Hide instead of delete for moderators

Is it possible to create a module that when Forum Moderators delete a post that it hidden instead of actually deleting the posts?

We wanted to give moderators the ablitilies to remove posts from forums until further review by adminstrators to be permently deleted.


Thank you

Bill



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2010 04:01AM by Maurice Makaay.

I thought about a simple template change, where the moderators only get the hide button, but that wouldn't be enough. The control center has the message moderation tool, where the moderators still could throw away the messages. So for making this fully work, the control center should also be handled.

Instead of having admins take care of the final delete process, I would rather have a separate moderator group that holds the "supermoderators" that can delete the messages from the moderation tool. That would make it more versatile to use. Of course, admins can be considered "supermoderators" too by default.

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Maurice Makaay
Phorum Development Team
my blog linkedin profile secret sauce

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Maurice Makaay
I thought about a simple template change, where the moderators only get the hide button, but that wouldn't be enough. The control center has the message moderation tool, where the moderators still could throw away the messages. So for making this fully work, the control center should also be handled.

Instead of having admins take care of the final delete process, I would rather have a separate moderator group that holds the "supermoderators" that can delete the messages from the moderation tool. That would make it more versatile to use. Of course, admins can be considered "supermoderators" too by default.

I like your idea of moderators and supermoderators because there are some moderators which I know I can trust that not delete trigger happy that I would made them supermoderators but I wouldn't want them to have access to the admin area so I don't want to make them administrators either.


Thank you
Bill

Cannot this still be done with template modifications?

On the read pages, have the delete links only display to the admins.

In the Control Panel, have the Moderate Messages link only display to admins OR members of group # whatever.

I'm a template changing junkie :-)

- Bob

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Robert Angle
Phorum lover, nothing more.
Ruminations

This would most definitely work. The moderators would only have message hiding available to work with.

The only setback is that the functionality is still available for a skilled hacky moderator, so if he'd craft the correct requests, then the server would still allow deleting messages. In most situations however, this risk is quite low and the event logs would show the tampering (nominating the moderator for early retirement).

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Maurice Makaay
Phorum Development Team
my blog linkedin profile secret sauce

Quote
Maurice Makaay
The only setback is that the functionality is still available for a skilled hacky moderator, so if he'd craft the correct requests, then the server would still allow deleting messages.

And then one more added precaution would be to put the whole panel in an IF statement also. Then he would have to be really really crafty.

For example, I have the majority of profile.tpl in an {IF NOTLOGGEDIN}Show message{ELSE}Show profile{/IF} format. For me it was easier than installing the Make Profiles Private module.

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In most situations however, this risk is quite low and the event logs would show the tampering (nominating the moderator for early retirement).

(since you all just love smileys here)...



Funny!

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Robert Angle
Phorum lover, nothing more.
Ruminations

Quote
Robert Angle
Cannot this still be done with template modifications?

On the read pages, have the delete links only display to the admins.

In the Control Panel, have the Moderate Messages link only display to admins OR members of group # whatever.

I'm a template changing junkie :-)

- Bob

Also I think Moderator could go to control panel and still delete the messages after it been hidden unless you do a template hack in control panel to prevent them deleting message there.

Still it not a sure way to prevent moderator to have a deleting power because like what Maurice said the moderator would need to know the correct url to send delete request and it pretty easy as long you know the message id.

I would prefer module version than doing a template hack. Make it easier to upgrade Phorum.


Bill

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CBiLL
Still it not a sure way to prevent moderator to have a deleting power because like what Maurice said the moderator would need to know the correct url to send delete request and it pretty easy as long you know the message id.

There is a way to prevent the easy hack if you have access to the server configuration (cheap) or can use .htaccess (expensive): mod_rewrite. Something like

RewriteRule   ^/phorum/moderation.php\?1,[12],([0-9]*)$   /phorum/moderation.php\?1,8,$1   [L]

Is it possible to hide a posting without hiding the replies to it? If so, what would the second digit be?