Community Moderation Queue Log

[watisinaname]

Title
Community Moderation Queue Log

Short, concise description of the idea
Make a community moderation log (tracking recent activity - e.g. post submissions, status, poster, etc.) accessible to community maintainers. (CLARIFICATION - I meant/intended for this to be independent of the regular queue and accessible to maintainers so they have oversight over community activity.)

Full description of the idea
LiveJournal currently has a "Log-In Session Page" (http://www.livejournal.com/manage/logins.bml) which allows users to see the log-in activity of their account (tracking such information as log-in times, IP address, computer platform, and log-in status). This idea of a session page, which tracks activities, can be extended and utilized for communities.

My suggestion is to make a community moderation log (tracking recent activity - e.g. post submissions, status, poster, etc.) accessible to community maintainers, similar to the "Log-In Session Page" already in place. This will allow the community maintainers to see the volume of activity the community has as well as provide useful information related to the posting habits of the members.

Here are a couple visuals of the type of log I am proposing:

- Visual # 1 - http://i37.tinypic.com/2hwnsy8.jpg
- Visual # 2 - http://i33.tinypic.com/2lxa62o.jpg

Below are explanations of the components in the above visuals. These components would be represented as column headings and each row / entry in the log would have this information for each submission:

- "Submission Times" - This would create a log of the times submissions are made in the queue. For example, in the visual, one member submitted a post on Monday, July 28, 2008 at 3:05:59 GMT. Another member submitted a post on Monday, July 28, 2008 at 3:08:59 GMT.
- "Submitted By" - This would list the username of the individual that submitted the post.
- "IP Address" - This would create a log of the IP address of the member / submitter.
- "Unmoderated?" - This would indicate whether the member has automatic posting access to the community.
- "Submission Title / Content (100 characters)" - This would create brief summary of the submission. For example, the title of the post followed by the first 100 characters of the entry.
- "Status" - This would track the current status of the submission. This will be a column that will be updated on the latest information about the post to indicate if something was approved, rejected, or still sitting in the queue.
- "Action Taken By" - This would track who took the action as indicated in the "status" column. For example, in the visual, Moderator # 2 approved Member #1's post. Whereas, Moderator # 2 rejected Member # 2's post.
An ordered list of benefits

• "IP Address" - Since LiveJournal does not allow permanent banning of IP addresses (CLARIFICATION - LiveJournal can permanent ban someone, maintainers cannot.), having the ability to see a IP post in a moderation queue log gives maintainers the ability to see if someone who was previously banned is trying to submit a post. In the visual, the maintainer can see that Member # 4 was previously banned because they would edit their posts after they were approved.
• "Unmoderated?", "Submission Title / Content (100 characters)", "Status", "Action Taken By" - Since LiveJournal has unmoderated posting for moderators even though the box for this is not ticked in the membership page, having the ability to see what is done with each post puts in place a system of checks-and-balances. With a log recording their movements, moderators will be less likely to "jump the queue" by rejecting a post so their post will be automatically accepted.
• "Action Taken By" - This can be a tool to see who is approving things and who is not. In the above visual, Moderator # 1 maybe does not seem to be doing as much work as Moderator # 2 is.
• A log is just a first step in providing valuable tools to community moderators. Down the road, the log could be used to generate community statistics and reports (e.g. active members, inactive members, # of post submissions, # of post rejections, # of post approvals, active moderators, inactive moderators, number of comments made, most active commenter).
• Great way for maintainers to have more tools to run their community.

An ordered list of problems/issues involved

• Time in developing the coding for the log.
• Moderators may be hesitant about this knowing they will now be held accountable for their community activity (or in some cases, inactivity).