Reported Items - of limited use only to us?

[AlexT]

We're still on vB 3.8 and currently working through the logistics of migrating to XF. Our team of moderators consists of around 20 users. One of our most important and reliable moderation "tools" is having reported items automatically posted in a dedicated discussion forum. Moderator discussions for particular items can be sometimes quite lengthy and serious - with the result that over the years our dedicated forum for reported items has become an indispensable source of information for all kinds of things.

Here is why I think the way reported items are currently reported in XF lacks in usefulness. In XF, reported posts don't appear in "proper" threads. That by itself is not a problem, but:

1. There is no way to search current and closed reported cases. Can you imagine trying to remember how you decided in similar reported cases in the past or trying to find a specific reported item to see how it got resolved?
2. Posts are being displayed in opposite chronological order, making it strange to follow the discussion flow if you are used to the normal order.
3. Comments are not paginated, making it even more difficult to follow the case if the reported item involves a lengthy discussion.
4. Comments cannot be quoted nor referenced. This is a big issue. If several mods are discussing an item, and if they are unable to refer to specific comments (either by quoting or by linking to them), then it's easy to see how it can quickly become a nightmare to find out who is talking to whom and in reference to what.
5. Another "reduction", shall we say, is the presentation of comments as plain text. At least links are parsed, but other BBCodes are ignored. Not terrible to live with, but I don't see the benefit in this. In fact, come to think of it, it's also not possible to use more advanced posting features, such as attaching files or images (screenshots for example). This too can be quite useful in some cases when working through unresolved reported cases.

 

[Biker]

There have been a few discussions regarding the report center, and many of us agree with you that it's virtually worthless for those of us that need the ability to have them show up during a search.

It was hinted that some of our suggestions were going to be looked at, but we really haven't heard much since then.

 

[AlexT]

It was hinted that some of our suggestions were going to be looked at, but we really haven't heard much since then.

Wow, I wasn't aware of the commentary - it's basically everything and more of what I have mentioned above.

I was particularly intrigued by Mike's comment: "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 haven't delved into coding XF addons yet, but if it's indeed easy to overwrite the behavior, I am confident someone will come up with a solution soon (in particular given how more and more vB owners jump the ship).

 

[Paul B]

Someone already did: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/create-thread-on-reported-content.714/

 

[Biker]

Damn he's fast. Just found it and was about to post.

 

[AlexT]

Thanks. Likes for both of you!!!

 

[CTXMedia]

Someone already did: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/create-thread-on-reported-content.714/

To the OP - the modding team at CycleChat have been using this add-on for a while now and we much prefer it to the Report Centre.

Edit: Ninja'd ...

 

[dethfire]

This is spot on and still relevant. Would be really interested to hear why they decided to go with a different system in commenting when you could just use (but reduce unneeded elements) what they already have which is very useful.

 

[CTXMedia]

This is spot on and still relevant. Would be really interested to hear why they decided to go with a different system in commenting when you could just use (but reduce unneeded elements) what they already have which is very useful.

This thread was made at a time when the only reporting option in XF was to use the Report Centre; something myself and a few other owners didn't really get on with as we were used to having reports appear as threads in our private moderator forums. The addon (quoted up thread) was created to give us that functionality back - something I was very grateful for at the time) and shortly after this thread was posted XF announced they were adding this same feature to the core.

So whilst it's there now, it wasn't always.

Cheers,
Shaun