Lack of interest Warnings - Improve workflow and customisation

[RobParker]

I'll caveat this by saying that currently we basically use the warning system as a quick link to ban someone. I started looking into whether we could use it better and found it's actually pretty horrible as it is now and it's no wonder our moderators don't really use it.

I think the main issue is that while there are lots of options, they aren't any "templated" settings where you can set a load of the options and have all of those apply when you issue a certain warning.

Example

I set up a custom warning, say "Made off-topic post". I want this to just be a warning, to notify the user by PM with some default message and to post a warning notice on the post, but not to apply any points.

That's a fair common action that might get used thousands of times but every single time a moderator wants to do that they need to fill in the same information in the front end, they need to navigate through 3 different tab and type in whatever they need to each time.

My suggestion is that we get greater control in the ACP to set warning templates where these actions are all already set and tied to a custom warning and all the moderator needs to do is issue the custom warning.

p.s. Bonus points if we can set custom CSS for the warning notice on a per-warning type basis.

 

[Mike]

Aside from setting a public warning notice (the availability/functionality of which is somewhat tied to the content), creating a warning in the ACP should do the other parts you want:

1. It controls the default points for the warning.
2. It controls the default expiration time for the warning.
3. It specifies the default conversation title and message.

Is that not working for you?

 

[RobParker]

The public warning notice was one of the main things missing for us though, especially from a "community management" point of view. We want to warn people about their posts (and in public so we don't get repeated offences from everyone) and that means tieing in the public warning notice (which I don't think any of our mods have ever used as it's buried on the 3rd tab and needs configuring every time).

Like I said, the system works great as a shortcut to banning someone and that's pretty much how we use it. It doesn't do a great job at warning people though.

I admit we could probably set up some 0 point warning defaults that at least help but still, them not being public takes away a lot of their value. Seeing someone else "get intro trouble" for something normally modifies behaviour. If no one sees them get a warning, they don't know it's not ok and instead we have to issue the same warning 50 times.

 

[Xon]

@RobParker I've got two free add-ons which help a lot on my forums; Warning Improvements & Reports Improvements

The bit you want is Warning Improvements automatically copies from the warning title to the public warning banner. Report Improvements allows moderators to see if a report is linked to various things and helps a lot.

 

[Alpha1]

This should be core. it makes life so much easier by automizing the tedious things we need to do day in day out. We need less staff because of it.

 

[Wildcat Media]

I admit we could probably set up some 0 point warning defaults that at least help but still, them not being public takes away a lot of their value. Seeing someone else "get intro trouble" for something normally modifies behaviour. If no one sees them get a warning, they don't know it's not ok and instead we have to issue the same warning 50 times.

We usually just handle general issues like this by having a staffer post in the thread. Not naming names, but those who misbehaved know who they are, and it is often other members who end up reporting further bad behavior after a public smackdown by staff.

As such, I can think of some improvements to Reports and Warnings, just based on our workflow and what staffers are always asking me is possible. I will likely wrap these up into a separate suggestions post here, so as not to hijack this one.