Support Forums: Moderation notice is not always displayed when it should

[SergeyBiryukov]

#1561 implemented a notice for posts caught in the moderation queue.

The notice is supposed to give the user some visual feedback and prevent them from submitting the same post multiple times. However, the notice is only displayed for flagged users and pending posts.

The notice is not displayed:

• For non-flagged users.
• For spam posts.

Sometimes Akismet doesn't flag the initial post, but flags an edited version. When that happens, the post just disappears without any notice. Sometimes Akismet does flag the initial post, but if the user is not flagged, they won't see the post or the notice either.

Attached is a patch for wporg-bbp-user-moderation plugin that amends [4216] to always display the notice when appropriate.

[SergeyBiryukov]

2966.patch​ was ​approved in a chat with @clorith.

Some considerations:

• This part of the ​forum guidelines is not entirely accurate at the moment: "The following message will appear if posts are caught as potential spam, or if an account has been flagged to require moderation..."
• If a post is caught by Akismet, users tend to submit it over and over again because they think the submission has failed for some reason, and this only makes things worse and adds more work for moderators. Avoiding that was the main goal for the notice, but it cannot be achieved if the notice is not displayed.
• Of course, we don't want to give spammers any insight into the moderation workflow. However, for a spammer it's pretty obvious that if the post immediately disappears (as it currently does), it has triggered some filter. I don't think the notice makes any difference for them, it does for a regular user though.
• If the user is blocked, they only see a generic message with no call to action or timeframe: This post has been held for moderation by our automated system. -- that part doesn't change. However, I'm not sure if it's helpful at all, as users are generally blocked with the offending posts removed at the same time, so they would never see the message.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 5957:

Support Forums, User Moderation: Display a notice indicating that a post is being held for moderation to non-flagged users as well.

Amends [4216] to always display the notice when appropriate.

Fixes #2966.