Automatic Limited Moderator Privileges for Topic Creators: Is it Possible?

[mt02]

I have questions about assigning permissions and related stuff in regards to providing Topic creators some control over their Topic threads; however, due to my lack of knowledge of the correct forum organizational terms you use, first here is an brief generic example of the organizational layout of an existing forum running on SMF 2.0.6 to hopefully clarify what I am referring to:

A: Earth
   1: Mountains
   2: Plains
B: Water
   1: Salt Water
      a) Mediterranean
      b) Atlantic
      c) Pacific
   2: Fresh Water
      a) Lakes:
         1) My Favorite Lake (Actual individual postings by forum members)
         2) Lake fishing (Actual individual postings by forum members)
         3) Water skiing (Actual individual postings by forum members)
      b) Rivers:
         1) Mountain stream fishing (Actual individual postings by forum members)
         2) Floating the Snake river (Actual individual postings by forum members)

The question is whether or not SMF 2.0.6 can or can be modified to allow the following:

1) Automatically assign the creator (owner) of a Third Tier Level Topic (such as the above: 'Lakes') Moderator privileges (permissions) restricted to the Topic they create, such as 'Lakes', that would allow them, but no one else except a forum administrator or moderator, to:

2) Create, for example under 'Lakes', Fourth Level Topics, such as 'My Favorite Lake' and 'Lake Fishing', for only individual comments and replies (Threads?);

3) Move, but preferably _not_ entirely delete nor edit, comments from one Fourth Level Topics to another. e.g.: move comments from 'My Favorite Lake' to 'Lake Fishing'.

4) Block specific commentators from individual Fourth Level Topics or if that isn't possible from the parent Third level Topic. e.g.: block commentator XX from posting to 'My Favorite Lake' while allowing posting to 'Lake Fishing'; or failing that blocking from 'Lakes' entirely.

[Arantor]

Of course it *could* be modified. It's just a lot of effort to actually do so.

The first challenge is to actually work out whether a user is actually in a third tier level topic before going any further. This is not a simple or computationally cheap process to accomplish. After that, it would be theoretically possible to intercept the load permissions stage early on to grab the topic id if specified, add the extra effort of loading the topic's author and adding extra permissions if it's the topic's author that's the current user.

A bigger question would be *why*. My experience has been that such complex set-ups not only create maintenance nightmares as people come and go, but that it actually has a habit of confusing the very people that 1) are contributing and 2) are being granted extra powers.

In almost every case of 'giving the topic starter some moderation power', it seems to work out badly if actually implemented. You end up having different ideas about moderation because some of the people doing the moderation aren't the 'core' moderation team.

If anything it seems to me that the need to restrict people making topics is about trying to enforce categorisation of topics, which in itself is usually a sign of having too many boards in the first place. Having too many boards almost always is a problem in itself since you end up with many boards that are empty or barely used. Experience suggests it's far better to create boards as they are needed rather than creating many up front and hoping they're going to get used.

[Justyne]

I think you can get 1 working by using permissions and permission profiles creatively.

Admin>Permissions>Edit Profiles>

Add a new one, say "My Favourite Lake"

In Admin>Boards> find "My Favourite Lake" and assign the profile to it.

Then hop back to Permissions> Edit Profiles>

Click "My Favourite Lake"

Under regular members get the classic view and tick "Modify replies to own topics" and "Delete replies to own topics"

If you want the same permissions in other boards just assign them there.

[Arantor]

Hmm. That doesn't actually fit with what the user requested

In order for a topic starter to move replies to somewhere else, they would require both split topic and move any topic permission, though of course the latter suddenly doesn't apply because it wouldn't then be their topic to moderate. Which means custom development to cover that.

Also, seems to me that the user is asking for these 'users moderating their own topics' to explicitly not have edit-replies and delete-replies rather than having those permissions.

[Justyne]

I clearly misread that. Ignore me. Thanks for pointing that out.


I wonder now with regards to 3...

that is really half-baked. Why would you give people the power to indirectly edit threads (by sending replies there) but not directly. That seems like you'll get users not wanting replies bouncing them back and forth between each other.

4 |  you can probably sort out getting users out of the 3rd level by assigning them a membergroup that blocks them from posting in that board.

[Arantor]

You *can* but it's a surprising amount of work to do since potentially you'd need to create a new profile for each board that you want to moderate in that fashion, assuming you want to be able to selectively control it.

[Justyne]

Yeah... didn't say it was pretty. Just trying to think what can be achieved without having to edit a ton of files which we are really looking at here.

[Arantor]

Well, it's not actually quite as serious as it sounds.

If we're talking about granting 'moderator permissions to a topic starter', what permissions does that actually mean?

Edit replies, delete replies (by extension, remove topic), already covered.
Lock topic - that's just straight up permissions
Sticky topic - not covered but I would speculate that sticky topics aren't on the list of permissions to be granting anyway
Move topic - moving own topic is already covered as a permission
Split topic - is problematic
Merge topic - is problematic

We're not really talking, then, about taking the full list of moderator permissions and distilling them down, we're talking about a modification of the split topic, to bring together splitting some posts from a topic the user started, and moving them to somewhere else, perhaps even merging those into existing topics. It's really not actually clear whether that's the case or not, due to imprecise and inconsistent terminology.

Either way, whether it's splitting-and-just-moving-to-new-board or splitting-and-merging-with-existing-topic, that will require significant work.

[mt02]

Well, it's not actually quite as serious as it hxxp:sounds.it [nonactive]'s really not actually clear whether that's the case or not, due to imprecise and inconsistent terminology.

Either way, whether it's splitting-and-just-moving-to-new-board or splitting-and-merging-with-existing-topic, that will require significant work.

My apologizes for the problems with the terminology, being just a sometimes forum user has its drawbacks.

On reflection, I guess what I was interested in was whether or not SMF 2.0.6 had the built-in capabilities to allow it to function along the lines of collaborative software to promote the development of working groups protected against unwanted interference, while still allowing everyone to read the discussions taking place and to have their say, albeit perhaps in an adjoining thread.

I was interested in making a suggestion to implement some thing like this at a forum which is running SMF 2.0.6, but wanted to run it by the SMF experts here first to check if it could be done or, as seems to be the case, isn't very practical. Thanks for your feedback and taking the time to discuss the possibilities, I am very impressed by the level of professional competence demonstrated here even in the face of obvious ignorance - mine.