XF 1.2 Basic moderation abilities unavailable to moderators?

[Stuart Wright]

Just been asked this by the moderators ahead of migrating:

"How do I {look up a member's email}?"
"How do I {look up a members D.O.B}?"
"How do I {look up a member's registration IP}?"
"How do I {look up all of a member's posting IPs}?"
"How do I {cross check IPs across members}?"
"How do I {look up a member's reason for being banned}?"

and I just realised there is no modcp like in vbulletin where they can do this stuff.
It's essential functionality.
How do we do it?

 

[xf_phantom]

Check your moderator permissions for the forum
if they DON'T have editAnyPost AND deleteAnyPost they won't see the reported posts



edit: great timing

 

[Chris D]

If a content moderator is created for a single forum, but they are then added to a usergroup which contains these permissions:



They'll be able to see all reports in all forums, right? And additionally presumably, actually perform those actions in all forums too?

Am I right in saying that a content moderator probably shouldn't be put into a usergroup that gives them moderator abilities, per se? And they should only be given permissions either at the node level or the user level, not at the usergroup levels?

 

[Paul B]

My moderating user group only has the base permissions which all moderators have.

The ability to edit, delete, etc. is set at node level.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Now we're getting somewhere.......(I think)!
Thanks Chris & Brogan

 

[Paul B]

I just can't work out why!!

Use the Analyze Permissions function - that should let you see where the permissions are set.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Am familiar with that tool, but it wasn't helping me here. Nevertheless I think I'm getting there. Thanks guys.

 

[Paul B]

Other than these, everything else is set to Not Set (No) for my default moderator user group:





For forum wide moderators, I have a Global Moderator user group which has a lot of other permissions set, as you would expect.

For content moderators, the permissions are set for each node, depending on their role.

 

[Stuart Wright]

Many thanks, all. This clarification has been very useful.
Hey Brogan, have you experienced any problems with allowing moderators to spam clean?
We have reserved that for supers in vBulletin, but now it's a reversible action, I guess we could reconsider.

 

[Chris D]

Yeah.

I can confirm the issue is that the usergroup permissions in the Staff - Moderator usergroup override the content moderator permissions.

When you create a Content Moderator for a specific forum, they are given the permissions you specify for that node only.

If you, however, put that Content Moderator into a group which gives them access to delete, edit etc. any post, manage threads etc. then that will occur globally and override any specific node permissions.

So, follow Brogan's lead and do not put them into a usergroup that gives them those additional permissions.

 

[Stuart Wright]

I think I would like to be able to identify moderators by having them in a moderating usergroup. We'll just not add those permissions for the moderators usergroup.

Next question. How do we assign all the users in the banned usergroup to being officially banned in Xenforo (all 25,000 of them) and how can the moderators bring details of banned users up (including banned reason)?

 

[Paul B]

Use the Batch Update Users feature to search for all users in a usergroup and ban them all.

For the second part, ban reasons are only available in the ACP.
It would require an add-on.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Can I go back to Moderator privileges, please?

(Please correct anything I misunderstand here)

This is a question about those (extra) privileges that a moderator gets in one or more forums because they are designated as Moderator there. Stuff they can do in "their" forums but not across the board. Like deleting others' posts etc.

As far as I can work it out (and based in part on the earlier discussion above), we have to set these privileges using the page Users > Moderators when we create a Mod in the first place. (Because setting them in Usergroup privileges they will apply across the board). And we can copy these settings once created for that one Moderator to other forums as required. So we end up with hundreds of instances of Moderator <> Forum privilege; one for every Moderator <> Forum combination.

Suppose we decide we don't want regular Mods to be able to Hard Delete. So we set them all up like that in the first place. Fine.

Suppose we later decide to give them this ability - but again, only in "their" forums. The only way to do this is to edit all several hundred sets of privilege.....right? There is no ONE place where we can globally set what a Moderator can (or can't) do (extra, over and above ordinary members) but ONLY in "their" forums......right? Or have I totally missed something?

 

[Paul B]

You can set the perms in the parent node and they will apply to all children.

I set mine at the category level.

 

[Harpers Tate]

Sure, I get that. We do that where it applies. On AVForums there are still hundreds of instances of Moderator <> Parent Node &/or Forum. (We rarely set ours at Category level - it's too broad). We've got 50+ Moderators most of whom participate in several Parents or Forums. Hence, hundreds....

So what I'm looking for (and, really am surprised, very surprised if it isn't present) is the one place where you can set the default set of privileges a Moderator gets when they are allocated to a forum (or parent or category). (This is what we want our Mods to be able to do in "their" forums, but not elsewhere). And change them globally as required.

 

[CTXMedia]

Yup - that's doable.

In your case you'll want to set the Moderating usergroup (global mod perms) to very limited set (or possibly even revoke perms so that individual mods can't moderate other mod's forums) and then within each individual forum add the moderator's username (top right) and click Set Permissions to give them a broader set of permissions.

This allows you to restrict their miltu-forum modding capability, whilst still allowing them their modding freedom within the limited number of forums they are set-up to mod in.

Good luck - I don't envy you the task of getting it all setup ... ... thankfully it should only be the once.

Note: If you DO want some moderators to be able to moderate globally, just go into the Moderating usergroup and, again, use the Set Permissions option to give individual mods those 'extra' permissions.

TBH this would be easier with some visuals but I haven't got time to put them up just now ... sorry!

 

[Harpers Tate]

Unless I misunderstand, that sounds even worse than what I'm already doing.....

 

[CTXMedia]

Unless I misunderstand, that sounds even worse than what I'm already doing.....

Were you expecting to be able to select a moderator and then pick the individual forums from the node list that they can mod?

 

[Mike]

Your understanding of the system is correct and yes, you would need to set the permissions separately for each user for each forum they moderate. The moderator system is sort of an interface into the permissions system and that's how it works there.

 

[Harpers Tate]

@Mike. Thanks for the confirmation. Where do I raise enhancement requests? Surely this is an omission from core function - at least as far as scalability for a big forum with lots of "staff" is concerned.

@Clickfinity. No, not that. To repeat
"So what I'm looking for (and, really am surprised, very surprised if it isn't present) is the one place where you can set the default set of privileges a Moderator gets when they are allocated to a forum (or parent or category). (This is what we want our Mods to be able to do in "their" forums, but not elsewhere). And change them globally as required." (Don't know how else to phrase it).

 

[Mike]

You should post any suggestions to the suggestions forum.