Matrix user experiences issues with space notifications and moderation policy rooms

Unexpected Notifications in Matrix Spaces

A user accidentally posted in a Matrix space room, leading to notifications for all members of that space. This occurred because older Matrix clients render spaces as regular chat rooms, and newer clients with space support have confusing UI when activity happens in these rooms. Most clients do not automatically adjust room permissions in spaces to prevent chatting, which would mitigate this issue.

Resolving Space Chat Permissions

To address the notification problem, the user accessed Element Web's devtools to display the space as a regular room. They then granted themselves admin permissions and modified the room's permissions to disallow chatting within the space room itself.

Investigating a Spurious Ban

Another user reported a ban from a Matrix space without understanding why. Initial queries for the user's handle in Draupnir, a moderation tool, yielded no results. A subsequent query using the user's domain revealed an entry indicating a server-level ban from a moderation list the space subscribed to, likely targeting a single-user personal instance.

Challenges with Moderation Policy Rooms

The user attempted to join the policy room responsible for the ban to investigate further. Joining the room caused temporary issues for their homeserver and required a client cache clear. Once in the room, which contained numerous moderation messages, Element's search function could not find the relevant ban entry because it only searches for 'm.messages' types, not policy rule messages. The typical workaround involves exporting the chat as HTML and manually searching through it.