# Public moderation logs

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/public-moderation-logs/20035>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [September 13, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/public-moderation-logs/20035 "2014-09-13T18:11:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![riking](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/riking/32/170938_2.png) [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/public-moderation-logs/20035/1 "2014-09-13T18:11:13Z")

</div>

I am now an active moderator at the [Sponge(Powered?) Forums](http://forums.spongepowered.org/), and I’ve noticed a missing feature in Discourse: public moderation logs.

There have been issues in the past in related communities with forum moderator transparency, so I think a public log of deletions would serve to increase trust in the forum staff by the community.

Design example: Wikipedia  
[Deletion log - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Log/delete)

Design example: 4chan ban logs  
**(NSFW)** hxxp://www.4chan.org/bans

A few notable qualities:

- There is a coherent reason displayed
- The moderator performing the action is visible (Wikipedia)
- All deletions are logged
- The deleted post is sometimes visible to the public

* * *

Here’s what I think I would want to see in a Discourse deletion log:

- Post number, topic number
- Owner of deleted post, with fallback to “_(deleted user)_”
- Details of any flags on the post at deletion time, as well as if the post was marked for self-deletion _(even if a moderator deleted it immediately via restore→delete)_
- Moderator who deleted the post, with special display for self-deleted posts cleaned up by the system
- Raw (non-cooked, no clickable links) content of the post

Additionally, admins / moderators should be able to censor certain columns here, and there should be a quick way to hide the raw content immediately after clicking the delete button. [(Quick paint mock)](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/a/4/a49147c0c3ffe9a1da5dbff95d3b56fe6e85ab0d.png)

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/public-moderation-logs/20035)._