Extension:StructuredDiscussions/Moderation

This describes how moderation works in StructuredDiscussions at time of writing the article. This may change in the future.

States & permissions

There are 4 states: (none), hidden, deleted, suppressed.

When a post is in a moderated state, it will either be not visible at all (if users have no permissions to see it), or be replaced by a "Comment <moderated> by <user>" message. Said message can be clicked to reveal the original message.

To see moderated posts, users need these permissions (based on default permission defined in Flow.php - this may be different with custom config):

• hidden: any user
• deleted: sysop (so completely hidden for non-sysops)
• suppressed: oversight (so completely hidden for non-oversighters)

A moderated post or topic - hidden/deleted/suppressed post or topic. This post will not be editable by another users. Editing text of someone else message is not moderation.

Revision

Every action on a topic/post (or header) will create a new revision. Edits, moderation, ... all generate a new revision.

In StructuredDiscussions, it is only possible to moderate the most recent revision of a topic or post (thus creating a new revision with the new moderation status). The moderation status of this last revision, combined with the moderation status of a specific revision of a post, is what will determine if anything can be seen.

Example:

• When a post with 30 revisions (edits, anything, ...) is suppressed, none of the previous (and current) revisions will be accessible for anyone with non-suppression permissions.
• When that post is later restored (unsuppressed), all of the previous revisions are available to anyone again. The suppress + restore revisions will not be available for anyone with non-suppression permissions, though.
• Again, when suppressed, nothing at all will be visible.
• ...

AbuseFilter integration

You can create Special:AbuseFilter rules for Flow posts.

Make sure you select "Flow" as the filter group, and check "Prevent the user from performing the action in question" to block the post, otherwise StructuredDiscussions ignores the filter.

As of 2013-01-07, "Tag the edit for further review" does not work, it's unclear how this would work for StructuredDiscussions.

See also

• Flow/Functional Specifications/Moderation, Protection, and Refactoring (earlier draft specs)