Post count moderation.

[Antwerp]

Hi,

Sorry, I know this topic has been covered before but I have read up on it and frankly, the more I read the more unsure I become of exactly how to proceed.

Situation: I am a forum admin and I want to limit new registrations to have their initial post/s approved. I know this is possible but I don't want to bork the 'regular' users group (being the default base group for all of our existing members). So, I know the ingredients are post moderation and post count group/s but am I right in thinking that the following is the basic recipe?:

I don't make the regular group post-count based (say, 3), and then create a group (say, Restricted) whose posts must be moderated?

Do I rather, edit the regular members group instead (as it defaults to 0 posts for membership), to be the restricted/quarantine group and then create a group (say, Approved) as post-count based - into which all new (and existing) members will automatically be elevated after their post count reaches (for instance) 3? Oh, and I imagine I would be able to rename the edited regular group (say, Restricted) to reflect the change?

If this is basically the formula, any additional 'heads-up' regarding actual procedure flow would be very much appreciated. Again, sorry for asking about stuff which may seem fairly straightforward for some, but I really want to be sure that I am at least on the right track.

TIA

[Arantor]

Let me explain the problem of doing this on a fresh SMF install, and you're welcome to join in at home. Today's challenge: configure it so that regular users don't have moderation but new users with up to and including 5 posts are moderated.

There are, in fact, two ways to do this, both of which are convoluted.

1. Turn on post moderation in Core Features.
2. Making sure that the 0-post count group is left alone, create a new post count group that requires 5 posts, so that once a user has successfully posted 5 posts (and until they're approved, it won't affect their post count), they can have different permissions attached.
3. Admin > Members > Permissions > Settings > Enable permissions for post count based groups (tick) > save

Here's where the paths diverge. Here's path A:
A4: On the same page as above (Admin > Members > Permissions > Settings) also enable Enable the option to deny permissions
A5: Go to Admin > Members > Permissions > Board Permissions and for each profile (that allows posting) set the permissions up as follows: Regular members should have "Post new topics, without requiring approval" and "Post replies to topics, without requiring approval" enabled, while the 0-post count group should have those permissions *denied* and "Post new topics, but hide until approved" and "Post replies to topics, but hide until approved" in their place. Once the user leaves the 0-post count group for the 5-post count group, the other permissions are no longer denied.[3]

Or, path B. It doesn't require deny permissions but it does things another way.
B4: Go to Admin > Members > Permissions > Board Permissions. For Regular Members, set all the posting permissions to disallow. Then in the 0-post count group, give them "Post new topics, but hide until approved" and "Post replies to topics, but hide until approved" and for every other post count group, give them "Post new topics, without requiring approval" and "Post replies to topics, without requiring approval".[4]

Either way, banal and frustrating (and in fact, you still have to do the same thing using the other interface but it's actually slightly *more* confusing, not less there).

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3.    But now we have an extra membergroup that does absolutely nothing other than allow another group's permissions to expire.
4.    This means you still have the extra group, but at least the extra group is now doing something. This is also very fractionally faster, but harder to maintain as you have to set the new permission up on any new post count group you create.

[Antwerp]

Thanks for the quick response. I will spend a while digesting the information.

[CountryLady]

This, and so many of your posts on various subjects, should be in the wiki.

Thanks for being so helpful. 

[Arantor]

Thanks I'll suggest it to the docs team.