Discord adds tools for moderators to automatically filter content

[Daniel Sims]

In brief: As Discord's popularity rises, some communities are getting too big to manually moderate, and the platform is increasingly becoming an attractive target for cyberattacks. A new feature released this week helps moderators address these growing problems with automatic keyword filtering.

Discord describes its latest feature called AutoMod as a tool to help moderators screen content when there's too much server traffic to monitor alone, filtering out certain words and phrases. AutoMod will complement human mod teams and mod bots, not replace them.

By default, AutoMod will check text against one of Discord's multiple pre-set keyword lists and block messages containing the usual inappropriate content like slurs or NSFW material. Discord will update these lists over time, but for now it won't publish their contents so users can't counteract them.

Moderators can also tell AutoMod to catch custom keywords and determine what happens to offending messages. Alongside blocking messages and timing out users, the feature can also simply deliver automated warnings or advice on how to properly spell a keyword. For the time being, non-English servers will need to set custom lists because the default keywords are English-only.

Users will inevitably try to circumvent word filters through alternate spelling. AutoMod's Wildcards feature tries to stop this by letting moderators scan for keywords within other words. It's also designed to handle words spelled with numbers or other characters.

Moderators can set up AutoMod in Settings > Content Moderation, where they will find the ready-made keyword lists and custom keyword settings. To receive AutoMod alerts, moderators need to direct them towards a channel, ideally one that only admins and moderators can access.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/94989-discord-adds-tools-moderators-automatically-filter-content.html

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Maybe you guys can use them and delete all the pathetic political posts in what I thought was tech site. Often it's as bad as wccftech here.

 

[Hexic]

Maybe you guys can use them and delete all the pathetic political posts in what I thought was tech site. Often it's as bad as wccftech here.

Have you been to Ars, or any other mainstream tech site in the last decade? It's unavoidable, and tech very commonly ties in with politics on a daily basis.

Anywho - on topic: After watching that video - WEEB ALERT.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Maybe you guys can use them and delete all the pathetic political posts in what I thought was tech site. Often it's as bad as wccftech here.

Well your post would have been deleted then...

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

Hexic is right. EVERYTHING is tied into politics. Want to add a trans-gender character into GTA VII?…that’s political. Want to talk about chip shortages?…..political. Want to discuss mining and its relationship to energy usage/global warming?…political. Weaponry in Call of Duty?….political.It’s the world we live in now.

 

[SG736F6]

Somewhat ironically, the guy complaining about politics in the comments has turned the comments into politics.

Also, I run a Discord server. This new feature may be very handy for me. My first thought is to automatically boot anyone who mentions politics.

 

[Last1Standing]

 

[RudyBob]

Hexic is right. EVERYTHING is tied into politics.

Charles Krauthammer explained it best.

 

[Ojref]

Instead of censorship, how about not being a sensitive little doof and letting bad words on the internet hurt you? You can choose to adopt a better stance and actually not be bothered by it. Or take it as constructive criticism and actually question and reflect upon aspects of your lifestyle that others may find offensive. It could lead to an epiphany that has a positive change on your mental health and worldview. Or gain insight on other's prejudices. Just saying.

 

[Inthenstus]

How’s “Who let the dogs out” offensive?

 

[Hexic]

Instead of censorship, how about not being a sensitive little doof and letting bad words on the internet hurt you? You can choose to adopt a better stance and actually not be bothered by it. Or take it as constructive criticism and actually question and reflect upon aspects of your lifestyle that others may find offensive. It could lead to an epiphany that has a positive change on your mental health and worldview. Or gain insight on other's prejudices. Just saying.

Now that the technology exists to moderate content, humans are too emotionally fragile and lazy to handle the concept of someone (even whom they've never met) insult them. Growing up before the Internet was the beast it was today, and experiencing the initial surge... It was somewhat entertaining watching the kids try and hurl insults at each other. Shows who is intelligent and who's probably going to be working fast food/retail for the rest of their lives.

But alas, it's [allegedly] so incredibly difficult to parent children and moderate them on the Internet, so private industry and the government now have to do the job for the parents instead.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Automatic filters - Almost a good idea.

The problem with automatic filters is that they lack the ability to understand context. If Discord wants better moderation, HIRE MORE MODS!

 

[BSim500]

Well your post would have been deleted then...

Somewhat ironically, the guy complaining about politics in the comments has turned the comments into politics.

OP isn't wrong though, and many of us can very easily tell the difference between one person pointing out once that Techspot has gradually become a lot more political than many other tech sites over the past couple of years vs the endless crusade by the same handful of "personalities" to use "everything is political these days" as some 'go-ahead' to unhealthily turn this site into a Fox vs MSNBC screech-fest on an almost daily basis...

 

[Hexic]

OP isn't wrong though, and many of us can very easily tell the difference between one person pointing out once that Techspot has gradually become a lot more political than many other tech sites over the past couple of years vs the endless crusade by the same handful of "personalities" to use "everything is political these days" as some 'go-ahead' to unhealthily turn this site into a Fox vs MSNBC screech-fest on an almost daily basis...

I haven't found a mainstream tech site that isn't political.

In fact, looking at Wired today for one prime example, their "Top Picks" section has two articles right at the top:

The Unwritten Laws of Physics for Black Women and Lightyear and the Fight Over Queer Visibility

TS has it pretty mild compared to other very large Tech sites (I.e. example above) who blatantly profess author bias from the get-go... Before anything even hits the comment section.

TS commenters are free to have their own opinions, as is the site.. however if you look at other sites first before trying to look at TS, you're comparing an apple to a hand grenade.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

OP isn't wrong though, and many of us can very easily tell the difference between one person pointing out once that Techspot has gradually become a lot more political than many other tech sites over the past couple of years vs the endless crusade by the same handful of "personalities" to use "everything is political these days" as some 'go-ahead' to unhealthily turn this site into a Fox vs MSNBC screech-fest on an almost daily basis...

As the Western economies falter due to various reasons (debt/sanctions/taxes etc.) it will become more polarized as more people seek extreme ideologies trying to find a way to fix it, which then leads to conflict between ideological groups.