Forums: separate moderation in every topic

A forum is not one chat but a dozen different ones. In "Marketplace" a sale listing is normal, in "Discussion" it is spam; in "Off-topic" anything goes, in "Announcements" almost nothing does. Until this release the settings were shared across the whole forum, and you had to choose: strangle the marketplace, or let ads through in announcements.

A topic gets a full set of its own#

Any topic can now be configured separately, and it is not a patch on the shared settings but a complete set of its own: its own enabled blocks, its own rules, its own punishment chains, its own AI moderation topics and rules.

That is deliberate. A patch over a shared config looks tidier but is impossible to work with: looking at a topic, you cannot see what actually applies in it until you also open the shared settings and add the two together in your head.

Shared settings are the minimum for everyone#

The chat settings do not go anywhere, though: a message in a topic passes both the shared check and its topic's check. The practical consequence is simple — a topic can only be stricter than the forum, never softer.

So the shared settings are where you put what is unacceptable anywhere: scams, phishing, illegal substances. Topics then add local house rules on top of that base.

The "General" topic#

Telegram creates it itself when topics are switched on, and it is special: it holds the entire chat history from before topics existed, and everything sent without a topic lands in it. It cannot be deleted. In the dashboard it behaves like an ordinary topic, with settings of its own, but its status is worth knowing about.

Messages written before topics were enabled on the forum belong to no topic at all. The logs have a separate filter value for them so they do not get mixed in with "General".

Balance spend by topic#

AI moderation spend is now visible per topic: how many dollars and how many messages went on that particular branch over thirty days. It is immediately clear which branch eats the budget, and where it is worth raising the minimum message length or trimming the rule set.