Feature #16596: Pausing default/automatic blog post --> forum post on group site - CUNY Academic Commons - CUNY Graduate Center - Project Tracking System

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#1

Updated by Boone Gorges over 2 years ago

File group-blog.png group-blog.png added
Status changed from New to Reporter Feedback

Laurie, could you clarify the 'send to group blog' functionality that you're talking about? You mention two things that seem distinct:

- Group blog posts are sent to the group forum
- There's an optional 'send to group blog' checkbox when creating [something]?

I think what you mean is the interface shown in group-blog.jpg: when writing a post on a group blog, you have the option to send the post to the group. (Not the group forum.) Is that correct?

For completeness's sake, here's a reminder of how the checkbox works. By default, BP triggers the creation of activity items when publishing a post on a site in the network. When the checkbox is unchecked, we unhook the mechanism that BP uses to detect these new sites, so that the activity item is not created. In this way, no activity item is posted to the group, which means in turn that no BPGES notification is sent. See #11508, #10847

- Is it possible to make the "send to group blog" by default "off" aka de-selected? This way the professor could just select or check the box when posting their own posts. I didn't see any options in the site settings to adjust this function, maybe because it is run by buddy press?
- Is there a way to set it up so that site admins can determine which user roles' posts are sent to group forum (aka only admin posts vs admins + authors + all users)?
- If not possible universally, could we trial run it on this site&group? (this seems unlikely but figured I would ask.)

We don't currently have any mechanism for setting the default 'checked' value of this checkbox. We could build something, but there would have to be agreement about what it should be. Building on Laurie's suggestions:

1. We could introduce a config setting so that group/site admins could decide whether this box is checked by default.
2. We could introduce a config setting so that group/site admins could decide whether this box is checked by default for users with a given role.
3. We could build a tool in the Network Admin back-end that allows members of the CAC team to change the default 'checked' status of the checkbox on a per-user/per-site basis, on request from the site owner.

Seems to me that 3 is unsustainable and a bad idea, and 2 is probably overkill for the vast majority of cases, but 1 might be useful for a fair number of sites. Do others agree?

The further question becomes: where does such a setting live? Maybe under the existing Group Site settings ([group] > Manage > Group Site)? We'd then need some thought about the settings interface, as it's a pretty arcane piece of configuration. Maybe something like:

# Sending Posts to the Group

By default, posts on the Group Site are sent to the group's activity stream, which triggers email notifications for subscribed group members. You can modify this behavior with the following settings.

## Send to group by default?                 (o) Yes   ( ) No
   When set to 'Yes', the 'Send to Group' checkbox will be checked by default.

## Allow users to override default setting?  (o) Yes   ( ) No
   When set to 'No', users will not be able to change the default value selected above.

It's confusing even for me :-D

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#2

Updated by Laurie Hurson over 2 years ago

Hi Boone,

Thanks for this detailed response. Sorry if my description was convoluted but I think you understood what I was getting at.

I think what you mean is the interface shown in group-blog.jpg: when writing a post on a group blog, you have the option to send the post to the group. (Not the group forum.) Is that correct?\

Yes. The prof does not want every post on the site posted to the linked group. (to complicate this, they woul most prefer that only admin posts are sent to group and emailed out.)

1. We could introduce a config setting so that group/site admins could decide whether this box is checked by default.

I agree that this is probably the best option.

where does such a setting live? Maybe under the existing Group Site settings ([group] > Manage > Group Site)?

Yes, locating in the group settings makes sense to me.

We'd then need some thought about the settings interface, as it's a pretty arcane piece of configuration.

This convo probably dovetails with revisiting the group UX (which might be happening this fall? not sure)

But either way, it sounds like it's not likely that this toggle will be available by the start of this semester? Understandable -- but I will then advise the interested faculty that we will need to develop a workaround this semester to stop site posts being default posted to group. I am going to suggest uncoupling the group/site once students have joined - so they join both spaces but then faulty can use the group to email the class. If you have any other suggestions or ideas for workarounds, let me know!

Sorry if this follow up is also convoluted - it is a complicated process!

Thanks!

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#3

Updated by Laurie Hurson over 2 years ago

I will add, if 3 is possible now, I have a few sites/faculty members who could beta test this semester.

3. We could build a tool in the Network Admin back-end that allows members of the CAC team to change the default 'checked' status of the checkbox on a per-user/per-site basis, on request from the site owner.

But I realize we may just want to avoid this method altogether.

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#4

Updated by Boone Gorges over 2 years ago

I will add, if 3 is possible now, I have a few sites/faculty members who could beta test this semester.

I'm concerned that this will create undue maintenance overhead for us, by (a) requiring a member of the team to be responsible for managing the settings, and/or (b) requiring us to maintain backward compatibility with this global config if we do introduce the kinds of UI described earlier in this ticket. For now, I'd suggest that the instructors find other ways of dealing with this problem.

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#5

Updated by Raymond Hoh over 2 years ago

I think either option 1 or 2 would be good to implement.

Option 2 would offer group admins more flexibility. Perhaps we could implement option 2 like this:

# Sending Posts to the Group

By default, posts on the Group Site are sent to the group's activity stream, which triggers email notifications for subscribed group members. You can modify this behavior with the following settings.

## Allow members with the ___ role the option to send a group email whenever their post is published.

   Members with this role (or with a higher permission) will see a 'Send to Group' checkbox in the editor sidebar when creating a new Group Site post. This checkbox is checked by default. Users can also uncheck this box to prevent having their post sent to group members when publishing.
   Members with a lesser role will not be able to see this checkbox and will not have their Group Site post sent to group members or have their post published to the group's activity stream.

__ would be a select dropdown with all core WordPress roles and would default to "Author". Then for sites like what Laurie mentioned in the main ticket description, the group admin could toggle the role to "Editor" or "Administrator", which would address the issue pretty easily.

The dropdown could also be changed to list just the group roles -- Group Administrators, Group Moderators, Group Members -- if that helps to simplify the terminology, verbiage and options.

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#6

Updated by Boone Gorges over 1 year ago

Category name set to Group Blogs
Assignee set to Boone Gorges
Target version set to 2.2.0

Sorry I lost the thread of this discussion.

Ray, I agree that your framing gives the user more power. But I have a few initial thoughts that make me wary of something this complex:
1. You phrase it as "Allow members...", which I interpret to mean that (a) users who have the role in question will see the 'Send to Group Blog' checkbox, and will be able to check or uncheck it, while (b) users who don't have the role will not see it, and no notifications will be sent. This doesn't cover the case where the administrator wants to force users of a certain level to "send to group blog", and it doesn't cover cases where the administrator wants to give users the ability to choose, but wants to change the default setting.
2. Having a single role dropdown is tricky, because the BP-Groupblog can map to multiple roles. So, if you are mapping moderators to Editor, and members to Author, what would you choose in the dropdown? Author? Should we then assume that this permission/default applies also to Editors (in other words, "Authors and higher")? Or do we need separate dropdowns for each mapped type in the bp-groupblog interface?

It gets pretty complex pretty fast, for what seems IMHO to be a pretty unusual use case. The more "global" settings - set default to on/off, and set whether non-admins are able to override this default setting - feels like it would cover the majority of use cases, in a way that's (again, IMHO) simpler to understand.

Either way, I think we can probably build this for 2.2.0, as long as resources are available.

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#7

Updated by Raymond Hoh over 1 year ago

So, if you are mapping moderators to Editor, and members to Author, what would you choose in the dropdown? Author? Should we then assume that this permission/default applies also to Editors (in other words, "Authors and higher")? Or do we need separate dropdowns for each mapped type in the bp-groupblog interface?

"Authors and higher" is correct. No need for separate dropdowns.

I note this in comment 5 in the code block:

Members with this role (or with a higher permission) will see a 'Send to Group' checkbox in the editor sidebar when creating a new Group Site post. This checkbox is checked by default. Users can also uncheck this box to prevent having their post sent to group members when publishing.

Members with a lesser role will not be able to see this checkbox and will not have their Group Site post sent to group members or have their post published to the group's activity stream.

The verbiage could be changed to explain things better. The copy I wrote above is just some placeholder text.

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#8