Delete/edit posts as a forum owner

[IIT Software]

We got SPAM posts in our forum and I'd like to delete them. I also want to edit posts from others, if necessary. How can I do that as a forum owner?

Thanks..

[Will L <Nabble>]

IIT Software wrote:

We got SPAM posts in our forum and I'd like to delete them.

As you probably noticed, Nabble uses ratings to let users bury a bad post which eventually cause a bad author to get entirely buried. To a regular user, they will not see the posts below 2-star, so it's the same as having it deleted. We bury instead of delete a bad post for several reasons. One reason is to keep a history of how bad a user is, and everyone who wants to see it can see it by changing the default rating filter to 1-star. A spammer will typically spam several forums, for exmaple, this spammer who spamed your forum also spammed several other places http://www.nabble.com/user/UserPosts.jtp?user=701516 His spam will quickly get noticed by users from many different places and the collective rating will quickly bury him. If we allow forum owners to delete the spam, then the history will be lost and each forum will have to deal with the bad guy by itself. This gives spammer a chance to continue his action longer than if we keep his history around.

Does this make sense?

IIT Software wrote:

I also want to edit posts from others, if necessary. How can I do that as a forum owner?

Sorry, but we don't have this feature. If a user violated the guideline for content, wouldn't it be better to ask the user to edit his posts by himself? A user can always edit his own posts.

[glitchking]

I understand Nabble's reasoning for burying posts BUT they should still give the forum owner the ability to entirely delete unwanted posts.  This makes more sense.  I would prefer to have the ability to manage posts if necessary as an option. I currently have a post that I want to delete and am not satisfied that I cannot delete it from my forum as it represents a negative effect on my forum goals.

[Shoop]

On the eGroupware forum there is lots of 3 star spamming going on, how can this be changed to the 0 star?

[Will L <Nabble>]

Just rate those posts to spam (0 star). Rate a few times and the spammer and his posts will all be buried.

[Cordilow]

Hmm, I wasn't aware of the zero star thing until now, although I haven't had a problem using the one star approach (I just didn't notice that it was selectable).  The circle with a slash through it (like a no this or that sign) is for zero stars.

[ChaoticGamePlus]

I would like to divide this into two different matters - deletions & editing

Deletions:  I understand that the way your forum works, the admins can move an unwanted thread to a new "place" (I have created a forum called "SPAM") or for individual posts, just mark it as a 0 Stars.  

a) Some of these spams could be pretty raunchy and I would personally like them to just be deleted, instead of still remaining "live."
b) Would it be possible to give an admin the ability to permanently give a rating to a a post.  For instance, if we wanted to make something a "0" let us do it so no one else can bring the rating back up.  Or, create a rating for just the admins where we can mark something so that no one else will be able to see it, even if they have their view defaults at "0"

Editing:  Although, I feel very strongly about not being able to change another person's post - as an admin, there are a few times when I would like to make a change to what someone has written.  For instance,  my site is geared towards kids and sometimes (not very often) one of them has a pretty good post, but will place in a curse word.  I, as the admin, would like to be able to go in and just remove the word.  I know that this would be giving a lot of power to an admin, but I want to see how you feel about it.  I would also suggest that if an admin makes a change, that there will be some type of signature or indication that the change was made so that admins cannot just go in and make changes hap-hazzardly.

Thanks,

LED

[Will L <Nabble>]

ChaoticGamePlus wrote:

Deletions:  I understand that the way your forum works, the admins can move an unwanted thread to a new "place" (I have created a forum called "SPAM") or for individual posts, just mark it as a 0 Stars.  

Currently, as the forum owner, you can delete any post. As the owner you should find a "delete" link under each post.

ChaoticGamePlus wrote:

... For instance,  my site is geared towards kids and sometimes (not very often) one of them has a pretty good post, but will place in a curse word.  I, as the admin, would like to be able to go in and just remove the word.  I know that this would be giving a lot of power to an admin, but I want to see how you feel about it.  

We do feel strongly that no one should have the power to edit other people's post. In this example you raised, I would simply email the author to tell him to edit his own post to remove the curse word. I think most users will honor it. It also helps the author to learn a good manner. If you just go in and edit his post, one, he could be very upset and be mad at you; two, he could ignore you edit and continue to use curse word in his future posts, are you going to correct him all the time? You would probably end up talking to him about his bad habit anyways ...

I would also suggest that if an admin makes a change, that there will be some type of signature or indication that the change was made so that admins cannot just go in and make changes hap-hazzardly.

This is not easy to do. A bad admin can easily abuse this power and it's hard to control what gets edited what's not, and also is hard to keep track of history and there will be lots of dispute ... I think it will create more trouble than just talking to the user to ask him to change his behavior. If he doesn't change his behavior, rate him down or delete.