Improvements for posts awaiting approval

Feature
1

When using the “approve unless TLx” setting, I find that the /queued-posts and the approval process in general are a little basic. I would like to propose a few improvements:

  1. allow moderators to PM the poster from the /queued-posts screen
  2. when the post is a new topic, allow moderators/admins/poster to see the post in its own draft page and make edits (currently posters can’t edit what they have submitted)
  3. when the post is a new topic, allow staff to respond to the post or leave staff notes, visible by other staff and the poster (these could be regular posts, that can then be deleted all at once, ideally, should the post get approved)
  4. create a drafts page for the poster

This would be a very nice workflow for queued posts, IMO.

5 Likes
2

I had some time this week to think further about the Queued Posts screen, and I worked on some mockups in Sketch. Here it goes:

###Queued Posts list

QueuedList.png1024×600 41.9 KB

This looks like a regular list of topics, as elsewhere in Discourse. Clicking on each topic would open the topic screen, where the moderation would happen.

On the Actions column, I am proposing a new feature: to be able to assign a specific topic to an admin/moderator. This would allow admins to triage incoming posts as well as avoid an issue I have been running into with the current queued posts, where admins do not know if another admin is working on a particular topic (or communicating with the poster).

###Moderate queued posts in topic screen

I propose to have the queued posts be moderated in their context, whether it’s a new topic (first post) or a reply to an existing topic.

Here is what it would look like as a first post:

queuedfirstpost.png1024×600 33.5 KB

and here is it what it could look like as a reply:

queuedresponse.png1024×1350 245 KB

Having the moderation happen in context is a little slower when moderating in bulk (more clicks required), but IMO it’s better. For clarity, a list of the advantages:

  • It’s easier to see, whether a reply is appropriate or not.
  • For new topics, admin can see how the post would look exactly.
  • editing can now use the composer
  • PM’ing the poster would be as convenient as usual (point 1 in my initial list)
  • staff notes (point 3) would be covered by the Staff Notes plugin.

(Happy to discuss this further and/or contribute to making this happen.)

6 Likes
3

I like the idea of some way to recognize if a problem is being handled.

I’m thinking maybe the current Tags or Staff Notes plugins might be useful.

A potential problem with a Staff-only Tag being the member getting an edit notification.

4

There’s zero chance we’re implementing “assign work to user X” at this time.