Tips and tricks for moderating your online debate

Through the moderation module you manage your online debate. With Bpart, you choose per project how you moderate: beforehand (pre-moderation) or afterwards with AI as a safety net (post-moderation). You are always free to shape your role as moderator, but we're happy to share a few tips, examples and best practices!

Why moderate?

• With moderation you safeguard the quality of your process. You check for inappropriate content and keep the debate on topic.
• Thanks to e-mail notifications you re-engage participants and can ask them to clarify anything unclear.
• With active moderation you show that you're actively listening: you signal that the input of citizens or participants matters.

The role of the moderator

• As a moderator you are the referee of the online debate. You look for a balance in being (not too) strict. Compare it to football: a referee who pulls cards too quickly and doesn't let the game flow makes the match no fun anymore. The most important thing is that you are transparent about the rules.
• You are the manager of the online debate: you manage the platform, guide the discussion and ask follow-up questions where needed.

Pre- or post-moderation: which do you choose?

Neither mode is better than the other: the process determines the tool, not the other way around. AI stays active as a safety net in both cases, and you always keep the final say. Three questions help you choose:

1. How many entries do you expect? Many entries? Then post-moderation saves time. With a limited number, that workload matters less.
2. How sensitive is the topic? Sensitive or politically charged? Then you often want control beforehand (pre-moderation). Low-threshold? Then entries can more easily go online right away.
3. Do the numbers matter? For a vote, a mobility dossier or where action groups are expected, pre-moderation lets you filter out duplicates and noise in advance. If duplicates do no harm, feel free to let entries through immediately.

Choose pre-moderation if you want control beforehand, want to see every entry (including the strong but less visible voice), or want to stay close to what's going on.

Choose post-moderation if you want a smooth, lively debate, expect many entries, or the topic is low-threshold. Note: with post-moderation you're a bit less "in" the ideas during the project, and AI checks language and toxicity, not relevance. A neatly written entry that has nothing to do with your topic will get through, so reading entries now and then remains useful.

Two examples from practice:

• A regional debate on care gathered thousands of ideas in a very low-threshold way → post-moderation, because it saved a lot of time and kept the debate lively.
• A local authority worked on a new building code, a more sensitive topic with fewer but more important entries → deliberately pre-moderation to keep control.

You can also flexibly adjust the moderation mode across the phases of your project (a change only applies to new entries). Here's how to set up moderation for your project.

Moderating in practice

With post-moderation, AI already helps you by flagging potentially inappropriate entries, but the judgement calls below remain your work.

1. Set clear rules: for this you typically have an "about" or "house rules" page in your project.
2. Evaluate the entry and apply the rules: publish what's fine, don't publish what isn't.
3. In doubt? Forward the entry to a colleague to look at it together. You can do this directly from the moderation module.
4. Start your analysis while moderating: add relevant tags and note any thoughts, quotes ... in your moderation notes.
5. Always give transparent feedback via the e-mail module, where you also have e-mail templates in your platform.

Approve - publish - put online

You can publish entries as is, but you can also edit them before approving.

• Don't touch the content
• Do correct any typos, add punctuation or add an image
• Mention clear edits in your feedback e-mail

Reject - don't publish - take offline - send feedback

Always send a feedback e-mail when you don't publish an entry.

• Why isn't the entry going online?
• What's a suggestion for a better entry?
• Always positive and encouraging

Forward internally or externally

• Entries that are hard to assess or need discussion ("Does this meet the house rules in your view?")
• Entries that don't belong to the project but are relevant ("This is a comment from a citizen that may be relevant for your department")

Always send a feedback e-mail to the participant too!

Putting offline entries online

Sometimes you receive entries via other channels: think of postcards or a flyer in the municipal magazine. You can put these online by clicking the relevant topic in ideation and adding an entry there.

You can also receive entries by phone or via social media, channels you don't specifically use for your project. You can add these yourself OR refer citizens to the platform. Both choices have pros and cons, but there's no right or wrong. The most important thing is to create clarity.

Keywords: moderating, moderation, pre-moderation, premoderation, post-moderation, postmoderation, moderation mode, moderator, feedback, tags, artificial intelligence, AI

Updated on: 14/09/2026