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Quick Setup

After installing and activating the plugin, three things need to be in place before filtering starts working:

  1. A blocked keyword list
  2. At least one content type selected for filtering
  3. The replacement character and rendering mode set to your preference

Step 1 — Set your blocked keywords

Section titled “Step 1 — Set your blocked keywords”

Go to WB Plugins > BuddyPress Profanity > General Settings.

In the Blocked Keywords card, you will find a text field. Enter the words you want to filter, separated by commas. Keywords are not case-sensitive by default (controlled by the Case Matching setting below).

If you want to start with the built-in default list, click Reset to Default. This replaces whatever is in the field with the plugin’s default word list and saves it.

For large word lists, use the Bulk Save tab instead — it gives you a textarea where you can paste a comma-separated list without the field size limitation.

Note: Keywords shorter than three characters are ignored by the filter.

Step 2 — Choose what to filter

Section titled “Step 2 — Choose what to filter”

Still on the General Settings tab, scroll to the Filter Scope card. You will see toggles for each available content type:

  • Status Updates
  • Activity Comments
  • Messages
  • bbPress Forums, Topics and Replies Title (only shown if bbPress is active)
  • bbPress Forums, Topics and Replies Content (only shown if bbPress is active)

Turn on every content type you want filtered. If nothing is enabled, the plugin collects keywords but filters nothing.

Step 3 — Choose how filtered words appear

Section titled “Step 3 — Choose how filtered words appear”

In the Word Rendering card, pick how a blocked word looks to readers after masking:

Option Example (blog)
First letter retained b***
Last letter retained ***g
First and last letter retained b**g
All letters removed ****

In the Filter Character card, pick the replacement symbol: asterisk (*), dollar ($), question mark (?), exclamation mark (!), hyphen (-), hash (#), tilde (~), or blank space.

Step 4 — Save

Section titled “Step 4 — Save”

Click Save Changes at the bottom of the General Settings form. Filtering takes effect on the next page load.

Section titled “Recommended defaults”

For most communities, these settings work well out of the box:

  • Case Matching: Case Insensitive — catches more variations
  • Strict Filtering: On — filters keywords embedded in larger words
  • Word Rendering: First and last letter retained — readers can usually identify what was filtered, discouraging circumvention attempts

Testing your setup

Section titled “Testing your setup”

After saving, open a BuddyPress activity page in a separate browser tab. Post an activity update that includes one of your blocked keywords. The post should appear with the keyword masked when you view the activity stream.

The original word is still stored in the database. If you deactivate the plugin, the unmasked content will reappear.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”