User generated content on a site starts with one simple decision, which is whether to moderate the content or let every single posting go live.

UGC requires moderation for sites that want to maintain a degree of credibility with their visitors.

Moderation typically is a process whereby a site editor reviews a posting before it goes live to make sure it stays within site ethical, legal and quality standards. That posting could be a comment, a forum response, a photo, video, etc. If it passes muster, it goes live on the site; if it has objectionable content, it is deleted.

Moderation has several major benefits and a few big detriments. The benefits include maintaining the quality of postings, avoiding any legal disputs from libel charges and preventing the appearance of spam, which usually is a significant problem on unmoderated sites. The two big detriments are the time involved in reviewing each posting and a sharp reduction in the number of postings.

In other words, moderation is about quality over quantity.

Unmoderated user generated content is about quantity over quality. It generates numerous postings that are not reviewed before going live. They go live immediately and they go live as they were written.

A wise approach to an unmoderated UGC site is to post a policy saying that all content is moderated and anything objectionable will be removed only if brought to the attention of the site staff. This approach usually avoids any legal responsibility for the site in case of libelous postings, foul language, racist comments and other controversial material.

Because of the risks of unmoderated content, many major online sites now use moderation. Some sites that allowed UGC don't allow it anymore because of the risks with unmoderated and the time requirements for moderated.

Any site considering UGC might consider launching it in a moderated form to understand the proccesses and challenges that go with it before considering an unmoderated approach.