Moderation

The Moderation tab under Settings (in the Communication group on the beta channel) manages a server-side word filter applied to guest comments before they are stored. Useful for blocking obvious slurs, spam terms, or competitor names without forcing every comment into a manual review queue.

How it works

When a guest submits a comment, the backend checks the text against the word filter (case-insensitive, whole-word match). Each word carries a severity, and the most severe match decides what happens:

A comment without a match goes through the gallery’s own rule: with moderate_comments on it waits for approval, otherwise it is published at once. A comment that looks like spam (for example mostly capital letters, links, email addresses or phone numbers) is held as well.

The same filter applies to the note a guest adds when finishing a selection, where a Block match refuses the note.

Managing the filter

The tab embeds the Word Filter Manager component:

• Add a word — input field, a severity (Low, Moderate, High, Block) and Add. Words are case-insensitive.
• Edit a word or its severity, or delete it.
• Search the list.

Words are stored in the feedback_word_filters table. The backend caches the active list for five minutes, so a change can take that long to reach every comment check.

Per-event override

Per-gallery settings (under Settings → Guest interaction on the gallery page) can layer on additional rules:

• moderate_comments: true — every comment goes to the moderation queue, unless the filter already blocks it
• require_name_email: true — comments need a name (or name + email) before they can be posted
• allow_comments: false — comments disabled entirely for this event

Held comments are approved or deleted on the gallery’s Guests & Feedback tab.

Holding uploads for review

This tab only covers comments. Photos can be held as well, per gallery, on the beta channel. Stable (v3.134.x) has neither switch. See Release Channels.

Holding guest uploads

Beta channel only, from v3.171.0-beta.0 (PicPeak PR #1949 ).

Approve guest uploads before they are published, under the guest upload settings in the gallery’s Settings → Guest interaction, is off by default. Switched on:

• Everything that comes in through the gallery’s upload dialog stays hidden from guests and clients until you or a reviewer approve it. That includes uploads made from a client PIN session or your admin preview.
• The guest sees a note after uploading that the photos appear once approved.
• The notification bell gets one entry per gallery that counts up as uploads arrive.
• Held uploads count towards the gallery’s photo limit, so the limit cannot be bypassed.
• The photo.uploaded webhook fires on approval, not on upload.
• Switching the setting off leaves photos that are already waiting as they are.

Holding team uploads

Beta channel only, from v3.167.0-beta.0 (PicPeak PR #1858 ). Review team members’ uploads before they are published, in the gallery’s Settings → General next to the gallery team, holds uploads from team members whose role lacks the Review Team Uploads (photos.review) permission. See Multi-Admin.

Reviewing

Held photos appear on the gallery’s Photos tab with a Pending review badge that names the source (Guest or Team, with the uploader’s name), and a review bar with Pending review and Rejected filters. Approve publishes a photo; Reject keeps it hidden as rejected, from where it can still be approved or deleted. Nothing is deleted automatically. Approving is the only way to publish a held photo: the hide/show toggle does not work on it. Client PIN sessions neither see nor approve held photos.

To hide individual photos from guests without a review step, use the Client Access mode — see Creating Events → Client Access.