Trailforks content is structured by regional hierarchy. We are able to assign users or groups permissions to a region within this hierarchal structure. Doing so will also grant these users permission over all content under that point in the hierarchy.
Most forms of content on the site require confirmation before that content is published. This moderation can happen in 1 of 3 ways:
1. A regional admin approves the content.
2. A Trailforks staff member approves the content.
3. The community approves the content by voting on it; the content receive 5 positive votes in order to be published.
The expectations of a regional admin are that this user will oversee the content confirmation, quality, and curation for that region. We prefer to have locals taking care of content moderation rather than Trailforks staff since a local user will know their area and politics better. Regional admins are usually members of the local trail association board of directors. However, the system will work regardless of how active a regional admin chooses to be; it's possible that updates and new content could take longer to be approved and could result in some data being missed or confirmed incorrectly. The power of a crowd-sourced database is that any missing, incorrect, or sensitive data can be revised or reported by anyone.
There are some granular controls to which permissions we can assign to users over a region, but generally, when we assign someone as a "regional admin," these are the responsibilities that this user will take on:
- Add & edit trails without needing confirmation by a moderator or the community voting system.
- Instantly approve or reject any pending new content or revisions.
- Receive email notifications when there is a pending edit needing approval.
- View revision logs of content.
- View unpublished content in the region, with the ability to publish or unpublish content.
- View abuse reports on content and take action on these reports.
- Assign permission to other users over the region.
- Set-up groups.
- Assign trail funding goals for the region's trails.
- Export trail data in the region as a spreadsheet.
- Download region trail data in KML, GPX, or OSM formats.
- Use the bulk edit/move trail tool.
- View hidden trails in the region.
- Access to additional trail filters.
If you are interested in becoming a regional admin, you can apply here.