Moderation of topic posted – Plus member

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Why would a topic started by a Plus member be sent to moderation, especially when they aren’t a new member?

I’m asking because as of this writing, about 3:30 pm or so server time, there’s a new topic that has been created by a Plus member that is awaiting moderation. This user is a Plus member, but hasn’t posted anything since a reply in a topic in September of last year.

Is there a time limit after which our replies are automatically moderated due to our perceived inactivity by the forum software?

I’m posting this publicly with the hope of helping folks out in the future who may have these same questions and will be able to come here for an answer rather than add to the volume of mail in an otherwise very busy Manager’s email box.

Key would be knowing the answer to the first question posed above, so that we can all (Plus members and regular members) hopefully avoid having that happen to us in the first place. I say hopefully because there are things that will stop one of our posts that we may not be able to do a lot about, such as our IP address being suddenly flagged as a sp***er for some reason unbeknownst to us.

Thanks for any light that can be shed upon this situation!

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As of the time of this post, the above-referenced topic by a Plus member has been moderated. However, the aforementioned questions still remain.

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bbPress Moderation – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org

If I fully understood software I would retire.  Clearly I haven’t retired.

Because the bbpress moderation also interacts with spam filters there are times that Plus members are held for moderation.  Like you, I see that it tends to trigger if a person hasn’t posted in a while. What that is, I’m not sure.

Also when you post in the forum and use the word “by” it makes the format of the topic freak out. Clearly I don’t understand why that occurs (ergo why I moderated the topic title)

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

2 users thanked author for this post.

jburk07, Bob99

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I wasn’t referring to this topic being moderated, but another one you moderated a few minutes after I posted this topic.

I had no idea about the word “by” when I changed the topic’s title trying to clear it up a bit from what I initially had posted for the title. When I did so (change the title), it didn’t freak out the software, because this topic remained posted not awaiting moderation from what I could see.

Thanks for mentioning the word “by” being in the topic’s title. That’s really weird, so hopefully folks will see that info and try not to include the word in their topic titles.

Also, thanks for the additional info so members here will hopefully see it and not flood your or PK’s or any other Manager’s inbox with “Why was my topic put up for moderation when I’m a Plus member?” type of questions.

 

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Edited the word “by” out of the title.  If you use the word “by” anywhere in the title it makes the size of the top title huge.  I am reaching out to the forum software developer to see if he can fix that.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

Bob99

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I will admit, though, that my initial post looked kinda weird being highlighted in a pale blue color when I submitted it the first time with the word “by” in the title.

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Yup, that’s the side effect of using the word “by”.  Weird, huh?

 

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Why is Bob able to see posts awaiting moderation?

cheers, Paul

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Due to a bug in the forum software.  If you click on recent replies, it will make pending posts show up sometimes – not always – and not consistently so the developer can figure out the fix.

I’ve hired them to look at it several times and they can’t repro it on the testing site consistently to get to a root cause.  Bottom line, sometimes you have to live with bugs.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

Paul T

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[b]

Bob99 wrote:

This user is a Plus member, but hasn’t posted anything since a reply in a topic in September of last year.

Is there a time limit after which our replies are automatically moderated due to our perceived inactivity by the forum software?

Yes. Six months.

(Only the first post after a longer lapse gets automatically moderated.)

• This reply was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by b. Reason: Clarified moderation of *initial* post after 6+ months

2 users thanked author for this post.

Bob99, jburk07

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Thanks for the specific time “allowed” before we have to get mediated on our next post.

I thought that was the case, though, that only the first post after an extended “absence” would need to be moderated, just like our very first post after signing up for membership.

That is the exact type of answer I was looking for to the second question I posed in my initial post above that started this topic.

Now, what info can be provided to answer the first question, about just why (besides not logging in for over 6 months) a member’s post or a Plus member’s post might wind up having to be moderated?

I’m not trying to be snarky or disrespectful, I’m just trying to get this info out in the open so if someone has one of their posts unexpectedly sent to be moderated, they can come here to get an idea of just why it might have happened. This info can also serve to inform folks about how to avoid having a post sent to be moderated, which will (I hope) reduce the workload somewhat for the Managers behind the scenes.

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If you use certain words (profanity, vulgarity, etc) OR you violate the Firewall rules, OR your IP address is registered as spammer OR other things of this nature, it can trigger Moderation whether you are Registered, Plus, or not.

It is protection for the site since spammers and other threat sources use these methods.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Bob99, Myst, SueW

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@PKCano –

Thanks for the useful info! That’s exactly what I was looking for when I posed the first question in my initial post above.

Your answer right above this post, coupled with @b ‘s answer further above in post 2451142, now complete the info I was looking for in order to help those who will invariably have the same question(s) in the future, or who may have had them more recently in the past.

With that, I now consider this subject matter settled or resolved, but I don’t see a drop-down box to indicate that status above, so I’m doing it this way via an individual post.

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Bob99: “I now consider this subject matter settled or resolved, but I don’t see a drop-down box to indicate that status above”

There used to be a button somewhere for that until recently. I wonder if some of the recent software changes may not have removed it, unintended the person making the changes.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I have seen that drop-down menu, but only in the actual support forums where the topic’s starter is usually actually asking for help in the form of a question.

Since this is a forum intended for the posting of “Tips for using the Lounge”, I can see why there is no drop-down box for indicating that a question or problem is resolved.

I posted my questions here with the hope that they would produce information that would be tips for how to avoid having a post or posts by registered members and Plus members being unnecessarily moderated by the Managers. That goal has been accomplished.

Keeping this discussion going by talking about the drop-down box any further would be, IHMO, off topic.

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Had to be removed.  Got an email from wordfence that the resolution plug in was abandoned, had security vulnerabilities.  Finding a replacement or tracking down the plug in author is on my todo list.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

2 users thanked author for this post.

OscarCP, Bob99

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Thanks for wrapping up the end of this topic with a very nice bow.

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I have had comments “sent to moderation” as soon as pressing “Submit” for what turned out to be other reasons equally curious and not necessarily caused by what one puts in the title of a new tread and not just when starting one, but also when making a reply. Such as using a grammatically correct sequence of punctuation characters in the text, or because I had included more than three active URLs in a comment. So the list is longer than “by.” Probably this is a problem that is here to stay for quite a while, as it is caused by bugs in the WordPress software used to run AskWoody and these can be hard to get fixed.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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@OscarCP –

Please read @PKCano ‘s post above, 2451492, for an explanation of why you may have experienced that behavior in earlier posts. Chances are that the post(s) met one of those criteria at the time it was posted, or so the site’s software thought.

…So the list is longer than “by.”…

The issue with the word “by” only applies to having that word in the title of a thread or subject and does not apply to that word being in the body of any individual post. Susan has already explained it here (in this thread just above) and in a post on the main blog page.

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Bob99: I agree with you to the extent your comment has to do with mine, and I also believe I have already made clear all that you mention in my original comment. This was and is something that goes beyond “by” and the title of a new thread and is equally inexplicable at first sight in that it has absolutely nothing to do with profanity, etc. Apparently I didn’t make it clear enough. In which case, you have my apologies.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Thank you for the apology, Oscar, but I wasn’t expecting it (insert thoroughly embarrassed emoji here). I was trying to clarify your point in my reply to you for those who may have misunderstood your post or its intent at pointing out that the issue with the word “by” in the title of a subject is but one of the myriad of symptoms of bugs that sometimes aren’t experienced until a piece of software or a software suite is put into full service. If anything, I may owe you an apology.

Although there is a test site set up for the Managers and/or developers to test things out on, not all of them show up on the test site, but instead show up here on the full production site. Case in point… sometimes we can see initial posts for topics that are sent to moderation by the forum software. We (the normal, every day, users) should NOT be able to see topics pending moderation, but we occasionally do see them. Based upon the brief exchange between Susan and Paul T above, this is a known bug that the developers can’t reproduce on the test site setup. See posts 2451122 and 2451287.

I hope this helps!

1 user thanked author for this post.

OscarCP

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Bob99 wrote:

With that, I now consider this subject matter settled or resolved, but I don’t see a drop-down box to indicate that status above, so I’m doing it this way via an individual post.

That box is now in operation for this thread, so status is being changed to “Resolved”, two years after I originally got the answers I was looking for from @b and @PKCano .

@sb , thanks for putting the status plug in on your to do list.

1 user thanked author for this post.

satrow

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