Report Message Option

[EVO_VV]

We have recently had a few messages that were inappropriate for the board.
These messages were deleted by the staff later but would it be possible to have in mChat a similar 'Report this Post' button as is in the main forum ?
This would then allow members to 'Report' a message which would then bring the issue to the attention of the staff much quicker.

[kasimi]

Unfortunately the existing report feature is limited to PMs and posts. I like the idea of reporting messages though. Using the PM icon next to the message and sending it to a staff member is not ideal, so the question is how staff could be made aware of those messages. I'm open to suggestions.

[EVO_VV]

Not sure if this is possible or not but having a quick look at the Report code it seems that it might be possible to use some of the existing functions for alerting the Staff by creating a few new files in Mchat based on the current core ones.

The files I am referring to are :-
phpbb/report/controller/report.php - Needs rewriting to only deal with Mchat not PM or Post
phpbb/report/exception/*.php - usable as is ??
phpbb/report/handler_factory.php - minor edit for report_handler_mchat.php
phpbb/report/report_handler_interface.php - usable as is ??
phpbb/report/report_handler_pm.php (or _post) - edit for mchat and name it report_handler_mchat.php
phpbb/report/report_handler.php - edit for mchat

Might also need a yml for the route.

Or is it much more complex than that.

[kasimi]

What's certain is that it can't be integrated with phpBB's report handling. There are very few events to hook into. The phpbb_reports table is only meant for posts and PMs. Of course all the code could be copied and a new table could be created and so on, but that's like starting from scratch which is a huge project. I haven't heard enough interest to implementing this.

However, I might consider writing an add-on extension if there are suggestions for ways to bring a message to all staff members' attention which is lightweight and easy to implement. phpBB's post & PM report feature is far from that.

[Voice4Vision]

An alternative solution might be to make the chat unavailable without a moderator or site staff member. Censorship of words can also be effective. As for a report feature, it honestly does no good in a live chat when in fact it remains visible for all to see until handled by a someone with permissions. With that said, it is rare you'll see a site that has such a quick call to action when regarding improper content. The best overall solution would be to hide all content -chat, posts, and PM's when reported until approval or disapproval.

A Life guard can't save a drowning victim unless he or she is at the pool.

[EVO_VV]

It would be exactly the same for the chat as it is for PMs and Posts, the content remains visible until dealt with.

You only get alerted when you either refresh the page or go to a new one, it is not instant.
Although it might be possible to associate it with the existing refresh in the Chat which would make it potentially much quicker than the PMs and Posts reports.

To ascertain if a Mod or Admin is actually looking at the Chat is impossible.

The object is to inform the author that what they have written is unacceptable and if repeated will have consequences.
Or if it was that bad an instant ban.

[kasimi]

An alternative solution might be to make the chat unavailable without a moderator or site staff member.

So reporting a user will block that user's access to the chat until staff gets a chance to review what was said? This might fix the initial problem but it creates a new one. How do you prevent users from randomly blocking others just because they don't like what was said? You blocked me, so I'll block you too! Sounds like a troll magnet.

Although it might be possible to associate it with the existing refresh in the Chat which would make it potentially much quicker than the PMs and Posts reports.

This is already done with live updates of edited and deleted messages. If this feature is enabled in the Global Settings, a user doesn't need to refresh the page to see another user's edit or deleted message. So, the foundation was added to mChat with exactly this in mind: allow other extension to hook into it and change things live, without a page refresh.

The question remains, how should a reported message be brought to staff's attention, without staff having to scroll through all of them.

A Life guard can't save a drowning victim unless he or she is at the pool.

[EVO_VV]

Yep the alerting of the staff to the offending message is the big problem.

Having looked more into the way phpBB does the reporting I can now see why it is impossible to be able to use it.

Without either phpBB adding an 'Other' to the PM & Post options for the reporting or replicating a whole lot of the reporting code in any extension that wants to be able to report something the possibilities are very limited.

As stated earlier the simplest option would be a PM sent to the Mods/Admins and rely upon the existing notifications system to alert the staff.
But that would need some configuration available so that the staff who need to be informed get the PM which would be an added complication.

As it only happens very infrequently on my board and we do have sufficient people in different time zones monitoring the board this one will go to the bottom of my wish list.