Helm › Helm University › Track 8 › Lesson 8.6
Lesson 8.6Chat, moderators, and what they cannot touch
Appoint once, covers every stream, and deliberately reaches nothing commercial.
Prefer to listen? This is the same lesson, word for word. The text below is the transcript.
This lesson prepares you to: Set up moderation for a show and know precisely where a moderator's power stops.
What you can do in your own chat
- Post with images, video, audio or GIFs. Viewers can only attach GIFs.
- Pin one message at a time. Pinning a new one clears the old.
- Delete any message.
- Silence somebody for this stream or permanently.
- Block somebody, which also blocks direct messages and removes their messages from the room.
Messages are up to 2,000 characters with up to 4 attachments. A pin can be set to last up to an hour, or left until you clear it.
Chat only works while a stream is actually live. Before and after, it is closed.
Appointing a moderator
You appoint moderators by handle or by user, and there is no limit on how many.
The important detail: an appointment is per creator, not per stream. Appoint somebody once and they can moderate every live room you ever open. There is no way to give somebody power over one show only.
What a moderator can do
Pin and unpin messages, delete messages, silence and unsilence viewers, and block viewers. A block placed by a moderator is recorded as your block rather than theirs, which is worth knowing before you hand the power out.
What a moderator cannot do
This is the part that matters for a selling show, and the line is drawn cleanly.
| Moderators cannot |
|---|
| Stage or unstage a product |
| Pin or unpin a product |
| Switch shopping mode |
| Create or close a poll |
| Go live, end a stream or read your stats |
| Appoint other moderators |
Every commercial control checks that you own the stream. A moderator can run your room and cannot touch your shop, which is the right split when you are handing the job to somebody you know socially rather than employ.
The documentation understates them
A note in Helm's own source says moderators can pin, unpin and delete messages and have no other power. That comment is out of date: the real gate also grants silence, unsilence and block. Assume the powers listed above, not the comment.
One protection for minors, automatically
To a signed out reader, a message from a kid or teen keeps its text but loses the child's name, photo and identity. Signed in viewers, including you and your moderators, see it unchanged. You do not have to configure this and you cannot turn it off.
What is not there
No slow mode, no follower only or subscriber only chat, no word filters, no link blocking, no caps filter and no per person rate limit. Moderation is people, not automation. Plan your show accordingly if you expect a difficult room.