then select Spam.
2. To take action on a post, select the check box next to it and click one of the following:
   • Delete to permanently delete the post and remove it from your spam queue
   • Not spam to publish the post
   • Suspend user to suspend the user and delete all of the user's posts
     

     If you don't take action on content, it is automatically deleted after 30 days.

To manage user content in the content moderation queue, click User content (see Reviewing user content in the content moderation queue).

To bulk delete content in the spam queue

1. In Guide, click the Moderate Content () icon in the sidebar, then select Spam.
2. Click Delete all spam now.

   

Updating your custom theme to support the spam filter

If you're using a custom Help Center theme created before April 1, 2014, you need to add some extra styling to your stylesheet to support the spam filter.

The following new HTML elements have been added:

• Article page
  • section element with class "pending-comments-list"
  • span element with class "pending-moderation-comment-badge"
• Question page
  • section element with class "pending-answers-list"
  • span element with class "pending-moderation-answer-badge"

Add the following to your custom theme stylesheet:

.pending-moderation-comment-badge, .pending-moderation-answer-badge {
border-style: solid;
border-width: 1px;
border-color: #c7aa2b;
color: #c7aa2b;
padding: 3px5px;
margin-top: 10px;
font-size: 12px;
}

For detailed instructions, see the Customizing the CSS or JavaScript section in Customizing the Help Center.