Implemented Staff posts

[Sador]

This is actually something I saw on another forum, and something I really liked. While administrating or moderating a board, you'll have to answer a lot of questions, ask people to go ontopic, and so on. There are two problems with this. First of all, usually, it's not all you post. Therefor, it's not immediately obvious whether your reply is something official (go ontopic, dammit!) or just because you want to reply to the topic. Secondly, there are plenty of other people posting, so your warning won't be spotted right away and might not be read. Sure, in a perfect world, people would read what you post, but who bothers to do that, right?

So, a nice feature would be a way for moderators and admins to make special 'staff posts' which show it's an official reply right away. For example, screenshots taken from where I stole the idea from:

and

This way, it's way more obvious your reply is meant as an official post, and will be noted easier. Secondly, in this example there's a button that takes you to the next official post in the topic, making it easier for users to instantly read whatever you said. And, because it's optional, your regular unimportant replies won't be staff replies, so only important stuff is marked as such.

Long story short, could something like this be useful and possibly integrated?

 

[Brandon_R]

With the bbcode system you can add warning bbcode, notice bbcode etc.

 

[James]

I don't think this should be implemented by default. Staff posts will be able to be modified with a simple conditional statement that changes borders/backgrounds/fonts etc on staff posts. This will have to be specific to your style, so implementing it by default wouldn't be very effective IMO.

*modification idea*

 

[Kim]

Good idea

 

[Sador]

I don't think this should be implemented by default. Staff posts will be able to be modified with a simple conditional statement that changes borders/backgrounds/fonts etc on staff posts. This will have to be specific to your style, so implementing it by default wouldn't be very effective IMO.

*modification idea*

You could easily create a template for it, so you can modify it like everything else to suit your site. BB codes are as of yet not usergroup controlled and could be used by anyone, so that's not really a smart idea. Also, I like it that the entire post shows it, rather than just the message. Makes it impossible to copy it and it works pretty well.

 

[Floris]

You have to admit, while a bit overkill that avatar + background part, it does look pretty pimp

 

[Ingenious]

I agree with James. Based on vB and IPB it's pretty easy to edit a template to make changes to certain usergroups posts so I would assume the same here. I don't think it needs to be in by default, though it would be a nice bonus to be able to easily assign certain things (colour, background etc) to specific usergroups without needing any template edits.

You could also have a standard series of staff avatars and signature graphics to make staff's posts stand out.

 

[Alpha1]

I think the problem this suggestion is trying to solve is an important one, but the suggestion itself is limited. I do like it, but it doesn't solve the problem if the staff post is buried in a thread with many pages. Then the staff post is still not noticed.

So if a thread is heading the wrong way, staff will need to keep reminding members, because previous posts are not visible. We need some kind of staff notices in threads, that are clearly visible on all pages. Or possibly even on the newreply page.

 

[zappaDPJ]

As I'm currently looking for a way to implement this on a couple of my forums I rather like the suggestion.

I'm not sure whether it should be a default feature or more suited to a modification though.

 

[Salty]

I like it, seems like it's a best fit for a mod but it would be nifty to have that feature available early.

 

[TheDoctor46]

i like. perhaps a function to control it for each post. (sorry for my english)

 

[Been Told]

Really liking this suggestion. It's something I've been missing on all my forums and never found a plugin/addon that does this. Very good idea!

 

[Sador]

I think the problem this suggestion is trying to solve is an important one, but the suggestion itself is limited. I do like it, but it doesn't solve the problem if the staff post is buried in a thread with many pages. Then the staff post is still not noticed.

So if a thread is heading the wrong way, staff will need to keep reminding members, because previous posts are not visible. We need some kind of staff notices in threads, that are clearly visible on all pages. Or possibly even on the newreply page.

Fair enough, it was only something which I thought might help. If any of you have a better idea to help solve this problem, it's welcome of course.

 

[MrDeranged]

Anyone familiar with the World of Warcraft forums probably knows all about the little "blizz" icon that shows you that a staff member has posted in a thread and links you directly to the said staff members post. I think this would be a great little addition. Especially if it also had the functionality for a staff member to disable it on a per post basis for when they're posting on a personal and not staff level.