# Recommended Settings

You've [registered your bot](https://docs.modr8.net/getting-started/register-a-bot), you've [activated your chat](https://docs.modr8.net/getting-started/add-your-chat) and you want to get up and running as quick as possible.\
\
We're dedicating this section to providing our community with a base recommendation of settings that we know will provide a good balance of cleaning up your chat whilst allowing your community to thrive.

{% hint style="info" %}
Once you're done here you might want to review our overview of [managing your bot & chat.](https://docs.modr8.net/getting-started/managing-your-bot-and-chat)
{% endhint %}

### :dash: Clearing Up Telegram Notifications

<div align="center" data-full-width="true"><figure><img src="https://3771905466-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FtakWTl0Nepjav6MjNphY%2Fuploads%2F6pBdSPqNdaXjA2SvF6Xb%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=69ad0590-8bb0-4f22-bbe5-61a49ed47bf3" alt=""><figcaption><p>Chats can become swamped with Telegram Notifications when users join and leave</p></figcaption></figure></div>

When a new user joins, someone leaves or a message is pinned you will notice there can be a lot of chat "service messages" stacking up. Modr8 can clean these up for you to ensure conversations flow more smoothly.

To automatically clear telegram service notifications turn on the following options:

1. Select `"Settings"` on your chat profile
2. Select `"Edit"` on the `"General Behavior & Import"` card
3. Scroll to `"Service Messages"` section
4. Turn on `Remove Join Message`, `Remove Leave Message` & `Remove User Pinned Message`
5. Click `"Save Changes"` button

### :shield:Spam Prevention

Whilst Telegram is a great platform for building private and public communities there is of course marketing, scam and phishing attempts from bad actors. Modr8 is equipped with many features to combat these issues including a dedicated Spam Prevention Module. We recommend you turn on the following settings for all of your communities.

**Turn on "New User Spam Capture"** - We often find spammers join a community and immediately try to spam, this is really easy to prevent:

<figure><img src="https://3771905466-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FtakWTl0Nepjav6MjNphY%2Fuploads%2FsbYDxomXLVEnjT7UsGSb%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=80e1eda9-98bc-4a66-8617-9a1bf7fb3203" alt=""><figcaption><p>Recommended settings to stop first messages from users spamming your chat</p></figcaption></figure>

1. Select `"Settings"` on your chat profile
2. Select `"Edit"` on the `"Spam Prevention"` card
3. Scroll to `"New User Spam Capture"` section
4. Turn on `Contains A Web Link`, `Is A Forwarded Message` & `Mentions Channel/User`
5. Select to `"Kick User"` once deleted, this will temporarily remove them from the group

**Turn on "New User Restrictions"** - Temporarily disabling media messages for a few seconds on joining can often stop automated spammers issuing images marketing dangerous content:

<figure><img src="https://3771905466-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FtakWTl0Nepjav6MjNphY%2Fuploads%2FfsggmzRGxb1x9F0mvo2y%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=66d49217-29a0-46d9-a4f1-c76ab7771c51" alt=""><figcaption><p>Blocking media messages for 30 seconds is often enough to stop automated script bots from spamming your chat</p></figcaption></figure>

1. Select `"Settings"` on your chat profile
2. Select `"Edit"` on the `"Spam Prevention"` card
3. Scroll to `"New User Restrictions"` section
4. Turn on `"Apply Restrictions"`
5. Select messages types to be `"Media Messages"`
6. Turn on restricting `"User Invites"` to block new users auto inviting new users temporarily, who may be bots or other spammers.
7. Select restricted for `30 seconds`

**Turn on "Federated Spam Protection"** - We utilise a known bad actor/user list which is crowd sourced and maintained by SpamWatch. This list contains hundreds of thousands of peer reviewed spammers who have been issuing bad content to other communities. When this setting is turned on, users who match the list are automatically banned by Modr8.

<figure><img src="https://3771905466-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FtakWTl0Nepjav6MjNphY%2Fuploads%2F6LP3Zzs2vA602NMt4Ifo%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=31a4c398-cedb-4091-935c-3e33c07f1ea6" alt=""><figcaption><p>SpamWatch list matching will auto-ban any users who have been identified as a spammer before.</p></figcaption></figure>

1. Select `"Settings"` on your chat profile
2. Select `"Edit"` on the `"Spam Prevention"` card
3. Scroll to `"Federated Spam Protection"` section
4. Turn on `"Enable SpamWatch List"`

Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen once you have made the necessary edits.&#x20;

### :wave:Welcoming New Users

When a new user joins your chat you want to give a great first impression. Modr8 supports issuing Welcome Messages to new users. These can contain an image/video as well as any buttons which may link to your website or documentation. In addition to a welcome, Modr8 can also request verification to check the user is not a bot. You are free to choose if you want to verify a user or not, but for now lets get a welcome message set up!

<figure><img src="https://3771905466-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FtakWTl0Nepjav6MjNphY%2Fuploads%2Fl0i3sjVJSvS0IjgpXyBw%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=c1529067-05f4-4559-853e-a2388b0b95c4" alt=""><figcaption><p>Adding a welcome messgae in Modr8 with personalisation added and an image.</p></figcaption></figure>

1. Select `"Settings"` on your chat profile
2. Select `"Edit"` on the `"Welcome Message & Captcha Check"` card
3. Turn on`"Welcome Users"` toggle
4. Add your message using the text editor
5. Click  `"Save Changes"`

{% hint style="info" %}
Below the text editor you'll see a link "Personaisation tag guide" click this and it will show you all of the options for personalising your welcome message. As an example adding {{user}} to your message will inject in the users name as a link that can be clicked to view their profile.
{% endhint %}

### :closed\_lock\_with\_key:Restricting Media & User Filters

Sometimes you have users in your community sharing restricted content. Modr8 supports the removal of all major media types that can be sent by users within your chat. On top of this, we also offer a comprehensive list of user filters including adding banned words in names and disallowing users adding additional bots to your chat.

**Restricting Media Types**

1. Select `"Settings"` on your chat profile
2. Select `"Edit"` on the `"Media & Text Filters"` card
3. Enable `"Remove Media"` under the Media Management header.
4. In the "Remove Media List" we typically recommend to remove `Audio, Contact, Document, Game, Location, Passport, Venue, Voice & Polls`. You are free to add others too.

<figure><img src="https://3771905466-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FtakWTl0Nepjav6MjNphY%2Fuploads%2FqLHzpWTAZDfY7MAJoEQI%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=edebb911-19d9-434e-abaa-558e823c77ae" alt=""><figcaption><p>Blocking certain types of media messages is easy with Modr8 - feel free to pick and choose from the list when you click into the Remove Media List text area.</p></figcaption></figure>

### **Restricting Links To Other Groups**

1. Select `"Settings"` on your chat profile
2. Select `"Edit"` on the `"Media & Text Filters"` card
3. Enable `"Block Web Links"` under the Link Handling header.
4. Select `"Blacklist"` under the `"List Behaviour"` option. This means we will disallow any domains/links added to your list.
5. Add `"t.me"` to the `"Add a link or domain"` text box to block telegram invite group links.
6. Click "New Row" and add `"wa.link"` to the new text box to block whatsapp group links.

{% hint style="info" %}
List Behaviour - This references whether the list of domains you add to your link list acts as a "trusted list to allow" or a "bad list to remove".  Sometimes it can be easier to provide a list of links that you trust rather than trying to block every single domain you can think of!
{% endhint %}

<figure><img src="https://3771905466-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FtakWTl0Nepjav6MjNphY%2Fuploads%2F4XOUExuqsA3dxzBmpSa6%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=9793f851-fd8f-48ba-ae0c-4f04174d870f" alt=""><figcaption><p>Blocking website links is easy, make sure to add a new row for each domain you wish to block.</p></figcaption></figure>

### **Restricting User Types**

Stopping certain types of users from joining your chat is a powerful way to ensure your community is clean.  Over the years spammers and disgruntled bad actors have tried many ways to bypass admin kicks and bans. Modr8 engine is well equipped to handle these issues with ease.

* Select `"Settings"` on your chat profile
* Select `"Edit"` on the `"User Filters"` card
* Enable `"Ban Re-join Flooding"` under general settings to stop users joining/leaving repeatedly.
* Enable `"Disallow Telegram Bots"` so general users can not add bots to your chat.
* Enable `"Name Filter"` in the name filtering section
* Select to `"Ban"` `on join` as well as `on user message` to ensure users are always removed form the chat.
* Within the disallowed names section add the following common names used to scam/spam, with one filter per row: `"admin","support","help","bot".`
* Click `Save Changes` button.

<figure><img src="https://3771905466-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FtakWTl0Nepjav6MjNphY%2Fuploads%2FXubEiCOUIK4GQ3h9fY4f%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=d1463055-f3f3-4622-9822-3c43ac355670" alt=""><figcaption><p>Filtering users from your community based on their profile attributes is a quick way to keep your chat clean</p></figcaption></figure>

There are many more settings you can modify, feel free to check out our features section to review what every option does and how you can adjust them.

Once you're done here you might want to review our overview of [managing your bot & chat.](https://docs.modr8.net/getting-started/managing-your-bot-and-chat)

### :question:FAQ & Troubleshooting

<details>

<summary>Do you have any other recommended settings I should turn on?</summary>

There is no right answer, because of that though we have the Modr8 community chat where you can discuss direct with other community managers and our developers the best option based on the behaviour of your own chats.\
\
Feel free to join our community chat and [ask any questions here](https://t.me/modr8support).

</details>

<details>

<summary>I cant find a setting which will do what I want i.e. banning key words</summary>

Modr8 basic settings are aimed to cater for the majority of user needs. That being said, there are always cases where each community needs something fully customised.\
\
Modr8 offers "Actions" this is a "if this happens then do that" type of rules engine. For any advanced scenarios or issues you are facing we can always provide you with an action you can import into the platform to take care of it.\
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Check out our guide on [Actions here](https://docs.modr8.net/features/actions), if you are still stuck and just need to be provided with the code to import [contact us in our support community](https://t.me/modr8support) and someone will be happy to help.

</details>