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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[Lojo]

It's folded together or reopened (if you rejected the report at first, say).

Thanks Mike for taking the time to answer my question.

 

[Ruven]

Can we have automated resolution actions?
For example:
Select "Resolved - Hard Delete", click "Update report" and automatically delete the content.
Select "Resolved - Soft Delete", click "Update report" and automatically soft-delete the content.
Select "Rejected", enter a reason, click "Update report" and automatically send a PM back to user with the reason provided.

This really would make what seems like the best report a post feature ive seen become pretty much perfect.
In vB there is a plugin that allows you to "delete as spam", whats cool is that when you delete a post with that option it gives you a few checkboxes to do other actions.
1. Delete all posts by that user, hard or soft.
2. Ban the user, and for how long.
3. Ban all users permanently that are using this IP.
4. Some other option i cant remember.

It would be nice if a report system had a similar feature for automated actions that could be activated by a check box while taking care of a reported post.
Having to go claim a reported post, process it and then delete it manually might be too many steps.
A one touch system for the majority of reported posts would be idea.

 

[Lojo]

When rejecting a report, does the member(s) who submitted that report get some sort of PM or EMAIL notification?

 

[Lawrence]

When rejecting a report, does the member(s) who submitted that report get some sort of PM or EMAIL notification?

A moderator may reject a reported post at first, but it may be re-opened for action if deemed necessary. Sending a PC or Email at the time the report was rejected to inform the reporting member that it was rejected, may turn out to be misleading.

 

[Lojo]

A moderator may reject a reported post at first, but it may be re-opened for action if deemed necessary. Sending a PC or Email at the time the report was rejected to inform the reporting member that it was rejected, may turn out to be misleading.

Not really, as it just depends on how the template that is sent out is worded.

 

[Darat]

How are the reports recorded once they've been dealt with?

 

[Lawrence]

How are the reports recorded once they've been dealt with?

There are marked as closed. You can go back through closed reports for reference, review, or to re-open if required. It is very handy tool as moderators and administrators can keep themselves (and each other) informed on reported items, while away from the forum.

 

[Lojo]

I just thought of a good idea. Would it be possible to add some sort of option to be able to automatically hide a topic that has been reported X amount of times?

 

[Darat]

There are marked as closed. You can go back through closed reports for reference, review, or to re-open if required. It is very handy tool as moderators and administrators can keep themselves (and each other) informed on reported items, while away from the forum.

Thanks for the quick reply. Can you view all the reports about a specific user?

 

[erich37]

Floris,

why do you close the report and only delete the post afterwards ?
I don´t get it.....

 

[Rob]

You know guys, I LOVE the separate area, especially the notifications but like others have said, it could do with a few changes. From my perspective, I think all this needs is a 'search' option, the ability for admins and X usergroup to be able to assign reports to other staff.

Ideally, I would also like to be able to categorise reports, or alternatively add tags (ajax search as you type) to reports - that would be neat.

 

[Tanax]

This is one of the features I love the most with IPB - eventhough it has room for vast improvements!

Here are some ideas I think are vital to this feature, most of them collected from within this thread:

- Being able to search in open reports aswell as search closed reports(sometimes you want to go back to a closed report)

- Being able to sort the closed reports by several factors:
- - User
- - Date
- - Staff assigned
- - Etc?
This would essentially group all the reports into users if sorted by user which would achieve the functionality someone posted previously.

- In each report, have a button "Create discussion thread" which would do the following:
- - Create a thread in a pre-defined forum by the admin
- - Create a link to the report in the thread and create a link to the thread in the report.
- - (Optional, could be complicated) Copy all comments in the report as replies in the thread. Each time a comment in the report is made, a reply in the thread is auto-made. Each time a reply in the thread is made, a comment in the report is auto-made.
This would be a reasonable feature for those who wants the reports in threads instead. This could also be admin-defined with 3 options, either "Allow discussion thread to be made", "Disallow discussion thread to be made" and "Always make a discussion thread".

Some things I'm unsure about is:

- What if I assign myself to a report and then realize I can't handle it because I didn't read all the report(or whatever reason), will it be possible to assign more moderators? Will it be possible to resign?

- How about letting the user who reported the post be able to comment in the report? I often find myself in need of asking the user something, quite inefficient if I need to send a message to the user everytime I need to ask something.

 

[karrott]

- How about letting the user who reported the post be able to comment in the report? I often find myself in need of asking the user something, quite inefficient if I need to send a message to the user everytime I need to ask something.

This is something I use on one of my sites that is extremely helpful. I would love for members to be able to access the reports they sent in addition to just the staff.

 

[Grover]

Suggestion, which would hopefully satisfy most concerned:

1. In addition to how it works now, have an admin option to create a thread for each ticket, and
2. have the url to that thread in the ticket
3. have the url to the ticket in the first post of the discussion thread

For simple things the created threads could be ignored, but they cause no harm
For the complicated things there could be a discussion in the thread, with the 'cliff notes' in the ticket.

I totally agree on all your points. For years I have been begging vBulletin to include more report-management options for admins/mods into their product and finally XenForo gives us something that is a step in the right direction. I am already liking what I see here and since it's only the first version of this new XF Report Center I hope that in XenForo 1.0.x we can see some of the ideas we've offered here implemented.

Please add functionality to:

• See at one glance, all infractions, warnings, reports, staff comments relating to a specific member.

This is key. There has got to be functionality that offers this to staff to make managing users efficient for once. I have been needing a system that combines everything together for soooo long now (read my comments in this thread). Managing users is the main part of the work of our staff so this work process should be supported by the software in the best way possible. I have yet to discover a forum package that is capable of doing that the way we need it. So my hopes are high that XenForo will be the first package that gives our staff something that makes their work process more easier and efficient. This will certainly help:

- Being able to sort the closed reports by several factors:
- - User
- - Date
- - Staff assigned
- - Etc?
This would essentially group all the reports into users if sorted by user which would achieve the functionality someone posted previously.

 

[Dean]

I've noted a bunch of ideas down and will look at implementing what's feasible down the line.

Things like search, going to a forum instead, ensuring that the content shows the report, etc. Basically the stuff that has come up in the thread.

Any further thoughts?

It would be really really great if moderators knew that there were new comments in the Reported Posts by other moderators. Kier or someone else leaves a comment, and no one else knows about it. An alert would be perfect
(I have the same (huge) problem on my forum as well)

In addition, as previously suggested, having a couple of tabs such as this would be a huge time saver:

And eventually, it would be fantastic if the Reports were searchable.

But at the moment, not knowing new comments are made to the reports, is causing immense headaches.

 

[Alpha1]

Those extra tabs would be very useful.It would allow staff to quickly see if a user has been reported a lot of times. Some users manage to avoid warnings, but get reported frequently and stay under the radar if there are a lot of moderators.

Can we have automated resolution actions?
For example:
Select "Resolved - Hard Delete", click "Update report" and automatically delete the content.
Select "Resolved - Soft Delete", click "Update report" and automatically soft-delete the content.
Select "Rejected", enter a reason, click "Update report" and automatically send a PM back to user with the reason provided.

Those are some things I've thought about, but they're not options yet.

This would save a lot of time.

What would also save time, is if users have the possibility to select which rule a post breaches.
Not as a replacement for the text field, but as an addition. Users would still need to fill in the text field and explain the problem. The selection of rule breaches could include a last option for 'other' or 'none of the above' to allow for reports that do not refer to rule breaches.
This would clarify those reports that are not clear enough.

 

[jacko]

Can we have automated resolution actions?
For example:
Select "Resolved - Hard Delete", click "Update report" and automatically delete the content.
Select "Resolved - Soft Delete", click "Update report" and automatically soft-delete the content.
Select "Rejected", enter a reason, click "Update report" and automatically send a PM back to user with the reason provided.

Edit:
Also, what happens when multiple people report the same content? Do the subsequent reports become comments?

that is something I was hoping to see in 1.1

are we going to have it anytime soon?

 

[RastaLulz]

After reading about how other members think that reports (and warnings) should go into separate forums, instead of the queue, I have come to a conclusion.

At the moment, the discussion aspect of each individual report isn't that appealing, and to a degree, looks a bit sloppy. Why not give it the appearance of a thread, like you have done with private conversations? I think that way, it'd be a lot easier to have a discussion on a topic, as oppose to the current way it is set up (with a bunch of crammed text). You could also add notifications so that when a staff member replies, on a report that you have previously responded to, you get an alert (like on threads).

 

[kmike]

Why not give it the appearance of a thread, like you have done with private conversations? I think that way, it'd be a lot easier to have a discussion on a topic, as oppose to the current way it is set up (with a bunch of crammed text). You could also add notifications so that when a staff member replies, on a report that you have previously responded to, you get an alert (like on threads).

In other words, if the reports were simply threads, that would automagically solve many of the problems above:
- the reports will be searchable
- the new comments from the mods (and new reports) would bump the report thread on top, bringing it to attention
- the alerts and notifications would work
- the report resolutions could be implemented as thread prefixes

 

[CTXMedia]

Yes please - reports into a specified private mods forum - FTW!!