All featuresHarassment Protection

Harassment Protection

Detects insults, threats and targeted harassment in any language — off by default, because it is your call to make.

Overview

A word filter catches the words you thought of. Harassment rarely uses them: it is spelled around, written in another language, or carried entirely by who it is aimed at. Harassment Protection reads the message and the conversation around it instead of matching a list, so it sees abuse a filter walks past. It is off by default and always will be — policing how members speak to each other is a decision a server makes deliberately, not one it inherits.

How it works

Reads the message, not a list

Insults, threats and targeted abuse are recognised from what is written, in any language and any script. Deliberate misspellings and letter substitutions do not get past it the way they get past a word list.

Context before conclusion

The channel's own recent conversation is read alongside the message. Friends insulting each other in a room where that is the norm reads differently from the same words aimed at someone who was not part of it.

Your threshold, your punishment

Set how many detections a member accumulates before anything happens, and what happens then. Its own log channel keeps harassment cases out of the advertising log.

Key capabilities

Insult, threat and targeted-harassment detection

Works in every language, without a word list to maintain

Resistant to deliberate misspelling and character substitution

Judged against the channel's own conversation, not a fixed standard

Its own punishment, threshold and log channel

Exempt roles, members and channels

Setup

1.Open the dashboard, go to the Harassment Protection tab and enable it.

2.Choose how many detections a member may accumulate before the punishment applies — two is a reasonable start.

3.Pick the punishment. A timeout is strongly recommended while you judge the results.

4.Set a log channel so your moderators can review the calls, and exempt any roles, members or channels where rough talk is expected.

How it works in detail

What a word list cannot do

Every list is a list of the things somebody already thought of. Harassment adapts faster than the list does — a letter swapped, a language switched, an insult that is only an insult because of who it is aimed at. Reading the message is the only approach that does not need updating every week.

It is deliberately conservative

Sylon will not act on a low-confidence judgement, and it will not treat an unfamiliar member as evidence of anything. When the analysis is uncertain, nothing happens. Missing a borderline insult is a smaller failure than punishing someone who did nothing wrong.

Separate from advertising, on purpose

Harassment cases go to their own log channel, count on their own violation counter and carry their own punishment. A server that wants advertising removed but does not want its conversations policed can have exactly that.

Corrections stick

When a moderator undoes a block, Sylon remembers. That message and anything close to it stops being matched in your server, so the same mistake does not repeat.

Settings

Violations before punishmentHow many detections a member may accumulate before the punishment is applied.

PunishmentThe action taken against the user when the limit is reached. Timeout temporarily restricts, Kick removes from server, Ban permanently bans.

Timeout Duration (min)How long a user will be timed out when caught spamming. Only applies when Timeout is selected.

Log ChannelThe channel where the bot will send log messages for this feature.

Also apply to botsOff by default: bot messages are ignored entirely. Turn it on when a raid is being run through bots — the usual way around anti-spam, which only counts people. Sylon never judges itself, and a bot listed under exempt roles or exempt users is still exempt. Note that Administrator does not exempt a bot here the way it exempts a person: name the bots you trust in the exempt lists.

Exempt RolesMembers holding any of these roles will be exempt from this protection.

Exempt MembersSpecific members this system completely ignores, in addition to the exempt roles.

Exempt ChannelsMessages in these channels will not be checked by this protection.

Good to know

Sylon needs Manage Messages to delete, and Moderate Members, Kick Members or Ban Members depending on the punishment you choose.

Members with Administrator or Manage Server are never judged by this system.

This shares its analysis with Ad Protection and AI Spam Protection, so enabling it costs no extra processing.

Frequently asked questions

Why is this off by default?

Because deciding how members may speak to each other belongs to the server, not to the bot. Sylon was previously doing this as an undocumented side effect of Ad Protection; giving it a switch of its own is what turns it into an offer you can decline.

Should I use this or the Word Filter?

They solve different problems. The Word Filter is exact and predictable — you list the terms, and those terms are blocked. This is judgement-based and catches what a list cannot anticipate. Many servers run both.

What about friends who insult each other for fun?

Sylon reads the channel's recent conversation before deciding, so a room where that is the norm is judged as one. It is not perfect at this, which is why a timeout is a better starting punishment than a ban, and why every block can be undone in a click.

Related features

AI Advertisement Protection

Word Filter

Moderation Suite