Add record of timestamp and IP address to each comment moderation flag, …

This plugin, with my proposed enhancement, may be close to what I need. If not, I could attempt to write it (with my very limited experience in WordPress and PHP/Mysql programming). What I need is:

(My apologies if the following appears negative. In spite of this, I think most people who read and/or post comments to WordPress sites would greatly appreciate this.) Beside each comment add a simple check box which a visitor adds if he/she thinks that the comment DOES NOT ADD TO THE DISCUSSSION. Each time the check box is clicked, a record consisting of:

1. A timestamp (equivalent to the output from “date +%s”);
2. The IP address from where the input originated.

After the input has been input, store in a (MySQL?) database table, a row consisting of:

<comment identifier>,<IP Address>,<timestamp>

This table can, for each comment, keep a count of visitors who DO NOT BELIEVE A COMMENT ADDS TO THE DISCUSSION and for each such input, also the time at which the comment was made, and from which (internet visible) host the input was made. (Of course, I realise that, a large number of user’s computers are mapped to a single IP address because of the shortage of IPV4 addresses, but I don’t think that this should be a significant problem.) Normally, if bots are not being used, or if no one visitor is repeatedly clicking the “DOES NOT ADD TO THE DISCUSSSION” checkbox of a single comment, there will be a fairly even random statistical distribution of timestamps for each given IP addresses.

Where there is an excessive number of clicks within a small time span from a given IP address, clicks from that IP address could be devalued, perhaps to one tenth, one sixteenth, one thirty-secondth or less than the values of clicks from elsewhere.

As the count of “DOES NOT ADD TO THE DISCUSSSION” clicks for a given comment in relation to a smaller count of clicks or none for other comments, the comment displayed on that discussion page could be altered as follows:

1. The full comment placed elsewhere;

2. A smaller introductory excerpt of the comment be placed, on the discssion page, in place of the full comment.

3. Ad a link back to to the full comment from the excerpt.

This would allow most users to more easily see the comments which have implicitly been judged, by other vistors, to ADD TO THE DISCUSSION, whilst still allowing any visitor who finds his interest is still aroused by the remaining except, to follow the link to the full comment.

After a comment is ‘demoted’, visitors could still click the “DOES NOT ADD TO THE DISCUSSSION” eventually causing the displayed excerpt to be smaller or its font size reduced. So an implicit hierarchy, of how relevant the comments are, could be created without the need for outright censorship (except, of course, for posts which are offensivve, or which break the law).

In the longer term, visitors may find that they don’t even need to click the “DOES NOT ADD TO THE DISCUSSSION” buttom as more and more visitors learn to make posts which are relevant and more succinct and which do not repeat what has already been written previously.