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Running a community in the Fediverse means balancing openness with safety. Every year, @iftas takes the pulse of administrators, moderators, and community managers with their Annual Needs Assessment. This survey helps identify what’s working, where support is needed, and which tools can make a difference for those keeping decentralized spaces safe.

(If you haven’t seen them before, you can also take a look at last year’s report)

Last year’s responses represented moderators of over 4.3 million accounts across ActivityPub platforms. With WordPress now the largest group of federating instances, it’s especially important for our community of hosts, site admins, and moderators to be heard.

Moderation in WordPress: From Site-Wide to Personal Controls

We recently introduced a major update to the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress: personalized and site-wide moderation tools.

• Site administrators can now set domain, keyword, and actor-level blocks that protect the entire site.
• Individual users can fine-tune their own experience with personal blocks, managed directly from their profiles.
• Content is checked against both global and personal rules—so moderation works at every level.

These improvements directly address needs raised in previous IFTAS surveys, making moderation more discoverable, flexible, and effective for WordPress communities in the Fediverse.

Your Input Matters

IFTAS uses the Needs Assessment to guide tools, policies, and advocacy that reflect the real-world challenges of moderators—especially those in under-resourced communities. The more representative the responses, the stronger the outcomes for everyone.

If you’re running a federating WordPress site, please consider:

1. Filling out the survey yourself.
2. Sharing it with other admins, moderators, and community organizers.
3. Reminding folks that it’s anonymous, quick, and impactful.

Together, we can keep building a safer, healthier Fediverse—one that reflects the needs of its communities.