What hiding does
Hiding a comment removes it from public view on the network. The comment is not deleted, and you can unhide it at any time. In the Inbox, a hidden comment carries a Hidden badge. Hover over the badge to see what it means: “Hidden on the network — the public cannot see this comment.”
Hide or unhide a comment
- Open a conversation in the Inbox.
- Hover over the comment and click the … menu next to it.
- Choose Hide comment. To reverse it, open the same menu on a hidden comment and choose Unhide comment.
The badge changes as soon as you click. If the network rejects the change, you see “Failed to hide comment” or “Failed to unhide comment” and the comment goes back to how it was.
Which comments you can hide
You can hide comments on these networks:
| Network | What you can hide |
|---|---|
| Bluesky | Comments and replies on your posts |
| Comments and replies on your posts | |
| Comments and replies on your posts | |
| Threads | Top-level replies to your posts only. Threads does not allow hiding a reply to another reply. |
| YouTube | Comments and replies on your videos |
The … menu only appears on comments you can hide. It does not appear on:
- your own account’s comments and replies
- comments on someone else’s post where your account was mentioned
- networks not listed above
Note
On YouTube, a comment you hide shows the badge Held for review instead of Hidden, because YouTube holds the comment for review rather than hiding it. Its … menu offers Unhide comment to publish it again.
Who can hide comments
Hiding and unhiding need the Write Comments permission on the account, the same permission you need to reply. There is no separate moderation permission.
Deleting a comment
You can’t delete a comment from CivAll. If a comment must be removed, delete it on the network itself.
When the network reports that a comment was deleted, the Inbox keeps it as a record with a Deleted badge. You can still read it, but you can no longer reply to it, like it or hide it.
Tip
Comments that a network hid, held or filtered on its own also show a badge, such as Held for review, Spam or Restricted. Hover over a badge to see what it means.
Where hides are recorded
Each hide and unhide you make in CivAll is recorded in the conversation’s Activity panel, with who did it and when. Hides made directly on the network update the comment’s badge in the Inbox but are not added to the Activity panel. See Working the Inbox as a team.
Post your moderation policy as a comment
To tell residents how you moderate comments, you can add a scheduled comment to a post when you compose it:
- In the composer, click Add scheduled interactions in a network’s options.
- Write your policy, for example “Comments on this page are moderated. To contact the City, visit our website.”
- Choose when it posts: Immediately, Delay or Schedule.
A scheduled comment is added to one post at a time. You add it again on each post where you want it. Scheduled comments work on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn, YouTube and Nextdoor. See Scheduled comments & shares.