The administrator can add, edit and delete any listing in the database regardless of the listing owner. These actions are accomplished using pages from Listing Management section in the administration menu.

Need Moderation (NM) and Trusted Users

We have introduced a new system of listing moderation. This system is greatly enhancing the ability for the admin to counter and combat the following problems:

This is especially helpful for those website owners who are setting up free to list websites, preventing illegal or unwanted content to be displayed on the website and causing possible legal action towards the website owners.

The listing moderation system contains three key components: listing pre-moderation and post moderation, and user status update (trusted users vs. non-trusted users).

The listing pre-moderation system works for free and paid listings. It allows the admin to screen all listings created by users and approve them prior for listings to go live.

There's also a post-moderation system that gives the admin the ability to moderate listings after they have been edited or updated by the owner.

Important: By default, all listings are moderated; all new users are not trusted. To "turn off" the moderation system, you will need to set all users as trusted as they sign up. If you have any suggestions on how to improve this system, please contact Sales or Support with your particular suggestions.

How It Works

When the Moderation system is activated, a newly created listing is not automatically activated. Instead, it gets the "Pending" status. It becomes active only after the admin's approval. The admin may "Approve" listings to accept them for publishing, or "Reject" the ones that he thinks require an update or re-formulation, or feature undesired content. The approved listings become active, whereas the rejected ones remain inactive.

The Moderation system is further enhanced by the Trusted User module. It gives the administrator the ability to set user as "Trusted Users". By default, all listings of "Trusted Users" are activated immediately upon the creation, and are updated immediately if free, or upon the successful payment if paid.

However, even Trusted Users listings may be rejected ("Rejected" status) by admin. In this case, the user will have to update the listing. After the update, the rejected listing receives the "Pending" status even if it belongs to a Trusted User. Only the admin can change the listing status from "Pending" to "Approved".

To designate a user a Trusted User, go to Admin Panel -> User Management -> Manage Users > Edit User Info. On that page, check the "Trusted User" box.

To set/unset multiple users' status as Trusted Users, on the Admin Panel -> User Management -> Manage Users page, check/uncheck relevant users and click Make Trusted / Make Untrusted.

Listing Moderation

The current listing status is displayed in the Status field. The system has the following listings statuses:

The admin may set any status to any listing, except for "Pending".

Moderation Status Display in the Front End

Listing owner can view the current status of the listing on the MyListings page. The status is displayed by the search_results.tpl template.

If a listing status is either "Rejected" or "Pending", the listing owner can only update or delete the listing.

If a listing is approved by the admin, the listing owner is also allowed to activate/deactivate the listing. Free listings are activated immediately, their activation date is set to the current, and the expiration date is set with respect to it. Paid listings can be deactivated by listing owners, but to reactivate such listings, the owner will have to pay for them.

If a listing is approved by the admin, the system sets the current date as its activation date and sets the expiration date as well. The rejected listings' expiration dates are not changed after the admin approval.