Report Center Notifications

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I'm getting settled in our vB->IPB conversion, and I'm starting to take advantage of the Report Center. Back in vB, all reports had their own thread in a private forum; we'd discuss problem members, decide what to do in threads, and so on. It was useful.

Since the reports were in threads, they showed up in the Get New Posts search. In IPB, they're in their own center, and I get a notification when a new report is made -- but I get no notification when a moderator replies to one, and I have no easy way to check if there are new replies at all. This is very inconvenient when we're trying to have a discussion in the report.

It would be excellent if the Report Center would issue a notification for replies to reports in forums you're a moderator in, like it does for new reports. Also, as [url=" has suggested before, including queued posts, warnings, and so on -- perhaps a mini moderator log -- in the Report Center would be exceedingly handy. I could see if spam has been removed, threads moved, topics closed, and so on, and keep track of queued posts and reports that need to be dealt with.

[Biker.GA]

I would like the option to send reports to a specified forum (similar to vB) rather than the report center. While the Report Center is a nice concept, it really doesn't fit in with our needs, nor is it really tied into the software. It's still treated as a modification.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I would like the option to send reports to a specified forum (similar to vB) rather than the report center. While the Report Center is a nice concept, it really doesn't fit in with our needs, nor is it really tied into the software. It's still treated as a modification.

Indeed. Unless the report center gets Edit, Quote and so on, it will feel rather incomplete to me. We often have several-page-long discussions in reports.

[Luke]

The report center's comment system was more of a way to keep track of what was done about a particular report. Sort of like the comments that can be made in the warning system. If you want to have a full fledged conversation about a particular report or member, I have a suggestion for that:

Perhaps what we need is a feature to "link" a topic to a report. In the AdminCP you could assign a particular forum for this. In the report itself when viewing a report have a "Create Topic" button to create a topic in this forum. When creating this topic a message gets added to the comment section linking to this topic (it wouldn't look like a comment, but would be in line so you can see somewhat of a history of the report). Likewise you could "link" an existing topic to a report.

I would also suggest bridging the gap between the warning system and the report center. When you click on a members warning history you should be able to see comments about the member, warning adjustments, and reports of posts created by that member. Basically some sort of way to look at a member and get an overall history.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

If you do that, you end up duplicating features -- staff can post in the report or in the thread. It's a duplication of features that'd become unwieldy. Perhaps the report center could just use threads from a hidden forum as its "back end", so it has all the features of a normal thread.

If you create a separate thread, I'd suggest instead making the Report Center display an automated list of actions performed on the post and thread in question. It could update with "username deleted this post on 14 Jun 11:34 PM" or "username closed this thread on..." so actions could be logged.

[Luke]

The original report center modification displayed the report and comments in a small popup. It was never designed for full fledged conversations. The focus was supposed to be the reports and to help moderators collaborate more. When it was integrated into 3.0 as a feature, it was changed in quite a few areas, including how the comments and reports are viewed. Functionally that has advantages, but it also changed people's perception of the feature from it's original intent. With my community, which is where the report center was born, our moderators used our moderator forum as a place to discuss matters. The comment system in the report center was used for quick comments about that particular report or post.

I know how vBulletin uses a forum for reports, but a forum just doesn't work. It's not efficient enough to handle reports. If it was I would have implemented a modification to mimic was vBulletin was doing. The report center groups reports about the same post in a single report, and then weights that report by how many reports it's received, and how long it's gone untouched. It also has a number of status's. All this is customizable to fit the needs of the site.

Perhaps a useful addition would be sorting options. Be able to sort by weight (flag), last comment, etc...

Linking a topic to a member's history / report would still be useful :).

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

We're a science discussion forum, and we get lots of debates. We have an active politics section, a Speculations section where various folks try to disprove Einstein or some other accepted theory, and so on and so on. Most of our reports aren't easy to deal with -- we don't just write "post deleted" in the report thread and call it good. We have members fighting about politics, decisions to make about a crackpot anti-science member, and so on.

The vB report-as-thread system made this convenient because the thread was already made for us. We could decide how to save a thread over the course of five or ten posts, then take action.

Now, on the other hand, one thing we missed in vB was the power to see what all we've done about a member in the past. Giving a list of reported posts for a particular user, as well as warnings, deletions, and whatever else, would be very handy. If custom messages could be logged -- "Sent a PM to this user asking them to stop doing ____" -- with timestamps, I'd just about start drooling.

I may switch our system from being report-based to thread-based, with individual threads about problematic members. We'd link these to individual reports, marking them Under Review, and use the Report Center only for minor messages.

How I long for a unified moderation workflow...

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Thought: At the least, the bar at the top of the page could differentiate between reports under review or new. This could let mods know when there's a new report to deal with vs. old reports under discussion elsewhere.

[bfarber]

Now, on the other hand, one thing we missed in vB was the power to see what all we've done about a member in the past. Giving a list of reported posts for a particular user, as well as warnings, deletions, and whatever else, would be very handy. If custom messages could be logged -- "Sent a PM to this user asking them to stop doing ____" -- with timestamps, I'd just about start drooling.

You can use the warn system to leave a note about the member without changing their warn level.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Would they be notified when I do so?

And I presume if I choose to send them a PM, that's also noted in their warn history... this could be useful.

[Luke]

I agree that sometimes you need to have a discussion about a member or perhaps a given topic. But a full out discussion is not what the report center is designed for. It's not what the warning system is designed for either. It's designed for quick comments from the moderator. It's designed to bring the most important reports to your attention and allows moderators to work together as a team. It also groups reports together for the same reported post. I think that any drawn out discussion should still be in a moderator forum. You could say the same thing about blog comments.

vBulletin's method of using a forum for reports was good in some ways, but it has a lot of flaws in delivery. The report center fills those gaps and makes getting to reports a lot faster. What you do with it afterward it up to you. If you want to have a discussion about a report a forum is still the place to do it... perhaps a way to associate a topic with a report would be a way to bridge that conversation with report / member. That way if a moderator looks at a report they'll know there is an active conversation going on about it without having to dig for it.

I think merging the report center with the warning system in some way would be beneficial too. Be able to lock/hide/dekete a post/topic + mark report status + warn a member + send them a message in one step (four things into one).

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Since we generally have drawn-out discussions, we very much liked vB's way of automatically starting the thread for us. Also, vB did group same-post reports in the same thread, by adding a new post to that thread. Since reports are threads, they're automatically brought to staff attention by the New Posts search, staff can work together as a team, and staff can post quick comments or full-length explanations.

Linking a report with a topic would be handy. I could link it with a topic about a particular member or a particular discussion.

A warning system/report center merger would be nice, although we won't actually use the warning system to raise or lower warning levels -- we found that vB's infraction system tended to annoy people instead of encouraging them to follow the rules. ("I have warning points? How dare you! This is awful!") We just send PMs or make in-thread comments.

However, I see the warning system allows for PMs and emails to be sent without changing the warning level, so I'll have to experiment with that.

[shought]

I've suggested that there should be a notification on a new 'comment' on a report before, not sure whether anyone answered that back then.

So: how do some of you (IPS) guys feel about this?

If you ask me this feature would make a lot of sense.

[bfarber]

I tend to agree notifications for report comments aren't a bad idea, though we'll have to plan it's implementation. Charles, for instance, doesn't want to hear about every time I or another staff comments on a report. There will have to be some sort of notification options for that.

It sounds like comment notifications is really the missing link you guys are looking at?


I don't think we'll go the route of posting reports into a forum. I understand another forum package may do it that way, but I also don't think that necessarily means it's the "best" way. I like the idea of a separate report center, however the feature is still in it's infancy and is due to undergo some feature improvements and tweaks in future versions. If you are set on using a forum for your reports, it would be entirely possible to write an action overloader hook that captured submitted reports and instead of storing them in the report center, posting a new topic in a specific forum.

[Biker.GA]

How about an option that allows us to choose the reporting behavior (report center vs forum). It would seem to me that the report center is just being treated as a separate forum or comment area. Although, notifications via View New Content is a much needed addition for new comments in the report center.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I tend to agree notifications for report comments aren't a bad idea, though we'll have to plan it's implementation. Charles, for instance, doesn't want to hear about every time I or another staff comments on a report. There will have to be some sort of notification options for that.

It sounds like comment notifications is really the missing link you guys are looking at?

Indeed. One simple implementation would be to add a notification option for report comments, as there is for reports, and also provide a "watch this report" or "watch all reports I reply to..." setting.

That would make the Report Center significantly more useful for me.