0.21 is just around the corner and we wanted to give you a preview into some of the changes, including these new moderation features!

First, we have screening for sign-ups. In addition to enabling and disabling public registrations, admins can now require new users to fill out a form to request membership for the pod. When submitted, the new user request will go into a queue in the moderation dashboard where admin/moderators can manually approve/deny sign-ups. Admins can add up to three form questions as well custom help text (with markdown capabilities) for information and clarification for potential users before they sign up.

Admins/moderators will receive and email when there is a new sign-up in the queue, and users will receive an email when their sign-up request is approved or denied.

This feature helps filter out spam and other unwanted accounts while remaining accessible to new users.

Next, we now have federated reports both between Funkwhale pods, and with other ActivityPub software. You can report users and content, and choose to forward your reports to the offending instance if necessary. This makes it easier for admins and moderators to keep on top of abuse issues and to share information between pods and platforms.

And last but not least, we now have email verification during sign-up. Admins can now choose to enforce email verification to prevent signup with fake email addresses. This is another barrier to keep spam and other unwanted accounts out of your pod. Nothing to fancy to show in the user interface, but it’s quite helpful!

Thank you to all in our community for your support, and stay tuned for more feature previews as we near the release of Funkwhale 0.21!