Private Blogs: Permissions for Supermoderators

[tbworld]

Can you assign a super moderator to a single blog? If so how?
and
How do you assign a moderator to a blog?

Before we make an administrative fix (easy enough), I am trying to see if I missed something. There is code that shows if they pass any other parameter to the function that it checks for additional supermod permissions.

[djbaxter]

Originally Posted by tbworld

Can you assign a super moderator to a single blog? If so how?

Not that I know of.

Originally Posted by tbworld

How do you assign a moderator to a blog?

AdminCP > vBulletin Blog > Blog Moderators

I have no one assigned as a Blog Moderator.

[tbworld]

Originally Posted by djbaxter

Not that I know of.
AdminCP > vBulletin Blog > Blog Moderators

Thank You

But <-- LOL, You know theres always a but!

What I am looking for and maybe it doesn't exist, is if you can assign a moderator to a particular blog. I should have clarified better. Like to a forum, you can assign the moderators for that forum.

--------------- Added [DATE]1368748714[/DATE] at [TIME]1368748714[/TIME] ---------------

How to Moderate Blog Entries in Vbulletin 4
* Go to the main blog page
* Find the "Filter" menu on the bottom of the page. Click on "Moderated Blog Entries".
* Click the checkbox for the entries you like to approve
* Click on the Moderation menu to expand, click to select "Approve Blog Entry " or any other action you like.
* Click on the Proceed button.

I see... They are moderated via entries and comments not by the poster. Makes sense.

[djbaxter]

Yes. It seems to be global - all or nothing. Very restrictive.

[tbworld]

Okay, I have a few more things to research, but here are the choices:

I am just making these Up:

CanAdminViewPrivateBlog (No, Always, Yes-if-member)
CanSuperModViewPrivateBlog (No, Always, Yes-if-member)
CanModeratorViewPrivateBlog (This may already exist, haven't test).

It seems to me, I would add the condition "If they are a blog member or contact" they can view the blog.

So something like this:
vB::$vbulletin->bf_misc_vbblogoptions['private'] AND is_member_of_blog

Areas that will require testing:
Moderation Blog Entry
Moderation Blog Comment
Taggable Content
Recent Blog Posts
Recent Blog Commenjts
Activity Stream
CMS Widget Recent Blog Posts
CMS Widget Recent Blog Comments.
Blog Subscription
Blog Usercp

Ahh we are beginning to see why they did not want to mess with it.

[John Lester]

Ok I think I found a solution for you

So I set up blogs on my test forum, made 3 entries, created a supermod and did some testing

If you do not have Blog Categories you are going to have to create them. If you do have Blog Categories then you need to make some decisions based on the solution.

Assuming you have blog cats (or just created some either way ) go to acp vbulletin blog / blog cat perms ... edit super moderators and set both options to NO. EDIT to add ... make sure you select "use custom permissions" up on top of the page.

Any blog entry in that category will not be visible to super mods.

Now, if you already have blog cats but don't want all blogs in a particular blog cat blocked to super mods ... you're going to have to move those to a different blog cat.

[tbworld]

I think you are right 'John' I believe on that side of things there is restriction for super-mods. I was coming to the same conclusion although I had not checked the assumption. I was currently in activity stream blog hell.

Now I have a question: if the blog is private, why do we need to select the check-box "Restrict Entry Viewing to Contacts and Blog and Moderators." to have it show as private and restrict it from the activity stream?

My thinking must be off on 'Setting permission for the blog private'. If I have to check that check-box, then what is a private blog besides not being a public blog.

One interesting thing did happen, I was fooling around with the categories the same time you posted. Is when I enabled the categories for blogs, it was the first time the "additional options" section appeared or maybe I overlooked it.

Thanks for your input!

I am going to play around with the blog categories. Your approach might be the simplest method. If all we have to do is toss private blogs into a category called 'PRIVATE BLOGS'

--------------- Added [DATE]1368754878[/DATE] at [TIME]1368754878[/TIME] ---------------

Too much jet lag, I keep spelling "glob" instead of "blog"

--------------- Added [DATE]1368759431[/DATE] at [TIME]1368759431[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by John Lester

Ok I think I found a solution for you

Your suggestion is a good one, unless you run secondary groups. If they are a member of a secondary group you will also need to shut off permissions there. In my case that would be a problem, but I might be the exception.

Throwing the private blogs into a category was painless and so far this is the easiest work-around.

[John Lester]

With regards to having to check the box "Restrict Entry Viewing to Contacts and Blog and Moderators." on private blogs is to prevent members not on your contact / blog list from seeing your blog. I am assuming that making the blog private only prevents guests from viewing it, therefore the box to restrict entry.

I am not a fan at all of how vB did the blog and permission system. It is entirely too complicated and too rigid for my tastes.

I did not consider secondary groups ... yea that could be an issue in some situations. I would suggest cloning the secondary user group(s) of your supermods so you can block both groups without affecting non supermods.

[tbworld]

Originally Posted by John Lester

With regards to having to check the box "Restrict Entry Viewing to Contacts and Blog and Moderators." on private blogs is to prevent members not on your contact / blog list from seeing your blog. I am assuming that making the blog private only prevents guests from viewing it, therefore the box to restrict entry.

Interesting. I run a private board so I did not even think about that. Thank you!

I am not a fan at all of how vB did the blog and permission system. It is entirely too complicated and too rigid for my tastes.

I really have never used the blog system. I am just trying to help out 'djbaxter'. Now that I am looking into the code, I am less impressed. The permission system seems to be patched on top of being patched. My own software gets like that overtime too, so I am not going to harp on the vb developers.

I did not consider secondary groups ... yea that could be an issue in some situations. I would suggest cloning the secondary user group(s) of your supermods so you can block both groups without affecting non supermods.

That was my first thinking to and I might come back to it. I am looking at creating another bit in the bitfield to handle supermod and if set then unmasking the 'private' bit in function "can_moderate_blog()". It is only a concept and I have not worked it all out.

Hey, thanks so much for the help. Hopefully I can return the favor

[John Lester]

I too thought about making a bit field for supermods and private blogs ... but I think it's a bit beyond my skill level right now