[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress Trac] #6719: Activity link moderation doesn't output useful error message to end users

[buddypress-trac]

#6719: Activity link moderation doesn't output useful error message to end users
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 Reporter:  r-a-y                   |       Owner:  r-a-y
     Type:  enhancement             |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal                  |   Milestone:  2.6
Component:  General - UX/UI         |     Version:  1.6
 Severity:  normal                  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch dev-feedback  |
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Comment (by r-a-y):

 @hnla - Thanks for testing!

 > Posting a comment to a WP post from the act stream is still
 problematical we acknowledge an issue with the comment but not what i.e
 bad-word, spam-word, or too many links.

 I missed doing activity comment checks for moderation.  `02.patch` should
 address this.

 The "Comment Moderation" section from the "Settings > Discussion" page
 should now be implemented for activity items.

 In BuddyPress, when an activity update or comment matches any of these
 rules, we do not record an activity item into the database.

 In WordPress, if a post comment matches any of these rules, WP does record
 the post comment, but sets the `'comment_status'` DB field to `0`.

 ----

 > For WP spam list words we do not trap those and do publish them although
 these are meant to be held too.

 I noticed that I missed implementing the "Comment Blacklist" check from
 the "Settings > Discussion" admin page.  I hope this is what you meant by
 WP spam list words, hnla!

 However, this also presents its own set of problems.  BuddyPress currently
 sets activity items that have a blacklisted word as activity spam (#4284).
 Since the activity item is technically recorded, the way I have set up
 activity error handling means I cannot throw up a custom error message.

 To outline what WordPress does, they mark blacklisted comments to either
 `'trash'` or `'spam'` in the `'comment_status'` DB field.  I don't believe
 they add a user message if a comment hits the blacklist.  Needs testing.

 We could workaround this another way by doing spam checks after an
 activity item is recorded and then adding a custom error message that way.
 This adds another DB query though.

 Or we can simply stop recording activity items that match a blacklisted
 word.

 ----

 > imho I do think we still need to either pull moderation altogether until
 we can correct things or decide to tackle this fully but I would like my
 cake and eat it and add the patch here as it does start to put in place
 proper error handling?

 Activity moderation is a big task.  In order to match WP functionality, we
 would need to introduce an `'activity_status'` DB column in the activity
 DB table and rework some of our functions to handle recording this new
 flag.  There are also admin UI considerations that would need to be done
 to the Activity admin dashboard, as well as other things like whether we
 should tie activity moderation to WP comment moderation settings?

 See #2786.

 I do agree that the error handling in this ticket is far and away better
 than what we currently have and improves the UX greatly.  But whether we
 want to hold off on this for #2786 requires dev feedback.

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Ticket URL: <https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/6719#comment:9>
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