Forum Moderation

[Mark (podz)]

These forums exist to support WordPress users.

Remember – WordPress is FREE software. When you make a request here for help, no-one is being paid to answer you. Being polite is extremely important to those of us who do help here.

The following posts are moderated:

1. Those containing email addresses. The address will be munged.
2. Those containing passwords. The passwords will be removed.
3. Those that have tag faults which break or adversely affect the forum software.
4. Those which contain incredibly long sections of code or error messages.

A note may be made in the thread or in the post if such action has been taken.
The following posts will be deleted on sight.

1. Single or double word topics with no body
2. Spam
3. Posts which are destructive in nature.
To put it basically, if you cannot say anything positive or helpful, or provide pointers that can assist the original poster and do so in a constructive manner – then do not post.
If your post contains abuse, it will be deleted.
If your post directs offense at another forum user, it will be deleted.
Do not try to use words cleverly – if there is any doubt, it will be deleted.

Abuse or flames will not merely be removed from a post, your whole post will be deleted.
There will be NO notes made in a thread about this action.

Signatures on all posts will be removed. Such signatures would create clutter and distract from the information and help we are trying to provide.

If you post just to spam or or get ‘google juice’ then you WILL be blocked and the url you are using will be broken. These forums will stay clean of spammers and the useless junk they bring.

While it is not mandatory to link to a WordPress blog, linking to anything that looks like a splog or spam site is not wise.

[Mark (podz)]

Kahil – feel free to email me to discuss this. tamba2 at gmail dot com

[ladydelaluna]

I’m curious about what we should do when we find someone who is just going around posting irrelevant “answers” to people’s problems… such as a thread topic “IE problems” and someone coming in saying “It looks fine in FF.” – I think this needs to be addressed somehow, because it’s filling the threads with useless information, and isn’t helping anyone at all. There are a few people in particular (most newbies) doing this, and it’s like they’re posting just to get their link up or something… driving me mad!

[Mark (podz)]

If this happens more than once then a mod will usually pick it up. I certainly DO check poster’s urls and if I find a non-blog or a spammy site then I will break their profile url IF I am confident by looking at their answers that pretty much all they are saying is “Me too!” or actually giving bad / wrong advice.
There certainly are link spammers around – annoying ******* they are too.

[ladydelaluna]

Thanks podz – it’s nice to know that there’s a process on your end (as a mod) for this. I’ve been biting my tongue for 2 days with this one individual… *grr!*

[Mark (podz)]

If there is a post you think needs looking at, add the tag
modlook
to it.
We can get the feed for that easily and home in on posts. We can also remove the tag. Given the sort of thing that’s being posted and is not wanted tagging the thread alone should be good enough.
That sound workable?

[ladydelaluna]

Awesome, Podz… great idea to let people like me feel that we can be of some help too! Thanks!

[Mark (podz)]

Not my idea 🙂
I think it was TG who thought it up. Now feeds are working though it’s very useful.

[jiji4jaz]

How do I deselect a comment I checked as spam by accident

[ladydelaluna]

jiji – please use the search feature and then create a NEW thread if you can’t find the answer to your problem… this thread is regarding the moderation of the wordpress forums only.

[prjg]

such as a thread topic “IE problems” and someone coming in saying “It looks fine in FF.”

LOL, that wouldn’t be a pursed-lip slight at a certain post I replied to would it? 😉

[vkaryl]

IIIIIIIV – no moreso than to mine ditto….

[ladydelaluna]

No no nooooo!!! IIIIIIIV and vkaryl – I wasn’t referring to either of you. It was truly a very new member, someone who’d been here less than a week. I know both of your names around here, and would never say something like that unless it was to you directly.

I’m sure you’ve seen ME and the way I’m not always “kind” in my replies to people who tick me off. I’m nothing if I’m not honest. It’s just that I don’t know this person, and I’d hate to discourage them from coming here for help by telling them that they suck at helping. 😉 I’d rather it come from a mod if at all possible.

[prjg]

Ah, OK then, I like helping out because I have some grounding in PHP/MySQL based things like WP. I spent several years goofing off with PostNuke and phpBB, etc, so I’m fairly proficient in getting it all to work, one way or the other.

I still frown at some of the advice that goes on here, like setting .htaccess to world writable, but that’s me.

[Mark (podz)]

IIIIIIIV – you are right about permissions.

The realm of security and permissions is one we deal poorly with. But it’s for a number of reasons:
– many different hosts with their own spin on security
– many plugins that require 777 access for their work
– the core requires that at least one directory be writable and if that means 777, so be it
– and users who genuinely do not understand what number means what nor do they have the inclination to learn because they trust people. That’s us.

I would love to be able to write the 1-2-3 of WordPress security, but add all the other code (galleries, forums) then try and cover all the angles… I don’t want to either give a false sense of security or be the one getting pointed at for writing something wrong. I don’t think I’m alone there 🙂

There are posts which will blandly say “chmod to 777” or similar. Unless they add caveats and warnings, leap all over those posts and pull them apart. It IS an issue we need people to understand just a little bit and we also need to make sure reckless advice is jumped on.

But if you can write something about permissions that you think will hit the right spot (even if just generally), please do – it’s very much needed 🙂

[ladydelaluna]

Okay – so who do we talk to if we have a problem with a certain moderator? *GRR*

Podz, would you be available on IM or something? I’m getting extremely frustrated.