Add Moderation sistem to my forums?

[esmeralda]

Hi, i'm creating some forums using nabble, they will be like 20 foruns conect to one another...  in order to use in the my website...embebled... I'll need the sistem of moderation, to be able to moderate posts before they go to the forum. By now our organization is using the mailing list of yahoo, and we want to migrate do nabble. Is it possible?

Can I order here this update? If so, I'll keep on with the migration...

Please, respond me as soon as possible...
and I need to know how long will it take to add this updates...

thanks
Esmeralda

[GregChapman]

Hi Esmeralda

esmeralda wrote

Hi, i'm creating some forums using nabble, they will be like 20 foruns conect to one another...  in order to use in the my website...embebled... I'll need the sistem of moderation, to be able to moderate posts before they go to the forum. By now our organization is using the mailing list of yahoo, and we want to migrate do nabble. Is it possible?

Nabble is NOT a direct replacement for YahooGroups! and it is unlikely that mail list style moderation will ever be added. I explain below...

YahooGroups is a mail list service with an associated archive of past posts on the web, where you may also post to the mail list.

Nabble provides forum software, with the added benefit of being able to receive all posts via email and to be able to reply via email to those posts.

It is essential to understand the implications of this fundamental difference and the way it affects the approach required to control the content posted by users.

On a mail list the owner can opt to intercept each post made and determine whether it should be distributed to subscribers. However, as a forum is web-based and hence "live". There is no mechanism available to intercept a post as it is being made. A forum administrator can only ever deal with a post AFTER it has appeared.

The method of control of content on a forum is to create multiple areas and only grant viewing and posting rights to users as you begin to trust them.

Whereas a mail list owner will learn to trust a particular subscriber and remove moderation from them allowing anything posted by them to pass direct to subscribers, on a forum an administrator will learn to trust a user and grant them access to more and more areas. However, at no point can they control an individual post before it is made.

Always bear in mind that anyone can subscribe to a mail list. They have to be able to subscribe in order to see the content and know that that want to be a part of it and once subscribed they have posting rights. This is the reason a mail list owner needs to be able to inspect and if necessary stop posts from new subscribers.

However, as a forum owner, you can allow people to see content without allowing them to post. Any new user should be fully aware of acceptable content before beginning to post. Most mail list owners changing to a forum find that once they have come to terms with the radically different approach there is no need for the ability to stop individual posts before they are published to all users and the concern about lack of moderation facilities disappears.

[esmeralda]

so its not possible to add this extra?

i've read that it would possible if I showed my true need about this...

WHat can I do?

Does it exist another forum with this option?

thanks

[GregChapman]

As I explained, there is a fundamental difference between a forum and a mail list.

A mail list works on the basis that it is sent somewhere before it is published, so there is an opportunity to intercept the message and stop its publication. Posting something on a web site is done in real time with no opportunity to intercept the post before publication.

To introduce a moderation process when the most basic assumption built into the software denies the possibility of intercepting a post would make it very difficult to add.  As far as I know, there is no forum software package that has mail list style moderation built-in. It is a contradiction in terms.

Paying for Premium Support, is a route you could take to get special programming done to be added to your forum, but it would be wise to wait for a response from the Nabble Team to see if this is a project they would be prepared to take on, as I would see this as a very major time consuming piece of work that couldn't be justified for just one forum. The one point of hope for you is that a great deal of work is being done for Premium Support user "Coleen_Astalos" who has just migrated her YahooGroup to Nabble. It might be worth reading through all the topics in Premium Support to get an idea of the volume of work such migration involves. It is also possible, given all the troubles Yahoo is having at the moment, that Nabble will see a business opportunity in trying to cater better for those migrating from Yahoo to Nabble, so it could be part of a strategic business policy to add some of Yahoo's features to their standard product - but do not expect a quick fix.

Finally, you ask what can you do. To do what you want requires a major work-around, that allows people to post in one forum area, where it remains invisible to your ordinary users, and where that the post can be checked by moderators and if approved moved to another area where it becomes visible to the ordinary users of your forum. Then you must disallow posting in the visible area and have those users you wish to moderate post any replies or new topics to the invisible area. The implications of this are that posting to the invisible area can only be done via email and not via the web site and complications may arise in the proper threading of replies as the posts are moved to the visible area. There are quite possibly other implications that haven't yet occurred to me that will create further hurdles to overcome.

Now, perhaps, you see why I say duplicating the facilities of a mail list within forum software is difficult, if not impossible, and why you need to contemplate adopting a completely different approach to controlling posting when considering a forum to replace a mail list.