Is it bad practice to store user input in the same table where the admin stores data?

Question

If in a web app, let's say an app that has a table with stored street address (Strings), the admin of the app will be adding data often to grow his archive. The table (MySQL) has a primary key with AUTO_INC.

The web app allows the users to add addresses themselves. Once a user enters an address say X, ALL of the users of the application will be able to see the address X when searching for available addresses.

What if, since address is a string, a user stores inappropriate content(like bad words, for example)? This might offend some users and push them to stop using the app.

So I was thinking of what would be better:

• Storing user input in a separate table ("pending input"), until the admin approves them and then they're moved the official table?
• Or store the inputs in same table of the admin's inputs table, but put a temporary flag on each entered record (by the users) so that they are only visible to that user until the admin approves them?

On a side note, is it logical to limit each user to have a specific amount of input addresses per day that they can add (some spammers might fill the table with thousands of useless records)?

Answer 1

I would always put data of the same type in one table and rather add some simple columns with flags in a single table. This will make adding new features to your system in a later stage probably much easier to accomplish. Especially if other developers will be working on the project.

The problem with a limited amount of submissions by users, is that you limit the most active users. You can follow the StackExchange philosophy. The first time a user adds an address, it first needs to be approved. Then you can create a trusted base of users, and there is no reason to restrict those users at all. Don't make it to complicated however. Dividing users in new users and trusted users should be enough, if you also add some opportunity for regular users to report spam-input with a simple button. Do not make your system more restricted than necessary, that will scare of potential active users.