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How to allow a non-moderator to manage tags?

FerrariSteveFerrariSteve Seattle
edited December 2014 in Vanilla 2.0 - 2.8

I run a Vanilla 2.1-based home automation discussion forum here:

http://www.smarthomehub.net/

It allows members to offer discuss products and offer peer-support to each other... without any manufacturers' employees having any ability to censor the discussion.

Recently, I got what I consider a very generous offer from the social media manager of one of the home automation companies whose products are discussed there. He asked if there was any way for me to allow users to "tag" him in a discussion or question, and he committed to checking the forums at least daily to see if there's anything he'd need to to escalate to their tech support staff.

I want to take advantage of his offer, but I'm not sure how. And I'd also like to do this in a way that's "expandable" to other companies if any of their reps decide to do the same.

I'm using the Tagging plugin (v 1.6.2) to add tags to the forum, and it would be easy to simply establish a tag for a company such as ExampleTechSupport, but I don't know of any way to allow him to remove the tag once the issue is resolved without making him a full-blown Moderator.... and I don't want to do that because "no corporate moderators" is a basic principle of the forums.

On the Roles & Permissions admin page, the only permission available for Tagging is "Add."

And I don't want to go and manually untag all the resolved issues myself.

Can anyone think of a creative solution to allow me to take advantage of this offer?

Thanks!

Comments

  • R_JR_J Ex-Fanboy Munich Admin

    Maybe I haven't understood the problem, but to me it seems as if creating a user with a companyname could be solution. If you set up the notifiactions for that user and forward notification mails to the mail of the contact you'v got, your users can mention a company. e.g:

    @Tesla: I can't await an affordable car of yours!

  • @R_J: Thanks for the idea. I do have mention notifications turned on, so that would be one way to do it.

    But my "dream solution" involves some ability for him to have a single list of unresolved issues from which to work (that he could check daily), rather than rely on his own email inbox. That's why my first thought was to use a tag. It's how the Logitech support sites do it, and it works pretty well. Except, of course, the Logitech Support guys are admins on their own forums.

  • R_JR_J Ex-Fanboy Munich Admin

    I don't think it is the right way to add a tag to call someone in and to remove it as marked. For calling someone in, you use mentions, for setting something as resolved, you use a plugin as QnA. In order to manage tags, you would have to give him discussion edit rights. You can do that for special categories only, but that will make to something like a moderator.

  • Well, I'll respectfully disagree (in the friendliest way possible) with you concerning what's the "right" way for my forum. :) I've seen it work on the Logitech forums (and have used it myself there), with great success, and would love to replicate it.

    I do use the excellent QnA plugin, and it's been very helpful. But what I'm looking for is the ability for ANYONE to "summon" him, even from a thread that's already been started, while also keeping some sort of list available to him (and to me for monitoring how well it's going) of all "open" items to which he was "summoned."

    I know it's highly specialized, and I realize that it's not likely that something currently exists to address it. I just figured I'd take a chance and ask just in case it did. :)

    For now, Mentions is probably the best I'm going to get. :)

  • R_JR_J Ex-Fanboy Munich Admin

    Sorry, didn't want to be a smart ass, just wanted to point out my concerns. I should have given you that answer first:

    It should be possible to add a "Edit tags" option to discussion options menu for special roles (easy).
    Then you could open an edit tags view (as a popup) that simply shows the tags input box that you can normally find below the discussion along with a [Save] button (I guess that's easy, too).

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited December 2014

    @FerrariSteve

    if no one provides you a solution and you want a plugin for a small donation, pm me

    I've got an idea, where a specified user can only remove a specific tag(s) from any discussion.

    e.g. JoeUser can only delete the tag "acme products" from other user discussions. It might be better to restrict their ability to only delete certain tags than give free rein delete any and all tags.

    Other aspects of tagging remain the same according to your tagging plugin.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • @R_J said:
    Sorry, didn't want to be a smart ass, just wanted to point out my concerns. I should have given you that answer first:

    Dude, you weren't a smart ass at all. I can respect that others' opinions are based on sound knowledge and experience, even when mine might be different. We're cool. :)

  • @peregrine said:
    if no one provides you a solution and you want a plugin for a small donation, pm me

    I've got an idea, where a specified user can only remove a specific tag(s) from any discussion.

    e.g. JoeUser can only delete the tag "acme products" from other user discussions. It might be better to restrict their ability to only delete certain tags than give free rein delete any and all tags.

    Other aspects of tagging remain the same according to your tagging plugin.

    That sounds intriguing. PM on the way. :)

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited December 2014

    I sent you a reply this morning based on you other questions. have you seen it?

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • Yup! Replied!

  • peregrineperegrine MVP
    edited December 2014

    @FerrariSteve said:
    Behold the awesome power of the Vanilla community forums. :)

    • I want a specific plugin (that few other people will probably want)
    • Well known developer offers to crank it out for a very modest donation
    • Plugin is running on my forum within 24 hours :)

    Thanks, peregrine. You the man. :)

    • thanks for the kind words.
    • and the paypal donation for a "customized plugin specifically for your forum".
    • and for your support of developers on this forum.

    I may not provide the completed solution you might desire, but I do try to provide honest suggestions to help you solve your issue.

  • Just an FYI to others who might stumble upon this thread. Here's how I'm using this type of functionality on my Vanilla forum:

    http://www.smarthomehub.net/forums/discussion/184/how-to-summon-an-official-company-representative-to-a-discussion-using-support-flags

    Again, I realize it's a very specific use case, but I'm still excited to be able to offer it to my visitors. :)

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