Jump to content






Photo * * * * * 7 votes

IP.Board 3.1.0 Dev Update: Soft Delete

Posted by Matt, in 3.1.0, Beta 29 January 2010 · 1,863 views


IP.Board already has many moderation tools, including the ability to "approve" and "un-approve" posts and topics to make them hidden from the general community. IP.Board also has a "Trash Can" forum which collects all deleted topics and posts giving you a chance to keep them and manually move them back if you wanted to do so.

Recently, we've had several requests for a "soft delete" option. This would work in a similar manner to the "approve" and "un-approve" system but with an extended permission set. Essentially, when you "soft delete" a topic or post, it vanishes for the general community (by default) but is still visible to moderators and administrators in-line. You can also add a reason why the item was deleted and it records the time stamp. If you have permission, then you can restore the post if desired with a click of a button.

The permissions model works like this:

Per Member Group:
- Can Soft Delete All Topics
- Can Soft Delete All Posts
- Can Soft Delete My Topics
- Can Soft Delete My Posts
- Can See Soft Deleted Items
- Can See Soft Deleted Content
- Can Restore Soft-Deleted Topics
- Can Restore Soft-Deleted Posts

Per Moderator: (Will override member group selection in the forum(s) they moderate)
- Can Soft Delete All Topics
- Can Soft Delete All Posts
- Can See Soft Deleted Items
- Can See Soft Deleted Content
- Can Restore Soft-Deleted Topics
- Can Restore Soft-Deleted Posts

This gives you many options. For example, you could allow your members to "soft delete" their own content allowing you the chance to restore it. Conversely, you may also want your members to see that some items have been deleted, but not see the actual content of what was deleted. The choice is yours.

Here's a few screen shots detailing the feature:

Posted Image
When the delete button is clicked, a new dialogue appears giving you the option to "remove from view" (aka, soft delete) or "Delete Now" which will either remove it from the database, or move it into the Trash Can forum if it is set up.

Posted Image
How the deleted post looks if you have "See Deleted Items" permission. The toggle button is visible for those with "See Soft Deleted Content" permission.

Posted Image
The forum's topic list shows a pink background with a delete icon for topics with "soft deleted" posts. Clicking the delete icon brings up a list of the deleted posts.

Posted Image
Clicking on the delete icon (that appears when you mouseover the cell) brings up a dialogue similar to the post one.

Posted Image
Showing the deleted item in the forum's topic list. Clicking the topic title link will take you to the topic if you have "See Soft Deleted Content" permission.

This feature also works with the multi-moderation allowing you to "soft delete" or "restore" many posts or topics at once.

Please keep in mind that the screenshots shown are based on a pre-beta build of IP.Board 3.1 and will likely receive a little polish before release.





Wolfie
Jan 29 2010 02:20 PM
Is the ability to prevent hard deletes reliant solely on the settings, or does having ACP/global moderator flags give you full control anyway?

Matt
Jan 29 2010 02:26 PM
Moderation control has always had a "delete_post" and "delete_topic" flag.

Wolfie
Jan 29 2010 02:38 PM
Darn.  Oh well.  Was hoping that it could be set so that only certain groups could hard delete, so that everyone else is forced to soft deletions only.

Matt
Jan 29 2010 03:00 PM
You can do that Wolfie.

Hard deletion is only granted to super-moderators (admins) and per-forum-moderator. Normal members cannot. You can allow them to hard delete their own content, but that is up to you.

NickČ
Jan 29 2010 03:02 PM
Glad to see this being implemented! IP.Board 3.1 sounds pretty awesome already.

Tanax
Jan 29 2010 03:25 PM
Wow!! Dang, I made a topic about this yesterday and there was another topic already but that one had already been around since 11th of Jan.

I'm glad you're adding so much flexibility! This is great! Love the way you handle customer feedback and suggestions. You guys really are the best!

Tanax
Jan 29 2010 03:27 PM

Matt, on 29 January 2010 - 07:57 PM, said:

I also neglected to mention that there is also a group and moderator setting "To See Reason". This means you can hide the reason for deletion on a per-group and per-moderator basis giving more flexibility.

Is it also possible for a setting "To See Acting Moderator"? This means that you can hide the moderator who deleted the content.
For instance I might want to hide the moderator who deleted something for regular moderators while super moderators can see that.

Sorry if I'm over-complicating things as someone said before :/
I'm just so excited! :D

Wolfie
Jan 29 2010 03:32 PM

Matt, on 29 January 2010 - 03:00 PM, said:

You can do that Wolfie.

Hard deletion is only granted to super-moderators (admins) and per-forum-moderator. Normal members cannot. You can allow them to hard delete their own content, but that is up to you.
I meant being able to restrict hard deletion to select groups instead of it being automatically granted to acp/global-mods.  So that I could virtually wipe out 'hard deletes' to only a top level admin group.  All others who are given delete permissions could be limited to only soft delete.  That would allow a board to have staff who can get into the ACP but not have the power to delete posts at all (say their job is strictly to manage the skins but not have any moderation authority) and global/super mods could be limited to soft deletions.  Hard deletions are a pain to restore.

Was just a thought, not sure if others would make use of such a setup or not.

Edit:
I'm thinking that there would be the permission list you provided above, along with a Hard-Delete option.

May hard delete topics/posts?
Only applies to Admins and Global moderator groups

Then, on boards with multiple levels of management/moderation/etc, they could limit the groups that have hard delete abilities to a very limited number of people, regardless of how many people may be part of global moderator or ACP access groups.

Still need to see how the soft-delete goes first, but down the road (3.2.x?) might make a nice enhancement.

Pintac
Jan 29 2010 03:37 PM
Nice!

.Ian
Jan 29 2010 04:56 PM
sounds great :)

Kfir
Jan 29 2010 05:19 PM
I hope you can enable/disable "hard" delete per member group.

Charles
Jan 29 2010 06:14 PM

Kfir, on 29 January 2010 - 05:19 PM, said:

I hope you can enable/disable "hard" delete per member group.

I'm pretty sure that's been in IPB for years.

Gabriel Petrelli
Jan 29 2010 06:30 PM
Awesome. :D

It's worth noting that all posts should be soft deleted by default regardless of whether a post is deleted by a member or staff, admins should be able to specify who they would like to be able to hard delete posts in the group settings.

The delete button on each post should soft delete posts by default regardless of group settings, either that or place two separate buttons on each post, one for hard deleting the post and one for soft deleting the post, however the former option seems like the best.

The inline moderation options should allow to soft/hard delete a thread or post. For normal member groups, always soft delete by default unless specified otherwise in the group settings.

Basically what I'm referring to is the same functionality as the Vbulletin soft delete feature, after all that's what makes the feature useful.

I hope I was clear enough with my reply. Keep up the good work, I like what I have seen so far and am anxious to see what's to come.

Matt
Jan 29 2010 06:45 PM

Gabriel Petrelli, on 29 January 2010 - 11:30 PM, said:

Awesome. :D

It's worth noting that all posts should be soft deleted by default regardless of whether a post is deleted by a member or staff, admins should be able to specify who they would like to be able to hard delete posts in the group settings.

The delete button on each post should soft delete posts by default regardless of group settings, either that or place two separate buttons on each post, one for hard deleting the post and one for soft deleting the post, however the former option seems like the best.

The inline moderation options should allow to soft/hard delete a thread or post. For normal member groups, always soft delete by default unless specified otherwise in the group settings.

Basically what I'm referring to is the same functionality as the Vbulletin soft delete feature, after all that's what makes the feature useful.

I hope I was clear enough with my reply. Keep up the good work, I like what I have seen so far and am anxious to see what's to come.

Did you see the screen shots? You get to choose if you have permission to do so via the pop-up dialogue.

Matt
Jan 29 2010 06:46 PM

Kfir, on 29 January 2010 - 10:19 PM, said:

I hope you can enable/disable "hard" delete per member group.

Yes, this is a member group setting already.

Wolfie
Jan 29 2010 07:24 PM

Matt, on 29 January 2010 - 06:46 PM, said:

Yes, this is a member group setting already.
Just tossing something out, but as for deleting own topics, would it be possible/easier to change the options from what they are now (Can delete own posts/topics?) to have a drop down selection?  Choices would be "No", "Soft delete", "Hard Delete" and "Both".

Not sure if that would seem easier to Admins or not, so throwing the idea out there to see what people think of it.

Kfir
Jan 29 2010 07:38 PM

Matt, on 30 January 2010 - 01:46 AM, said:


Yes, this is a member group setting already.
I looked all over the per group settings and couldn't find it. Maybe you could direct me?

Wolfie
Jan 29 2010 07:41 PM
Member group, Forum tab, close to the top.

Kfir
Jan 29 2010 07:48 PM

.Wolfie, on 30 January 2010 - 02:41 AM, said:

Member group, Forum tab, close to the top.
The only settings I find with the word "delete" are " Can delete own posts? " & " Can delete own topics? ".
Is something wrong with me that I'm the only one who can't seem to see it? :unsure:

Wolfie
Jan 29 2010 07:59 PM
There isn't one for deleting others posts/topics.  That's what I was asking for earlier, so that even Admins/Super Mods couldn't hard delete unless you say so.

← May 2012 →

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
131415 16 171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Latest Visitors

Search My Blog

  1. Invision Power Services
  2. → Community Blog
  3. → IPS Company Blog
  4. → IP.Board 3.1.0 Dev Update: Soft Delete
  5. Privacy Policy
  6. Community Rules ·