Moderators Functions - Moderator Checkpoint System

Moderator Checkpoint System

For boards with a large moderating staff, it can be difficult to know who has checked what post and which threads are completely checked. The goal of the Moderator Checkpoint System is to ensure that moderators don't read over the same post(s) twice, leaving them to spend this time checking other posts/threads.

The core functionality of the Moderator Checkpoint System (MCS) is the ability (for those with appropriate permission) to mark threads/posts as having been "Checked" - indicating that no further action is required and the thread(s)/post(s) has/have been given the OK by a Staff Member. When a post is marked as checked, the checking user's User ID, Username, and a timestamp is stored in the database. This information then appears on the checked post(s), and the post will change markup (depending on your customizations through the included options) indicating the post has been checked. This process is, of course, completely invisible to the community at-large, and only those Users with adequate permission will be allowed to Check/Uncheck and view Checked posts/threads.

Because some Moderators may like to browse forums normally, a feature has been integrated that will allow each user to Enable/Disable viewing the forum in "Moderation Mode" at their leisure. Disabling Moderation Mode will return the display of posts/threads to their normal state.

Features

• Forumdisplay
  • Threads can be (Admin Optional) colored according to whether they are completely checked -OR- contain unchecked posts.
  • A new column next to "Views" will display the number of Unchecked Posts in each thread.
  • Clicking the "Unchecked" column's header will allow the user to sort threads by the least/most number of unchecked posts, allowing them to see which threads need the most attention.
  • Threads can be (Admin Optional) marked as "Checked", thereby checking ALL the posts in a thread. This is useful for large, old threads which you know contain no problem posts.
• Showthread
  • Posts can be (Admin Optional) colored according to whether they have been checked -OR- remain to be checked.
  • Checked posts will display the Date/Time they were Checked and the Moderator Username/User ID who checked it. (Unchecked posts will have text indicating as much)
  • Posts can be marked as Checked/Unchecked via Inline Moderation.
  • "Active Checking" is utilized.
    • Active Checking is a feature which each User can Enable/Disable at their leisure. When Active Checking is Enabled, each time the User visits a thread, the posts displayed on that page will be marked as "Checked". The idea is that when in Active Checking mode, the User is actively reviewing the posts that they are reading, thus each can be marked as Checked.
  • Newly Checked Posts can be (Admin Optional) colored to indicate their recent activity. This coloring is visible only to the Checking User and is intended to serve as a guide for them to see which posts they, in their current session, have checked.
• Update Counters
  • If you ever feel your counters (Unchecked Count per Thread) are off, there is an Update Counters feature included in the modification. To access this feature, go to your AdminCP -> Maintenance (Very bottom) -> Update Counters -> Update Checkcount Counters (Very bottom).
    

Installation

1. Import the Product XML file.
   1. (a) IMPORTANT: THIS PRODUCT ADDS COLUMNS TO YOUR DATABASE'S POST TABLE. IF YOU HAVE A LARGE NUMBER OF POSTS, THE IMPORT PROCESS WILL TAKE SOME TIME (AND MAY APPEAR TO HANG); IT IS *IMPORTANT* THAT YOU DO NOT EXIT YOUR BROWSER DURING THE INSTALLATION PROCESS
2. Follow the instructions included in the ZIP archive to edit your templates.
3. Configuration Options are accessible through AdminCP -> vBulletin Options -> Moderator Checkpoint Configuration. Permissions are accessible through the Moderator Permissions panel (AdminCP -> Forums & Moderators -> Show All Moderators -> Edit Permissions.

Upgrade

• Upgrading from 1.0.9 to 1.1.1: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....9&postcount=44
• Upgrading from 1.1.1 to 1.1.5: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....5&postcount=76
• Upgrading from 1.1.5 to 1.1.6: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....6&postcount=88
  

If you like this modification, feel free to Nominate it for Modification of the Month. Please click Install if you're actively using it, so you can receive updates about new releases.

This modification was written by request for Spinball, whose MCS Concept was utilized throughout development.
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Version History:
1.1.7 - Fixes Checkcount Display Bug in Forumdisplay
1.1.6 - Fixes Announcement Bug in Forumdisplay
1.1.5 - Prevents Checks/Unchecks from being written to the Moderator Log
1.1.4 - Added option for Default Moderation Mode
1.1.3 - Bug fixes
1.1.2 - Bug fixes
1.1.1 - Bug fix for soft-deleted post redirection issue
1.1.0 - Core code consolidated - numerous bug fixes
1.0.9 - Minor SQL Query fix
1.0.8 - Bug fix to correct issue with Forumdisplay sorting of Unchecked Threads
1.0.7 - Bug fix to correct counters not carrying over when merging threads
1.0.6 - Initial Release to Community

[lasto]

is this boardwise or can it be set to only allowing checking in certain forums.
Good hack by the way m8

[mystic10]

Will Be Installing It Tonight Exactly What I Was Looking For..thanks So Much...i Was Wondering As Mr. Lasto Asked Can It Be Set For Certain Forum And Not So Much For Others...regardless Awesome...thanks So Much Its A Prayer Well Answered

[codershark]

also works on 3.7 ?

[iogames]

Wow! incredible job! [as always]

But I was planning to assign my Mods which forums to moderate and which don't :P

anyways voted & promoted :up:

I'm more worried about the 'Mod Performance', your hack got this function? HOW MY MODERATORS ARE WORKING?

[Cybertims]

All works great for me so far except:

I get this column but no numbers show up in yet...

A new column next to "Views" will display the number of Unchecked Posts in each thread.

Sorry, forgot to add I am using it on 3.7, is that maybe why?

[Kirk Y]

Originally Posted by lasto

is this boardwise or can it be set to only allowing checking in certain forums.
Good hack by the way m8

It was designed to work globally across all a board's forums.

Originally Posted by codershark

also works on 3.7 ?

I have not tested this version for 3.7.x compatibility, but I will be releasing a 3.7-specific version (should this one be incompatible) sometime soon.

Originally Posted by iogames

Wow! incredible job! [as always]

But I was planning to assign my Mods which forums to moderate and which don't :P

anyways voted & promoted :up:

I'm more worried about the 'Mod Performance', your hack got this function?

Mod Performance? Are you speaking of database usage, extra queries, etc. or something else?

Originally Posted by Cybertims

All works great for me so far except:

I get this column but no numbers show up in yet...

A new column next to "Views" will display the number of Unchecked Posts in each thread.

Sorry, forgot to add I am using it on 3.7, is that maybe why?

Like I said above, I haven't tested this version for compatibility with the 3.7.x series, however, if this version is incompatible, I will be releasing a 3.7-specific version.

[Magnumutz]

Whoa... this sure is an awesome idea. Good job !!
Hope that it is compatible with 3.7.

[fluentdesigns]

Awesome will look for the 3.7 version!

[Spinball]

I want to thank Kirk for scripting this mod for our board.
We used to have an unapproved checkpoint thread in each forum which indicated which threads had been checked. The moderators read those threads newer than the checkpoint thread and then replied to to it to bump it to the top.
But this was crude and didn't prevent moderators from reading the same posts in a thread.
So a while back I kicked around the checkpoint system idea here which helped me focus some ideas.
With help from the moderators on our forum (I have about 60 of them), we nailed the functionality down and Kirk agreed to put it into action.
I feel it's important that the community benefits from ideas like this so I asked Kirk to release it here.
My moderators love this functionality as it saves loads of their precious time and helps them efficiently work their way through posts and threads checking the content for rule breaking, infractions and libellous material.
(Incidentally here in the UK at least, the OWNER of a forum can get sued for libellous contents of their board irrespective of whom wrote it).
I think we're going to become very reliant on this modification very quickly.

I found a couple of SQL statements very useful.
Firstly to assign post check and uncheck permissions to all the moderators in all the forums they moderate (after you have installed the plugin, of course!):

UPDATE moderator SET cancheck=1,canuncheck=1

(remember to put any table prefixes in).
And because we wanted to start with a clean slate and mark all the old threads as having been checked, I ran this:

UPDATE post SET `ischecked`=1, `checkedby`=nnnnn, `checkedbyu`= 'Username', `checkedtime`=xxxxxxxxxx WHERE `ischecked`=0 AND `dateline`<xxxxxxxxxx

Where nnnnn is the id of your chosen moderator, 'Username' is the name of your chosen moderator and xxxxxxxxxx is the unix time before which you want to mark your posts as having been checked.
On our board, we have a system user which I used, and I marked all the posts prior to 01/01/2008 to having been checked on 01/01/2008:

update post set `ischecked`=1, `checkedby`=160503, `checkedbyu`= 'AVForums system', `checkedtime`=1199145600 WHERE `ischecked`=0 AND `dateline`<1199145600

(remember to put any table prefixes in).
This processed 4.7 million posts in a few minutes - which is a lot faster than manually checking all the threads! And afterwards don't forget to run the checked post counter (in admincp->update counters) to correctly set the checked post count in your threads.