How to moderate the posts of new users only

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  • How to moderate the posts of new users only

    To help combat spam, many users opt to have new user’s posts moderated until they’ve made a specific number of posts. This allows the Admin/Moderator team to keep potentially malicious posts out of the public eye until a user has effectively passed a ‘probationary period’ as a member of the site.

    In order to do this, you will need to create a custom usergroup and a promotion.

    Creating a Custom Usergroup
    First, you need to setup the usergroup for your non-Moderated users and adjust the permissions for this usergroup accordingly.
    1. In the vBulletin Admin Control Panel go to the **Usergroups** section and click on Add New Usergroup.
    2. On the next screen, select "Registered users from the dropdown of the first field labeled "Create Usergroup Based off of Usergroup".
    3. Click the to the right of this field.
    4. Wait for the page to reload.
    5. Change the usergroup Title to "Approved Users".
    6. Add a description if you wish.
    7. Save at the bottom.



    Moderate Newly Registered Users.
    As all new users go into the Registered Users usergroup by default, you need to adjust the permissions for this group to ensure these have all posts and threads moderated.
    1. In the Usergroup section of the AdminCP Navigation, choose "Channel Permissions".
    2. Find the Home channel in the list.
    3. Click the Edit Link for Registered Users under Home.
    4. Find the following permissions and set them to No.
      • Skip Moderation for Topics
      • Skip Moderation for Replies
      • Skip Moderation for Posts/Topics With Attachments
    5. Save this usergroup at the bottom of the page.

    Creating the Promotion
    1. In the Usergroup Section of the AdminCP Navigation, choose "Promotions"
    2. Click

    For this example, you should use the following values:
    • Usergroup: *Registered Users*
    • Number of Posts to Moderate: *10*
    • Promotion Strategy: *Posts*
    • Promotion Type: *Primary Usergroup*
    • Move User to Usergroup: *Approved Members*

    Explanation

    - Usergroup
    This is the usergroup that the users are currently a member of, i.e. Registered Users. The Promotion will only apply to these users.

    - Posts
    These are the number of posts that a user should have made before they can be promoted, in this case 10.

    - Promotion Strategy
    As this example will have a user promoted after 10 posts have been made, this should be set to ‘Posts’

    - Promotion Type
    Set this option to ‘Primary Usergroup’. When the Promotions Scheduled Task runs, the user will then have their Primary Usergroup changed.

    - Move User to Usergroup
    This should be set to the new (non-Moderated) usergroup that was setup earlier, i.e. ‘Approved Members’

    Note that the ‘Reputation Level’ and ‘Days Registered’ values although completed will have no effect on this Promotion as the Strategy has been set to ‘Posts’. Once the above have been set, click the button.

    Now complete, this Promotion will move active users from the ‘Registered Users’ usergroup to the ‘Approved Members’ usergroup once they have made 10 approved posts in your forum.

    Promoting Users

    Warning: Please note that Cloud customers do not have access to Schedule Tasks. If you need one run, you can send in a support ticket.


    Promotions normally happen every hour. This is done automatically as long as there is traffic to your site. Since you have just set up the promotions, you will probably want to promote all eligible users as soon as possible. To do this, you would have to run the scheduled task. This can be done in the AdminCP under Scheduled Tasks.
    1. Click on the Scheduled Task Manager
    2. Find 'User Promotions' in the list.
    3. Click the in the right column for that task.
    Last edited by Wayne Luke; Fri 6 Mar '20, 9:59am.
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    About the Author

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    Wayne Luke A curious juxtaposition of nature, technology and sustainability. Find out more about Wayne Luke

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