VIP Listings and Moderation

VIP listings move a card into the showcase and to the top of a category. Moderation decides whether the listing appears in the feed at all. If you enable payment before the queue, you get paid spam and refunds. On client domains, I always tie these two mechanisms into one procedure.

Basic board launch: manual. This article is about statuses and money.

Listing statuses the admin area needs

• Pending moderation - not visible in the public feed or search.
• Approved - visible and eligible for VIP/bump purchase.
• Rejected - reason visible to the author, resubmission after edits.
• Blocked - complaints or repeat violations; services are not sold.
• Archive / expired - lifetime ended; remove from VIP too.

Confusion starts when "paid for VIP" changes the status while bypassing moderation. Do not do that. Payment changes promotion flags and vip_until, not the right to be published.

Moderator queue: real UI flow

1. Open Queue and sort by submission date.
2. Review photos; preview plus one large image is often enough.
3. Check category and city; half the junk falls away here.
4. Approve or reject with a short reason template.
5. For repeated violations, restrict the account, not only the card.

Reaction time matters more than perfect rejection text. If the queue hangs for days, authors leave and do not return to pay for VIP. Moderator alerts are convenient through Telegram.

How VIP works in the script

Usually there are three entities:

• a VIP flag or term on the listing;
• display location: homepage, category top, recommended block;
• tariff: 1 / 7 / 30 days, sometimes packages for N listings for agencies.

Bump is a separate service: it moves bumped_at, so the card rises in "new first" sorting. VIP without bump should still be visible through a label. Do not combine "showcase and bump forever" in one button; reports become impossible.

Packages and paid placement are described more broadly in paid listings.

Procedure: queue first, cashier second

The working order I give the client in a one-page PDF:

1. Author submits listing, status becomes pending moderation.
2. Moderator approves, then a Promotion block appears in the account.
3. VIP/bump payment, webhook or manual confirmation, term is saved.
4. When the term expires, cron removes flags; the card remains ordinary if it has not expired.

If payment fails, the listing must not appear in VIP "on trust". If a moderator rejects an already paid item, which is rare but happens after content substitution, there must be a compensation scenario: move the service to another listing or refund it. Without a scenario, support burns.

Anti-spam required for VIP

• Limit active listings per account.
• Limit new submissions per day for fresh registrations.
• User reports with reason.
• Stop words in titles, based on the niche.
• Duplicate phone checks across accounts.

A VIP showcase full of spam kills trust faster than no VIP at all. An empty block is better than three scam cards with a frame.

Connection with the rest of the product

Classified as product: turnkey, engine overview: PHP board, positioning: Avito-like. Photos for VIP cards must be readable in small previews; otherwise the frame only highlights a blurry image.

Bottom line: moderation protects the feed, VIP monetizes attention. Reverse the order and you get a paid dump. Follow the status procedure and the showcase starts earning without constant firefighting.

Reports owners ask for

Weekly I export a simple table: approved listings, VIP purchases, bumps, payment total, and services removed because of complaints. Without this, the owner may think "moderation is killing revenue" while the queue is actually spam. Admin filters "currently VIP" and "expires tomorrow" are useful so a manager can offer renewal before the showcase reaches zero.

For agencies, create a package: N listings plus VIP discount, with a separate agreement outside the script. In the script, keep active-card limit and package term. When the term ends, do not delete cards silently: move them to ordinary mode and notify the author. Silent expiration without email means a call about "where did my objects go".

Complaints about VIP cards

VIP is not immunity. If a fraud complaint arrives, hide the card first and investigate after. Record the paid term in the service order comment so compensation is clear. Repeated complaints on one account mean stop selling services and review all active lots manually. One toxic card in the showcase damages trust in the whole "recommended" block.

• Hide, investigate, then restore, reject, or block account.
• Do not leave the VIP label on a hidden card in the homepage cache.
• Clear showcase cache after moderation actions.

A finite number of VIP slots on the homepage is better: 8-12 cards. An endless showcase becomes a second feed and stops selling. Scarcity of slots is a normal pricing lever.

Messages to authors about services

After paying for VIP, the author must see the term and placement location in the account. One day before expiration, send a short reminder by email or Telegram. After expiration, state the fact without drama. If payment succeeded but the label is missing because of cache, that is your failure; fix it and compensate with an extension, not an argument. Clear terms reduce refunds better than a "first VIP" discount.

Do not sell services on listings that expire tomorrow by lifetime. Either extend placement first or make the cashier refuse honestly. Otherwise you get a payment for three real display days and a negative reaction. Moderation and VIP are one path: first the right to be in the feed, then the right to buy attention above it.

At month end, compare VIP share in views and complaints. If showcase complaints are higher than normal feed complaints, make pre-moderation stricter for paid cards too. Money does not cancel platform rules. Normal authors understand why the showcase is clean and keep paying.

Testing service payment on staging

Before production, I run the full circle: approve listing, buy VIP with a test key, see the label, wait for removal by term or force expiration in admin. In parallel, verify that rejected listings cannot buy the service. If the payment provider account is shared with another site, separate shop and webhook URLs, or statuses will be mixed. Store payment_id in the service, not only in a manager email.

When an agency asks for an invoice without online payment, create the package manually using the same term field as automatic payment. Otherwise a month later some "special" VIP cards will hang without an end date. Moderation and cashier must speak the same language of terms, or the showcase becomes a manual spreadsheet again.