As an administrator, how can I moderate posts before they are posted? We've had some very inappropriate posts made that I have had to remove after the fact.

Also, when are we going to have advanced sorting abilities with the forum area, and the ability for people to receive email notification when new posts are made?

All of this is coming up in the new threaded message forums we are working on now. The initial forums had very limited functionality (as you've noticed). The new forums will basically be a copy of what you are using right here on our site.

What can I do to stop people then? This is a real problem. We have two immature adults posting about porn on the website and involving an innocent member. I've removed one member from the site completely. I may have to just remove the other I guess. The other is attacking me in posts for removing the prior posts and making rude remarks. Please help!!!

I wish I could edit the text at the top of that page too to add a disclaimer like most forums do about inappropriate behavior and warning people about posting. The "don't be bashful" line is encouraging idiots to say stuff they should not about people.

With the new threaded forums you'll be able to enter a description for each forum you add to the system. Should be coming around the end of next month.

With the current forums you can do the things you've pretty much already figured out:

1) Immediately remove offensive posts
2) Email athe Classmate and warn that future inmature posts will result in account deletion
3) Actually dlete the account of the inmature Classmate
4) Temporarily deactivate your forums and wait for the new threaded forums with far more functionality
5) If you wind up deleting the member, you could even password protect your current forums so the banned member can't even read them anymore

Until the threaded forums arrive, these are your options.

I guess this may be redundant...since the new threaded forums are coming, but a few questions:
1) will the old content still be available when the new forum is launched? (I'd like it to be since we have some pretty funny stuff)
2) will the new forum include a way to click on a page number search (like the private messages does) instead of having to just click on prior posts to look for something specific? I'm assuming the new threaded forum will be similar to our Help Forum here?
3) We also have someone we're considering deleting (Adam Segal if you want to see his profile/posts Brad) Although initially it had us all worried, I really believe he is looking for attention & just repeats himself over & over again. However we do not want people NOT coming to the reunion because they are fearful he might "go postal or Columbine" as some people have messaged me about.
My fear is that by deleting him, he really WILL show up at the reunion, which we do not want...for now we've just been ignoring him & 'burying' his posts rather than censor/delete them to further antagonize him. But we're also having to consider making an announcement that we have the police involved/having security at the event.

Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions/info!

No rush on an answer for this, but I'm just wondering if you're on track for a new forum by the end of this month?

While I'm on the subject, what I'd love to see in the new forum is a place for personalized copy. Not unlike what's at the top of the existing forum, but with the ability to customize what it says.

'Just a thought.

Thanks for all you do!

Yes you'll be able to personalize the copy when threaded forums launch. Unfortunately we're going to have to bump the new Preferences area ahead of threaded forums, as the new Preferences functionality closes the final potential security loophole that we're aware of, which is hijacking.

The vast majority of sites don't need that extra security measure, but unfortunately there are many who do. For when you do need it, it's gotta be there. Plus some schools have indicated they want to turn on the anti hijacking feature in advance of having any problems just to be the safe side. So -- security is gunna get the precedence on the Task List. But, threaded forums are right up there too and will be coming just as soon as we can get to them.

1) Yes. When the new threaded forums go live, your current forums will change to the name "Guest Book." And you can either leave them live under the Guestbook heading, or deactivate them. Up to you.

2) The threaded forums will pretty much exactly the forums you see here, yes. After going live we make a few additional tweaks based on user imput, but yes, you're pretty much going to get what you're already seeing right here.

3) I have few thoughts here, other than each Administrator has to decide how they're going to deal with problematic Classmtes. Fortunately the issue is relativley rare, but it's certainly not the first we've heard of something like ths. Censoring their posts, deleting their posts, burrying their posts, nuking their entire account, etc., these are all options you have.

When you have the new threaded forum, will we be able to opt out completely? Our class members seem to have very little interest in a forum - only 12 (in 3 months) and 3 were my responses. Perhaps the threaded forum will be more inviting....

Diana

Hi Diana,

Yes you'll be able to opt out of the new forums if your class is not interested. You will be able to deactivate the link the same way you can with other default links under Edit Site Pages.