How easy would it be to write a mod

[puntingzone]

So that new members or trouble makers have their posts put in to moderation before they appear in the forum.

The admin then reads the post and decides if it is OK to post.

Say the newbies have to make 10 posts before they come out of premoderation and if you have say a troll on your board you can put him in premoderation for as long as you want to vet his/her postings.

The problem that I have is that I have an adult sex site dealing with the paid sex industry ( Prostitutes ). Now because of the very nature of discussion we attract some trolls, have tried the ban/mute option but tehn they just register a new nick and back to square one we go.

Also newbies some times register to post adverts and then leave without actually contributing to the community.

I haven't got any experience in writing php, so If someone could write something like this I would appreciate it.

I know this goes against the spirit of Yabb but if no one wants to write one, Could I commission one of the more experienced members to do some work for me in writting some modifications to my site.

I love the yabb style & feel but really need this option.

Apologies if there is already this type of mod available, I have looked but havent seen a mention of it.

Cheers

[Grudge]

I'm not quite sure what you mean on how to do it. Basically - the big question is what happens when someone replies to a thread. I'm going to assume that when someone applies to a thread it is put into moderation and once approved is tacked onto the END of the thread (not the position at which is was originally posted)

This is how I would go about it (so may not be perfect!)

I would create a new table in the database - called (for example) {db_prefix}postmoderation.

When post2() is called form post.php you intercept the procedure before it updates the messages database. Instead I would write all the message info into the new moderation table (as a new row). I *think* this info would be all that you need to write there - if the user was starting a new thread you would need to interrupt the call to the topics function too AND record that this is a new thread in the new postmoderation row (so you know to create the topics entry when the post is approved)

Basically - what this will do is build up a set of posts in the postmoderation table which need to be added once they are approved. The next task is to create a function that is called from the admin menu (obviously making the necessary checks that it *is* a admin/mod that is accessing it). - possible called postmod() (etc)

This page will be a bit like the error log page. You read through each entry in the table and display the member/message that the user has written, each entry with a checkbox next to it. You obviously have these checkbox's as a form and have a radio button at the bottom to choose whether to allow the checked posts through or delete them. When the submit button is pressed on this page the next function (ie postmod2())

You read i the data posted from the previous forms and for each checkbox selected you go through the data for that row in the moderation queue. If you had selected to delete those options then you do a straightforward DELETE query on those rows. Otherwise you read in a row at a time. For each row you look at the thread id in which it was posted and create a new entry into the messages table with all the details from the moderatedpost row. You will need to update the id in the topics table (I believe) and obviously give an id to the message itself.  Basically - you do EVERYTHING that post2 would otherwise of done with this persons post to ensure it is tacked onto the end of the thread!

I know this may not make *much* sense but I tried my best It sounds a lot more complicated than I imagine it would be - basically it's just a LOT of database queries .

[David]

The issue I see is if you are only moderating some users, threads will have gaps.  Either you need to do it for everyone or for no one to keep coherant and flowing threads.  

[Grudge]

Yea, that is what I was thinking.

Basically - you either have to leave a "blank" post where the users was going to be - which will soon be bypassed on a busy forum. Or you stick the post they made at the end of the thread in question - which may not make much sense anymore if the thread has moved on by a page or two.

I think it could work if the board is an active one with many moderators. Maybe the user could make a post and until it is approved they have a "Waiting for approval" message in its place. Then on the messageindex/boardindex (or probably both) there is a message for all mods/admins saying how many threads there are awaiting approval on the board. Clicking a link takes you to all the posts on that board and they can quickly be approved.

Basically - I think it could work as long as the time between the post and the approval is very short - maybe less than 30 minutes (which should be possible in a large population board).

[Anguz]

I agree that it's inconvenient if you have to moderate everyone's posts... but it could be convenient when you have a normal forum where most members are okay but just have a couple of trouble makers

such a mod would be great to moderate them, they'd either learn to be good or you can just ban them withouth bothering the community

I think this should go in the Mod Ideas forum

[Grudge]

OK.

Well - if people think it would be useful I *may* have a go at it tomorrow. I just don't know which way is the best to do it - the important question here is: When the user post gets approved does it get put where his reply would originally have fallen or does it get tacked onto the end of the thread? I'm more inclined to go for the latter?? The alternative to both of this is that the users post shows up but only as an empty post saying "Post Awaiting Approval" until the admin approves it, where it will revert back to the original post... any ideas on this?

[Anguz]

hmm... I'd go for not using a placeholder

just add the message at the end of the thread

[Grudge]

Agreed. I shall make it my aim to write it up tomorrow. If I can write it tomorrow that will be about 4 mods in 4 days :eek:

[Anguz]

yeah!

I've seen you very active in the last few days!

I decided to write my first mods too  

hopefully I won't take too long to release them

[Grudge]

OK,

I've started work on this mod and seem to be doing OK with it. I do have some points/questions to raise though.

Firstly, calendar entries. I think that it will just be necessary to ban moderated users from posting calendar events - there is just *too* much information to store and I don't want to get into the realms of having to create a moderated table just for calendar events as it gets used so infrequently. If anyone disagrees with me terribly then maybe I'll change my mind later

Secondly, polls. At first I was going to ignore polls but then I think that maybe that isn't possible? The replies to the polls would be moderated under my system coded so far but *not* people making polls. I can either restrict moderated users from making polls all together or... if people *really* think moderated users should be able to post polls I think I can create a special system where polls are created but not displayed on the index until they are approved - either that or I'll encode all the poll info into a message...

Thirdly - I'm thinking this mod will be great to add to my visual warning mod but I'm trying to code it seperatly first for testing purposes but they will probably be integrated at some point - that's just a comment

Anyway - hopefully in the next few hours it will start to take shape a little more - if someone can give me any suggestions as to the first couple of points I would be very happy

[Anguz]

point 1, I'd say forget about calendar privs for moderated members, like you said, it's too much trouble for something no too often used

point 2, I think they should be able to start polls, but as with messages, they have to be approved before made public

yeah, this one could go well with your Visual Warning mod... it could be optional to go with the first level of warning, like: moderated, muted, banned

[puntingzone]

Jeez guys thanks a lot  , Almost given up hope of a reply after a month.

I hope you manage to get this mod to work. Really appreciate your efforts.

[Grudge]

Cheers,

I've actually got the post moderation bit working fine now. I just haven't had time to sort out the posting of polls issue. I have tomorrow off work so this is on my to-do list for then