This is purely a discussion thread. It’s no place for insulting, flaming, threatening, derailing or otherwise bullying.
My short time on this forum has shown me how flawed the report system actually is and how easily exploitable it is. The fact it takes just a handful of unhappy forumers to hide a topic/post is a bit ridiculous. And I’m not defending rule breakers - they should be punished. What I’m talking about is some people fundamentally disagreeing with some other people and because they have no real arguments they turn to the report function under false pretenses. I find that wrong.
Now, obviously, the report function is there for a reason - without it this forum would undoubtedly fall to chaos. However, I think the current iteration is far from adequate. For example, I don’t think that forumers should be able, based on the number of reports, hide topics/posts (I know they don’t themselves physically hide them, it’s done automatically by the system, but it’s due to their actions that topics/posts get hidden). I also find it counter-productive that a “hidden” post can just be toggled by the reader, if they want to read it anyway. Like, either hide/delete it forever, or don’t do it in the first place. What this does is put a blemish on the topic/post and, in turn, on the poster, based (mostly) on some random group of dissatisfied individuals.
What I suggest is tweaking the system a bit. For example:
Keep the report function but it takes more people to successfully get a post/topic hidden. As far as I know, currently only 5 forumers need to report a topic/post, before they are hidden. I suggest increasing that number to at least 10.
If a post/topic is hidden, then it should stay hidden. No option to toggle the text to read it. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Currently, from what I’ve experienced, there is hardly any punishment for abusing the system. I’ve had people threaten me with flagging on all my posts, regardless of content, yet such individuals are still roaming free. That should be something that’s also investigated - false allegations and all that.
Last but not least, and I admit I am not sure at all if this is not already the case, but more personal investigation by forum moderators. Any topic/posts, should they gather a high enough reports, be personally investigated by a moderator, in order to determine whether there is factual reason for said report. Again, if this is always the case, then great. But if it’s left to some automated system that recognizes certain words/word combinations as punishable, that’s not acceptable.
What do you guys think? This thread probably has a few hours to live before it gets reported into oblivion, so let’s discuss while we can!
Someone abuses the flag as a downvote, we all know and see this. Its wrong and gives the moderators more work then needed making it take longer for them to review the posts that actually breaks the code of conduct.
Afaik every flagged post gets reviewed by a moderator and then the moderator decides what action is taken. Unhide the post, delete it, give the owner of post a vacation and so on.
I have mixed feelings about it, but ultimately I think it’s a good thing.
I very rarely see it abused. Ive had many posts flags and in the moment I’m like for real? But looking back I’m more so of the opinion that yeah, I was probably just ‘trolling’ around and muddying the waters.
When someone says something dumb, a recent example would be the blatantly sexist individuals after the recent news, until the system punishes that player, that player will continue to attract attention. Other people will dish out their own justice in the form of replies until the system takes action.
Without it, threads would get derailed.
Obviously a better system would be manual only flagging, not automated, but that’s just not a reasonable reality right now.
It’s bad and flagging is way too easy, but it’s not just the report function/flagging. The ignore function and the moderation here are another two things that are seriously flawed.
Ignoring someone does nothing. You’ll still see their threads in the list and their posts in them, except it says “ignored content” instead of the actual content of the post, and on top of that, all the ignored user needs to do is switch to a new character and bam, no longer ignored by anybody. This gets abused constantly. The only way to “avoid” threads by people you don’t want to see is to hide those threads individually, but you have no way of avoiding the person entirely.
Second, the moderaton. I had my post removed for expressing that I’m not sure whether another poster is troling or just really stupid after they said that Warcraftlogs is a tool for Google to extract personal information from users, in a post where the OP was genuinely asking about how WCL works. I really don’t think calling someone stupid for saying something that insane warants a straight up removal of the post.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this got removed again just for using the word “stupid”.
We see the comments of ‘forum illuminati’, ‘poster x and friends’, ‘discords organising flagging’ etc as a regular excuse when posts are flagged. It takes just five reports to bury a post. Out of all the people using the forums, that’s not a lot of people.
At that point it’s just waiting for moderator review, the post can still be read, people are a lot more curious about a buried post than one that isnt’. Nine times out of ten you can see the reason that a post is buried, it’s trolling, insulting, swearing, breaking the rules in a very obvious way etc.
I don’t see any point in increasing the hide requirement, it’s simply a system that means no more flags are necessary, a moderator will review it. The job is done.
Topics that are hidden should absolutely be readable. They have only been flagged by users of the forum. A moderator is the only person who can make a judgement as to whether or not the post requires any action. If hidden posts couldn’t be read you really would end up with people coordinating to silence others. No posters should have the power to silence others.
Not all flagged posts are removed or result in a punishment by the moderators. Does that make the reporter wrong. Should they be punished, ofc not. If someone is using their alts to bury posts then yes, they absolutely should be punished and we have blue posts that explain that is punished. If we all posted at a bnet level this wouldn’t be an issue IMO. Every other Blizz forum works on this basis.
What automation do you think the forums have? The only automation is the notifications when your post is buried, or when your post has been reviewed/actioned.
I’ve had posts removed that never got hidden, so i think the moderators review even if a post gets a single flag. I guess the 5 flags just moves it higher up in the queue or something.
It would certainly be helpful to have more moderators, who could be more active and could look at a whole thread and context, rather than just a flagged post in isolation.
I am concerned that the closure of the office in France will mean that we have less moderation on the forums - I have been surprised that some posts which in my opinion are completely unacceptable have not been removed and users are still posting. This doesn’t make for a pleasant environment for the rest of us.
There was a thread made by a well known DH recently that lasted 5mins before it was removed ,he then remade it and it resulted in a war of words for about 5 hours if not longer before being closed at times it is very strange how things work .
Another example is a well known thread about LBQT+ that went on for 9 months it finally shut at no reply for 30 days but some of the actions in that thread should have seen it closed before and people actioned on .
I didnt follow that gay marriage topic too close myself cause i know how it usually goes by now, but they must at least have moderated it along the way and removed posts that needed removing?
for real? But looking back I’m more so of the opinion that yeah, I was probably just ‘trolling’ around and muddying the waters.