# Moderators and approvals: who helps run a community, and who gets in

> A moderator is a member you trust to help keep a community tidy. They can pin, spotlight, mark the answer to a question, hold a post for you to review and delete a post that should not be there. They can never delete your posts, remove anyone or change settings: those stay with you.

Last updated 2026-10-15 · Source: https://prolaud.com/help/community-moderators

## Make someone a moderator

1. Open Communities and find a post written by the person.
2. Press ⋯ on their post, then Make (their name) a moderator.
3. They are told in the app: “You're now a moderator of (the community)”. A Moderator badge appears beside their name on their posts.

You can also do it from the community's Directory tab. To take it back, choose Make (their name) a member in the same menu. If they leave the community, they stop being a moderator.

## What a moderator can and cannot do

![The ⋯ menu as a moderator sees it on a phone: Mark answered, Pin to top, Spotlight, Hold for review and Delete](https://prolaud.com/help/community-wall/08-moderator-menu.png)

*What a moderator sees in the ⋯ menu on a member's post. On your own posts there is no Delete.*

- A moderator can: pin and spotlight posts, hold a post or a reply for review, delete a member's post, mark a question answered, and make polls.
- A moderator cannot: delete your posts or someone's reply, remove or block anyone, make someone a moderator, or change the community's settings. Every post a moderator deletes is listed, with who did it, in the moderation log under Insights.
- A member can: write, reply, react and vote; edit or delete what they wrote; and mark their own question answered.
- You, the teacher, can do all of it.

> **Note:** The rules are checked by Prolaud's server, not only hidden in the menu: a moderator who tried to delete one of your posts another way would be refused.

Hold for review is the moderator's tool for something that should not be on the wall. The post disappears for everyone except you, its writer and the moderators, and waits in Needs you on your Communities page until you put it back or delete it.

![The Needs you strip on the teacher's Communities page](https://prolaud.com/help/community-wall/07-teacher-needs-you.png)

*Needs you: questions waiting for an answer, and posts held for review.*

## Approve who joins, and new members' first posts

![The community's access settings: Approve each request, and post approval for all spaces set to new members' first post](https://prolaud.com/help/community-moderators/01-access-approvals.png)

*Community settings → Access.*

- Approve each request: an open community's Join (or its invite link) becomes Ask to join. Requests wait in Needs you with Approve and Decline; you and your moderators decide.
- Post approval, per space: none, a new member's first post, or every post. A post that waits is marked Waiting for approval for its writer, and waits in Needs you.
- Members can post Sparks: short vertical videos (see the teacher's tools guide).

![Needs you with a join request and Approve](https://prolaud.com/help/community-moderators/02-needs-you-join.png)

*A join request: one click to let them in.*

![A student's first post marked Waiting for approval](https://prolaud.com/help/community-moderators/03-student-waiting.png)

*What the member sees while their first post waits.*

## The moderation log

![The moderation log in the Insights tab: who let someone in and who approved a post, with times](https://prolaud.com/help/community-moderators/04-moderation-log.png)

*Insights → Moderation log: every approval, pin and hold, and who did it.*

## Related

- [Your Communities wall](https://prolaud.com/help/community-wall)
- [Messages](https://prolaud.com/help/community-messages)