Learn about what features you can turn on and off to help moderate your Spaces
Chat messages in the Chat Panel are automatically set to be preserved on Gather's servers. When you return to a Space with the Preserve Chat History setting turned on, if you are logged in, your chat panel will display the same history as the moment you left the space, even if you are using a different computer.
Your chat panel will only display chat messages that you were personally present to receive while you are in the space. (For instance, you cannot see a message that was sent to "everyone", unless you were in the space when the message was sent).
Under the City or Metropolis premium plans, administrators of the space can toggle two chat options, both of which will affect the entire space as a whole.
Space administrators have the option to store chat on Gather's servers. This function is called 'Preserve Chat History'. This can be turned off for an entire space by an admin.
You can toggle the Preserve Chat History setting on and off through your Space Preferences (shown below) or through your Premium Dashboard.
Preserve Chat History toggle is found inside your Space Settings while inside of your space under the "Space Preferences" option.
If this is turned off, chat will be stored in the user's browser cache only, and every time the user refreshes Gather or reloads the space, any chat messages sent while persistent chat is off will be gone, but any messages sent previously while persistent chat was on will still be present.
The "Disable Chat" option allows you to turn off the ability to chat for every user in the space. This is only available for Spaces that have upcoming or active reservations
Bans are done by IP Address. Unfortunately, bans are semi-permanent and cannot be reversed for that specific Space except by the Space's Owner. (This is different that blocking a user which are done on a person by person basis and are easily reversed).
To ban an individual, first open up the participants list and click on that individual user's profile. Then click on the three dots on the top right corner of their user profile, and click 'Ban from space'.
Ban from space through the user profile in the participants panel.
Warning: If the person you are banning is on the same IP address as yourself, you will be banning yourself.
Proceed with caution.
To unban someone (or the entire IP address), go to the Premium Dashboard for that Space and click the "remove" button next to their IP address.
You can unban people from your Space's Premium Dashboard under the "Manage Banned Users" category.
If you accidentally banned someone and you do not have the permissions to unban them, you have a few potential other options to still be able to interact with them:
Screensharing may be disabled at the Metropolis tier. This will disable it for everyone, including owners and moderators.
You can Disable Screen sharing in your Space Settings under the "Space Preferences" option.
Chat may be disabled completely at the City and Metropolis tier. This will disable it for everyone, including owners and moderators.
You can Disable Screen sharing in your Space Settings under the "Space Preferences" option.
You can head directly to your Space Settings menu while inside your Gather space to temporarily shut down a space. Found under the Space section, in the Space Access Tab, this feature will automatically remove everyone from the space.
Settings Menu Shut Down Space Option
You must be an owner to shut down a space. Moderators and Builders will not be able to shut down a space.
To reopen the room, simply click on your Gather space URL while signed in as an owner OR moderator to click the Open Space button.
You will see this button when entering a space that was shut down if you are the Space's Owner or one of the Space's Moderators.
You have the option of pinning a moderator message to the top of the Chat Panel. If you're already in a Gather space, go to the control panel at the center bottom of your screen and click on your name to open your User Options.
Click your name at the bottom of the screen to open your User Options
Under Space and Space preferences you will have the option to write your message in "Pinned Moderator Message". Make sure you select the save option to make sure your message appears.
Go to Space and Space Preferences
A screenshot of what a Pinned Moderator Message looks like.