Prevent 'authors' from deleting listings

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Tagged: claim listing, Delete

Author

Posts
September 1, 2015 at 10:24 pm #51636
Y A
Expired Member

Post count: 156
Hi,

When a user claims a listing, they get author privileges do that post, right?

I have tried changing author capabilities as such:
```
$role = get_role( 'author' );
$role->remove_cap( 'delete_posts' );
$role->remove_cap( 'delete_published_posts' );
```
I have checked to see that authors have indeed lost that capability, and everything is fine.
But, it seems that users (who are subscribers, by default) can still delete posts which they have claimed.

How can I prevent them from doing so?
September 1, 2015 at 10:28 pm #51638
Guust
Moderator

Post count: 29970
Hide the “delete” link using CSS?
```
a.geodir-delete {display:none}
```
September 1, 2015 at 10:32 pm #51639

Y A
Expired Member

Post count: 156

What if a sneaky user manually changes the CSS?

September 2, 2015 at 9:27 am #51658

Stiofan O’Connor
Site Admin

Post count: 22956

This was discussed before and we decided if a user wants his data deleted then it should be permanently deleted, however given that they might claim a listing with the intention of just deleting it, i will add an option in the next ver to select if it gets totaly deleted or just sent to trash.

Thanks,

Stiofan

September 2, 2015 at 10:50 am #51664

Y A
Expired Member

Post count: 156

Okay, thanks.
The reason I am looking for this is because someone might want to delete their listing if it has tons of negative reviews. For example, I doubt Yelp allows deleting listings (that would be unfair to the reviewers).

October 3, 2015 at 4:26 am #55563

macnikki
Expired Member

Post count: 4

I have the same concern. A user could end up with lots of negative reviews and they can just go in and delete their listing. Then they can immediately set up a new listing with all the same information on the same user account and none of the negative reviews are displayed.

In the short term I will hide the delete link with CSS but this is not a great long term solution.

Is it possible that a user can have their listing permanently disabled, so it cannot be seen, but all the listing information and reviews stay attached to it so if they ever try to set up a new user account with the same email address it will not let them, and if they reactivate their old listing the review data is still there?

Thanks, Nikki

October 3, 2015 at 4:49 am #55568

Guust
Moderator

Post count: 29970

Not sure about the privacy laws in your country, but usually people and businesses have the right not to be listed on somebody else’s website. If you do not remove details of people on request, I think you might have to deal with some abuse reports to your host in the future. Just a thought.

October 3, 2015 at 5:19 am #55570

macnikki
Expired Member

Post count: 4

I understand the issue with privacy laws and agree that everyone should have the right to delete their account. However, they should not have the option to open a new account with the same email address and use this as a way of getting rid of negative reviews. It might be possible for example to allow them to deactivate the account, delete all their data, but then block that email address from setting up a new account. I was able to create a listing, add a review from someone else, log back in and delete the account altogether, then immediately set up a new account using the same email address with none of the negative reviews showing. It makes it very very easy for people to just eliminate their bad reviews.

Other organizations (e.g. Trip Advisor and AirBNB) get around this by requiring anyone who has deleted their account to have to contact the organization to have their account reestablished. You can delete your account and all information is removed but you cannot create a new account using the same details so they must be storing the email addresses of closed accounts somewhere that then blocks them being reestablished.

October 3, 2015 at 6:19 am #55571

Stiofan O’Connor
Site Admin

Post count: 22956

This is now an option under GD general settings.

October 3, 2015 at 6:23 am #55572

macnikki
Expired Member

Post count: 4

Thanks Stiofan – yes when I deleted the listing it did go to trash. But it did not stop me from immediately setting up a new listing with the same email address and then not showing any of those negative reviews as they were linked to the post in trash.

Nikki
Author

Posts