How do you manage multiple moderators checking the same forum?

[Spinball]

Originally Posted by Alfa1

But what if tabs are accidentally closed? A checking system will cause the threads not to be reviewed.

What if the web server is hit by a meteorite?
There are always circumstances which can scupper your best efforts. However, I can't currently think of a better solution.
Lynne's solution is great when there is content in the posts which needs, and can be verified.
But in most forums, where the content posted is 99.9% of the time opinion, then IMO what is needed is a system for checking that each post does not break the rules. Going beyond that would not be appropriate for our forums.

[Lynne]

Originally Posted by mystic10

wow that's awesome lynne...is there any hack like that here in v.org....i am just wondering where would learn how to write their own code...so we can share with others our ideas too....

As far as I know, there is no hack, like what we are talking about here, at vb.org. I had posted a while ago asking if anyone knew of one, or knew of something similar which could be modified to my needs, and I got no response.

The problem with these types of mods is that they are very forum specific. The OP needs all his posts checked, whereas I only need the first post in the threads in two specific forums checked. I think it would be difficult for either of us to take the other's modification and easily change it to suit our own needs - well, unless you are an expert hacker and know how to put in tons of different 'options' that people can click on to make it work for their site. I'm in the process right now of modifying mine even more... the mods want it so if there are problems - thus the Questionable status - then they have some pre-defined checkboxes to mark that will then put a note to the seeder (thread creator) telling them what the problems are so they can fix it. And these problems will be listed at the top of the thread and only viewable by the seeder (and Mods). Currently, the mod would post in the thread to let them know what is wrong, but if you have a thread filled with comments from people on the show - "Wow, I was there, thanks so much. Let me tell you a story about my experience..." - then the comments from the mods are easily missed and then the Mods have to pester the seeder. Also, I'll bet the OP ends up using some ajax in his mod which is something that I can't use since I have ajax turned off in those two forums (due to some coding problems I haven't been able to fix... yet). So, although my mod would be perfect for ajax, I won't be using it.

[bchertov]

Very interesting conversation!

I've been wanting a post-verification system with mod-controlled verification on the post level for all posts.

Between the work involved to create that hack, and the work load it puts on even a team of moderators, I'm thinking to shift the responsibility for initially flagging to the community, or perhaps trusted community members, but less than mod training/responsibility. I'd enhance the VB Report Post option to be more user friendly and offer a selection of reasons why the post is being flagged.

Then, using the technique in the "contact Us to forum" hack, start a thread in one of a variety of mod only (or admin only) forums with the original Post info and the flag reason. Discussion can then ensue among the mods and whatever action taken is documented in the flagged post's thread. Since the mod discussion thread will know what the original post is, controls could be added to the discussion thread to make it invisible, deleted, marked as under investigation or passed, etc.

I'd love some partners (either programming or buck$) to join me in developing it. It could be offered as a pro (paid) hack. AJAX could be put to great use in this, but its beyond me.

Thanks!

[Spinball]

Originally Posted by bchertov

I'd love some partners (either programming or buck$) to join me in developing it. It could be offered as a pro (paid) hack. AJAX could be put to great use in this, but its beyond me.

Thanks!

Kirk Y has developed a couple of paid mods for me, and a post report system is next. It's already specified reasonably well.

The goal :
To easily indicate to moderators on a real time basis which posts have been checked. This mod affects the display of forumdisplay.php and showthread.php to moderators only and I'm calling it the Checkpoint system.
Permissions:
This system does not kick in unless a moderator (supermod/admin) is viewing a forum which they have permission to moderate. It has no effect on the forum experience for anyone else.

Core functionality:
Showthread.php:
Posts which have not been checked appear with the same background colour as they do now. Posts which have been checked appear with a user defined colour (let's say green for now) to indicate they have been checked. This is the easiest method I can think of to quickly show the posts which need reading.
When a thread is opened, all the posts which are displayed are immediately marked as checked. We are assuming that the moderator is opening the (page of) posts to check all the posts there. We have to make this assumption in order to immediately mark the posts as being read so that no other moderator will start checking them.
Since a moderator may want to bug out of checking the posts in a page or may manually want to change the checked status, there should be inline moderating options to 'check posts' and 'uncheck posts'.
Checking a post writes the moderator id (or name if this saves significant database resource) plus a timestamp to the post record. Unchecking a post clears this information.

forumsdisplay.php:
Moderators need to see which threads need attention.
The threads with all the posts checked are displayed with the same colour background as checked posts (e.g. green). There will be a new column, probably to the right of the post icon, which shows a count of the number of unchecked posts in a thread. Moderators have the option to sort the threads by the number of unchecked posts (in order to display the threads with the most unchecked posts at the top) and by the date of the newest post checked timestamp (in order to display the threads with the oldest unchecked posts at the top).

Activation:
Since moderators may want to surf their forums without automatically checking posts when they open them, the checkpoint system must have a method of easily activating/deactivating the automatic checking for the current session.
I'm not sure where this button/link should be located. Maybe in the nav menu? Activate/Deactivate Automatic Post Checking is a bit long winded.

Options and permissions:
There is an option to set whether automatic checking is enabled or disabled by default for moderators (probably yes), supermoderators (probably no) and admin (definitely no in my case).
There should be an option to define what colour is used to indicate checked posts and threads.
Possibly more options. Can't think of any right now.

Undecided things:
Should the auto checking system work on posts displayed by the showpost script? I'm thinking no because all the moderator has to do is click the thread link above top open that post and the following posts in showthread.php.

[bchertov]

Originally Posted by Spinball

Kirk Y has developed a couple of paid mods for me, and a post report system is next. It's already specified reasonably well.

The goal :
To easily indicate to moderators on a real time basis which posts have been checked. This mod affects the display of forumdisplay.php and showthread.php to moderators only and I'm calling it the Checkpoint system.

This is not how I would go about it, but I'm interested. If you get it coded and working, let me know and I may be interested in sending you some bucks for rights to use it!

[Spinball]

Kirk has nearly finished it and we're going to be testing it soon. As with all the mods I have paid for, I want them freely released to the community for everyone to use.

[Spinball]

The mod has been coded, tested on our board and is now released here:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=173609

[Spinball]

Just to update this thread, the Moderator Checkpoint System has been helping us moderate AVForums nicely since March 2008. There has been one annoying bug which produces a -1 checked post count, but apart from that it's been solid. The moderators have found the system invaluable for identifying which threads and posts require checking. It makes the use of their time much more efficient.
As we leave vBulletin behind this summer, five and a half years after the original idea, the Moderator Checkpoint System has been released at Xenforo.