Implemented Allow Moderators to Ban Users

[Mr_Bob]

Outside of the spam cleaner, it would be great to give moderators the ability to ban users, if they are given permission of course. As it stands, the only way to have a user banned by a moderator is using the spam cleaner, or make them a "administrator" in addition to being a moderator, with only the ban ability (but this still lets them run counters and view the error log).

 

[Dean]

Because it has nothing to do with its ability to get included.

The number of 'likes' the first post the suggestions get, determines the popularity. That makes a large difference, and is a way of measuring how desirable a requested modification is.

 

[Brent W]

The number of 'likes' the first post the suggestions get, determines the popularity. That makes a large difference, and is a way of measuring how desirable a requested modification is.

Then we can go back to being vBulletin and getting everything included just because the majority of people want it. So we end up, yet again, with a bloated forum software. I have enough faith in Kier not to make decisions based on the like feature.

 

[Dean]

Then we can go back to being vBulletin and getting everything included just because the majority of people want it. So we end up, yet again, with a bloated forum software. I have enough faith in Kier not to make decisions based on the like feature.

It is simply feedback to them, how else will they know how many people want a certain feature? They did explicitly ask for the first post in a suggestion thread to be 'liked' to show support. If you view the suggestion, or any, forum, at the bottom of the page you can sort by number of likes in the first post.

They probably do that to take a quick snapshot of what some of the more popular suggestions are.

 

[Tim]

Tim, how do you slow down someone in a particularly 'special' mood that insists on posting 'stuff' non-stop when no admins are available?

Hey Dean, I luckily have a mature membership and this problem rarely happens. Usually the members report the posts and we respond as soon as we can. When that happens, my senior admin or I step in and talk/PM the member causing the problem and see if we can iron out a solution. If not, we let them know they are no longer welcome and send them on their way. But talking/PMing usually solves all of our problems.

I'm sure we don't have a tenth of the problems other forums have with a younger crowd so what works for me my not work for others. We have very few rules in place, and they are well known when a member registers... respect each other and no politics/religion/racism.

 

[Tim]

Because it has nothing to do with its ability to get included.

Try reading this, it's the first thread in this forum... if you missed it some how.

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/guide-to-suggestions.2285/

 

[Brent W]

It is simply feedback to them, how else will they know how many people want a certain feature? They did explicitly ask for the first post in a suggestion thread to be 'liked' to show support. If you view the suggestion, or any, forum, at the bottom of the page you can sort by number of likes in the first post.

They probably do that to take a quick snapshot of what some of the more popular suggestions are.

I don't know, I see your point in their ability to browse by the most popular features easily. I am sure that is nice for them to a degree. My point is there are going to be a lot of ideas that are not as "liked" and then they will be pushed to the bottom, but will be actually useful to a certain user base.

For example, a lot of big board users felt like they were being ignored by vBulletin while all the popular bloat was being added. That is something I do not want to see added here. Not just big boards, but any suggestion that may be very useful but be ignored because the popularity on here wasn't good enough.

 

[Brent W]

Try reading this, it's the first thread in this forum... if you missed it some how.

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/guide-to-suggestions.2285/

See post below this one.

 

[Dean]

Hey Dean, I luckily have a mature membership and this problem rarely happens.

Me too.

In a way, that is our problem. Thing is, our staff is really small because there really is nothing for them to do people are so well behaved... and we have real people too as opposed to random internet names. In fact we have a meeting a few states away (something to do with those 2 wheel things in your avatar) soon. And that will only leave 1 or 2 moderators on the forum and they can only be online a few hours a day. They need the ability to (somehow) slow a crazed poster down, if that should occur. Luckily I've been available, but that will not be the case in the future.

Tell you what. Does this idea sound better to you (I really need this)
http://xenforo.com/community/thread...members-in-out-of-moderation.5442/#post-83668

 

[Tim]

I fully support Tims viewpoints (and everyone elses).

Tim, based on what you are saying, is it possible you have a reasonably large forum where some high level staff (admins) are usually available?

That's hard to say since I don't consider my forum to be large. I run a niche community for custom bike owners, not everyone wants one and/or can afford one. My staff pops in and out throughout the day, depending on their schedule.

I believe it can be done, but it just depends on those who are working for you, what their commitment is and what kind of time they can devout to your forum.

Like I said, what works for me may not work for anyone else.

 

[vijayninel]

I respect Tim's and BamaStangGuy's opinions in this regard. But I request the developers of xenforo not to force a particular philosophy down our throat, because that will make it impossible for many old and established vBulletin sites to convert. We are used to doing things in a certain manner and we find that it works perfectly for us.

What suits a particular community may not be suitable for others. We find that the moderator/super-moderator hierarchy works great for us. We also give some mods the rights to ban and not others because not all moderators are suitable for all moderation tasks. Admins should be able to give individual mods various levels of powers including the right to ban.

 

[Tim]

Me too.

In a way, that is our problem. Thing is, our staff is really small because there really is nothing for them to do people are so well behaved... and we have real people too as opposed to random internet names. In fact we have a meeting a few states away (something to do with those 2 wheel things in your avatar) soon. And that will only leave 1 or 2 moderators on the forum and they can only be online a few hours a day. They need the ability to (somehow) slow a crazed poster down, if that should occur. Luckily I've been available, but that will not be the case in the future.

Tell you what. Does this idea sound better to you (I really need this)
http://xenforo.com/community/thread...members-in-out-of-moderation.5442/#post-83668

I was down to only one staff member in August, 2 of us met in Sturgis for almost 10 days and my 4th is in the Marines and finishing up his Masters at night. Lots of riding and drinking, but the forum survived just fine (we had roughly 40 members in Sturgis with us).

I wouldn't stress over it much, especially if you have a solid membership. Maybe make an announcement to let everyone know that if something is going on to report it to the staff asap and let them know it will be anonymous. Your active members will take some ownership in your community and will want to keep it growing in a positive direction. I always let my members know that it's THEM that make our community what it is, not me.

 

[Carlos]

I respect Tim's and BamaStangGuy's opinions in this regard. But I request the developers of xenforo not to force a particular philosophy down our throat, because that will make it impossible for many old and established vBulletin sites to convert. We are used to doing things in a certain manner and we find that it works perfectly for us.

What suits a particular community may not be suitable for others. We find that the moderator/super-moderator hierarchy works great for us. We also give some mods the rights to ban and not others because not all moderators are suitable for all moderation tasks. Admins should be able to give individual mods various levels of powers including the right to ban.

Now this is a post I like! Thanks for the post! I couldn't have said it better.

 

[feldon30]

Then we can go back to being vBulletin and getting everything included just because the majority of people want it. So we end up, yet again, with a bloated forum software. I have enough faith in Kier not to make decisions based on the like feature.

Clicking on 'Like' is just one tool to help XenForo gauge reaction on which features are the most valuable to the community. But it's not the only tool. If a suggestion proves popular, then I think they will look more closely at a feature. I do understand that some people felt ignored in the vB Suggestions forum, especially big boards. But if you find a suggestion that is close to something you'd like to see, and you don't click 'Like', I see that as a Not Interested vote.

Kier and Mike have demonstrated that they will use their best judgment on making an informed decision before adding the feature. They may decide it's better as an addon, or they may think of a means of combining 2-3 suggestions into a layer of functionality that really opens things up to customization.

It's worth pointing out that in vBulletin, the role of an Administrator vs. the role of a Moderator were two separate things which limited a lot of possibilities for how authority could be distributed on a forum. It was a leap of faith (and a security question) to grant a moderator the ability to approve users, ban users, etc. because you had to make them an Administrator.

In my opinion, having a rigid distinction between Moderators vs. Administrators is a very outmoded way of divvying up authority, and there is no usability benefit to carrying forth such a dichotomy into the next generation of community software.

 

[vijayninel]

It's worth pointing out that in vBulletin, the role of an Administrator vs. the role of a Moderator were two separate things which limited a lot of possibilities for how authority could be distributed on a forum. It was a leap of faith (and a security question) to grant a moderator the ability to approve users, ban users, etc. because you had to make them an Administrator.

In my opinion, having a rigid distinction between Moderators vs. Administrators is a very outmoded way of divvying up authority, and there is no usability benefit to carrying forth such a dichotomy into the next generation of community software.

That is incorrect. In vBulletin you can give mods the power to ban users. Also you can give Admins various levels of powers as well, so there are admins and super admins as well. Not all admins can do all admin tasks.

Not giving powers to particular mods or admins can restrict their abilities to contribute to the forum in moderation or admin tasks. Giving them too much power especially in the initial stages can be dangerous and harmful to the forum as well. Now the question is - Who decided how much power a particular staff member gets? The Admins of the forum are in a best position to determine who should get how much power. They know who and what will work best for their community. It will be inappropriate for forum software developers to try to decide how forums should be run and then restrict the Admins/mods abilities in order to achieve that.

 

[Tim]

Now the question is - Who decided how much power a particular staff member gets? The Admins of the forum are in a best position to determine who should get how much power. They know who and what will work best for their community.

Bingo

 

[TrixieTang]

I'd like my mods to have the ability to ban, but I'd like it if it were done through an infraction type system. That way it would be easy to keep track of people who've been banned/warned/etc.

 

[Rigel Kentaurus]

I tried the workaround of giving the moderators access to the ACP. Turned out to be a bad idea, since Rebuild Search Index is there, and yes, people could stumble open it and click it just to see what it does. The PM saying "do not use that option" does not seem to help. So ... adding a +1 to this suggestion

 

[Grover]

Admins should be able to give individual mods various levels of powers including the right to ban.

This is what it all comes down to. *Liked*

 

[Grover]

That is incorrect. In vBulletin you can give mods the power to ban users.

Indeed, I just wanted to point out the same when I read Feldon's reply. It is in fact possible in vBulletin, but the point seems to be that XenForo does not have this flexibility. At least not at the moment. And for us to switch platforms this will be needed. I will certainly not want to involve myself (as the admin) in banning users on a day-to-day basis if this is supposed to be a task of our Moderation team.

 

[nrep]

Strongly agree with this one. It would be nice to see an option in the moderator permissions that allows them to ban users - I really don't think that making them all administrators would be ideal, as it gives use to tools that aren't needed for moderation (search rebuild, server logs etc...).