XF 1.2 Reporting Improvements

A large forum will probably get a lot of reports, so in 1.2 we've tried to streamline the reporting system and make it easier for moderators to work with. Let's see what new options there are...

Reporting to a forum
Before I start, if you're one of those people that really doesn't like the default reporting system, you can turn it off and have reports create threads in a forum. If you have a workflow around this, then you can go back to using it but obviously you'll need to setup things like prefixes or workflows to define how to mark "closed" reports, etc.

If you choose this option, none of the changes that I'm listing below apply to you, so you can just ignore the rest of this message if you want. ;)

Updated reports counter
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The counter showing the number of outstanding reports has been updated in a few ways:
  • If a report is assigned to you, that number will be listed first (I'm assigned to 1 of the 2 open reports).
  • Once you have visited the reports list, the counter will no longer be shown in red (unless you have a report assigned to you). Whenever a report is updated (either a new open report or a new comment/action on an open report), the counter will be red again. This allows you to track changes to the reports.
  • Hovering the counter will tell you the last update time (of any open reports).
What's changed on the report list
You'll see a couple changes here:
ss-2013-04-26_13-34-01.webp

  • You can now search for reports based on the owner of the content being reported. (Searching by people reporting may be implemented in the future.)
  • A report that you're assigned to is shown in bold.
  • Reports closed recently (last 24 hours) will always be shown below the active reports list.
What's changed when viewing a report
ss-2013-04-26_13-36-01.webp

  • You'll see a user block above the report with quick access to links like editing, spam cleaning, etc.
  • The comments are now listed in oldest first order.
  • There is clarification that any comments made are only visible to other moderators.
  • You don't need to be assigned to the report to take an action with it. (If the report is assigned to someone else, you will be told this before you will see the actions to handle the report.)
  • You can assign a report to other moderators. This triggers an overlay which shows you the list of users that can actually see/handle the report.
  • When resolving or rejecting a report, you have the option to alert the reporter(s) of what action was taken, including an optional comment. (The alert does not tell the reporter which person handled the report.)
I think that's everything for now. I still see plenty of things that could be done to make moderators' lives easier in the future and we'll always be revisiting additional options.
 
A large forum will probably get a lot of reports, so in 1.2 we've tried to streamline the reporting system and make it easier for moderators to work with.
These are great improvements, but how does this look if there are hundreds of open reports? It seems to me that its still very hard for moderators to find their reports, because their reports are not grouped. Is there any way that the new report system addresses this?
 
So if I'm correct: When a you view a report, you no longer have to -
  1. Click "claim & handle"
  2. Then click on a status
  3. Then click "close report"
When you view it, it goes straight to the status report options?
 
When resolving or rejecting a report, you have the option to alert the reporter(s) of what action was taken, including an optional comment. (The alert does not tell the reporter which person handled the report.)

I would very much like it if the option for alert could be defaulted and/or mandated through ACP. Allows you to make it the default option if your moderation workflow is that users get notified of actions/responses, or make it mandatory for notifications.
 
For the report-to-forum option - what happens when the same thread/post is reported by different people? Is it all posted to a single thread in the nominated forum, or do you get separate report "threads" for each report?
 
Any chance to allow specific nonmoderating usergroup to view and discuss reports with moderators without actions? Like public hearings or jury but privately.
 
These two ideas below are ones that would probably help us the most (on top of what Mike has already added):

What I am surprised at is there is no intrinsic link between the reports system and the warnings system. Generally if a post is reported, we would likely take warning action against the user, and currently these processes occur in seperate silos.

I'm trying to wean staff off of the blatant "bannings" and instead, using the warning system to issue suspensions and bans (based on the point system I set up). Having a single point for dealing with the member (by adding warning abilities) would help.

Generally I find the improvements very useful but suggest...
  • that the admin/moderator should get an email when something is reported (we often have urgent issues that need immediate attention), see post #19


Thanks Mike, still missing the one most critical feature though, an email to selected users/mods when a report is created.

We can have as many as 1000+ visitors at any one time, with about 45% of them logged-in members. Having reported posts generate an email to staff (admins/mods) would be sufficient IMHO.
 
Any chance to allow specific nonmoderating usergroup to view and discuss reports with moderators without actions? Like public hearings or jury but privately.

The old Compuserve forums had the ability to do that (in the days before the Web got popular). Sometimes an errant member would be "pulled" into "Forum 0" (a staff forum area) to discuss the issues within a private thread. I could see that coming in handy. ;)
 
If that happens it will either be merged or marked as a duplicate.

Best to just "Like" the first post so there's a record of how popular each individual suggestion is.
I said closest, meaning not identical. The suggestion above from digitalpoint is the ability to moderate new comments, as in place them in a moderation queue before being posted. Luxus would like the ability to report profile post comments. So, not a duplicate and would be left in the forums.
 
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