Suggestion Reports page

[smileyhead]

It would act similarly to the Warnings page. Everyone can only see their own. It would list all the reports someone did, if they were rejected or not, and the mod responses (if applicable). It could also come with a counter for successful reports; basically a thing that shows someone's contribution to forum decency.

 

[Deleted User]

successful reports

Yeah no thanks. I don't want reports to be a totem of good. They should just be reports.Somebody shouldn't have to be given a cookie or a star to report bad things on the forum.

 

[VinsCool]

successful reports

Yeah no thanks. I don't want reports to be a totem of good. They should just be reports.Somebody shouldn't have to be given a cookie or a star to report bad things on the forum.

I quite like the idea.
I know people in here doing backseat moderation, that is being constantly reporting a post they don't like.
If their reports get constantly rejected, a counter could be seen by moderators, so they don't get taken seriously, compared to those making good reports.

 

[Deleted User]

I quite like the idea.
I know people in here doing backseat moderation, that is being constantly reporting a post they don't like.
If their reports get constantly rejected, a counter could be seen by moderators, so they don't get taken seriously, compared to those making good reports.

I'm sure the mods know who does that already. We really don't need a counter. You can already see a mod's message back for a report on the alerts page.

 

[MartinDocNewland]

Sniches gets stiches lol

 

[VinsCool]

I'm sure the mods know who does that already. We really don't need a counter. You can already see a mod's message back for a report on the alerts page.

I know that, but as Smiley suggested, it would be very useful for a member doing reports.
If they do it wrong, they would at least know it.

 

[Deleted User]

I know that, but as Smiley suggested, it would be very useful for a member doing reports.
If they do it wrong, they would at least know it.

What do you mean by do it wrong? Report or doing wrong?

 

[VinsCool]

What do you mean by do it wrong? Report or doing wrong?

Doing reports wrong.
If they see their reports are always rejected, that would mean they do it wrong.
That would also prevent them to do backseat moderation, aka, reporting the same post over and over because they don't like it.
Hopefully, it would help to make this forum a better place.

But then again, that is my own point of view regarding the suggestion.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

IMO it's pointless. If a report is rejected and it requires a reason, mods will add that reason. This sounds like nothing more than another epeen monitoring tool. As mentioned, you don't need a gold star every time you make a report.

 

[Chary]

Good in theory. But I feel like it'd just cause people to start treating it like they do the "like" system. Using it to circlejerk to how many reports they shove out a day. Then, you'd get people reporting nonsense just to report it, and the mods have to deal with useless reports taking time away from actual reports. The people who need to know, know already (the mod staff).

 

[Hells Malice]

You already can see if your report is acted upon. Either the post is deleted, a thread locked, etc. No reason to make a circlejerk log for people to wank to. It'd serve literally no purpose other than to increase epeen, and I'm sure it'd also massively inflate retarded reports. It's also just a waste of time to implement.

 

[VinsCool]

IMO it's pointless. If a report is rejected and it requires a reason, mods will add that reason. This sounds like nothing more than another epeen monitoring tool. As mentioned, you don't need a gold star every time you make a report.

Yeah, I guess you're right about this.
I guess it was mostly for the sake of report history, but yeah, we never had such a thing, and it worked well.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

This wouldn't be necessary if there weren't different rules for "regulars" and other posters, because there'd be no reason to reject the report unless it wasn't actually against the rules. Yet the rules fluctuate based on time of day, the mod's mood, and the current alignment of the planets.

 

[evandixon]

As a forum administrator (elsewhere), I have to disagree with this suggestion.

• Reports are a way for users to alert staff of posts that may need moderator action. After the report is submitted, users are no longer part of the process, and a staff member either takes action, chooses to not take action, or starts discussion about what to do. Sometimes there's gray areas and edge cases where a user is not wrong to report something and a staff member is not wrong to take no action.
• If a user is reporting things they shouldn't, or if a user is reporting the same things multiple times, a staff member will contact that user, saying to stop. My site actually has a warning category for misusing the report button, since have had people use the report button thinking it's the reply button, despite the labels that say otherwise.
• A counter of reports made by a particular user that had action taken would have no benefit except maybe to administrators, who can already look up that information. A better metric for community contribution is karma/likes, even though it can be abused, because it measures direct contributions to the community. This is the job of the users. It's the moderators' job to do behind-the-scenes and janitorial work.

There's also the consideration that it would require quite a heavy modification to the CMS, one which probably(tm) isn't already available for XenForo, and one which I'm sure the administrators here would not want to make themselves.

I quite like the idea.
If their reports get constantly rejected, a counter could be seen by moderators, so they don't get taken seriously, compared to those making good reports.

So because someone cries wolf, the moderators should pay less attention to their report about NSFW spam? Moderators should do no such thing, instead telling a user to stop if the user misuses the report button.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

It would act similarly to the Warnings page. Everyone can only see their own. It would list all the reports someone did, if they were rejected or not, and the mod responses (if applicable). It could also come with a counter for successful reports; basically a thing that shows someone's contribution to forum decency.

I feel like this could go either way. It might help people improve at reporting posts by learning what to report and not to, but there will always be those that just use it as an epeen measurement, as others have mentioned.
I am neither for or against it, it sounds like a good idea in theory though the reality might be different.

BTW, might want to reduce your sig size by about 90%. 600KB is way over the max limit. Edit: "The maximum combined file size for all graphics in a member's avatar and signature is: 80KB"
Protip, animated gifs get huge very quickly since they have no compression. Try reducing it to as few frames as possible.

 

[VinsCool]

As a forum administrator (elsewhere), I have to disagree with this suggestion.

• Reports are a way for users to alert staff of posts that may need moderator action. After the report is submitted, users are no longer part of the process, and a staff member either takes action, chooses to not take action, or starts discussion about what to do. Sometimes there's gray areas and edge cases where a user is not wrong to report something and a staff member is not wrong to take no action.
• If a user is reporting things they shouldn't, or if a user is reporting the same things multiple times, a staff member will contact that user, saying to stop. My site actually has a warning category for misusing the report button, since have had people use the report button thinking it's the reply button, despite the labels that say otherwise.
• A counter of reports made by a particular user that had action taken would have no benefit except maybe to administrators, who can already look up that information. A better metric for community contribution is karma/likes, even though it can be abused, because it measures direct contributions to the community. This is the job of the users. It's the moderators' job to do behind-the-scenes and janitorial work.

There's also the consideration that it would require quite a heavy modification to the CMS, one which probably(tm) isn't already available for XenForo, and one which I'm sure the administrators here would not want to make themselves.


So because someone cries wolf, the moderators should pay less attention to their report about NSFW spam? Moderators should do no such thing, instead telling a user to stop if the user misuses the report button.

I have to agree with you.
I was going with my own point of view, but as a mere member of a forum.

Couldn't always have the best ideas, right?
At least I tried. I saw good in the suggestion, but now I realise that it may be quite different in practice.
Thanks for giving your input.

 

[Hells Malice]

This wouldn't be necessary if there weren't different rules for "regulars" and other posters, because there'd be no reason to reject the report unless it wasn't actually against the rules. Yet the rules fluctuate based on time of day, the mod's mood, and the current alignment of the planets.

This is a forum, not a court room. Rules are enforced but context is a thing. Obviously every moderator will have their own bias, but they're trusted enough to become staff for a reason.

If the rules were followed to a T, here or any forum, it'd be dead for being too rigid. You can play victim and cry but that doesn't change that rules are enforced, and reports are acted upon when necessary. Most posts slip by because they're never reported even if they break rules, since most people aren't all snowflakes.

 

[Sicklyboy]

As a forum administrator (elsewhere), I have to disagree with this suggestion.

• Reports are a way for users to alert staff of posts that may need moderator action. After the report is submitted, users are no longer part of the process, and a staff member either takes action, chooses to not take action, or starts discussion about what to do. Sometimes there's gray areas and edge cases where a user is not wrong to report something and a staff member is not wrong to take no action.
• If a user is reporting things they shouldn't, or if a user is reporting the same things multiple times, a staff member will contact that user, saying to stop. My site actually has a warning category for misusing the report button, since have had people use the report button thinking it's the reply button, despite the labels that say otherwise.
• A counter of reports made by a particular user that had action taken would have no benefit except maybe to administrators, who can already look up that information. A better metric for community contribution is karma/likes, even though it can be abused, because it measures direct contributions to the community. This is the job of the users. It's the moderators' job to do behind-the-scenes and janitorial work.

There's also the consideration that it would require quite a heavy modification to the CMS, one which probably(tm) isn't already available for XenForo, and one which I'm sure the administrators here would not want to make themselves.

This x1000. When handling reports, if it's a report that the requester could benefit from a brief update from, usually such as requests to lock or change the title of their own thread, I have the option to close it and notify them it was closed and provide an option closure note in the notification, which will usually just be something like "Done!". If someone reports a post because there is a legitimate issue with it, I'll delete the post. If you're so interested, keep an eye on that specific post and see if a delete reason is given. If you just report a user profile with something like "This person is repeatedly going into threads and spewing nonsense" and don't provide direct links (individual posts should have been reported in the first place) I'll reject it with a note saying to provide specific examples; I'm not going on a witch hunt for you.

If a post is reported because someone did something marginally rude like call you an idiot, I'll probably silently reject it on account of me not being here to protect everyone's feelings (this site would have about 8 posts otherwise). If they called you something a bit more abrasive than that though I'll look into it.

tl;dr the report system is here because the literally hundreds of thousands of users that we have (disregarding how many are or aren't active) have many more eyes on the forum than the two dozen or so staff members we have that can access the reports system. User submitted reports help us help you uphold the community standards we have established over the years, both in writing and in practice. Without the reports, with only staff eyes on the entirety of the forum, it would quickly run rampant with rude, off topic, or even illegal content, as we don't nor will a community of this size ever have enough staff members to police the forum on our own. What it's not, is a mechanism for members to feel rewarded, track stats, or compete against one another to see who has submitted the all-time highest reports.

As much of a feel-good'y, groan-inducing reply this may be, if you're looking for a way to see someone's or your own contribution to overall forum decency, look around at the forum as it stands now - that's what your contribution is. If it doesn't meet your standards, if you think there's room for improvement, be the change that you want to see in the forum. Lead by example, don't get caught up in the drama and the bullshit, and if you see someone causing issues, don't even acknowledge it, just report it. Everyone here is our eyes and ears to help ensure you have as safe and enjoyable of an experience as we can possibly provide.

 

[WeedZ]

Is it still not ok for me to report myself for being too sexy? Someone wasn't happy about that.

 

[Costello]

As a forum administrator (elsewhere), I have to disagree with this suggestion.

• Reports are a way for users to alert staff of posts that may need moderator action. After the report is submitted, users are no longer part of the process, and a staff member either takes action, chooses to not take action, or starts discussion about what to do. Sometimes there's gray areas and edge cases where a user is not wrong to report something and a staff member is not wrong to take no action.
• If a user is reporting things they shouldn't, or if a user is reporting the same things multiple times, a staff member will contact that user, saying to stop. My site actually has a warning category for misusing the report button, since have had people use the report button thinking it's the reply button, despite the labels that say otherwise.
• A counter of reports made by a particular user that had action taken would have no benefit except maybe to administrators, who can already look up that information. A better metric for community contribution is karma/likes, even though it can be abused, because it measures direct contributions to the community. This is the job of the users. It's the moderators' job to do behind-the-scenes and janitorial work.

There's also the consideration that it would require quite a heavy modification to the CMS, one which probably(tm) isn't already available for XenForo, and one which I'm sure the administrators here would not want to make themselves.


So because someone cries wolf, the moderators should pay less attention to their report about NSFW spam? Moderators should do no such thing, instead telling a user to stop if the user misuses the report button.

I'm going to have to agree with Evan here nicely put