Extending Chatter

Hi,

I'm working on a new forum and would like to leverage Chatter as the backbone. The issue I'm facing is extending the package. I took a look at the many files included and would like the ability to call the functions myself. I.e. When a user posts a new discussion, I'd like to:

1. Check if user is moderator (If yes set status to 1)
2. Check if user is administrator (If yes set status to 1)

I've tried using the built in function chatter_after_new_discussion, but I can't because the discussion variable isn't passed in.

I don't want to hard code this into the pack as a composer update will overwrite my changes. I heard this can be accomplished using Laravel's Service Provider but couldn't find a definitive method for implementing this. Can someone post a simple walkthrough/steps to get this done using the following function:

@store within ChatterDiscussionController.php