Moderator Options in Fast Reply

[jndave5104]

I think that it would be really cool to have the Moderator Options Dropdown (Close this topic, Pin and Close this Topic, etc.) on the Fast Reply box if the user has moderator capabilities.

Thanks! :D

[Michael]

I think that if you're doing any moderator actions that you're probably not giving a fast reply.

[atomicknight]

I disagree with that. Sometimes you want to leave a final message before closing the topic, but having to click the "More Options" button and waiting for the entire page to render again takes way too much time (especially when you're moderating forums with very high traffic).

But yeah, it's certainly useful. I've already written up my own modification to add that behavior, and everyone on my staff team has loved it.

[Michael]

I think you missed my point. The fast reply is for a fast reply, not final message and closing the topic. I understand where you're coming from that it would be convenient, but it's not what the fast reply feature is really designed for. To do this, you have to be checking for what moderator commands every user can do, on every topic view load. That probably doesn't make sense when most of the time you're going to be viewing a topic you're not going to actually need to make a fast reply and do a moderator action.

[Alex]

Michael, you dont need to check what the moderator commands each user can do AFAIK as it has already been rendered for the dropdown Moderator Options, you could just use the same variable :) Unless its in a different function, then I could just shut up :)

[mbell12]

i would be in agreement that an option to leave a final post by moderators should be available. that way people can see a moderators justification for closing the topic.

an alternative, rather than a final post, would be to have a moderator comments panel, which could be accessed from the topic title similar to the users which have posted in a particular topic.

[atomicknight]

Well, there is a bit of PHP processing that needs to be done. But there's no need for additional queries or anything. The PHP code that is needed is composed solely of simple statements that check the values of already defined variables and assign values to new variables. It's really not that much different from the moderation panel as stated above (although you can't just "re-use" the data because the function responsible for it outputs HTML). You can even use the same logic for the moderation panel to preclude having to perform those operations for every user that views the topic. I really don't think that performance is an issue here.

But in any case, it's not my call. I personally think it's useful, but perhaps it'd be better suited as a modification if the idea isn't as popular or efficient as I've found it to be.

[bfarber]

This is one suggestion, but day to day, compiling various suggestions, it seems some would just want the entire post screen put there instead of the fast reply area, and get rid of the new screen altogether for replying...

[TCWT]

-1

I don't think that's needed. A fast reply is not intended to have many functions. I mean how often do you use those moderator actions after posting anyway. The majority don't use it often..

[atomicknight]

Depends on your forum. I use it almost every time I post.

[Jason H]

Does each reply have to be unique? Couldn't you use Topic Multi-Mod to accomplish that in less time?

[atomicknight]

Well, yes. Re-directing users to existing topics would require posting a different URL depending on which topic needs to be read.

[TCWT]

Depends on your forum. I use it almost

every time

I post.

:blink: wonder what kind of forum you run.

[atomicknight]

To be fair, I usually only post when the topic should be closed (usually it's a duplicate of another topic). But any forum that has high moderation usage would experience the same thing.

Really though, I think I should re-clarify my current position. This should almost certainly be a modification rather than included directly in the base package since it's useful for some people, but probably not for most. I had thought otherwise previously, but it now seems like an unnecessary extra on the majority of forums that don't have much need for heavy-duty moderation.

[Strange_Will]

Can't you just put in the moderator pulldown list function via the templates?

[W13]

I'd love to have this feature put in! It's heavily requested by my moderators.

[atomicknight]

Can't you just put in the moderator pulldown list function via the templates?

In what manner? All the moderator dropdown menus are generated by internal functions, not by templates.

[Nils]

Sounds good, I'd like to see this function in the next version.

[Leone Club]

Why would you want to apply moderation options to a topic you're responding to [in fast reply]? Remember after using the fast reply you have to render your input. Except if you want the back engine to render at the same time perform your moderation...kinda multi-tasking...save that for the future IPB gen; I guess.

[Nils]

I don't really get what you're saying here. How is that scenario different from using the moderation options on the normal reply page?

[Cherrymenthol]

I can't see why not. If you're not using a lot of formatting, why wouldn't you use fast reply? I do. It makes far more sense to just hit fast reply, and be done with it, as I am doing now. I am for this idea.

[atomicknight]

Why would you want to apply moderation options to a topic you're responding to [in fast reply]? Remember after using the fast reply you have to render your input. Except if you want the back engine to render at the same time perform your moderation...kinda multi-tasking...save that for the future IPB gen; I guess.

No idea what you're saying there. There's no threading in IPB; everything is done sequentially. All posts have to pass through the bbCode parser and the page must be reloaded whenever a new post is submitted. It just saves you one click (and a significant amount of time).

I don't really get what you're saying here. How is that scenario different from using the moderation options on the normal reply page?

Because unless you're on a fiber optic connection or on the same server as the forum, loading a completely new page (with all its images and what not) takes much longer, especially when you consider how many different icons are used by the usual reply form (as opposed to the Fast Reply form).