Most efficient way to onboard new members?

[David N.]

When a new member posts a new topic or post, it requires approval. So far what I've been doing is approve the new post, then I have to go to their profile and remove them from the moderation queue. Is there a way to only have to approve their first post, then new members are automatically removed from the moderation queue? 

Edited January 25, 2023 by David N.

[opentype]

Do you even need the moderation queue?

[David N.]

Just now, opentype said:

Do you even need the moderation queue?

I'm not even sure what it is exactly to be honnest? I mean I do need a new member's first post to require approval to weed out the spammers, but then once they're approve I don't want the posters to require being moderated anymore. 

in phpBB this was handled by members being part of a moderated group named "Newly registered members" and once you had been approved one post you were automatically no longer part of that group and into the regular "Members" group that didn't require moderation, so that's the workflow I'm used to. 

[opentype]

Then you can turn off “adminsitration validation” in the registration settings. 

Approving new posts is usually enough. Keep in mind though that could still mean spam in the profile fields. 

For even better control you would need to add a new entry-level group and then promote those members to the regular member group once they have approved posts. Check IPS’ group promotion feature for more details. 

[Gary]

Hi @David N.,

Have a look at this Help Guide for reference to the above. You may find it useful for your community to prevent a lot of work on your end.

[David N.]

Ok I had a good look at the group promotion feature but I'm not sure how to go about this?

I can create a new group named "Newly Registered", and set up a promotion rule to promote that group to "Members" after 1 post. 

However how do I set it up so that people who've just registered are in the group "Newly Registered" and not "Members"?

[Marc]

We can change the group your members start in if needed. What I would generally suggest however, is instead of doing it that way, do it this way

1 - Copy your members group
2 - Set up the promotion rules
3 - Rename the original group to Newly Registered

and just let the system promote your current members

If you want to move them quicker, you can also just bulk move everyone to the new group if needed, So step 4 and 5 would be

4- Search members in Newly registered (and other criteria if needed)
5 - Mass move to Members group

[David N.]

Ok... to be honest I'm not feeling 100% confident and that workflow scares me a bit. 🥵

[Marc]

Thats the way you would set them up, so you would certainly have to follow that somewhat if you want to get to the point its promoting accordingly

[David N.]

Ok thank you, I'll try it. 🙂 

[Marc]

Main thing to make sure of is your promotion rule applies only to your members group. As long as you make sure of that, the worst that can happen is there are the wrong people between those 2 groups, and you could always just move them back

[David N.]

Wait, can't I just use that instead? That looks like what I was searching for? 

[Marc]

If the only thing that you are doing is that simple moderation, then yes you could indeed use that. 

[David N.]

Yes! That's the only thing I'm doing, great, so I'll do that. 🙂 Thanks.

However, right now that "Require content moderation" is off for Members. So how come they require approval when they're just registered? 

[Marc]

Approval in what way? Is this approval to be a member, or the content itself? If the content itself, it may be being caught in other areas. If you can give an example, I can advise

[David N.]

When a new member registers and posts, I see a little red warning sign next to the forum name on the forum list, with two red numbers: one for new topics requiring approval, another for posts requiring approval. 

Let's say I click a topic, I have to: 

1. Approve the topic. 
2. Go to the user's profile, click on Edit Profile, then Moderation, then "Remove from Moderation Queue". 

What I would like is that once I approve a member's first topic, that member is automatically able to post without being approved any longer (so no longer in a moderation queue).

Edited February 3, 2023 by David N.

[Jim M]

50 minutes ago, David N. said:

When a new member registers and posts, I see a little red warning sign next to the forum name on the forum list, with two red numbers: one for new topics requiring approval, another for posts requiring approval. 

Let's say I click a topic, I have to: 

1. Approve the topic. 
2. Go to the user's profile, click on Edit Profile, then Moderation, then "Remove from Moderation Queue". 

What I would like is that once I approve a member's first topic, that member is automatically able to post without being approved any longer (so no longer in a moderation queue).

The "Remove content moderation" field, from your screenshot, will do exactly this automatically for you. 

The group promotion suggestion was more-so to do extra permissions with groups but if the content is your only concern, the above is all good.

[Madhouseau]

10 hours ago, Marc Stridgen said:

We can change the group your members start in if needed. What I would generally suggest however, is instead of doing it that way, do it this way

1 - Copy your members group
2 - Set up the promotion rules
3 - Rename the original group to Newly Registered

and just let the system promote your current members

If you want to move them quicker, you can also just bulk move everyone to the new group if needed, So step 4 and 5 would be

4- Search members in Newly registered (and other criteria if needed)
5 - Mass move to Members group

Hi @Marc Stridgen

How long does it take for a group promotion to run? Can I alter the timeframe it takes to run?

Thanks

[David N.]

15 hours ago, Jim M said:

The "Remove content moderation" field, from your screenshot, will do exactly this automatically for you. 

 

Thank you. So I've set up that setting like so: 

I had a member who was still being moderated and had one post already approved, and one other post waiting for approval, so I approved his post. The member is still in the moderation queue and I can see this on his profile: 

[Jim M]

4 hours ago, David N. said:

Thank you. So I've set up that setting like so: 

I had a member who was still being moderated and had one post already approved, and one other post waiting for approval, so I approved his post. The member is still in the moderation queue and I can see this on his profile: 

Do you still have further settings configured to moderate content? If so, those would need to be removed and this would not work retro-actively for old members.

[David N.]

37 minutes ago, Jim M said:

Do you still have further settings configured to moderate content?

Not to my knowledge? Here are the content moderation settings for the group "Members": 

[Jim M]

You are forcing content approval as a part of the Spam Defense process as seen here in ACP -> Members -> Spam Prevention -> Spam Defense. You would need to change that.

[David N.]

Ok great, thank you Jim! I've changed the action to take for 1/4 to Allow user to register as normal.  I'll monitor it to see if it's working as expected and will report back. 🙂 

[Como]

On 2/3/2023 at 3:04 PM, David N. said:

Ok I had a good look at the group promotion feature but I'm not sure how to go about this?

I can create a new group named "Newly Registered", and set up a promotion rule to promote that group to "Members" after 1 post. 

However how do I set it up so that people who've just registered are in the group "Newly Registered" and not "Members"?

FWIIW - it has been a long time since your post - that's how I do it. It allows for more control, because I do not necessarily wish to allow new members (before they have had their first post approved) the ability to send PMs, or potentially add spam to their profile, etc.

[David N.]

34 minutes ago, Como said:

FWIIW - it has been a long time since your post - that's how I do it. It allows for more control, because I do not necessarily wish to allow new members (before they have had their first post approved) the ability to send PMs, or potentially add spam to their profile, etc.

Great, thanks for the info!