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How to specify different moderators for multisites?

Is there a plug-in or mod that will allow us to specify different moderators for sites in a multisite network — apart from the site admin?

EduBlogs seems to have a “Classes” plugin that gives you this ability, but that plug-in seems not to have been released to WPMU-DEV subscribers.

Will the “Classes” plug-in ever be released? Is there another way to get this functionality?

Thanks!

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 20:34:26
  • Ash
    • Code Norris

    Hello @Garry

    Welcome to WPMU community!

    I hope you are well today and thanks for asking the question.

    Is there a plug-in or mod that will allow us to specify different moderators for sites in a multisite network

    Is it network based or per site based? What do you want those moderators to do?

    Please let me know.

    Cheers

    Ash

  • Samantha
    • Flash Drive

    Ash:

    Thanks for your follow-up question.

    Yes, we want to assign moderators on a site-by-site basis.

    Instead of a site admin being responsible for moderating all posts & comments in a multisite with hundreds of user sites, we would like to assign specific users to be moderators for specific sites.

    That way multiple users would be responsible for reviewing posts & comments on only 25 blogs each, rather than one user moderating all 400 blogs.

    Ideally, the moderator assigned to a specific site would be notified automatically whenever a post or comment is submitted. The moderator would review, decide whether to publish or not.

    The actual scenario is a multisite of Student blogs for a school. We’d like teachers to have the option of moderating the posts & comments for the students in their class.

    I believe the EduBlogs “Classes” pug-in provides this functionality, among other things.

    We’d be so grateful if you guys could release that to WPMU-DEV Members!

    Thanks again!

    — G

  • Ash
    • Code Norris

    Hi Garry

    I am not aware of any classes plugin that handle this in Edublogs.

    That way multiple users would be responsible for reviewing posts & comments on only 25 blogs each, rather than one user moderating all 400 blogs.

    There is no reason to moderate all 400 blogs for one person! Every blog should have a blog admin. Do you create all of your blogs or your users do? If you create your blogs, then you can use different email address while creating a blog as site/blog admin.

    Only the blog admin is notified when a comment is posted. So the idea is every blog can/should have different blog admin. Also, one blog admin can have more than one blog. For example, you are network admin of site A. And I am blog admin of subsite b and c. So, only I will be notified for any activities in blog b and c.

    Please advice if I got your wrong.

    Cheers

    Ash

  • Samantha
    • Flash Drive

    The EduBlogs “Classes” plugin does exist. I’ve posted screengrabs of two admin screens, from an actual EduBlogs multisite at one of our schools. Using this plugin, a teacher creates a Class blog that her students join. That gives this teacher control over moderation for the blogs of those in her class.

    We would like to be able to do something like this on multiple self-hosted student blog multisites that we will be rolling out next school year. We may have as many as 26 multisites, with hundreds of student blogs in each.

    In out test environment, we’re using Batch Create to generate user accounts & sites. Student users are assigned a custom non-admin role. Since I am the Network Admin, I automatically become the Site Admin for all blogs — and therefore, also the moderator!

    I could go into each blog & assign a teacher user as admin — but with thousands of blogs, that’s not practical.

    With so many student blogs, we’re looking for an efficient, scalable way to assign admin/moderator to batches of blogs.

    So, again, having access to that Classes plugin on self-hosted multisites would be nice (hint!), but any efficient workaround for managing moderation across multisites would be appreciated.

  • Samantha
    • Flash Drive

    Reading over what I wrote, it occurs to me that we could satisfy the essential requirement — having moderation for specific blogs assigned to specific moderators — by running two CSVs through Batch Create for each Multisite.

    The first batch would create the student blogs and assign a Teacher user with the admin role to the each blog. Then run a second batch to add the student accounts, with their custom role, to their respective blogs.

    That’ll work, right?

    That doesn’t give Teachers a unified admin interface for moderation settings over multiple blogs like (I think) the Classes plug-in does; but it does simplify the setup!

    Thanks for helping me think through this, Ash.

    Still open to other solutions, or to having the actual “Classes” plugin.