Strikes

Give users escalating, temporary penalties for repeat offences instead of a permanent ban.

Strikes let you discipline repeat offenders with escalating, temporary penalties instead of jumping straight to a permanent ban. Every strike a user receives lasts longer than the previous one, based on an escalation ladder that you configure. This gives users a chance to correct their behavior, while persistent offenders are penalized progressively harder.

Strikes are available on the Pro and Enterprise plans.

How strikes work

• You define an ordered list of strike tiers. The first strike a user receives uses the duration of the first tier, the second strike uses the second tier, and so on.

• A user can only have one active strike at a time.

• When a strike's duration passes, the strike automatically ends. It stays on the user's record and still counts towards the escalation ladder, so the user's next strike uses the next tier.

• The number of tiers is also the maximum number of strikes a user can receive. Once a user has run out of strikes, they cannot be striked again. At that point a moderator would typically ban the user.

• Lasso records the strike and notifies your platform through webhooks. Your platform decides what an active strike means for the user, for example a mute, restricted posting, or a temporary suspension.

Configuring strikes

Strike settings can be found in Settings → Moderation Preferences, under Strike Escalation.

Each row in the escalation ladder is one tier, consisting of a duration and a period (minutes, hours, days, weeks or months). For example, a common setup is:

1. 1st strike: 1 day

2. 2nd strike: 1 week

3. 3rd strike: 1 month

Use Add tier to extend the ladder, and the trash icon to remove a tier. Changes apply to strikes given from that moment on; strikes that are already active keep their original duration.

Automatically clearing strikes

You can reward users for good behavior by automatically removing strikes from their record after a period of good standing. Enable Automatically clear strikes and set the period (days, weeks or months).

• The good standing period starts once the user's latest strike has ended, and restarts whenever the user receives a new strike.

• Strikes are cleared one at a time, starting with the most recent one. After a strike is cleared, the user needs to complete another full period of good standing before the next one is cleared.

• Strikes are never cleared while the user has an active strike.

For example, with a clearance period of 4 weeks: a user whose strike ended on March 1st and who stays out of trouble will have that strike removed around March 29th. If they had two strikes, the second one would be removed around April 26th.

Giving a user a strike

Manually

Moderators can strike a user from the user's page or from a review queue using the strike button. Optionally, a policy can be selected to categorize the strike, which is useful for tracking actions taken under specific policy guidelines.

The strike button shows the duration of the user's next strike. It is disabled when the user already has an active strike, or when the user has reached the maximum number of strikes.

Automatically with rules

Custom moderation rules that target users or content can give strikes automatically via the Strike User action. There are two options:

• Strike: Adds a strike to the user. No action is taken if the user already has an active strike.

• Add Strike: Adds a strike even if the user already has an active strike. The current strike is ended and the next tier starts immediately, effectively extending the penalty. No action is taken if this would be beyond the user's last strike.

Ending and removing strikes

• End strike: A moderator can end a user's active strike early. The strike still stays on the user's record and keeps counting towards the escalation ladder.

• Remove strike: Removes the most recent strike from the user's record entirely, lowering the user's strike count. If that strike is still active, it is ended first.

• Strikes that run their full duration end automatically, no moderator action is needed.

Enforcing strikes on your platform

Lasso does not restrict the user in your product directly. To act on strikes, subscribe to webhooks and handle the strike actions:

• StrikeUser: A strike was given. The payload includes the user's total strike count, the duration and period of the strike, and until, the ISO date when the strike ends.

• EndStrikeUser: The user's active strike ended, either automatically or by a moderator.

• RemoveStrikeUser: A strike was removed from the user's record. The payload includes the user's new strike count.

See the Strike Actions example on the webhooks page for the full payload.