Finally Comments - Moderate comment threads hide/delete

https://Finallycomments.com

Repository

https://github.com/code-with-sam/finallycomments/

Finally Comments is an embeddable comments system powered by the STEEM blockchain. The aim of this project is to promote the STEEM ecosystem by breaking the comments system out of the walls of STEEM based apps replacing popular comments systems like Disqus & Facebook comments plugin. Comment threads can be created from scratch or can use any existing STEEM comments thread.

New Features

Today I'm happy to release an update that brings moderation to Finallycomments. With the previous update, I introduced guest comments which opened the possibility for abuse without any controls for the website owner to react. With the introduction of moderation the owner of a thread can now hide any comment or delete any guest comment.

The owner of the thread is recognised as the user who created the custom thread (using the finally dashboard or API) or the root_author of a STEEM post if viewing a STEEM thread. Controls for hide + delete will automatically show on threads the user owns.

Not all comments are created equal.

Deleting comments is only possible for Guest comments (those created through the Finally interface by a user who is not authenticated). Guest commented when deleted have their author and content overwritten but a note remains in the thread both for continuity and as a limitation of the nested comment structure.

We can't delete other users content on the blockchain but we may still want the ability to hide it if it's inappropriate for any reason. Hiding comments is a purely UI change and will not have an impact on the raw data stored on the blockchain. Hidden comments can be revealed by the end-user .

Keeping it simple with a moderate in place approach. Rather than have a separate view on the backend dashboard a user can moderate any thread they own from the thread itself.

Spammy/inappropriate comments by STEEM users can be hidden

Guest comments can be deleted and content wiped

Moderation messages still show in the tree view to keep thread continuity.

Thoughts

To be honest I underestimated what would need to be included to implement this moderation. I need to store some form of reference to the deleted/hidden id or permlink to keep the thread structure intact. With that it means maintaining a full list of 'moderated' content and the action that was taken.

I had also not anticipated the multiple different moderation cases being STEEM/Guest/Guest Reply on both STEEM posts and Custom Posts It caught me out and I had to do an extra hotfix after this PR

Roadmap

We're one step closer on the roadmap, still with a full set of features to implement. If you're interested in what else is to come for Finally I wrote up some ideas ~3weeks ago (https://busy.org/@sambillingham/finally-comments-is-now-on-steemprojects-com). I had actually missed Moderation from that list.

If you have ideas, thoughts or requests you're welcome to add them below or on Github Issue tracker (https://github.com/code-with-sam/finallycomments/issues). Github currently has issues/features listed which may be of interest o Finally users.

Github

https://github.com/code-with-sam/finallycomments/pull/27