Moderator Journey

You’re not the site owner. You don’t need access to settings, payment gateways, or plugin code. You DO need to approve / reject / triage everything the operator delegates to you: pending listings, flagged reviews, pending claims, user reports. The Pro Moderators feature gives you exactly those tools and nothing more.

Who this is for

• Community manager for a large directory
• Junior team member doing first-line review approval
• Vetted vendor trusted to approve their own category’s listings
• Outsourced agency handling moderation for multiple client directories

Stage 1 - You get invited (~5 minutes, one-time)

What happens:

1. Site Owner goes to Listora → Moderators in the admin (admin-only - that page requires manage_listora_moderators which only admins hold).
2. Adds your WordPress user account to the moderators list with selected scopes (Listings / Reviews / Claims / Reports).
3. You receive an email notification when assigned.
4. Log in - your sidebar surfaces only the moderation-relevant Listora screens (All Listings, Reviews, Claims, Reports). You do NOT see Settings, Pricing Plans, Coupons, Webhooks, Audit Log, Email Log, or the Moderators page itself.

Stage 2 - Daily triage (~15-30 minutes/day)

What you expect: clear separate queues for each pending item type, with enough info to decide approve/reject in seconds.

What you do - each pending type lives on its own admin page (there’s no single unified inbox; the separation is intentional so capability gating stays clean):

1. Pending listings - Listora → All Listings → filter by Pending. Row actions: Approve / Reject / Edit / Trash. Bulk-moderate (up to 100 IDs) via POST /listora/v1/listings/bulk-moderate.
2. Pending reviews - Listora → Reviews. Filter by pending status; per-row approve / reject / edit / hide.
3. Pending claims - Listora → Claims. Each row shows claimant + proof file + approve / reject.
4. Reports - Listora → Reports. Filed by visitors via the Report link on listings.
5. Status notifications fire automatically - submitters get the appropriate email per Settings → Notifications event toggles.

Stage 3 - Per-listing review (~30 seconds per item)

What you expect: see the listing exactly as a visitor would, plus admin context (IP, submitter history, anti-spam flags).

What you experience:

1. Click into a pending listing.
2. Top of the page: admin-only bar showing submitter, IP, anti-spam flags, prior approval count.
3. Below: the listing rendered as visitors will see it.
4. Approve → transitions to publish, owner gets listing_approved email.
5. Reject → transitions to listora_rejected, owner gets listing_rejected email with the note you wrote.

Stage 4 - Claim approval (~1 minute per item)

What you expect: verify the proof, transfer ownership, move on.

What you do:

1. Open the pending claim.
2. Download / preview the proof document the claimant uploaded.
3. If legitimate → Approve → post_author transfers to the claimant + they get claim_approved email.
4. If suspicious → Reject + add a note (e.g. “Proof document was for a different business - please re-upload”).

Stage 5 - Review moderation (~10 seconds per item)

What you expect: scan the review, decide if it’s spam / personal attack / valid criticism.

What you do:

1. Look at the review row in the Reviews queue.
2. Quick decision based on rating + content + reviewer history:

• Approve → goes live; reviewer + listing owner get notification emails.
• Reject → goes to rejected status; reviewer is silently notified (no public airing of the issue).
• Edit → fix typos or trim profanity without rejecting (rare).
• Mark as spam → routed to Akismet learning.

Stage 6 - Handle reports (~1 minute per item)

What you expect: see WHY something was reported, decide.

What you do:

1. Reports queue shows: reporter, reported item, reason (spam / inappropriate / wrong category / duplicate / other), optional note.
2. For each report:

• Resolve as no-action → mark addressed, no change to the reported item.
• Hide the item → remove from public view pending Site Owner review.
• Delete → permanently remove (requires extended caps).

What you can and cannot do

You CAN	You CANNOT
Approve / reject pending listings	Edit Settings
Approve / reject pending reviews	Manage Pricing Plans
Approve / reject business claims	Manage Coupons
Resolve reports	View Webhooks
Hide flagged content	View Audit Log
Add admin notes	Manage Moderators (only Site Owner can)
See pending-item counts in dashboard	See revenue / Transactions
Use bulk-moderate operations	Modify the moderator list

This separation is enforced by capability gating - the moderator caps grant exactly these surfaces and nothing else.

What you do NOT have to do

• No Worry about email delivery - auto-notifications fire on every transition.
• No Manually track who reported what - Reports queue is the audit trail.
• No Edit settings to enable a feature - Site Owner controls toggles.
• No Manage the moderator list yourself - only Site Owner can add/remove moderators.

Common pitfalls

Pitfall	Avoid by
Approving a low-quality listing because you didn’t read the description	Always click into the listing detail before approving
Rejecting a valid claim because proof format is unfamiliar	Ask the Site Owner; err on side of “more info” via admin note
Bulk-approving without spot-checking	Sample 1-in-10 manually before bulk-action
Reviewing the same item twice	Approved/rejected items disappear from queue - use filter chips to re-find

Related

• Site Owner Journey - what the operator does (different scope).
• Listing Owner Journey - what submitters experience (different role).
• Moderators feature - full moderators feature doc.
• Moderation Queue feature - the unified queue.
• Capabilities & Roles - the cap map that gates everything above.
• Audit Log - every moderation action is recorded.