[Imc-drupal-dev] drupal and hidden posts

[Cameron Gregg]

David Gehrig wrote:
> Hi, folks --
> 
> Urbana-Champaign is switching over to drupal, and I've found almost all the
> functionality I'm looking for, with one exception -- the ability to see 
> hidden
> comments.  I've set up a page for hidden nodes, but there doesn't seem
> to be a built-in way to make hidden comments visible to anyone but
> administrators.
> 

Hi,

I'm in a rant mood tonight so bare with me.

Let's think about metaphor. Does everyone know metaphor? In the 
multimedia world it's representing a computers function in a way that is 
familiar to non-technical users. Some examples: documents, the desktop, 
the recycle bin.

The desktop on a computer imitates what you would find on a traditional 
desktop - writing tools, drawing tools, etc.

The document, like a piece of paper in real life. sits on your computers 
desktop in the same way, usually with a piece of paper as its icon. The 
recycle bin is also a metaphor, a place where you put discarded things, 
until you it gets disposed of completely. However, you don't usually 
find bins on your real life desktop, so this becomes a mixed metaphor - 
confusing.


Drupal also employs many metaphors. Let's talk about hidden comments.

We have the metaphor of a comment (or node) being published or 
unpublished. We also have the metaphor of the 'approval queue'.

Now Indymedia is kind of unique. We turned the world on its head and 
said "you can post a story and it goes live straight away". This 
bypasses the need for an approval queue. So when using drupal, the 
function of the approval queue is immediately bastardized. Instead of 
being a place where articles sit waiting for a moderator to approve 
them, its a place where total shit from infuriating trolls gets put, 
forever. It's no longer an approval queue where things sit temporarily.

Furthermore, if we start coding so things in the approval queue are 
actually viewable by the public, the metaphor goes straight out the 
window, metaphorically speaking. So unpublished articles are actually 
published? What? eh?

Imagine this.

New indy admin: Where do I find the hidden comments?

Old time indy hack: In the approval queue.

hmmmm.


Ok. Yes this is a fundamentalist rant, but there you go.

:-)

Cam