Everything in moderation

Moderation is, well, you know, when you try to keep people from saying stuff you don't want them to.  Like four-letter words.  You could also use it when your paranoid boss wants to keep all your users from even mentioning the name of Sproingfarb Widgets, your Evil Competitor, but that's not generally encouraged.

Everything starts with the objectionable words list, which you can set in the Control Panel.  Objectionable words can also be set on a folder-by-folder basis, in case you have a site where you have significantly different constituencies posting within two different parts of your site.

Webcrossing has never provided an official objectionable words list, because what is objectionable in one group might be perfectly acceptable elsewhere.  For example, letting fifth grade boys discuss "breasts" might not be what you want to do, but forbidding it in a site full of breast cancer survivors would be just plain dumb.  So it's up to you to be creative, depending on your users, subject matter, and how much you can trust them to act like halfway civilized adults.

Once you have the objectionable words defined, there are various levels of enforcement available within Webcrossing, ranging from total control to a mild "tsk tsk."

• Nothing is checked by a human before posting, but objectionable words are replaced by the likes of @#$%
  
  This is the "tsk tsk" option.  It really is just a reminder, because the actual replaced word is available in the HTML source and email notifications and elsewhere the message is re-shown.  So don't use this if you need a bullet-proof solution.
• Only posts Webcrossing thinks might include words from the objectionable words list are checked by a human
  
  This is a pretty good middle ground.  The moderation machinery examines each post to see if it contains a word in the list.  If it thinks there might be one, it holds up the post for approval by a human.  So only questionable material gets held up from being posted immediately.  From the moderation administration screens, the human can edit the post and release it, leave it as is and release it, keep it in the queue for somebody else to decide on, or delete it.
• Every post needs to be approved by a human before it appears on the site
  
  This clearly provides the most protection, but it can be very off-putting to people if their message doesn't appear instantly.  Plus sometimes people get confused and will repost - and repost - and re-repost - in an effort to see their post.  But since you don't actually need an objectionable words list because every post is flagged for moderation, it can save your delicate eyes and ears from creating a list containing all that nastiness.

So whatever you choose, do it - (wait for it; you know what's coming).... in moderation!