Give a small, trusted, private category the ability to publish posts without waiting on auto-moderation, while keeping every human moderation tool in place.
By default, posts across your community pass through auto-moderation, which can hold a post in a review queue before it appears — including a post that contains an image with text. For a private category whose members are a small, trusted group, you can let those members post without that hold.
You do this in two parts: create a custom forum role based on Participant with the Post without automod permission, then assign that role as the category’s Participant forum role. Forum Moderators and Admins already skip auto-moderation where they have moderation rights — this path is for ordinary participants in one category.
| Approach | Who it covers | What it skips |
|---|---|---|
| Category Participant role (this page) | Everyone who takes part in one private category with your custom role | Forum auto-moderation holds in that category only |
| Exempt trusted email domains from post approval | Any member whose email matches a listed company domain (community-wide) | Discussion post and comment approval, and forum AI auto-moderation holds |
| Exempt members from AI chat moderation | Named people on the AI moderation Exemptions list | Chat AI rules (direct messages, event chat, Q&A) — not forum posts |
Note: This exemption skips auto-moderation holds only. Moderators keep every human tool — review, reporting, and post removal — and the category’s privacy and access settings do not change. The category does not become public. For day-to-day review workflows, see Moderating discussions.
Before you start
Make sure you have the following:
- HQ Admin access with permission to manage forum roles and categories.
- A private, access-controlled category that you want to exempt, where the members who post are a small and trusted group.
- The Participant forum role field available when you edit that category. If you do not see this field, contact Bevy Support to have it enabled for your community.
Important: Start from the built-in Participant role. Do not duplicate Moderator or Admin for this override. A category Participant role can carry Post without automod (and Post without approval), but it cannot carry most other moderator powers. Creating categories and assigning a forum team is covered in Create and manage forums.
Create a forum role that skips auto-moderation
- Sign in with an HQ Admin account.
- In the Admin Dashboard, go to Members and open the Forum Roles tab.
- Duplicate the Participant role to create a new forum role.
- In Role Name, enter a name that describes the role’s purpose, for example Mentor Participant. In Description, add a short note such as “Standard participant role plus skips auto-moderation.”
- Under Permissions, in the Moderation group, select Post without automod.
- Save the role.
| Permission | What it skips |
|---|---|
| Post without automod | Automated moderation checks that would otherwise hold a post for review (including posts with text in images). |
| Post without approval | The manual moderation approval queue. Different from auto-moderation — do not rely on this permission for the steps on this page. |
Permission labels and the full forum permission list are also in About role management and permissions.
Assign the role to the category
- Open the discussions sidebar.
- Under Manage, select Categories (
/forum/manage/categories/). - Select Edit on the private category you want to exempt.
- Find Participant forum role.
- Choose the custom role you created (not Use the default participant role).
- Save the category.
That role replaces the default Participant permissions for everyone who takes part in this category. Members who already hold a higher assigned role on the category (for example Moderator) keep that higher role.
Tip: To return the category to normal auto-moderation, edit it again, set Participant forum role back to Use the default participant role, and save.
Check that posts skip the hold
- Sign in as a member who only has Participant access in that category (not a Moderator or Admin on the category).
- Create a test post in the exempted category — optionally include an image that contains text, which auto-moderation would normally review.
- Confirm the post appears without waiting in the auto-moderation review queue.
- Confirm moderators can still report, review, and remove posts in that category as usual.