Security - negative rights (how?)

[bloomexperiment (Tracey)]

@Peter_Backgren

Creating a new pseudo-everyone with everyone but misbehaving users would be massive work (maybe not with a script but still).

Like I said, thinking out loud trying to solve the problem… hoping I would get an ahaa moment really .

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The actual problem is one user writing his posts into whatever area he is currently reading (often the newest post of anything). Not a biggie except the posts are so incoherent they are bound to disturb other users. Problem is, he is absolutely needed in one area (100%, money area) but I’d be happy to close him out into seeing mode everywhere else.

I think the closest that you could get to this with Discourse is to silence the user, which would let him read/see but not post:

https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-moderation-guide/63116#silence-the-user-26

@jomaxro

If the behavior continues, be sure to follow through with the listed consequences. You may choose to…

Silence the user

Silenced users are prevented from creating new topics, posts, flags, or PMs on the site. They are still able to complete other actions, such as “liking” posts, reading topics, replying to PMs, etc. Additionally, they can communicate with moderators via PM, so you can continue to communicate with them to try and address the behavior.

It’s not granular enough to allow him to post in certain categories only.

But as the moderator guide mentions, an option is also to try and reach out to the user first, before resorting to the silence/ban features:

https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-moderation-guide/63116#the-difficult-user-22

@jomaxro

Don’t make assumptions

First, try to avoid assuming that the user has a negative intent. They may simply be ignorant of the rules, may not speak your forums language well, may be young, or have another reason for the way they act.

Reach out directly

Try to contact the user privately via PM to let them know what is wrong with their behavior. Remember to talk about the negative behaviors - don’t attack the user themselves. When possible, link to existing rules, guidelines, FAQs, or similar.

In most cases, this contact will be enough. However, if it is not…