Usage Questions and Possible Upgrades

Additional note:
This is about replies that you consider valid, but the parent was thrashed for good reasons. An idea might be to chnage the parent to the grand-parent.
Do you get what I mean? Like:

First the situation:
comment 1.
– reply that gets thrashed.
— reply that is a keeper.

Current effect:
comment 1 (no replies).

Preferred effect:
comment 1
– reply that is a keeper.

So it might be that there could be 3 possible action, while there is only 1 now:
– allow and moderate
– thrash, including sub-replies
– thrash, re-parent the sub-replies.

I am just thinking here. Do you have an opinion?

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by Marcel Pol.

To avoid any confusion, there are 4 filters in use that seem relevant for your situation:

function my_zeno_report_comments_already_moderated_note( $text ) {
return 'New Text already moderated note';
}
add_filter( 'zeno_report_comments_already_moderated_note', 'my_zeno_report_comments_already_moderated_note' );

function my_zeno_report_comments_already_moderated_message( $text ) {
return 'New Text already moderated message';
}
add_filter( 'zeno_report_comments_already_moderated_message', 'my_zeno_report_comments_already_moderated_message' );

function my_zeno_report_comments_already_flagged_note( $text ) {
return 'New Text already flagged note';
}
add_filter( 'zeno_report_comments_already_flagged_note', 'my_zeno_report_comments_already_flagged_note' );

function my_zeno_report_comments_already_flagged_message( $text ) {
return 'New Text already flagged message';
}
add_filter( 'zeno_report_comments_already_flagged_message', 'my_zeno_report_comments_already_flagged_message' );

The ‘already_moderated’ usage is added in the development version in git.
The notes are for displaying in the comment template html. The messages are return messages from ajax.

Thanks for your replies! You raise some good points that I hadn’t considered. I’ll try to address each of your replies below.

Reply 1:
I figured comment count was part of WP, but wasn’t sure, thanks for clarifying. I wouldn’t suggest setting the reply to a moderated comment as moderated too. This could possibly auto moderate a hateful comment.

Reply 2:
Step 6 is still showing the “already_flagged_note”. I’m okay with is, but you mentioned that it should show “already_moderated”. I’m not sure which “already_moderated” you’re referencing here?

I didn’t have either of the “already_moderated” code blocks which was part of my problem for steps 8 and 10. For both these steps I’m still seeing the “Report” link, but when I click the link, I receive the “already_moderated_message” now that I’ve added that code block.

This does raise one question, what is the “already_moderated_note” code block used for? Is this what should have appeared in step 6?

Reply 3:
This is now part of what I said about reply 2. You said you weren’t logged in as the 3 users, I was during my testing.

Reply 4:
I understand your thought process and I’ll attempt to think through it with you.

Is there a way for an admin to see a comment thread? I don’t see a way currently, even on the post’s page. Once someone reports a comment, that comment and its child comments are only viewable to the commenter of the reported comment. Even an admin can’t see these on the post’s page. I bring this up because if the reported comment and its child comments are separated by days, months, or years it would be difficult for an admin to determine if they should also allow the child comments. So, unless you know of a way for an admin to see the child comments easily, your current method might be the best method that doesn’t cause a lot of work for the moderator. This method does create abandoned records in the database. This again raises the issue of admins not being able to see the child comments.

Trashing both the reported comment and its child comments would help with the issue of admins not being able to easily see the child comments. This method also has the benefit of keeping the database clean of abandoned records. However, I could see some admins not wanting to trash the child comments that they can’t also review. Maybe if there was a way to see the child comments this would be a good solution.

Trashing the reported comment and re-parenting the child comments might be the safest way if you change it. However, can you program this, taking into account an admin might restore the reported comment? Restoring it would mean that the original structure would need to be restored too.

I hope my crazed thoughts help you. ?? Again, thanks for all your help!

Thank you for your thoughtful replies ??

https://codeberg.org/cyclotouriste/zeno-report-comments

Here is the recent fix that did a check if it was already moderated. I haven’t released a new version, I suspect some more changes are desired.
With this change in, it should show the already_moderated_note in the comment template.

Hmm, logged in versus logged out. With and without cookies ??
It’s not always easy to keep track of different user scenario’s.
When flagging, the comment_id is saved in a cookie. This will be stored until cookies are cleared.
The IP adress and comment_id are also stored in a transient in the database. A transient is only saved for 24 hours.
Without a cookie in the browser and without a transient, the user can flag a comment again. That is where the ajax messages come in.
The notes are displayed in the html template when viewing the list of comments.
I don’t think being logged in as a user makes a difference. It is only stored in the cookie and transients.

About child comments. What could happen is an extra column on the comment dashboard. If a comment was flagged and marked, that column would show if there are child comments. That way you can check them as well.
A list of child comments could also be added to the notification emails.

You are correct that being non-destructive is important.
Maybe when a parent comment has been flagged, there could be an option to “re-parent” a comment, when it is a valid comment. This could be in a postbox on the single comment screen on the dashboard.
Making this reversible would mean more complexity ?? It would need to be stored in a meta-key I suppose. I don’t know how far the rabbithole goes ??

If adding a column with a flag for child comments is possible that sounds great. I think adding that to every comment with child comments, flagged or not, would be a great feature. A way for moderators to easily see which comments create conversations. This could not only help moderate the haters but give insight into a post’s popular comments that an author could address.

You’re right about the rabbit hole being very deep when it comes to reparenting comments. You should probably leave it as is. If I really need to reparent a comment I can probably manually edit the database table myself.

You’ve already done a lot, so if this is too much, I completely understand. Thanks for all you’ve done!

Note to Readers: For anyone reading this later. Don’t manually edit the database unless you know what you’re doing.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 1 week ago by NicCrockett.

Hi Nic,

There is now an extra column with admin links to responses. I hope this works well for you.

I hope this discussion wasn’t too long-winded for you ??
Thank you for the feedback. Have a good week.

Hi Marcel,

It’s a simple and eloquent solution. You’ve done an amazing job. I know this discussion has bounced around a lot and I appreciate your patience and hard work. Thanks again for all your help and best of luck with the future of the plugin!