Forum Automation/Notification

[Garrett]

Hey i try to bring automation to the peoples at work. So now I bring an idea here...

Azzer, since you said all mod actions are logged... anyway to code a trigger event to automate a general (friendly ofc) notification or 3 for different scenarios?

That way mods don't have to be shackled to explaining *every* deleted post, plus would further give newbies (and some long time adhd peoples) reinforcement on what should be done with questions et al.

No one said mod life was easy and that's a 2 way street (cough cough) so can we not get some sort of compromise that empowers everyone?

Sacrificing the customer/community side just so the mods aren't overworked? I mean right now you have only 2 or 3 mods saying how hard it is to work and the other mods are all silent. (and seriously, review your stats on your mods, do you really only have 3 mods working while the others sit on their bums and do nothing? Not implying that because they didn't post they aren't here. Please take the generalities for what they are.)

Something with that whole scenario/explanation just doesn't jive with me. It's easy, it's lazy. I searched for a different way to put my thoughts and I'm sorry if this is blunter than I wanted it to be.

***HOWEVER*** if automation not possible/feasible... IF you only have 2-3 mods actively modding posts... then have the OTHER however many invisible mods, work on the notifications/explanations.

If you have some good mods, some overzealous mods who rush in to save the day (who then get 'overworked') and some straight up lazy ones.. it's not really a good 'core' team.

I'm not pointing fingers, I'm trying to bring solutions because there are issues and cancers not just in the playerbase, but in the staffing as well.

 

[lavadog]

Although I don't agree with mods sending messages for everything they do, I do think an automated system would be a good solution to the problem most users seem to have.

So, I agree.

 

[atsanjose]

i have no problem with this

 

[Azzer]

Yeah I think an automated message when a post gets moderated might be a good idea, with the option for a mod to untick something so a notice doesn't go out if an ocassion calls for it (eg they edit out 20 posts by a user all in one go, make it only send 1 notice ), though it has to be said - for some of the users here, their inboxes would be spammed every day! But maybe that's a good thing, if they got 20 PM's a day saying "x post got moderated/edited", they might start realising there's a problem with the way they're posting

I don't agree entirely with a previous idea elsewhere that mods should manually go out and PM people every time they moderate out any "minor" posts (posts that just don't warrant a warning for the user in question cos it was so minor, but they do want removing because they're spammy and not in the good way), because as I say, certain individuals on these forums create a lot of them, and the mods, who are ultimately volunteers, would have less time to moderate and enjoy life as they'd be doing nothing but writing PM's out. PM's are only needed for serious cases/repeat cases etc. - not the "stealth moderating" stuff that goes on behind the scenes to keep the forums tidy but don't require any warnings or punishments.

I'll have a look if any vbulletin mods exist along these lines, but also just so others are aware there are some good "vbulletin mod sites" out there that you might like to look through yourself - not for my laziness sake, but because you might see an awesome mod that would be fantastic in the forums that I need to omg-wtf-install-nao. (though bare in mind not all mods support all vbulletin versions etc., so even if you find an omg-wtf-pwn mod, it might be too badly coded/unreliable/old/incompatible with other mods I have to be installed ). Anyway one good site for mods if anyone's interested in looking (can see if you find any nice moderator-automated-PM mods too );
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=235

A quick Google search will help find more. The vbulletin version of these forums is 3.8.

 

[Garrett]

Nice!

 

[pinpower]

Some sort of Automated message would be good tbh. It should say which mod actually removed/moved/hid a particular post, saves the user from trying to guess which mod did so incase they need some clarification. (Or an optional pop up for a reason (our side i mean)...so the message to the user could be something like "Your post in "Example Thread" has been removed by Pinpower" and then if the mod put a reason it could say so underneath i.e "Spam" (or something along those lines, with better formatting ofc )

Although if a number of posts from the same user are removed (hidden) from the same thread it would be good if just 1 PM could be sent saying "X amount of posts by you have been removed from 'Example Thread'" Rather than sending lots of PMs as it could get a bit spammy for the user. I dont know if thats possible, but if so great!

 

[Garrett]

Well i'd even be up for anonomous automation. If there is some vbulletin mod that would allow you to set up a group mailbox... or some super user that multiple people can log into and check... but then again, for the ones you don't notify users for... do you post that in the rules section? or maybe the logs of the actions for automation could be automatically updated in the mod section so anyone responding to the group mailbox inquiry for automated notifications would have the ability to respond thus relieving individual pressure on a mod somewhat

 

[harriergirl]

Thank you Azzer! I agree that my first post was a little general with the word "every" but I do appreciate you taking the suggestion seriously and moving forward with it I genuinely feel it will be helpful.