Moderator should be disallowed to edit other staff profiles

[WebCMS]

Currently, mods can edit even Admin's profile and other mods' profiles.

[Robert Angle]

Make it a Staff policy, and then fire them if they do 😄

[Jim M]

To play devil's advocate here: Why make them a mod if you do not trust them to not do something like this though? Especially, something small like editing a profile of another staff member on the front-end. If you can't trust them not to do this, you can't trust them not to do something on moderating a topic.

[WebCMS]

2 hours ago, Jim M said:

To play devil's advocate here: Why make them a mod if you do not trust them to not do something like this though? Especially, something small like editing a profile of another staff member on the front-end. If you can't trust them not to do this, you can't trust them not to do something on moderating a topic.

The logistics of a forum are different on sites like invisioncommunity.com, dev sites who develop apps for IC where you know everything and everyone on your forums vs general forum sites where the admins make some anonymous people as moderators based purely on their activity.

Why is it logical to allow mods to edit profiles of admins and other mods? So they could type anything into admin's About box? That's like saying leave the door unlocked when I step out - if I don't trust the neighborhood, don't live there.

Edited December 29, 2023 by WebCMS

[Marc Stridgen]

2 hours ago, WebCMS said:

That's like saying leave the door unlocked when I step out - if I don't trust the neighborhood, don't live there.

Kind of. But the neighbourhood is your members. We dont allow that at all. However the person who owns all the rented buildings in the area has keys, and also employs people to manage the properties at times. They have all the keys. If they misuse those keys, they should not be a member of that management team

[WebCMS]

2 hours ago, Marc Stridgen said:

Kind of. But the neighbourhood is your members. We dont allow that at all. However the person who owns all the rented buildings in the area has keys, and also employs people to manage the properties at times. They have all the keys. If they misuse those keys, they should not be a member of that management team

The moderators on IC forums may be paid but on general forums, the anonymous moderators work for free. They are not employees of the general forum website and there is no employee-employer relationship/contract.

[Randy Calvert]

You trust you moderators to do things like edit, hide/delete content, etc but not profiles?  

Personally if they can’t be trusted to mess with profiles, they should not be trusted with the other tools. 

[WebCMS]

Yes, we trust them only with editing/managing members, profiles, posts, etc.

My point is, why allow them to edit Admin's profile and other mods' profiles? They are supposed to edit and manage members and members' content. We don't know these voluntary mods personally to trust them 100% with giving access to Admin/Mod profiles.

// Always allow to edit own profiles (no change)

// While $staff is editing others' profiles
if ($profileToEdit is in $staff group)
{
    if ($self is in $admin group)
    {
        // allow Admin to edit anyone's profiles
    }
}
else
{
    // allow editing non-staff profiles...
}

 

Edited December 29, 2023 by WebCMS

[Jim M]

6 hours ago, WebCMS said:

The moderators on IC forums may be paid but on general forums, the anonymous moderators work for free. They are not employees of the general forum website and there is no employee-employer relationship/contract.

Whether someone is paid or not, they are still representing your “company” so I would still suggest vetting that individual and formalizing the relationship to a degree. If little things like this are making you think twice on someone, it’s likely for the better you don’t make them a moderator. Or vice versa, if you as an admin are having second thoughts relinquishing control over small things like this, are you ready for/need staff or can you get by with the bare minimum? There are a lot more critical details staff will need access to as you grow so plan how that gets attributed/promoted too.

I don’t think many people know this but many of the IC staff became staff through having communities of our own. So I don’t mean to say these things from a “I know better” place but we do have real world experience, yet are happy to be proven wrong or if there are other scenarios.

I typically don’t have a “contract” for my community staff but a do/don’t list, minimum tenure before becoming staff, quick questionnaire wouldn’t be unheard of, training steps starting them out, etc… all a good time for you to vet them further or for them to opt out 😉 .