I am just getting into forums, and it appears there is no way to force a forum posting to be held in an approval queue, nor a way to block a person who has posted an offensive posting (other than the email block). Am I missing something? Is this a topic of concern to you for enhancements?
Thanks.
Bill
Hi Bill,
You may like to consider using a glossary or database module activity, rather than a forum, as both have approval options.
Regarding blocking a particular user, this may be achieved by assigning them a role with the capability to start discussions or reply set to prevent. (Please say if you require further information about this option.)
You may like to consider using a glossary or database module activity, rather than a forum, as both have approval options.
Regarding blocking a particular user, this may be achieved by assigning them a role with the capability to start discussions or reply set to prevent. (Please say if you require further information about this option.)
Thanks Helen for your response. The approval for the database module is not an approval for comments but an approval for new records in the database. I can't remember the situation with a glossary. I have requested an approval queue for comments on an existing database record through the Tracker.
Here is my situation. I am working on a class to teach Greek to grade school kids. Because of their ages, I know that their parents are going to be very cautious of inappropriate posts, and I don't think that a promise on my part to remove offensive ones as soon as I find them is going to give parents enough assurance.
Without the approval queue, I am going to have to use Drupal or bbPhp for forums and link to them from within Moodle, which means it will work but wouldn't be very elegant.
Is there community support for requesting this feature in Moodle 2.0 do you think?
Thanks.
Bill
Here is my situation. I am working on a class to teach Greek to grade school kids. Because of their ages, I know that their parents are going to be very cautious of inappropriate posts, and I don't think that a promise on my part to remove offensive ones as soon as I find them is going to give parents enough assurance.
Without the approval queue, I am going to have to use Drupal or bbPhp for forums and link to them from within Moodle, which means it will work but wouldn't be very elegant.
Is there community support for requesting this feature in Moodle 2.0 do you think?
Thanks.
Bill
I am also interested in the ability to approve posts. I would like to use Moodle in our district with middle and high school students, but we have to have a way to control what is posted, per my boss. 
I would love to hear if there are plans for adding this feature. Thanks!
I would love to hear if there are plans for adding this feature. Thanks!
I too would like to add my support for an approval period for forum posts in moodle. I work in a boarding school and there is a requirement for pupil posts to be cleared by a forum moderator before they are submitted to our VLE.
Like my fellow moodle users I would like to support the implementation of this feature in a future version of moodle.
Bill (and Wendy, Ross, and others who are interested) - I like the idea of having an approval option for the forums. I've commented on MDL-3330 and updated it to a feature request for Moodle 2.0. I like the idea of being consistent with the database and other modules which have some type of option for teacher approval. Please feel free to vote, comment, and watch MDL-3330 which requests the approval option for forums. Thanks for sharing your ideas and your voice in how Moodle can better fit your needs. Peace - Anthony
Add me to the "advocacy group" for this feature. As there becomes more corporate interest in Moodle, I can tell you, that for concerns of confidentiality and non-disclosure, an approval process for forum postings would be essential for courses that may involve sensitive client or project information.
~Bob
I appreciate that there are circumstances in which having a moderated forum discussion which requires the approval by a teacher can be useful. However as I have continued to think about this issue, I have become less convinced that doing such is a good idea. My concern is that if it is a moderated discussion to what degree does it remain a discussion. I often advocate that in developing policies and handling issues in online courses follow the same types of responses that one would expect in the classroom. So when I read that a parent might be upset because a student made an inappropriate response, I am concerned why the parent is reading the posts of other students. Here in the U.S. the parent has a right to know what their own child writes; however, not those of other students. Further, most parents are not allowed to sit in the traditional classroom. Further, in that classroom the teacher does not ask each student to tell that teacher what they want to say to the class before they say it. There is a general sense of trust that in a discussion, each person is free to say what they feel is appropriate. If a student makes an inappropriate post (or comment in the classroom setting) I have disciplinary measures in place to deal with those situations. I might even go as far as to argue that an inappropriate post might not necessarily be deleted but that it might serve as an opportunity to discuss why it is inappropriate (or even if it is inappropriate). So are censored discussions really discussions? Of course one could also argue that they are forums, places for comments to be stored. So I can see where it may be helpful to have the ability to censor discussions but I am not sure that we should. I would be interested in hearing what folks think. On one side one could say that we could just add it and leave it up to the teachers to use it or not. On the other there is the concern for feature bloat. When we throw in the social constructionist pedagogy that Moodle is influenced by perhaps we get to a point when we say that a certain feature is not pedagogically consistent with how the tool is intended to be used. I think there are several factors to consider here but I am realizing that I need to be careful about just saying any feature we can program in fact ought to be in Moodle. I look forward to reading what others think about this but it is certainly more complicated than I initially thought. Peace - Anthony
As I have mentioned in the tracker, this option is often requested but when asked how it might work in practice unless forums are constantly monitored those who seek this facility are less clear about how they would manage it in practice.
I understand the use cases put forward - I hear them frequently enough in my work with clients.
Incorporation of this would undoubtedly change the nature of many discussions (if they would still be 'discussions').
It would be a big step for Moodle IMO.
I understand the use cases put forward - I hear them frequently enough in my work with clients.
Incorporation of this would undoubtedly change the nature of many discussions (if they would still be 'discussions').
It would be a big step for Moodle IMO.
What if this feature was setup as a separate module...a Moderated Forum module...that admins could add to their moodle setup (or even replace the un-moderated module for setups that would require it).
While your thoughts are good...there is a great deal of difference (especially at the public K-12 School Level) between the immediacy of comments made in a classroom (combined with comments made by the teacher immediately in response) and those comments made online. Afterall, the comments made on a moodle forum are already delayed by 30 minutes by default. That lag in and of itself could cause a great deal of confusion to the ongoing "discussion"...for instance, a student comments on another student's comments. 10 minutes later another student comments on the same comment. When the original student sees the first response and makes their "defense", it is still ten minutes before they see the second student's comments which could either hurt or help their case (in the event of a heated disagreement/debate type setup). If we want a true discussion then maybe we should be moving the other way where we don't have the 30 minute lag time...I still think giving administrators the option of have both available could be a benefit if we don't go the way of allowing individual teachers to setup the modules with the moderation option.
With moodle being designed for scholastic uses, it seems logical that the safeguards that would be expected would be included. The reason I use Moodle instead of other more open social networking tools is due to the control that a teacher has the opportunity to maintain over the course and its activities.
While your thoughts are good...there is a great deal of difference (especially at the public K-12 School Level) between the immediacy of comments made in a classroom (combined with comments made by the teacher immediately in response) and those comments made online. Afterall, the comments made on a moodle forum are already delayed by 30 minutes by default. That lag in and of itself could cause a great deal of confusion to the ongoing "discussion"...for instance, a student comments on another student's comments. 10 minutes later another student comments on the same comment. When the original student sees the first response and makes their "defense", it is still ten minutes before they see the second student's comments which could either hurt or help their case (in the event of a heated disagreement/debate type setup). If we want a true discussion then maybe we should be moving the other way where we don't have the 30 minute lag time...I still think giving administrators the option of have both available could be a benefit if we don't go the way of allowing individual teachers to setup the modules with the moderation option.
With moodle being designed for scholastic uses, it seems logical that the safeguards that would be expected would be included. The reason I use Moodle instead of other more open social networking tools is due to the control that a teacher has the opportunity to maintain over the course and its activities.
When a post is replied to that already has replies there are links to the existing replies on the screen where a new reply is made.
Hope that makes sense! (grammar tuition welcome
)
Hope that makes sense! (grammar tuition welcome
I understand what you're saying Anthony. However, the reality of many situations is that we need to be able to moderate discussions. In some situations we cannot use discussions that cannot be moderated. How many Web 2.0 tools are blocked in public schools because we have no control over the content.
We could have a philosophical discussion about these policies and the social constructionist pedagogy that would be quite interesting. However, that discussion is would get us nowhere if we can't use the tool because of lack of a feature.
I know in our current LMS (ANGEL) we can turn moderation on or off for discussions forums. I believe the same capability is in Blackboard. We can moderate YouTube comments (and I wish more people would). We can moderate blog comments. It doesn't seem unreasonable to be able to moderate Moodle discussion furum comments.
I know for a practitioners viewpoint, the inability to moderate posts will be a touchy policy area as we move to Moodle.
I vote for the availability of forum moderation.
We could have a philosophical discussion about these policies and the social constructionist pedagogy that would be quite interesting. However, that discussion is would get us nowhere if we can't use the tool because of lack of a feature.
I know in our current LMS (ANGEL) we can turn moderation on or off for discussions forums. I believe the same capability is in Blackboard. We can moderate YouTube comments (and I wish more people would). We can moderate blog comments. It doesn't seem unreasonable to be able to moderate Moodle discussion furum comments.
I know for a practitioners viewpoint, the inability to moderate posts will be a touchy policy area as we move to Moodle.
I vote for the availability of forum moderation.
Richard - There were two factors that influenced and motivated me to write the forum post approval patch. The first was understanding the utility for such functionality in the business setting and the second was the number of votes for the issue. In any case, have you checked out the Forum Post Approval Patch? I think that may provide the type of moderation you are looking for. Let me know if you have questions, problems or suggestions for improvement. Peace - Anthony
Thank you Anthony.
I stumbled across the patch after I posted my comment here. It looks like it should work for what we need.
We're going to give it go on our test bed installation.
Thank you for the very prompt response.
Richard - My pleasure - there have been some challenges with applying the patch to different versions of Moodle so if you run into troubles just let me know and I will happily help you through it. Peace - Anthony
Hi Anthony,
We have applied the patch and in the Permissions menu we now have the facility to allow or prohibit approval (see attached) so the plugin is doing something. BUT the approve / unapprove button does not appear in the forum window.
We are in Moodle 1.9.10 (Build: 20101027)
Any help would be very gratefully received!
Best wishes
Elspeth
Based on the missing language string, I would say something happened that the patch did not apply correctly. I recently made a quick attempt at applying the patch to my git repository which you can check out at https://github.com/arborrow/moodle/tree/moodle19-patch_forumpostapproval. I have not tested it much but it may be a step in right direction for you. If you are familiar with git then you can pull the code in. Otherwise, if you just want to test it, you could download the zip file and install it on a test server and see if it helps. I'm attaching the results of a diff between MOODLE_19_STABLE and the version in the git repository if that might be of help.
I also began looking at migrating the patch to Moodle 2.0. I've created a branch and would be willing to pull in changes as folks recommend them. Because of the more integrated rating system, we will need to redo things to get ajax working or simply decide to drop that functionality. It is not likely that I will have much time to mess around with it so if folks who are using it want to begin helping to adapt the patch to Moodle 2.0 that would be most appreciated.
Let me know if you have further questions and how I might be of help. Peace - Anthony
what do you mean by this ? in mod/forum/lib.php
function forum_approve_post($post) {
}
it show me parse error like
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in moodle/mod/forum/lib.php on line 7120.
function forum_approve_post($post) {
}
it show me parse error like
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in moodle/mod/forum/lib.php on line 7120.
I am not sure which version you are using but AFAIK, there is no syntax errors in the code so it sounds like something happened in applying the patch. Please try the patch provided as part of CONTRIB-1699 and report in the tracker if you are experiencing any further problems. Peace - Anthony
I used but this is not working properly, please see the attached screenshot.
Approve – unapproved option also not working..
Thanks and Regards
Shailesh Jaiswar
Can I second (or third) this request? I've been asked about this by the Principal of my College today and as far as I can see there is no way for me to set up a moderation function on the posts so I or a member of my team can choose to release them. I would find this very useful.
Thanks
Nathan
Thanks
Nathan
I fourth the request. I have landed on this page looking for the exact same thing. This is a must for certain educational institution forums that have children using it. I found this, does anyone know if this works? http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=2296
Thanks
Thanks
Initial testing that I did while writing the patch indicates that it does something. The degree to which it will work for you and your institution or for others depends on testing. I welcome any feedback but would encourage setting up a test server with production data and kicking the tires a bit before putting it on a production server. I wrote the patch precisely because a number of folks really felt that they needed it. Please report in the tracker if you find any bugs, feature requests, ideas for improvement, etc. Peace - Anthony
Anthony,
Trying to apply this patch (NetBeans makes it very easy and graphical) but when I go to add a new post, the page is blank. I was able to revert back to my original files and all is well again. I did see the change added when updating the forum for requiring approval. Any ideas? 1.9.4.
Trying to apply this patch (NetBeans makes it very easy and graphical) but when I go to add a new post, the page is blank. I was able to revert back to my original files and all is well again. I did see the change added when updating the forum for requiring approval. Any ideas? 1.9.4.
I am having the same problem with v195, used NetBeans to apply the patch which went OK but forum is now broken as per the above post. Reverted changes on the trial server but this feature will be of excellent use on our live site...
Any ideas to get this to work?
EDIT: On second attempt I did notice NetBeans said "Partially Applied" maybe this is an issue with NetBeans rather than the patch file?
Any ideas to get this to work?
EDIT: On second attempt I did notice NetBeans said "Partially Applied" maybe this is an issue with NetBeans rather than the patch file?
I have had a look at the patch file and as it appears there are several files where the versions the patch is looking for is incorrect. This occurs with rate_ajax.js and lib.php among a few in the mod/forum folder.
Does this mean a full redo of the patch file is required for the new v195 forum files?
Does this mean a full redo of the patch file is required for the new v195 forum files?
Joshua - I'm not exactly sure what you are saying about the patch? Did you try to apply it to the latest version. If you are having troubles, might you file an issue in the tracker and I would be happy to follow up there. If we need to update the patch for whatever reason I am happy to do so. Peace - Anthony
Anthony,
Sorry about the long delayed reply. The patch is applied to the newest version (195+) by NetBeans - but only partially, this causes much distress as some code is modified but not all mods from the patch file. As said above this caused the forums to open a blank page and not function.
Using TortoiseMerge to apply the patch it stops and tells me that the patch CAN be applied to:
Can you replicate this issue?
Sorry about the long delayed reply. The patch is applied to the newest version (195+) by NetBeans - but only partially, this causes much distress as some code is modified but not all mods from the patch file. As said above this caused the forums to open a blank page and not function.
Using TortoiseMerge to apply the patch it stops and tells me that the patch CAN be applied to:
- mod\forum\db\access.php
- mod\forum\mod_form.php
- mod\forum\post.php
- mod\forum\rate.php
- lang\en_utf8\forum.php
- lang\en_utf8\error.php
- mod\forum\rate_ajax.js
- mod\forum\lib.php
- mod\forum\rate_ajax.php
Can you replicate this issue?
Joshua - Sorry you are having difficulties applying the patch. I do not use Tortoise so am unable to replicate the issue. Let me know if you need help obtaining a patched version. Peace - Anthony
I also tried to apply the patch but failed...is it possible that you can post patched files to be replaced so that it becomes a simple process of replacing/overwriting the required files...will be a great help for a novice user like me...thanks
Hi I just applied this patch to Moodle 1.9.4. It didn't work very well with Moodle 1.9.5.
It patched without error but it is not performing as I thought it would.
1) It did not patch the language files so it the menus looked like this [ [ approve ] ] and [ [ unapprove ] ]. Was it supposed to patch the language files?
The files patched were
mod/forum/db/access.php
mod/forum/mod_form.php
mod/forum/post.php
mod/forum/rate_ajax.js
mod/forum/lib.php
mod/forum/rate_ajax.php
forum/patch_forum_approveposts.txt
Is that all? Can you please post the changes in the language file?
2) When I use the approve/unapprove <select> nothing happens. No stirring of any sort and no change to the status of the post. What, exactly, is supposed to happen. Something AJAX related? Are there any special considerations.
Posts default to unapproved. After editing them they are approved.
Update - I just worked out I am supposed to click 'send in my ratings'. I did not realize this because I was using a social course format, and did not see a button like that on the course home page. However the <select> appears. Can this patch work in the forum of a social course format home page?
It patched without error but it is not performing as I thought it would.
1) It did not patch the language files so it the menus looked like this [ [ approve ] ] and [ [ unapprove ] ]. Was it supposed to patch the language files?
The files patched were
mod/forum/db/access.php
mod/forum/mod_form.php
mod/forum/post.php
mod/forum/rate_ajax.js
mod/forum/lib.php
mod/forum/rate_ajax.php
forum/patch_forum_approveposts.txt
Is that all? Can you please post the changes in the language file?
2) When I use the approve/unapprove <select> nothing happens. No stirring of any sort and no change to the status of the post. What, exactly, is supposed to happen. Something AJAX related? Are there any special considerations.
Posts default to unapproved. After editing them they are approved.
Update - I just worked out I am supposed to click 'send in my ratings'. I did not realize this because I was using a social course format, and did not see a button like that on the course home page. However the <select> appears. Can this patch work in the forum of a social course format home page?
Initially I didn't like the idea when moodle was primarily used by universities and colleges. But as Moodle is gaining new areas like K-12 and alternative education, I do agree that this feature is becoming increasingly more important.
Thus I support the moderation feature. Obviously administrators or teachers will set this based on their needs.
Thus I support the moderation feature. Obviously administrators or teachers will set this based on their needs.
Goodmorning,
I would like to know if there is any one who has installed the patch and it works because I really need this functionality and I have trouble installing it.
It's probably not quite the same issue, but I've run into difficulties trying to apply the patch to use this feature for a Moodle 1.9.7 (build 20100106) installation; while trying to patch file forum/patch_forum_approveposts.txt, the patch application returns:
"Assertion failed: hunk, file ../patch/2.5.9-src/patch.c line 354
The application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support....."
I realise that this is a problem with applying the patch, rather than with the code itself, but I've now tried a few ways on different Moodle installations with no joy. I may install NetBeans and see if it's easier to get the patch applied using that; but it would really help right now if someone could tell me the ideal build and version for this patch. It seems from comments here and my own experience that it's not very consistent behaviour across differernt 1.9 versions; and yet the behaviour whern actually working (pre-approval of forum postings) sounds wonderful and is just what we and many institutions need.
Tony - I would recommend using Eclipse instead of NetBeans for working with patches because it provides more information when things go awry. The patch is tricky because of how it modifies within various nested brackets that can be easily confused when merging. I recommend using the latest stable release of version 1.9 and trying the patch. If that is not working for you, just let me know what version you are working with and I will see if I can send you a zip file with the applied changes. Peace - Anthony
Hi Anthony, if you did have the time, a zip file would be great.
Version 1.9.2 (20080711) on Windows.
Many thanks
Martin
Martin - I would recommend that you upgrade to the latest stable version of Moodle 1.9. There have been a variety of security and bux fixes since 1.9.2 (about two years worth). Once you have the latest version, just send me a Moodle message or email and I'll make a zip file available to you. Peace - Anthony