Can category moderators be prevented from reviewing flags on their own posts?

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1

I’m trying to understand the intended behaviour and available flexibility around category moderators and the review queue.

From previous Meta posts, my understanding is that category moderators can review flags in categories where they have category-moderator permissions, but they do not see flags outside their category. I also understand “appropriate for them” to mean scoped to their category permissions.

My question is about conflict-of-interest cases:

If a category moderator’s own post is flagged inside a category they moderate, will that reviewable normally be visible/actionable to them?

If so, is there any built-in setting, permission model, plugin, or recommended workflow to prevent or discourage self-review, for example:

  • hiding reviewables where the category moderator is the author of the flagged post;
  • allowing category moderators to review flags generally, but not flags on their own posts;
  • routing those cases to admins/full moderators only;
  • disabling flag review for category moderators while keeping other category moderation powers?

I realise a local policy can say “do not review flags on your own posts”, but I’m interested in whether Discourse has technical flexibility here, or whether this would need a plugin/customisation.

Thanks.

2

As a possible workaround, would using Trust Level 4 / Leader be a better fit than category moderator in this situation?

My concern is specifically about avoiding a conflict-of-interest case where a category moderator’s own post is flagged inside a category they moderate. From what I understand, category moderators can review flags in their category, whereas TL4 users have some elevated community powers but cannot handle flags.

So perhaps TL4 would let a trusted user help with topic organisation/community tidying without giving them access to review/action flags involving their own posts.

Is that the intended distinction between TL4 and category moderator, or are there any caveats I should be aware of?

3

I don’t think there is currently a plugin preventing (category) mods from handling flags on their posts.

I wonder why you don’t trust the people you chose as moderators not to handle flags on their posts if that’s part of the moderation policy. In that case, why do you think they wouldn’t delete a post they disagree with or even delete the author?

A theme component hiding flags in the review queue has also been discussed here:

4

Thanks, that makes sense.

It is not so much that I distrust a specific person I have chosen as a moderator. I am trying to choose the least-powerful role that matches the job I actually want them to do.

Thinking about it more, I think there are a few separate needs here which should not be mixed together:

  1. general topic organisation / community tidying;
  2. handling flags in a specific category;
  3. ordinary deletion of a user’s own posts;
  4. more sensitive deletion/revision-history handling.

For example, if the main need is topic organisation/community tidying, then TL4 may be more appropriate than category moderator because it avoids giving access to the flag review queue at all. If I actually need someone to review flags in a category, then category moderator is the relevant role, with a clear local policy that they should not handle reviewables involving their own posts.

My remaining question is whether a category moderator can see which user raised a flag against them when their own post is flagged.

I also take the point that a theme component should not be relied on as a security boundary, because it would mainly hide UI rather than change the underlying permission model.

So I think my practical options are:

  1. use TL4/Leader where I want trusted community help but not flag handling;
  2. use category moderator only where I genuinely want that person reviewing flags;
  3. keep ordinary own-post deletion separate from moderation permissions;
  4. keep permanent deletion/revision-history removal as an admin/full-moderation matter rather than something solved by category moderation;
  5. keep a written policy that moderators should defer flags involving their own posts.

That answers my question unless there is a stronger permission-level way to exclude self-authored flagged posts from a category moderator’s review queue, or unless the flagger identity is already hidden from the post author in that self-flag scenario.

5

As @Moin has mentioned. It has been discussed about creating a Customization > Theme component to help ensure Moderator integrity by adding a safety rail to help prevent temptation

I strongly disagree with the weak premise of simply trusting your mods. Removing a temptation is best even with highly trusted mod team.

I am currently working in seeing if I can get this working

Tl4 unless a category mod cannot manage flags but can edit and delete posts regardless of category.

I will see if can work in this again and see if can get it working as intended

Imho by design Discourse should have a setting for this as a mid really shouldn’t manage flags against them or manage/validate flags they issue; except in specific situations like threats.

6

Even the most trusted can be tempted. Mod powers and controls should have more finer controls.

There is also a Customization > Theme component called report to group that can be handy as well that does not use the flagging system that can be helpful as another path.

This is the huge benefit with Discourse being extendible through Customization > Plugin & Customization > Theme component is that with some programming knowledge and/or a budget it is possible to achieve a desired effect.

A Customization > Plugin that is great to extend moderator and category moderator capabilities is