Who sees reported posts

I am curious, how does the report a post work? Who sees it and how do they respond?

 

Every mod sees it.

 

All of the mods see that there is something in the queue. We then can click on the queue to see what is out there. For 'emergency' stuff like spamvertising, inappropriate images, disallowed language, or technical stuff like deletion of double posts caused by system issues, anyone can respond. For other stuff we generally leave it to the forum mods.

Edit - what ACOD said.

 

I don't believe I've ever used the report feature. I've never seen things get so bad that reporting is necessary. I look at the button like a sort of fire alarm. If something is simply smoking , or if there's a spark, It can be dealt with without sounding the alarm. If things are engulfed in flames, pull the alarm.... but I've never seen things get to that point.

 

That's the ideal use for it, no doubt.

 

So does that mean a moderator gets an alert that a post has been reported? Or does it mean that they have to refresh the page and then something gets sent to them. I did send some but nothing happened so I was unsure if anything went down or what not. If what you say is true then reporting a post requires you to post a message to a moderator because the moderator in that forum may not know till later and will be able handle it.

 

There's a section above the main banner visible to mods that has 'Moderation Queue' and 'Reported Items'. If anything is there we will see a red indicator telling us how many items are in the queue - in the same way you'd see a PM number if you had one waiting. It's very visible and hard to miss.

 

Were they posts that actually should have been reported, or did somebody just say something you didn't like? Like I said, I've never used the thing, but if I did, it would be because somebody threatened or sexually harassed somebody.... something worth reporting. Somebody saying something smart assed or snarky isn't worth reporting, and if you do, you're pretty much abusing the feature.

 

I think, if I may speak to the unspoken question here, is that if the person didn't get banz0rzd, beezel, then the mods didn't see it being as offensive as you did.

 

He brings out a good point. How do we know if the mods give a damn or if they choose to ignore someone? If a post is reported then the moderators of that forum should reply to the person making the charge. Even if they don't think its a problem. It is just before out of courtesy most moderators would send you a response after you reported something to them. Regardless of what it was they would thanks for the update or I don't see it as a problem. Or will take care of it.
I did report a post and got nothing but a half and later I sent a message to the mod. Its only after I viewed the thread I noticed something was done. My question is should moderators be required to send something notifying the person of receipt of problem and what they intend to do about it?

 

No, not really. If you want the exchange to be so personalized, you should PM a mod instead of using the report feature. The report feature should only be used in extreme cases (sexual harassment, threatening, posting personal information, etc).

 

Or Juliet's music.

 

My point was "it's probably not as bad as you're taking it", actually.

 

How do you know if they care or they don't think its a problem. Remember you are saying sexual harassment. Ok, but how do you know that the moderator sees it as sexual harassment or just went to get a cup of coffee and ignored the post? What I am saying is if a moderator reads it and thinks its bad or its not they should have the courtesy to tell you. That way another mod doesn't get an email from you and decides to do something. Or for example if a report isn't read or just ignored by a mod can they be held accountable for not doing there job?

 

I've barely used this feature. The only thing I have done with it so far is reporting my own double/triple/quadruple posts (which get swiftly removed following reporting).

 

But also, and I'm speaking from experience here (as well as addressing the unasked questions from beezel) - there is often going to be scenarios where you feel a post is over the line, offensive, baiting, or flaming and the mod may not agree. It's the benefit, and sometimes curse, of the mod being an objective third party; they can at least see that if tensions are running high both parties are a bit too engaged and a warning to all sides is required, to which the poster who reported the incident replies that the mod is being unfair, biased, or too soft.

It's probably a bit different in terms of the conversational mechanics, as Grimby alludes to above, with the "report" feature but the concept is still the same. If you report a post, and don't see obvious mod action, it may mean they don't agree with you it's problematic. Or they may address the offending poster directly and without public spectacle.

Just because you don't see the response you expected, beez, doesn't mean something isn't happening that you're unaware of.

 

...He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts...

 

Back in my mod days, my favourites were when someone reported a post for flaming and then it transpires that the reporter was flaming even more and ended up getting banned themselves.

 

IMO the report feature is way too easy to use and doesn't offer you that minute to think twice about things that a pm does. I speak objectively from my own misuse of it. It's easy. It's there. 90% of the time you're probably over offended about some nonsense, if it's anything other than a blatant swearing flame or goatse, and I don't mean that to you specifically Beezel but to you, me, anyone. But then again I guess it avoids the whole complaints getting forgotten through pm etc. (although maybe that might be a blessing in some instances)

Also what is all this nonsense about receipts. Maybe MS should consider opening a paypal for tips - $1 per complaint receipt. THINK OF THE RICHES.