In modern online communities, effective moderation is crucial to maintaining a safe and constructive environment. Our goal was to enhance the Restricted Words moderation functionality by integrating Regular Expressions (RegEx), allowing moderators to enforce content policies with greater precision.
YEAR
2023
ROLE
Product Designer
COMPANY
OpenWeb
About the project
This feature was designed for an admin panel used by publishers and community managers to moderate comments and maintain a safe environment.
What are we doing?
Enhancing our Restricted Words moderation functionality to allow partners to use restricted regular expressions (RegEx) instead of exact matched restricted words.
This will be offered in 2 main ways:
Simple: Allowing moderators to set a specific restricted word as an exact or phrase match (”contains”)
Advanced: Allowing moderators to set a restricted regular expression, with support to all common RegEx operators.
Why are we doing this?
Today, restricted words are validated as exact matches, so moderators have to add multiple variations of the same restricted word in order to be able to effectively “catch” all possible permutations and derivatives of this word.
This forces moderators to spend a long time creating multiple variations, resulting in an ineffective and unnecessarily long and complex list of restricted words.
For example, match Word with Different Spellings or Special Characters:
Challenge
Moderators struggle with scalability and efficiency when managing restricted word lists. Spammers easily bypass simple word filters by modifying spellings.
Additionally, non-technical moderators lack regex expertise, making advanced filtering difficult to implement. Our challenge was to create a system that:
- Empowers moderators with regex capabilities while keeping it user-friendly.
- Reduces manual workload by automating word variation detection.
- Prevents errors by validating regex inputs in real-time.
The Goal
Our objective was to design a flexible, intuitive, and efficient content moderation tool that:
- Enables moderators to block words & patterns efficiently (without listing every variation).
- Supports both simple and advanced filtering (words & regex).
- Includes real-time validation to prevent incorrect regex usage.
- Aligns with industry needs, particularly Yahoo & Mail Online’s requirements.
Design
Empty State – Introducing Regex Moderation
The empty state when no restrictions have been applied. The ability to start adding words or Regex expressions via an input field.
Design Rationale:
Minimalist UI – Avoids unnecessary clutter, making it intuitive for new users.
Guides the user towards adding restrictions.
Adding Regex – Easily create advanced moderation rules by switching to Regex mode, entering a pattern.
RegEx Settings – Easily manage restricted words by adding specific terms, choosing match types (exact or contains), and setting moderation actions like requiring approval or automatic rejection.
Removing a RegEx Rule from the List. Delete unwanted RegEx restrictions by accessing the moderation panel, selecting the rule, and clicking delete. Changes take effect immediately, ensuring efficient moderation updates.
Conclusion & Next Steps
This project successfully enhances content moderation by introducing a scalable and efficient approach to filtering inappropriate comments.
Next Steps:
- Monitor adoption and user feedback to refine regex usability.
- Explore AI-powered suggestions for common regex patterns.
- Expand regex usage to user-generated content beyond comments (e.g., article submissions).
Smooth Scroll
This will hide itself!
This will hide itself!
Restricted Regular Expressions
OVERVIEW
In modern online communities, effective moderation is crucial to maintaining a safe and constructive environment. Our goal was to enhance the Restricted Words moderation functionality by integrating Regular Expressions (RegEx), allowing moderators to enforce content policies with greater precision.
YEAR
2023
ROLE
Product Designer
COMPANY
OpenWeb
About the project
This feature was designed for an admin panel used by publishers and community managers to moderate comments and maintain a safe environment.
What are we doing?
Enhancing our Restricted Words moderation functionality to allow partners to use restricted regular expressions (RegEx) instead of exact matched restricted words.
This will be offered in 2 main ways:
Simple: Allowing moderators to set a specific restricted word as an exact or phrase match (”contains”)
Advanced: Allowing moderators to set a restricted regular expression, with support to all common RegEx operators.
Why are we doing this?
Today, restricted words are validated as exact matches, so moderators have to add multiple variations of the same restricted word in order to be able to effectively “catch” all possible permutations and derivatives of this word.
This forces moderators to spend a long time creating multiple variations, resulting in an ineffective and unnecessarily long and complex list of restricted words.
For example, match Word with Different Spellings or Special Characters:
Challenge
Moderators struggle with scalability and efficiency when managing restricted word lists. Spammers easily bypass simple word filters by modifying spellings.
Additionally, non-technical moderators lack regex expertise, making advanced filtering difficult to implement. Our challenge was to create a system that:
- Empowers moderators with regex capabilities while keeping it user-friendly.
- Reduces manual workload by automating word variation detection.
- Prevents errors by validating regex inputs in real-time.
The Goal
Our objective was to design a flexible, intuitive, and efficient content moderation tool that:
- Enables moderators to block words & patterns efficiently (without listing every variation).
- Supports both simple and advanced filtering (words & regex).
- Includes real-time validation to prevent incorrect regex usage.
- Aligns with industry needs, particularly Yahoo & Mail Online’s requirements.
Design
Empty State – Introducing Regex Moderation
The empty state when no restrictions have been applied. The ability to start adding words or Regex expressions via an input field.
Design Rationale:
Minimalist UI – Avoids unnecessary clutter, making it intuitive for new users.
Guides the user towards adding restrictions.
Adding Regex – Easily create advanced moderation rules by switching to Regex mode, entering a pattern.
RegEx Settings – Easily manage restricted words by adding specific terms, choosing match types (exact or contains), and setting moderation actions like requiring approval or automatic rejection.
Removing a RegEx Rule from the List. Delete unwanted RegEx restrictions by accessing the moderation panel, selecting the rule, and clicking delete. Changes take effect immediately, ensuring efficient moderation updates.
Conclusion & Next Steps
This project successfully enhances content moderation by introducing a scalable and efficient approach to filtering inappropriate comments.
Next Steps:
- Monitor adoption and user feedback to refine regex usability.
- Explore AI-powered suggestions for common regex patterns.
- Expand regex usage to user-generated content beyond comments (e.g., article submissions).
Smooth Scroll
This will hide itself!
This will hide itself!
Restricted Regular Expressions
OVERVIEW
In modern online communities, effective moderation is crucial to maintaining a safe and constructive environment. Our goal was to enhance the Restricted Words moderation functionality by integrating Regular Expressions (RegEx), allowing moderators to enforce content policies with greater precision.
YEAR
2023
ROLE
Product Designer
COMPANY
OpenWeb
About the project
This feature was designed for an admin panel used by publishers and community managers to moderate comments and maintain a safe environment.
What are we doing?
Enhancing our Restricted Words moderation functionality to allow partners to use restricted regular expressions (RegEx) instead of exact matched restricted words.
This will be offered in 2 main ways:
Simple: Allowing moderators to set a specific restricted word as an exact or phrase match (”contains”)
Advanced: Allowing moderators to set a restricted regular expression, with support to all common RegEx operators.
Why are we doing this?
Today, restricted words are validated as exact matches, so moderators have to add multiple variations of the same restricted word in order to be able to effectively “catch” all possible permutations and derivatives of this word.
This forces moderators to spend a long time creating multiple variations, resulting in an ineffective and unnecessarily long and complex list of restricted words.
For example, match Word with Different Spellings or Special Characters:
Challenge
Moderators struggle with scalability and efficiency when managing restricted word lists. Spammers easily bypass simple word filters by modifying spellings.
Additionally, non-technical moderators lack regex expertise, making advanced filtering difficult to implement. Our challenge was to create a system that:
- Empowers moderators with regex capabilities while keeping it user-friendly.
- Reduces manual workload by automating word variation detection.
- Prevents errors by validating regex inputs in real-time.
The Goal
Our objective was to design a flexible, intuitive, and efficient content moderation tool that:
- Enables moderators to block words & patterns efficiently (without listing every variation).
- Supports both simple and advanced filtering (words & regex).
- Includes real-time validation to prevent incorrect regex usage.
- Aligns with industry needs, particularly Yahoo & Mail Online’s requirements.
Design
Empty State – Introducing Regex Moderation
The empty state when no restrictions have been applied. The ability to start adding words or Regex expressions via an input field.
Design Rationale:
Minimalist UI – Avoids unnecessary clutter, making it intuitive for new users.
Guides the user towards adding restrictions.
Adding Regex – Easily create advanced moderation rules by switching to Regex mode, entering a pattern.
RegEx Settings – Easily manage restricted words by adding specific terms, choosing match types (exact or contains), and setting moderation actions like requiring approval or automatic rejection.
Removing a RegEx Rule from the List. Delete unwanted RegEx restrictions by accessing the moderation panel, selecting the rule, and clicking delete. Changes take effect immediately, ensuring efficient moderation updates.
Conclusion & Next Steps
This project successfully enhances content moderation by introducing a scalable and efficient approach to filtering inappropriate comments.
Next Steps:
- Monitor adoption and user feedback to refine regex usability.
- Explore AI-powered suggestions for common regex patterns.
- Expand regex usage to user-generated content beyond comments (e.g., article submissions).
Smooth Scroll
This will hide itself!
This will hide itself!