Tutorial

Change a viewer's standing

Four rungs, the probation that lifts itself, and the ban that stands apart.

The pictures are illustrations of the app's screens. The diagrams under each step show what happens around them.

1. Step one

   Find the viewer

   Your Viewers lists everyone the tray has seen comment. Search by name or handle, including past names the tray has seen, or use the tabs: Recent, Top, Trusted, Probation and Banned. You can also start from any comment: the viewer's name on the card opens their page.

   Your Viewers

2. Step two

   The ladder has four rungs

   A viewer is always on one of four rungs: trusted, good standing, probation or banned. Most people stay on good standing and never know the ladder exists. The viewer's page shows the rung they're on under How you treat this viewer. Choose another rung and the tray explains that move before anything happens.

   Trusted Good standing Probation Banned

3. Step three

   Up: mark them trusted

   Trust is narrow on purpose. Name patterns skip them, the tray always asks you before holding their comments, and nothing changes on YouTube. You have to give a reason, and it goes on the record.

   Mark as trusted Why?

4. Step four

   Down: put them on probation

   On probation, the viewer's new comments on your videos are held for you to review. Unless you untick "Also hold their earlier comments?", the tray also holds anything it has seen from them in the last 30 days. The viewer is never told. You choose how long it lasts, from 1 day to 90, or leave it open until you lift it. A dated probation lifts itself when the time is up. You have to give a reason here too. Anyone on your team can set trusted, good standing or probation.

   Put on probation For how long?

5. Step five

   The ban stands apart

   Banning belongs to the owner alone and gets a confirmation page of its own, because it is the severe one: everything that viewer ever posted on your channel disappears for everyone. YouTube offers no standalone ban, so the tray carries it on rejecting one of the viewer's live comments; if they have no live comment left for the ban to ride on, nothing is sent and the tray tells you so plainly, pointing you to YouTube Studio instead. The write usually lands within a minute.

   Ban them from the channel The severe one, owner only

6. Step six

   Coming back down

   Lifting probation takes one click and needs no reason, so a misclick is easy to put right. Lifting a ban starts in YouTube Studio, on the Hidden users list. When you then clear the ban in the tray, the viewer goes onto probation first, so their first comments back get looked at. Every change of standing is on the viewer's own page in the record, with who made it, when and why.

   Lift probation Who, when, and why