Comments: rules and moderation
Who can comment on VideoBB, the length and link limits, and what gets held for review. Plus the tools creators use to keep comments clean.
Signed-in members can comment on videos, and creators can remove any comment on their own videos. Some comments are held for review before they show. Your channel rules can hold more.
Rules for everyone who comments
- You need to be signed in to comment, and you need to have chosen a display name. Until you do, the comment box shows a Choose a name button instead; see display names.
- A comment can be up to 2,000 characters long.
- You can reply to a comment, but not to a reply.
- Posting the same comment twice in a row is refused.
- There is an hourly limit on how many comments one account can post.
Links in comments
A comment with more than one link is held for review. So is a link from an account younger than a day. Member links always carry rel="ugc nofollow", so posting them gives no search benefit.
What held means
A held comment is not shown to others yet. The writer sees Your comment is awaiting review. Comments that match known spam patterns are held too. The community guidelines explain what counts as spam.
Moderating comments on your videos
Approve held comments
Open Studio › Comments. Comments waiting for you are listed first, oldest first, and marked Held for review. A number next to Comments in the studio menu shows how many are waiting.
- Read the held comment.
- Press Approve to publish it. It shows under the video straight away and is added to the video's comment count.
- Or press Delete, then press it again to confirm, to remove it for good.
To publish every held comment at once, press Approve all and press it again to confirm. The Held for review tab shows only the comments that are still waiting.
Remove a comment
Press Delete next to the comment under your video. Or open Comments in your studio, which lists held comments first and then the latest published ones on all your videos, and lets you delete any of them.
Channel comment rules
| Rule | What it does |
|---|---|
| Hold all new comments for my approval | Every new comment waits for review before it shows |
| Only accounts older than a day can comment | Brand-new accounts see a message and cannot post |
| Blocked words | Comments that contain any of your words are held. Add up to 100, separated by commas |
Set these in the Advanced tab; see channel settings explained.
Turn comments off
Every video has a Comments switch. You find it on the upload details card, in the quick Edit details window and on the video's page in the studio. Switch it off and save. The comment box and any existing comments are then hidden, and viewers see that comments are turned off. The comments are not deleted: switch it back on to show them again.
To start new videos with comments off, turn off the Comments switch in your upload defaults.
When a comment breaks the rules
Deleting a comment removes it from your video. If it is abuse, a threat or spam aimed at others too, also report it so a moderator can act on the account; see reporting content.