Moderating with ModTools

Freegle Volunteer Wiki › 🛠️ Moderating with ModTools

This section is your guide to ModTools, the toolkit every Freegle moderator uses day to day. It covers the practical side of running a community: adding and managing members, handling posts, photos and messages, and the more specialist support, statistics and rippling tools tucked away inside ModTools. If you're new to moderating, start with the overview pages below and come back to the rest as you need them.

Start here: ModTools covers every section of the toolkit in one place, How to is a quick index of task-based pages, and Moderation explains the core decision of when to moderate a member.

Getting started with ModTools

• ModTools - the master reference for every part of ModTools, from getting set up to the Dashboard, Messages, Members and Misc Admin sections.
• ModTools app - how to install and use the ModTools app on Android and iOS, including its live-website view and push notifications.
• Freegle Mobile app - the member-facing Freegle app for Android and iOS, plus what's changed in recent ModTools app releases.
• ModTools History - the story of how ModTools came to be, funded by a 2013 crowdfunding appeal after Yahoo Groups changed its systems.
• ModTools Functions - a mentor's crib-sheet summary of what each ModTools section does, handy while you're learning the ropes.

Managing your members

• Add a Member using Mod Tools - how to add someone to your community by email address when they've struggled to join themselves.
• Pre-approving Members - the case for open (non-moderated) membership versus pre-approving new joiners, and the trade-offs of each.
• Moderation - when to moderate new members, and how and when to move them onto group settings once they've proved themselves.
• Member Notes - how to add fair, factual notes to a member's record, and why to review and delete them regularly.
• Member Chat - how Chat Review flags worrying messages between members, plus how chat status, blocking and deletion work.
• Bouncing members - how to spot members whose email is bouncing, and when to reactivate or remove them.
• Inactive Members - why we don't automatically delete long-inactive accounts, and the six-month rule behind bounce reputation.
• Unsubscribe: help a member to leave - how to help a frustrated member who can't manage to unsubscribe from Freegle.
• Back up your Members list in Mod Tools - how to export your membership list to a spreadsheet (currently disabled) and handle it safely.

Handling posts, messages and photos

• Sample Messages - an index of ready-made messages for replying to members in almost every situation.
• Substitution Strings - the special placeholders you can drop into standard messages so ModTools fills in the details for you.
• Admins - template group-wide admin emails, split into Essential and Newsletter, for issues, promotion and technical updates.
• Photos - Freegle's official publicity photos, plus how members add photos to their own posts and chats.
• Postcodes - why Freegle Direct relies on postcodes rather than free-text locations, and the problems that caused before.
• Maps - how a community's Core Area, Default Posting Area and Catchment Area are defined and how to adjust them.
• Rippling out - how posts now spread gradually to nearby freeglers instead of being restricted to one group, since June 2026.

Practical how-tos

• How to - a quick index of techy how-to pages: filtering emails, banning, moderating and checking who else is on duty.
• How to add a picture to a community home page - how to personalise your community's home page with a badge, logo or local photo.
• Filtering Emails - links to set up email filters for members getting too many messages, plus fixing Gmail's spam-filter quirk.
• See if anyone is moderating - simple ways for co-moderators to avoid duplicating each other's work when both are online at once.

Behind the scenes: spam, support and stats

• Spammers - how to report suspect messages and members, and how Freegle Direct's spam filters work.
• Housekeeping - suggested daily, weekly, annual and ad-hoc tasks to keep your community's admin in good order.
• Feedback - how the member feedback and rating system works, and what volunteers can see and do with it in ModTools.
• Statistics - where to find stats about your community's activity and impact, including Freegle's fly-tipping savings.
• Support Tools - the extra tools available to national role-holders for looking up member accounts across the whole system.
• Support Tools Procedure - the rules for who gets Support Tools access, and how it should be used responsibly.

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Prefer to browse? Every page here is also listed A-Z in the Moderating with ModTools index. Back to the home page.