Long overdue Facebook cleanup continues 

Facebook has announced new admin tools and experiences to help Page and Group admins manage their communities and moderate conversations.

These updates are a direct result of user feedback and are designed to help support admins throughout the platform.

Facebook has unveiled a raft of changes, they are:

• Admin home
• Comment moderation to Admin Assist
• Conflict alerts
• Tools to help slow down conversations
• A member summary feature
• An appeals process
• The ability to tag group rules in comments and posts
• New post abilities, Post Format Shortcuts, Chats, pinned comments and more admin tools

Admin Home

Admin Home is the headline update. It's a modernised, re-designed hub for admin tools, setting and features. It's customisable with shortcuts for quick access, while it will also include 'pro-tips', a system that suggests helpful tools for admins. As new features are introduced, they'll be available through Admin Home.

Facebook

"This enables admins to quickly see what needs action in the Group up front, across posts, members and reported items. Admins can find what they're looking for through a new layout that enables admins to clearly see what's available under each category."

Admin Home will make it easier to manage communities in a number of ways:

• The 'To Review section' will display a listing of items that require admin attention, which will make it easier for snowed-under admins to stay on top of things.
• The cleaner layout will make it easier for admins to find options and tools they need.

Comment moderation

Comment moderation will also appear within Admin Assist, where admins will set their criteria and set parameters for the automatic moderation of posts and comments.

Admins will be able to restrict those who don't qualify to participate in Group discussions based on factors such as the length of time they've been a member. They'll also be able to proactively prevent comments from appearing, reduce promo content by declining posts or comments that include specific links and use preset criteria by Facebook to help limit spam posts or restrict conflict.

Conversions can be slowed down to help diffuse aggressive posters by limiting how often specific users can comment and how often comments can be made on specific posts.

Facebook

"We're also testing a new type of moderation alert called conflict alerts. This notifies admins when there may be contentious or unhealthy conversations taking place in their Group so they can take action as needed."

These changes will help Admins address potential conflicts and issues before they blow over and take over any discussion. Conflict Alert could help Admins jump in and defuse potentially aggressive situations and help disincentive antagonistic users.

New member tools

Facebook has introduced a member summary feature, which gives admins an overview of each members' activity in the Group – including how many times they've posted or commented or when they've had posts removed or muted.

Admins will be able to use this feature to understand each members' contribution to the Group and to get a feeling of whether they're a bad egg or not.

Facebook has introduced an appeals process, which gives admins the right to appeal after a group violation to ensure the platform reached the right decision. This should help management by streamlining the process of appeals.

It will now be easier to share and enforce rules within Groups. Admins will be able to tag group rules in comments and posts, which could be helpful as it'll allow admins to quickly see why a post has been flagged and which rule it may be in contradiction of.

Chats and engagement

Chats will be re-introduced to the Group landscape, while Facebook is trialling the ability to turn certain types of post on or off for general groups. You could see how chats could boost engagement and foster a sense of community within a Group, but you could also see it being an awful spam pit that gets put on mute.

Facebook

"People can now start, find and engage in Chats directly within the Facebook group they're a part of, rather than switching apps to Facebook Messenger."

Facebook is also testing pinned comments, and is introducing admin announcement notifications which will be shared with members when an admin makes an announcement. Admins will also be able to share feedback when declining potential members.

These updates will make it easier for admins to communicate and engage with their Group as they go about their daily business, but it could make life pretty admin-heavy for the folks in charge.

A general clampdown

These changes are part of a wider initiative by Facebook to make the platform a kinder place to be. It has tried to clamp down on problem users before, most notably by limiting who can comment on public posts for Pages, influencers and all public accounts.

Could this be influenced by Chrissy Teigen, Theirry Henry, Gareth Bale and many others' decisions to leave social media because of the disgusting levels of abuse directed at them?

Facebook has also made it more difficult for certain Groups to operate or be discovered and takedown Groups that frequently break the rules.

If these changes work and the platform becomes less of a sess-pit, Facebook deserves a bit of praise. Not loads obviously. But a bit. Maybe.