XF 1.0 Managing Reported Content

Well, you wouldn't have seen it because it's only exposed to moderators.

Moderator actions are invoked using the moderator bar that is at the top of every page. In this post, I'll be focusing on how moderators handle reported content.

Handling a report is a little more formalized than you might be used to. Reports are now tracked with a status, so that it's clear what has happened and, if you leave a comment, why.

This bar makes it easy to see when you have tasks outstanding, but doesn't get in the way of reading the forum.

Inside the reported items section, you are presented with a list of outstanding (open or assigned) reports:

This does not just have to show a list of reported posts. It will show any type of comment, including profile posts or those added by add-ons. (Add-ons simply need to implement the basic reporting functionality and write some code to interact with this system.)

You can also use the button in the upper right to view recently closed reports.

Diving into the report listed, we see:

This shows us the content that was reported and any comments that may have been made. If a piece of content is reported multiple times, only one report will be created but all the comments will be listed here. Each moderator that can manage the report has the option of making a comment as well. This is important when the type of action that needs to be taken isn't 100% clear. Note that users that report content can't see this page or any of the comments that are made; they are for internal use only.

To modify the report's status, you must first claim the report. This is mostly important if you have two or more people who might handle the report. Once one person claims the report, the other can see that it's being handled. After claiming the report, the view switches slightly:

Now, using the "go to content" button (which opens in a new window), you can manage the content directly. After you have taken your course of action, you'd come back to the report view and change the status. After submitting, you're taken back to the report list view to move on to the next thing.

After a report has been closed, it can be re-opened if needed:

A moderator's comment will automatically re-open it. Another user reporting the content will cause it to be re-opened; however, all of the comments will still be available to help you decide whether an action is really necessary.

Added September 22nd:
Floris has put together a video showing how the system works. Thanks, Floris!

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[Walter]

This is but the tip of the iceburg. You'll really wet yer knickers when you see the moderating features.

Now that is unfair.....
Eagerly awaiting more

 

[Enigma]

Nice. Slightly reminiscent of a trouble ticket system. This will go a long way in keeping moderation activities efficient.

 

[Walter]

One important question: is the reported content searchable?

E.g. can I search for reported posts made by a certain user? Or the other way round, serach all reports made by a certain user?

 

[Mike]

No searching facilities are built in.

 

[welshstew]

Awesome

 

[Biker]

It is limited to moderators.

It wouldn't really be possible to fit it into what's new (most significantly for technical reasons), so they will have to check it if they're looking for responses. It probably wouldn't be a big issue to expose the last modified report time to the moderator bar.

And this is what makes IPBs version worthless IMO. I have a custom usergroup who's sole purpose is to give a reality check for the staff. They have access to the staff forum and it took me some serious trial and error to give them access to the report center. Having the ability to assign custom usergroups to the report center is a must for our site.

And not having an indicator that new posts have been added to a report just makes something of this type even more unwieldy.

While I can understand the thought process for a separate "report center", having it act differently from the rest of the site just makes it a sore thumb that the staff hates using. Quite honestly, I'm not for the idea, and think it could be designed better to integrate more seamlessly with the site, rather than acting as a separate entity.

This would be another deal breaker for me, as IPB currently does something similar and I hate it.

 

[Walter]

No searching facilities are built in.

Hm. Having the reports in a sub forum like in vb has a big advanteage: search. We often face legal challenges and have to prove things, and beeing able to search helps a lot.

Note: not that I run any illegal forum, but large ones, and sadly legal challenges from time to time are the norm nowadays if you ran a large forum.

 

[Cezz]

Absolutely awesome

 

[Mike]

I see the points about putting reports in a forum. It would actually be surprisingly easy for an add-on to overwrite the reporting behavior and post into a forum instead.

 

[Dean]

heh. Typical admin. Does not know if its spam or a monty python skit.

On a more serious note, it seems to work like this:

• report post which creates a 'report', subsequent reports of the same item creates addition comments
• the tools are there to deal with it in various ways including closing the report

1. then were do the reports go?
2. can they be scanned as a list and/or searched through?
3. And *most* importantly for us, can a moderator see if there was a report generated for a post, when simply viewing a marginal post, possibly years later?
4. Often times I have found the need to have 'thread notes', notes about a thread itself, could a moderator report the first post in a thread and use the report system for that?
5. How long can the comments be in the Reported Posts Report? Often times we have entire (long) threads in our moderator forum about certain things, including PMs to people.
6. Would the BBCodes be enabled in the Reported Posts Report Comments?

What will be the Reported Posts Report be called? I think a clear title/term would be quite helpful. RCRT = reported content report ticket?

 

[Biker]

I see the points about putting reports in a forum. It would actually be surprisingly easy for an add-on to overwrite the reporting behavior and post into a forum instead.

I would rather see an Admin option to choose which behavior works best for their site.

 

[Grover]

And this is what makes IPBs version worthless IMO. I have a custom usergroup who's sole purpose is to give a reality check for the staff. They have access to the staff forum and it took me some serious trial and error to give them access to the report center. Having the ability to assign custom usergroups to the report center is a must for our site.

And not having an indicator that new posts have been added to a report just makes something of this type even more unwieldy.

While I can understand the thought process for a separate "report center", having it act differently from the rest of the site just makes it a sore thumb that the staff hates using. Quite honestly, I'm not for the idea, and think it could be designed better to integrate more seamlessly with the site, rather than acting as a separate entity.

Hm. Having the reports in a sub forum like in vb has a big advanteage: search. We often face legal challenges and have to prove things, and beeing able to search helps a lot.

All these (and more) are the valid reasons (IMHO) why I have been requesting this for so long in the package I currently use: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/show...iewfull=1#post759709... because threads have so much benefits, indeed. Reports going to your private Staff Area worked really well for us (because of all those benefits), but it lacked good management functionaly. I kept needing this, more and more badly when your site grows.

I don't know the technical reasons or thoughts behind having a dedicated area like Invision and now XenForo have... what the big benefits of this kind of implementation are opposed to adding more management capabilities to our threads in Staf Zones? Maybe it is just technical impossible to build something like that into/around threads (with Custom Thread Fields for example: http://xenforo.com/community/thread.../page-2#post-15444)?

Nevertheless, if XenForo can combine both the benefits of threads and the benefits of a dedicated area, then that would be great. (I have been looking for so long (6! years) now for a forum product that gives us more flexibility in threads, so that we can attach all kinds of fields to them (like... status, assigned to, or whatever is needed), but if that is simply not possible, XenForo can provide this by combining the dedicated area -with it's status/assign fields- with threads... that would solve it!).

 

[Markos]

Very nice! Please in the next post in this section post a preview of the functionality of admin panel

 

[Walter]

I see the points about putting reports in a forum. It would actually be surprisingly easy for an add-on to overwrite the reporting behavior and post into a forum instead.

To be honest, I like your solution way better than having reports in a forum!
All I ask for are ways to search the reports.

 

[Mike]

then were do the reports go?

By "then", did you mean after it's closed? Into the closed reports list, which really is basically the same as the active report list, though currently grouped in time increments (permission check reasons).

can they be scanned as a list and/or searched through?

See comments above.

And *most* importantly for us, can a moderator see if there was a report generated for a post, when simply viewing a marginal post, possibly years later?

Not currently, but this has actually become *much* easier due to a change we made recently, so it'd be doable now.

Often times I have found the need to have 'thread notes', notes about a thread itself, could a moderator report the first post in a thread and use the report system for that?

The above would be a pre-req, but if you wanted to use it like that you could.

How long can the comments be in the Reported Posts Report? Often times we have entire (long) threads in our moderator forum about certain things, including PMs to people.

Would the BBCodes be enabled in the Reported Posts Report Comments?

Could be as long as you want. No plans for BB code in them.

 

[Peggy]

To be honest, I like your solution way better than having reports in a forum!

So do I.

 

[Shamil]

Suggestion: make the list searchable, or have flagged report items ?

 

[Grover]

So do I.

Hi Peggy,

Can you explain why? I am interested in the reasons, because on my site, which runs vB3.8, we use the functionality that a reported posts goes to a thread. Those threads are really handy for our Staff to process the whole report, because they have the ability to discuss it extensively and they can search for other reports that have been made. Often a reports has a relation/connection with another report you see and because of that... often reports also triggers Staff to use The Infraction System... or setting Banning options... or many stuff that is just related to each other. And it all can be discussed in the report threads or even associated threads we open for it. Searching for and then linking to related posts, threads... etc it is all possible with threads. Also 'New Posts' notifications or 'What's New' works on threads. Super convenient. As I said the only thing that I miss is more management functions (like status, assigned to). How is this (apart from the management functions) going to work with a dedicated area?

 

[Lawrence]

IMO,

There is no reason Admins can not create a forum for moderators to discuss certain reported items. Of all the reported items you receive, how many warrant discussions beyond what the comments section provides. Problem members (those whose posts are reported regularly for flaming, for example), IMO would have their own thread created in the mod forum for mods to discuss, keep, and ref, but if someone's posts gets reported as spam (ie: selling shoes), why bother wasting a thread on them?

 

[Dean]

Is there a unique url for each ticket?