[RFC|Merged] Copy post text in report when reporting posts

[brunoais]

Introduction
In phpBB, when there's a report for a post made in the BB, phpBB only saves the postID in the database. If the post itself is changed, there's no way of knowing what was there before that caused the user to make the report.

Proposal
- When a report is made for a post, make a copy of the post itself and join it with the report.
-The post that appears above "Return to the reports | View post | View topic | View forum" in the Report details page will have that text instead of the current text.
- Where the context of the post is available, it's possible to make a mark around the reported post (a red border, perhaps....) and show as it is now with the other current posts.

How to do it
When a report is made, among the rest of the data that is saved in the table, the body of the post is also saved in the report table row not just the id of the post.

Pros

• If the post is changed after the report, the moderators will be able to know what was there before and take action accordingly.
• If there's a need to keep record of the reason of all reports and that content should disappear from the public eye (copyright material, as an example) with this feature that is now possible.

Cons

• Of course, duplicate data means more space used for the same purpose, but it's for a good cause.

UPDATE
Tracker issue:
http://tracker.phpbb.com/browse/PHPBB3-10600

Edit:
Pull request:
https://github.com/phpbb/phpbb3/pull/542

ADD:
All set. Seems like the code is ready to be reviewed. Waiting for the answer

Finally:
Merge is confirmed.

[callumacrae]

+1!

[imkingdavid]

That's a great point.

As it is now, a user could break the rules on purpose when he sees no active moderators online, and then edit the post.

Alternatively (or cooperatively) we could prevent editing the post once it has been reported. *shrug*

Note that I remember seeing a Post History/Revisions discussion. If something like that was implemented, this wouldn't be as big of an issue, but we would then still need to identify which issue was reported so that if the post is modified after the report is filed they can track down the offense. But that's not applicable at the moment, I suppose.

Anyway, I'm for it.

[MichaelC]

I believe phpBB has a lock post editing which could be enabled upon a report being made?

[brunoais]

I believe phpBB has a lock post editing which could be enabled upon a report being made?

It has, actually. But, usually, when something is violating a rule, what you want to do is to alter that post so that it becomes ok, still, you want to have the original one.
That is an option that does not fix this problem completely.

[MichaelC]

Moderators can unlock the post for editing and edit the post?

[DavidIQ]

Moderators can unlock the post for editing and edit the post?

I think the issue really is that after you edit the post the whole reason for the infraction is lost unless you copy the entire post into your note. "Warning for foul language" doesn't have as much weight in the event of a ban unless you actually track what it is that won the person the warning in the first place.

However that is not what is being discussed. I sort of agree with UB here. Lock the post when there is a report created. Also locking a post does not prevent a moderator from actually editing the post.

[brunoais]

I still believe that losing the original post that created a report is bad. The same applies to losing the original post.
Think like this:
User posts the unallowed post.
User reports the post.
moderator (without seeing the report for some reason. Happens sometimes) edits the post.
(note: the report is still active)
Other moderator checks that the report is active
How to solve now? Is the reporter blamed for wrong report (doesn't seem so, the mods know the post has been edited). The moderator for doing he's job even though he lost all the evidence of what he has done?

If you accept, I may prepare the code to do these jobs for you to add it yourselves. Just need a little research and it's not that complicated.

[imkingdavid]

If you accept, I may prepare the code to do these jobs for you to add it yourselves. Just need a little research and it's not that complicated.

You are more than welcome to prepare a patch of this feature if you would like to. First, please create a ticket on the tracker so we can keep track of it. You would need to use Git to checkout the latest revision on the develop branch and use these wiki articles (here and here) if you need some info on how to continue.

[brunoais]

If you accept, I may prepare the code to do these jobs for you to add it yourselves. Just need a little research and it's not that complicated.

You are more than welcome to prepare a patch of this feature if you would like to. First, please create a ticket on the tracker so we can keep track of it. You would need to use Git to checkout the latest revision on the develop branch and use these wiki articles (here and here) if you need some info on how to continue.

k, I'll read that. After that I'll read the git instructions and then I'll create the ticket and start coding the patch.