[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #5707: Support Forums: Allow global forum moderators to block users

[Making WordPress.org]

#5707: Support Forums: Allow global forum moderators to block users
----------------------------+--------------------
 Reporter:  Clorith         |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement     |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal          |  Milestone:
Component:  Support Forums  |   Keywords:
----------------------------+--------------------
 Currently, only keymasters and administrators can block users on the
 global forums (the non-rosetta one), while on the old bbPress 1.x setup,
 this capability was also extended to moderators, but also didn't have the
 same concept of differentiating user roles that we now have.

 The downside to this is that action against spammers are currently delayed
 pending activity by one such user, while moderators are more often likely
 to encounter behavior warranting the block action in the first place.

 Accountability was the number one reason to maintain this separation, but
 with the introduction of [10580], that is now automatically handled. Users
 granted moderator privileges on the global forums are already considered
 to be trustworthy, as they have the ability to impact in areas like plugin
 and theme support and review sections, on top of the normal support forums
 them selves.

 After some
 [https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQC6RW/p1618474548058600
 discussion on Slack], this seems like it should be a good path forward,
 but matched with a private firehose-like Slack channel where actions taken
 to user profiles by a moderator or above, gets logged. This likely
 shouldn't include all the data that was put in, but showing what fields
 were modified does seem reasonable.

 The support team should also have some written guidelines on when to block
 users in place before these powers are extended to all moderators. Such a
 document should outline the effects of blocking a user, both on rosetta,
 and the global forums, so that it can be a unified document used by the
 whole community. It should also set expectations, and probably be a bit
 strong worded explanation around consequences of misusing this trust.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5707>
Making WordPress.org <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/>
Making WordPress.org