--- title: Word filter description: Block words outright or swap them for something safer - before they ever reach your stream. --- Every tip message runs through your word filter before it hits the queue, the overlay, or TTS. The **Filter** page is where you build it. Your filter, your rules: censor anything you want, keep the rest. ## Adding words In the **Word list** panel, enter a word or phrase and choose what happens: - **Replace it** - set a custom replacement, or leave it blank to use your default replacement (out of the box: "FILTERED"). The rest of the message plays normally. - **Block donation entirely** - flip the toggle and any message containing the word is silently rejected: the viewer is still charged, they still see the success card, but nothing plays on stream and you never hear it. Refund them from Stripe if you feel generous. {/* SCREENSHOT /images/moderation/filter-page.png : The Filter page - the Word list panel with a few entries (one showing a replacement arrow, one showing the red BLOCK chip) and the add form above. Uncomment the Frame below once taken. */} {/* ![The word filter page](/images/moderation/filter-page.png) */} :::note[Why "silently"?] Telling someone their message was blocked just teaches them what to try next. A blocked tip looks identical to a successful one from their side - they get nothing to iterate on. ::: ## Test the filter The **Test the filter** panel takes a sample message and shows you exactly what would happen - which words matched, whether the tip would be blocked, and (with the [AI filter](/moderation/ai-filter) on) the AI's reasoning. Test your filter before your viewers do. ## The limits of a wordlist A wordlist catches exact matches. It doesn't catch "Alicks Aderms" when you've banned "Alex Adams" - creative misspellings, spaced-out letters, and unicode tricks walk straight past regex. That's the gap the [AI filter](/moderation/ai-filter) closes.