Moderator Training...

[Dadu2004]

OK guys, I'm gonna give you some common tasks for you to try and remedy. First lesson, deleting a post of a user. You can use this for someone accidentally posting double, spam/porn, advertising, whatever.

You'll notice in the upper right corner of every post is a checkbox. Put a check in that box and down at the bottom of the thread, select "Delete Post" in the drop down box. Always select "soft delete" instead of "hard delete" and leave a reason.

You'll have practice posts below this post that I want you to delete.

 

[Dadu2004]

Xero, Delete Me

 

[Dadu2004]

IADad, DELETE ME

 

[Dadu2004]

Lesson 2: Moving posts

Same process as deleting a post, but select "Move Post" and select where to go with that post. I am setting up a new thread in Mod Talk called "Move Post Training" where I want you to move the posts below.

Ready, go....

 

[Dadu2004]

Guys, I'm dumb. Basically, I explained merge posts, not move posts

Move the posts above to another forum....I guess Mod Talk would do. This would be used if someone posted a thread in the wrong section. I.E. A thread about a teen issue in General Chat.

 

[Dadu2004]

Nicely done guys...

Next, those posts you just moved created a new thread in Mod Talk as expected. However, we see that each has "RE:" in the title. To fix this issue, open the thread, click on "Thread Tools" at the top, then "Edit Thread" and remove the "RE" and save your changes.

 

[Dadu2004]

OK, now that the threads are renamed, go ahead and delete the threads with a hard delete. Normally, we don't hard delete, but we'll make an exception since we're in training.

I'm done for now b/c i have to get home. Later this evening, I will post on VBulletin uses and how to ban users.

See ya!

 

[IADad]

Great - thanks!!

 

[Xero]

Thanks Dadu have a good day, hey when you get back let me know what we would do if a spammer posted their own thread like with porn or something that we couldn't leave up. Do we hard delete those? Cause we couldn't have a blank thread hanging around, right?

 

[Dadu2004]

You can still soft delete those as they won't show on the actual forum. Soft deleting allows all of the mods to see what has happened. If you hard delete, communication lines become distorted. Also, when someone reports a post and you take care of it, make sure you make a note in the reported posts section that you took care of the problem.

 

[Xero]

Okay, so I have a new situation for when you get on in the morning. As far as old threads go, and people bumping them. I know what to SAY, but how do I know when to actually close a thread? There are a couple I have seen tonight that I thought about closing, but I wanted to get a little more insight on that before going ahead with it. Except this one from last year... lol I might close that one before you get back. haha but anyway yeah, lets talk about that.

 

[Dadu2004]

Actually, we very RARELY close a thread. In fact, I've never closed one and the only one I know of that Fallon has closed was the circumcision one. I'm not quite sure the reason why we haven't closed them....maybe Fallon can provide insight on that one.

 

[Dadu2004]

OK, so VBulletin...

VBulletin is the actual forum software that powers the forum. It is all of the user accounts where you can ban users, search for user, alter signatures, search for IP's, etc. The biggest thing that you're going to do in here is ban users. You access this section using the "Mod" link at the bottom of every page. I usually right click the link and either "Open in New Tab" or "Open in New Window" so I can see both VBulletin and the Forum at the same time.

To ban a user, select "Ban User" on the left, enter the username, change the time to "Permanent - Never Lift Ban" and enter a reason.

WARNING! - Do not use the thread tools in VBulletin! (Move or Prune). These are very powerful tools that only the admins use. Used incorrectly, they will bring down the forum. So, for now, just use the tools under "Users".

 

[fallon]

I actually do usually close the old threads when they're posted in or if they're getting hit with a lot of spam

 

[Dadu2004]

I actually do usually close the old threads when they're posted in or if they're getting hit with a lot of spam

Well there ya go

 

[fallon]

deleting thread (unless it's spam or porn) is a big no-no but if a thread is long dead and someone posts in it feel free to close the thread. That way it's still searchable but newbies can no longer bring it back from the grave...lol

 

[IADad]

cool, I went out and logged into vBulliten and went to the ban user utility so that all makes sense...thanks

 

[Xero]

Awesome, that makes sense, thanks for the explanations guys.

 

[fallon]

no need to check in to ban spammers or obvious trolls either