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Auto-moderation Due To Inaction
Auto-moderation Due To Inaction

Reviews that aren't moderated for long time may be automatically approved OR declined by Fera.

Jay El-Kaake avatar
Written by Jay El-Kaake
Updated over a week ago

By default, Fera will automatically moderate reviews using A.I. however you can turn this functionality off or delay it for up to 14 days (via the submission settings).

This allows you to manually approve (publish) or decline (reject) the submission before it appears on the website yourself.

What happens if I don't approve or decline a review within 14 days?

As of October 18, 2023, any reviews that are submitted by real, verified customers that are not approved or declined by one of your staff will be automatically moderated by Fera's A.I. after 14 days, regardless of your submission settings.

Does this rule also apply when requesting review updates?
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Yes! This rule also applies when requesting updates as well. Customers have 14 days to update the review before it gets auto-approved again.

What happens if Fera's A.I. can't decide whether a review should be approved or declined within 14 days?

If after 14 days if you still have not manually moderated the review yourself (or one of your staff) AND Fera's A.I. can't decided whether the review should be approved or declined, then it will be automatically approved.

If you believe there was a mistake you can always decline (unpublished) the review with good reason later.

Why do we automatically approve reviews after 14 days?

1. It's a regulatory requirement.

The requirement to automatically publish (approve) reviews posted by verified customers on the site within 14 days of submission is a requirement from our platform partners (such as Shopify) and the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) as of October 18, 2023.

2. It's better for the community in the long run!

The more customers can trust reviews that are Verified by Fera, the more every merchant using Fera will increase their sales.

We need customers to trust the verification seal and feel confident that the reviews they're reading, despite being on your site, are real and trustworthy.

When merchants don't approve negative reviews, it can mislead customers into thinking that the store's average ratings are higher than they actually are.

Should I be worried about about malicious content showing on my site?

The short answer is NO, for a few reason:

1. Our A.I. is really good at detecting bad content.

Our A.I. can detect content that is not appropriate for your site with 99% accuracy. It is more effective at detection than humans in most cases.

2 Unverified reviews are never auto-approved.

Only reviews submitted by real, verified customers of your store are subject to auto-approval due to inaction.

Unverified reviews (such as ones submitted by random visitors on your site) are not considered verified and thus not auto-approved).

3. You can always decline reviews.

You can always decline a review and there is no limit on the number of unverified reviews you can decline on your site.

Keep in mind that customers are notified when you decline their review and have the option to report abuse if they feel it was an unfair decision.

How can I deal with negative reviews?

There are multiple ways to deal with negative reviews:

  1. Request an update

  2. Reply

  3. Approve

  4. Decline

Read more here for important info about dealing with them:

Still not satisfied? Something not fair?

Chat with our support team and we'll do our best to help.

Give your case one why you feel the review is unfair and we'll consider deleting the review for you.

The goal of this functionality is not to restrict you - it's to help you in the long run.

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