One of the advantages of an Exchange is that it allows leaders to hear from participants in their own words. This gives participants the freedom to accurately share their ideas and perspectives; but it also means that, occasionally, someone shares a thought that may be deemed inappropriate. 

We encourage leaders to remove as few thoughts as possible to maintain the Exchange's integrity and build trust with their participants (read more about our philosophy and best practices around thought moderation here). That said, thoughts that contain rude or hurtful language, target a specific individual or small group, or represent a threat to a person or the community are often removed from Exchanges to maintain a safe and respectful space for other participants.

As a participant, you can view the status of any thought you've shared by clicking the status text below the thought bubble in the share step:

You will see one of three messages depending on if the thought is:

• Available for rating
  
• Reported and is pending review from the leaders of the Exchange
  
• Removed from the Exchange:
  

Once a thought is removed from the Exchange, its status will appear as "Thought removed," otherwise it will appear as "Thought shared."

Thoughts can be reported by the leaders of the Exchange, other participants, or by the "machine moderation" option that leaders can use to automatically report thoughts containing inappropriate language or proper names. Whether or not a reported thought remains visible to participants while it is pending review is determined by the settings the leaders of the Exchange selected when creating the Exchange.

All moderation occurs at the discretion of the leaders of a particular Exchange.