Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
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Back in the Saddle
« on February 9th, 2012, 04:13 PM »
Regular readers will likely have noticed that I've been slacking for a while... life's been like that, a royal pain. But in order to celebrate getting back into the swing of things, I tackled something I've been wanting to do in SMF for years (and did begin to plan it back in 2010) - some serious automated moderation rules.

The idea is that you should be able to do things easily and conveniently and awesomely. It's still very much WIP, and those who've been following one of the other topics will get a better idea of the innards but that's not why I'm writing here.

I'm writing here because I have screenshots to show as well :D And this way it'll get a bit more visibility than it might elsewhere, which means hopefully a few more people might add their comments to this. Those who follow us on Facebook will have already had some comments from me on this.

The idea is that the system should be able to do some of the work for you, not just moderating posts based on some rules (like post counts and boards) but also on content, and I fully intend to make this even *more* powerful than it already is. But already it's powerful.


The first rule says, if the post begins with /lock and the user has the permission to lock any topic, well, lock the topic.

The second rule says, if the post contains a rude word and the user isn't an administrator, moderate the topic. That's the power we're talking about, you can do things that don't implicitly require permissions everywhere.

The last rule says, simply, if the post is made in General Discussion, moderate it. That's a very broad rule, not likely to be used in real life, but illustrative more than anything.

Notice that we have two moderate rules - this is a logical rather than a technical divide. This way, we can create many different combinations quite easily - here, it's (user isn't admin + says a rude word) OR (posting in a specific board).

I couldn't think of any better way to display it but if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Meanwhile, I'm going to finish up this code (it's barely enough to actually display this!) and then get onto the create-rule UI.

Oh, and people who've read the FB post will also know that I've removed Core Features. Nao's r1304 removed the Media Gallery from being in Core Features leaving Post Moderation as the only thing there, and now, it's not there. Locally, not yet committed, I've removed most of the traces of post moderation from the system (I just need to strip out the permissions stuff where it's buried deep in the permissions system)

But that means I get to finally purge one of the most illogical parts of SMF that we inherited, and I'm glad it's finally gone. I like trimming useless code at the best of times, but this was annoying to boot :D

Anyway, this is me saying "Hello!" and getting back in the saddle to make more awesomeness :)
When we unite against a common enemy that attacks our ethos, it nurtures group solidarity. Trolls are sensational, yes, but we keep everyone honest. | Game Memorial

Re: Back in the Saddle
« Reply #1, on February 9th, 2012, 04:41 PM »
Welcome back o' awesome one! (of 2!)

Sounds like you're really getting your teeth back into it!  :cool:

Looking forward to even more awesomeness!

Re: Back in the Saddle
« Reply #2, on February 9th, 2012, 05:04 PM »
Looks nice and straightforward - excellent!
Hope its easy to set up  "Less than 5 posts and they all get moderated prior to release" - without going round the houses and up alleyways wearing a particular colour of underwear.

Welcome back (not that you have been far)  :P

Re: Back in the Saddle
« Reply #3, on February 9th, 2012, 05:25 PM »
Quote
Hope its easy to set up  "Less than 5 posts and they all get moderated prior to release" - without going round the houses and up alleyways wearing a particular colour of underwear.
Well... that's the general idea. I'll know more when I've solidified the add page but it should be straightforward enough to add. I'll let a couple of people who are less forum-orientated play with it to see how they get on.


And thanks :)

Re: Back in the Saddle
« Reply #4, on February 9th, 2012, 06:47 PM »
Sounds like a great idea of a feature!
Is it me, or is it yet another exclusive feature for Wedge when it comes to forums? :)

(Oh, and your post mentions that I removed the Media Gallery -- only from the Core Features page, of course! The master setting is now in the Media admin menu itself, as mentioned in the changelog.)

Re: Back in the Saddle
« Reply #5, on February 9th, 2012, 06:49 PM »
Quote
Is it me, or is it yet another exclusive feature for Wedge when it comes to forums?
Certainly bits of the idea are not new (WordPress for example can blacklist posts based on content) but I don't believe anything as flexible as this is out there.
Quote
Oh, and your post mentions that I removed the Media Gallery -- only from the Core Features page, of course! The master setting is now in the Media admin menu itself, as mentioned in the changelog.
Yup, it's no longer in Core Features, which meant I was free to get rid of CF entirely - and the gallery is now consistent with all the other 'optional features' in having a page where it shows up enabled or otherwise but only enough to go in and actually turn it on.

Re: Back in the Saddle
« Reply #6, on February 9th, 2012, 08:17 PM »
is this have option to notify user like

You used word(s) "abc", forum administrators don't like it, either remove it or your topic will not be published. So user can go back and edit content.

Re: Back in the Saddle
« Reply #7, on February 9th, 2012, 08:28 PM »
At some point I'd add that but not right now, as discussed in more depth in the main discussion about this in the Features board.

Re: Back in the Saddle
« Reply #8, on February 9th, 2012, 09:17 PM »
Seems like a great feature. And the only thing better than removing cruft is adding great features ;)