Reports need more streamlining

[Hezeber]

Although IPS supports setting up subforum moderators, the report UI is a big problem for them. Currently, moderators see all reports whether they can deal with them or not. On an active forum that has, say, over 20 subforums and gets a lot of reports on a daily basis, a moderator who can only deal with one subforum has to wade through a lot of useless content. Since they're constantly seeing a stream of alerts for reports whether they can deal with them or not, they start tuning out the alerts for incoming reports since it's probably not for them anyway. All this makes it more likely that a subforum mod will take longer to see the reports that are actually for them.

We should be able to have the option to filter the reports so moderators can only see reports they have permissions to take action on. I'd prefer this to be the default, but if there's a reason some admins want their subforum moderators to see absolutely everything it should be optional.

[crabpaws]

I agree. We just upgraded to 4.x.

The usability of Reports is a step backward from 3.x, where the interface and flow was very barebones but we could see what we were doing. There are many low-utility doodads on the 4.x version that do nothing to further usability, and some features that were useful in the 3.x version have disappeared.

I have 17 moderators. We coordinate using Reports to track problem posts. A mod (or, very rarely, a member), will report a post we'll have a discussion in the Mod CP Reports -- which might take several weeks -- then make decisions that everyone understands.

At any one time, there might be a dozen reports under discussion. Reports is our customer service system.

In 3.x, there was a flag on a reported post. This marker is necessary, or the next mod to come along may report it again. In the 4.x version, this flag does not exist.

[crabpaws]

The window for reading individual reports also could use improvement. Again, UX was better in 3.x.

 

[crabpaws]

Also, clicking on a notification regarding a Report should take you to the most recent post in the Report, not to the User Reported Content megillah for more clicks to get you to the most recent post.

[Jed Rosenzweig]

+1 for usage of megillah.

[crabpaws]

This topic is related Don't show completed reports in main overview

[crabpaws]

Another thing -- In the Reports area of the Mod CP, there's nothing to click on that takes you back to the reported post, so you can see it in context. Clicking on the title takes you to the first post in the topic. Then you have to hunt for the reported post. (This report happens to be about a p.m.)

I don't understand why Reports was redesigned in a way that diminishes its utility. Any chance this can be refined in the near future?

[Hezeber]

On 7/19/2017 at 10:41 PM, crabpaws said:

Another thing -- In the Reports area of the Mod CP, there's nothing to click on that takes you back to the reported post, so you can see it in context. Clicking on the title takes you to the first post in the topic. Then you have to hunt for the reported post. (This report happens to be about a p.m.)

I don't understand why Reports was redesigned in a way that diminishes its utility. Any chance this can be refined in the near future?

When you have the report open, the line under the title is a clickable link to the post. The line with the speech bubble icon that says "Post in Subforum Name". It didn't immediately register as a link for me either because it looks the same as the line on the report index that isn't a clickable link.

InvsionPower's report system is so bad that we ended up making a plugin that sends reports to subforums, and we manage them from there instead. This allows mods to only see and get notifications for reports in their assigned subforums, sort and filter reports in all kinds of other ways, flag them for other people, and search the archives for past issues. I would much prefer to use the report section from the Site Moderation area, but it needs a complete overhaul before it could be usable for my setup.

[crabpaws]

On 7/28/2017 at 3:35 PM, Hezeber said:

When you have the report open, the line under the title is a clickable link to the post. The line with the speech bubble icon that says "Post in Subforum Name". It didn't immediately register as a link for me either because it looks the same as the line on the report index that isn't a clickable link.

Well, isn't that an Easter egg! It says "Post in [forum name]". I assumed it went to the forum. Functionality not obvious and misleading wording: Another usability flaw.

On 7/28/2017 at 3:35 PM, Hezeber said:

InvsionPower's report system is so bad that we ended up making a plugin that sends reports to subforums, and we manage them from there instead. This allows mods to only see and get notifications for reports in their assigned subforums, sort and filter reports in all kinds of other ways, flag them for other people, and search the archives for past issues. I would much prefer to use the report section from the Site Moderation area, but it needs a complete overhaul before it could be usable for my setup.

Is this a plug-in that you're selling, Hezeber?

I agree, it's a shame that you have to develop auxiliary software to compensate for utility that was lost when the Reports area was redesigned for 4.x. In 3.x, it wasn't fancy, but it was usable.

[crabpaws]

Latest patch did not do anything for Reports.