This is part one of a two part series on YouTube Live Stream Moderation. As a moderator for several larger YouTubers, I wanted to share my thoughts and experience with the greater community. Watch the video below, and the show notes are listed for you as well.

Part one is all about you as a streamer and a YouTuber applying moderation features to your channel, and selecting people for your moderation team. Here we go!

Why have comment/live chat moderators?

As your channel grows, and your live stream audience increases, it will quickly become difficult to “self moderate” your live stream chats. This necessitates the implementation of both moderation filters and real-life moderators on your live streams.

Moderation options – filters and third party apps

YouTube provide some basic moderation and filtering options that work on both live stream chats and video comments. Go to your Creator Studio, click on Community and then Community Settings. The top section called Automated filters is all about moderation. The two key sections for automation are the Blocked words and Block links. I recommend checking the Block links box, which will stop anyone posting links in your chat and comments (you and your moderators and approved users are exempt). Blocked Words is the secret sauce of YouTube live chat moderation. Any set of words or phrases you do not want to appear in your comments or streams can be added here (including cuss words). Comments and chat messages that contain these words/phrases will be hidden for moderator approval before appearing.

Advanced third party tools like Nightbot can also assist as a “virtual” moderator, but I recommend that if you do use tools like Nightbot, you study the options very carefully and test the settings so that Nightbot does not take over your live chat! If you want a video on NightBot, leave a comment below!

What to look for when choosing a moderator for your live streams

Before adding moderators to your channel, there are some things to consider about choosing them. 

1. Where do I find them? Well, you could consider friends and family of course, but the best source of moderator talent, is your loyal fan base. 
2. Trustworthy – pick someone you have a track record with – people who have earned your trust (even on an internet friend level)
3. Loyal – they have been a regular medium-long term supporter of your channel. They have been a regular in live streams.
4. Helpful – the person is community minded, already helping out on the live stream, answering questions, pointing people in the right direction.
5. Like-minded – choose people that are aligned with your beliefs in regards to what your channel is about. 

How to go about adding someone as a channel moderator

• Adding moderators to your channel – Creator Studio -> Community -> Community Settings -> Automated Filters -> Moderators – paste the full channel URL
• Adding a moderator during a stream – find the person in chat, and click on the three dots. 

That’s it! Once a person/channel has been added, there are ready to go! Moderators names appear in blue in the chat next to a blue wrench.