| Moderation
Issues
Setting
Up Moderation
Checking for Moderated Posts
Moderation and Chat
Troubleshooting
Resources
Setting
Up Moderation
Setting
a registered user, or group of users, to "Moderated"
in an Access List, means that
their posts and other material will be filtered through a list
of objectionable words that you can specify in the Control
Panel > Customize > General Settings. Any
posts flagged by the software as possibly objectionable will have
to be checked and approved by a human moderator before showing
up live. Other posts will be shown immediately. But since any
posts posted into a moderated area (or by a moderated user) cannot
be edited after posting, only deleted, the user will see an extra
edit screen before final posting to allow any last-minute changes
to be made.
You can
also specify additional words (or exclude words from the general
list) inside each folder in the Edit Folder area. By default,
each folder inherits its objectionable word list from its parent
folder or from the Control Panel list. If you wish, however, you
can specify a completely separate list, or you can add/remove
words from the inherited list.
- To
specify a totally separate list, put an equal sign (=) as the
first character of this list.
- To
add words, just enter them in this list.
- For
example, xxxx would add xxxx to the inherited list.
- To
remove words, put them in this list with a minus sign right
in front, with no space between the minus sign and the word.
- For
example, -xxxx would remove xxxx from the inherited list.
- To
turn on checking for phone numbers, use +.
- To
turn off checking for phone numbers, use -.
If you
don't specify a list of words, all posts submitted by moderated
users will have to be checked and released by a host before they
appear in the database.
You
can also choose to search for phone numbers instead of objectionable
words in situations (perhaps with young people) where allowing
users to post phone numbers would not be wise or safe. The logic
behind determining what's a phone number and what's not may or
may not work properly if you're in a place where phone numbers
are formatted differently than in the US and Canada. Usually it
works pretty well, but you'll have to try it and see.
Figure
1 - Screenshot from Moderation area in Sysop Control Panel
The
settings inside each folder look like this, figure 2.
Figure
2 - moderation area inside each folder.
A moderated
user sees the message in figure 3 when a post is submitted which
will be posted immediately. Figure 4, just below, shows the message
for a post which will be reviewed by a moderator. Note that some
users may not notice the "To submit your message, please
click on OK," and their messages won't be submitted for moderation.
Being aware of this as sysop can help you clarify any confusion
this may cause.
Figure
3 - what the user sees for a moderated message which will be posted
immediately
Figure
4 - what the user sees for a moderated message which will be reviewed
by a moderator
Checking
for moderated posts
The
sysop is the designated moderator if there are no other hosts
defined. Once you define another host, however, the syosp is not
a moderator and you have to add sysop's name specifically to the
host's list if you want to be able to check for moderated posts
in that username.
To check
for moderated posts waiting to be approved, log in as sysop or
a host for the area and click the Check Moderated button
anywhere in the discussion area.
  It's
not possible to place the messages back in the queue at that point.
You must make a decision to approve or not.
The
sysop is the default approver of moderated messages unless you
have assigned a different host via an Access
List for a given area. At that point you must specifically
list the sysop as a host in the Access List if sysop is to be
allowed to moderate messages along with the host of the area.
Moderation
and Chat
Access
Lists can be applied to chat areas as well. The same objectionable
word list will be used to filter chat messages if you set users
to "moderated." If someone posts a chat message that
is possibly objectionable, Web Crossing sends a message back to
that user, privately on the chat screen, stating:
Possible
objectionable message NOT sent: (followed by the user's message)
The
specific message which is sent to the user, prepended to his or
her comment, is configurable in the Java
applet parameters. See the Templates
section for information on how to edit macros.
Troubleshooting
All
my moderated users' posts are being flagged for approval/disapproval
instead of just some.
- Check
to see that you have at least one objectionable word filled
into the list at Control Panel > Customize
> General Settings or into the moderation area under
"edit Folder."
Only
some posts are being flagged for moderation, and I wanted all
of them to be checked.
- Check
to see that you have NO objectionable words filled into
the list at Control Panel > Customize
> General Settings
or into the moderation area under "edit Folder."
Resources
Web
Crossing FAQ:
Sysop
Documentation
Sysop
Control Panel
- Customize
- General
Settings (objectionable word list for moderated posts)
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