Pre-Moderation in Online Brand Communities

Firms operating online brand communities (OBCs) face a key tension: aligning user contributions with brand values without slowing the flow of fresh, engaging content. This study offers one of the first empirical examinations of how pre-moderation-moderating content before publication-affects user behavior. Leveraging a natural experiment in a large OBC dedicated to recipes for a kitchen appliance, I find that the policy reduced published recipes by 4.4 percent. This decline is driven primarily by inexperienced users, who publish fewer recipes in oversaturated categories, and partly by experienced users, who are deterred by likely publication delays. The policy also lowered the novelty of published recipes, suggesting a narrowing of the acceptable solution space. However, user engagement with content, as measured by likes, remained largely unchanged. Together, these findings suggest that pre-moderation can inadvertently silence the periphery-deterring new or less-established contributors-and constrain creative freedom. For OBC operators, the results highlight a strategic trade-off: while pre-moderation can filter for quality and brand fit, it may also risk a drift toward homogeneity and disengagement of contributors.