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 product's screens. The step diagrams below show the surrounding flow.

1. Step one

   Find the viewer

   Your Viewers lists people the tray has seen comment. It is searchable by name or handle, includes past names when the tray has seen them, and is organised with tabs for Recent, Top, Trusted, Probation, and Banned. Or start from any comment: the author's name on the card opens the same viewer page.

   Your Viewers

2. Step two

   The ladder has four rungs

   A viewer is on exactly one rung: trusted, good standing, probation, or banned. Most people sit on good standing and never know the ladder exists. The viewer's page shows the rung they are on and, under Change Standing, the moves open from there; each move gets its own explanation before anything happens.

   Trusted Good standing Probation Banned

3. Step three

   Up: mark them trusted

   Trust is narrow on purpose. It stops name patterns from matching them, and automation never holds a trusted viewer's comment without asking you; the AI still reads everything they write, and nothing changes on YouTube. You say why in a required reason box, and the reason goes on the record.

   Mark as trusted Why?

4. Step four

   Down: put them on probation

   Probation holds future comments the viewer posts on your videos for your review; what they posted in the last 30 days is held too unless you clear the reach-back tick, and the viewer is never told. You pick the length, from a day to ninety, or leave it open until you lift it; a dated probation lifts itself when the time is served. A reason is required here too. Any team member 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 is one click and needs no reason, so a misclick is cheap to undo. Un-banning starts in YouTube Studio, where the hidden-users list lives; clearing the record here afterwards lands the viewer on probation, never straight back to good standing, so their first comments back get looked at. Every move on the ladder, with who made it, when, and why, sits on the viewer's own page in the record.

   Lift probation Who, when, and why