UK Online Safety Regulations and impact on Forums

Mr Lucky said:
Set up a forum with permissions so that the registers user group can view their own thread only. Give mods permissions to view all threads in that forum. This also works well for reports;

Resource icon Mr Lucky

Better report & admin contact

Allow members to contact admin privately, also allows report discussion with admin.
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I've just seen that. If and when I migrate my forums back to Xenforo that would prove really useful.
 
Mr Lucky said:
Yes you can if the report goes to a forum where they have permissions, see the link to the resource guide I mentioned above.
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I've read it carefully now and see what you're saying, and it sounds a good system. One issue might be is that I've just set up a system in the reports system. Partly the crowd moderation addon, and partly to moderators are emailed when a report is made, with a unique phone ping (if they're offline). Maybe that is still possible if the report gets diverted somewhere else? I'm not quite clear on who can see this separate forum - all registered users? So they know where to go after making a report?
 
Also the crowd moderation reporting automatically removes a post and sends it to the manual approval queue - so would that then be sent to the private forum? I maybe need to work all this out :-) But I can see it's better than having to message a member after they've made a report.
 
Thank you. So when you say open a new forum node - (I have limited experience of nodes), is this an additional section on the main forum? Or does it open a kind of new page/another forum section? I currently have a Moderator only node which is only viewable to admin/moderators. Previously that was used for moderator discussion.
 
I noticed the PetforumsUk site appears to have just removed any option for direct messaging (ie no icon at the top). Although they have left profile posting on (which I've never used previously). Edit: Wrong - they still have Conversations - it's just not obvious and in a nested menu.

So at the moment I'm thinking of a halfway approach to that suggested above

1) No DM's (not even to admin).
2) Keep existing report system (due to the way I have it set up with crowd moderation).
3) Keep existing private node for moderators
4) Add a forum node "Issues or problems and how to contact a moderator" With a post in there saying you can start a post here if you want a moderator response, or you can use the contact us link if you want a private response.

So the new node becomes a kind of chat node for off topic things, queries etc. I already have a "Suggestions" section. I doubt it would get used much.

Additionally the reporting system would be the main thing as that automatially sends posts for manual approval and on checking, you can tick to send a response to the reporter (even though that's a bit impersonal). Reports are unlikely to be about anything other than spam anyway. If a member has an issue with another member (unlikely) they can use the contact us link.

I would prefer to keep DM's just for contacting a moderator or admin but the permissions arent' extensive enough IMO to achieve that. There is an addon for "contact staff only" though.

But am also thinking it might be easier to just have DM options completely removed and no envelope icon - is that possible?

Another brief query, having had a group on Instagram recently - is there a way to "pin" a post at all? I know you can sticky posts but when looking through "What's new, keep a post pinned to the top"?
 
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Ok decided to just keep the welcome message PM when people register. And leave starting messages set to "No". And a forum section on how to contact a moderator. ie you can either reply to the welcome message you received or you can start a thread here to discuss something with a moderator or ask them to message you. But if it's about a problem post, please use the report button.
 
Mr Lucky said:
Depending on how you set the permissions they can see the forum but only their own threads.
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Thank you - I really appreciate that and it sounds like a good system. I'm a bit overloaded with adjusting to all the changes right now and still loads to do or I'd look at doing it now - but might think about doing it in future. I;ll see how it goes with just what I have now. Just leaving DM's off but the ability to contact admin by means of replying to an initial welcome message.

The main issue with DM's was not being able to monitor them (or not wanting to), whereas if contact is only with admin, they are being monitored effectively!
 
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This is my current thinking
Registered users - posts must be approved, no uploads, no DMs
After 5 posts they are promoted & get the missing permissions

To counter the no DMs use a node as per @Mr Lucky for contacting mods
DMs will be monitored using the Ozzy addons

One minor thought - any swearing is visible to all, guests and members alike. Is it possible to just censor for guests?
 
hkymre said:
This is my current thinking
Registered users - posts must be approved, no uploads, no DMs
After 5 posts they are promoted & get the missing permissions

To counter the no DMs use a node as per @Mr Lucky for contacting mods
DMs will be monitored using the Ozzy addons

One minor thought - any swearing is visible to all, guests and members alike. Is it possible to just censor for guests?
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That is something I hadn't considered - all posts approved for the first 5 posts then upgrade.

I just have first five posts go to manual approval (if the post contains a link).

Crowd moderation addon.

Incidentally the Genesis AI Content Moderator also scans DM's - for illegal content, images and hyperlinks. So I had considered leaving them on. But decided not to, as the site is accessible to children.
 
This is what I wasn't clear about with setting the first 5 posts to be checked in the spam filter settings. Whether it checks all 5 posts for manual approval, or only those with links in?
 
Alvin63 said:
Whether it checks all 5 posts for manual approval, or only those with links in?
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It only puts into approval anything with the spam words/phrases.

Normal user approval after x posts (any post with or without spam) is done via user group promotion to secondary group with permission to bypass approval.
 
Mr Lucky said:
It only puts into approval anything with the spam words/phrases.

Normal user approval after x posts (any post with or without spam) is done via user group promotion to secondary group with permission to bypass approval.
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Thank you. So I need both then by the sound of it. I do have a usergroup that only kicks in after 2 weeks but that just gives a few extra permissions.

Not sure I'd have the resources to manually approve everyone's first 5 posts. They could be waiting a while! I might just need to rely on the AI content moderator and user reporting and the spam filter.

Edit - yes the AI content moderator is instead. It would send anything for manual approval that wasn't appropriate. Apart from the odd spam first message, never had an issue with first messages before - it's a small site - but I guess that could change. However the AI content moderator should see me ok for the first 5 posts/all posts. It works really well.
 
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A question about manual registration. On Discord there is an option to set various questions when someone joins, even a small piece about why they want to join. That an admin can see before deciding whether to approve them or not. Is there anything like this that I can set up that I have missed? Or just the Q&A at login?
 
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