Add-on Need Your Thoughts on AI-Powered Mod Tool for XenForo

[forumcopilot]

Hey everyone,

I'm working on an AI-powered add-on for XenForo to help with moderating forums, starting with tackling spam and NSFW content. I know tools like Akismet already exist, but I think there's always room to make things better.

I'm a long-time forum user and believe AI can really improve moderation. This project isn't commercial—at least not at the start. I just want to create something useful for our community.

I'd love to hear your thoughts:

1. Do you have issues with spam and NSFW content?
2. What features would you love in an AI mod tool?
3. Any specific moderation pain points you think AI could help with?
4. How happy are you with your current spam/NSFW solutions?
5. Interested in beta testing?

Also, I’m not into AI-generated content like reply bots. I just want to make moderation easier. I've looked into Discourse AI, but it's super pricey for Enterprise users. I think it should be more affordable.

Your feedback would be super helpful! Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks!

 

[Digital Doctor]

https://www.discourse.org/ai

... doesn't focus on mod tools.

(1) You need to define VERY specifically what are the moderation problems people have.

The latest problem is stolen passwords where current registered users are taken over by spam bots. I'm not sure AI can help with that.

(2) You need to show that non-AI tools cannot improve current mod tools. And
(3) AI can solve the issues.

I'd make sure you have these worked out first before proceeding. AI moderation overall seems like a VERY niche addon to me. A Xenforo chat bot seems like a potentially very popular addon.

Moderation by the community itself would be a much more effective moderation enhancement.

I have reported spam here approximately 6 times in the last 3 weeks. My accuracy is 100%. I bet there are 20 members here who have 100% accuracy in spam reporting. An effective mod tool would be to hide a post when someone with 100% accuracy reports it. if that isn't certain enough .... if a "perfect reporter" reports spam, alert another member CURRENTLY online and ask them ..... is this post spam ? if the second member reports it as spam .... it likely is spam. Community Moderation >>>> AI.

If you want to get into Xenforo Addons, would it be smart to get a simple addon done first ? Get your feet wet ?

 

[Mendalla]

1. Do you have issues with spam and NSFW content?
2. What features would you love in an AI mod tool?
3. Any specific moderation pain points you think AI could help with?
4. How happy are you with your current spam/NSFW solutions?
5. Interested in beta testing?

1. Not at the moment. StopForumSpam and other features seem to be sufficient for us and our members rarely post anything even remotely NSFW
2. Not sure. In the end, I want moderation decisions made by humans. Any AI tool should be just a way of flagging stuff to the report queue
3. Shortage of volunteers and spanning five time zones. We are running with only two moderators plus two admins. Mercifully, the two moderators are in different time zones which helps but ideally, I should have more in more time zones.
4. Happy at the moment with just OOB
5. Not really. Don't even have time to do XF betas this time round. Would like hearing how it goes, though.

 

[forumcopilot]

https://www.discourse.org/ai

... doesn't focus on mod tools.

(1) You need to define VERY specifically what are the moderation problems people have.

The latest problem is stolen passwords where current registered users are taken over by spam bots. I'm not sure AI can help with that.

(2) You need to show that non-AI tools cannot improve current mod tools. And
(3) AI can solve the issues.

I'd make sure you have these worked out first before proceeding. AI moderation overall seems like a VERY niche addon to me. A Xenforo chat bot seems like a potentially very popular addon.

Moderation by the community itself would be a much more effective moderation enhancement.

I have reported spam here approximately 6 times in the last 3 weeks. My accuracy is 100%. I bet there are 20 members here who have 100% accuracy in spam reporting. An effective mod tool would be to hide a post when someone with 100% accuracy reports it. if that isn't certain enough .... if a "perfect reporter" reports spam, alert another member CURRENTLY online and ask them ..... is this post spam ? if the second member reports it as spam .... it likely is spam. Community Moderation >>>> AI.

If you want to get into Xenforo Addons, would it be smart to get a simple addon done first ? Get your feet wet ?

Thanks for your response!

Discourse AI isn't just about mod tools; it's more like applying AI to everything imaginable. I think it's awesome that they've figured out which features get used the most and tweaked from there.

So, what can the XenForo Chatbot do? I'm guessing it can answer questions based on the forum content, basically replacing the search? It might also find related posts as you browse, though the Related Topics add-on kinda already does that. But hey, a semantic search could be even better.

For the AI mod tool I'm thinking of, it would just flag or hide spam/problematic posts before anyone has to report them. For well-staffed communities like yours, it might not be super necessary, but having something on autopilot to catch obvious spam and NSFW stuff is always nice. Like you said, spambots can steal passwords and log in as reputable users.

Another idea is a tool that generates keywords and summaries for each topic to help with long threads.

What do you guys think? Any features you’d love to see to make moderation and the user experience better? I'd really appreciate your feedback!

 

[forumcopilot]

4. Happy at the moment with just OOB

Thanks for the feedback @Mendalla! What do you mean by "OOB"? Oopspam?

Nothing better than a crew of volunteer moderators around the globe!

 

[ENF]

What do you mean by "OOB"? Oopspam?

It's short form for "Out of Box Experience" or basically the default functions that come out of the box.

I don't see a need for AI involvement in site management. The current functions in XF already plus some additional products provide some solid automated management that drive content issues into a review channel that humans manage. The keyword detection (spam words), censor and other default tools in XF are sufficient for our needs when detecting risky content that we wouldn't permit.

We rely on Q&A for registration control but we also have a team that manually approves new accounts because we have stricter requirements than most sites.

1. Do you have issues with spam and NSFW content? > Existing tools cover any potential issues.
2. What features would you love in an AI mod tool? >Cannot come up with a business requirement needs at this timing.
3. Any specific moderation pain points you think AI could help with? > Not at this timing.
4. How happy are you with your current spam/NSFW solutions? > Works as designed.
5. Interested in beta testing? > No.

There may be others out there that need assistance, but XF "OOB" works pretty well. But, we do augment XF with specific products to add more teeth to existing functions.