sv1cec
12-03-2013, 10:12 AM
Folks, the reason for this message is to ask if a better alternative exists for vBulletin Infraction System.
I have installed 4.2.2 a few days ago and today, for the first time, I got to play a little, with the Infractions system. Having developed a Warnings system for 3.0.xx, I have to say that I find this Infractions System seriously inadequate.
Some issues I noticed:
1. Whoever designed that system probably didn't have English as his mother language. Infraction Level?? Why not Infraction Type!?! Semantics maybe, but they sure are confusing.
2. You can only issue one infraction per post. This is ridiculous, a post can break more than one rules, so you may very well need to issue more than one infractions.
3. The issued infractions are, for some strange reason, permanently attached to the post for which they were issued. They are not associated with the userid. What I mean by that, is that if a member has received some infractions in the past, there is no way to tell that he has them, unless you go to his profile. No indication of those infractions in the postbit (unless of course you go to the post the infraction was issued for). And no easy way to see his/her infractions from showthread. An infraction system is used to watch and moderate the behavior of your site members, if a mod can't see the infractions a user has in an easy way, what good is that infractions system for?
4. The red card or the yellow card shown in posts where an infraction/warning was issued, are again post-specific. In other words, a post by a user can show a yellow card (if that post had received a warning), while another post can show a red card (if that post had received an infraction). That's not very helpful for the moderators, who would be interested to see the total infractions status of the member. And if you are lucky enough to fall on one of the posts, which carry those cards, and you click on the card, only the infraction issued for that specific post is shown, not all the infractions the user has received.
5. The purpose of an Infactions System, is to make mods and admins life easier. This one doesn't even include predefined messages for each infraction level, so every time a mod issues an infraction, he has to type a new message to the member who is issued the infraction!! Big help!!!
6. There is no way to issue an infraction, for non-post-related issues. For example, a member posts a link to a porn site in his profile and adds a porn profile picture. Yes, you can simply ban and delete the member, but then you loose all historical information. Why can't the system issue a non-post-specific infraction?
Has anyone develop a more flexible and powerful Infractions System for vB 4.2? As I have said before, I am not familiar with the coding scheme of the late vB releases and my old Warning System (for vB 3.0.xx) is way to old to be ported to the new versions. So I either have to live with the existing issues, or I have to learn coding in the new scheme, if I want to fix some of them.
One thing I know for sure, my mods are going to kill me for upgrading!!
I have installed 4.2.2 a few days ago and today, for the first time, I got to play a little, with the Infractions system. Having developed a Warnings system for 3.0.xx, I have to say that I find this Infractions System seriously inadequate.
Some issues I noticed:
1. Whoever designed that system probably didn't have English as his mother language. Infraction Level?? Why not Infraction Type!?! Semantics maybe, but they sure are confusing.
2. You can only issue one infraction per post. This is ridiculous, a post can break more than one rules, so you may very well need to issue more than one infractions.
3. The issued infractions are, for some strange reason, permanently attached to the post for which they were issued. They are not associated with the userid. What I mean by that, is that if a member has received some infractions in the past, there is no way to tell that he has them, unless you go to his profile. No indication of those infractions in the postbit (unless of course you go to the post the infraction was issued for). And no easy way to see his/her infractions from showthread. An infraction system is used to watch and moderate the behavior of your site members, if a mod can't see the infractions a user has in an easy way, what good is that infractions system for?
4. The red card or the yellow card shown in posts where an infraction/warning was issued, are again post-specific. In other words, a post by a user can show a yellow card (if that post had received a warning), while another post can show a red card (if that post had received an infraction). That's not very helpful for the moderators, who would be interested to see the total infractions status of the member. And if you are lucky enough to fall on one of the posts, which carry those cards, and you click on the card, only the infraction issued for that specific post is shown, not all the infractions the user has received.
5. The purpose of an Infactions System, is to make mods and admins life easier. This one doesn't even include predefined messages for each infraction level, so every time a mod issues an infraction, he has to type a new message to the member who is issued the infraction!! Big help!!!
6. There is no way to issue an infraction, for non-post-related issues. For example, a member posts a link to a porn site in his profile and adds a porn profile picture. Yes, you can simply ban and delete the member, but then you loose all historical information. Why can't the system issue a non-post-specific infraction?
Has anyone develop a more flexible and powerful Infractions System for vB 4.2? As I have said before, I am not familiar with the coding scheme of the late vB releases and my old Warning System (for vB 3.0.xx) is way to old to be ported to the new versions. So I either have to live with the existing issues, or I have to learn coding in the new scheme, if I want to fix some of them.
One thing I know for sure, my mods are going to kill me for upgrading!!