How much can the Report button be used?

[Duke]

I have never used the report button, if it is really serious (severe ranting, attacking everything that moves) and I'm the first to come across it, I don't particulary want to get involved because then they might turn on me, if everyone did this when they was trouble then the person wouldn't get the satisfaction of causing trouble. Thats how I see it.

Except that the Report system is totally anonymous to the users, so the problem user has no way to "turn on you". The staff knows who reported which post and of course who made the post in question, but the problem user has no way to know unless the reporter makes a post himself saying "I just reported you."

If everyone refused to use the report button the staff would have to find every bad post by ourselves, which would allow the forums to get out of control. There are a limited number of staff members, even with our new additions, and we've had upwards of a thousand active users online at any given time. As others have said above, we NEED good citizens to bring trouble to our attention. Everything Greycap outlined in his first post should get reported, with of course priority put on hostile attacks and foul language.

 

[Coxis]

Just remember, we can only moderate what we see - we can't take action against someone in chat unless we can see they are breaking the rules.

But you can pull the chat records for that right?

 

[niky]

You'd think a friendly pointer from another member would be better than an official warning from the staff but after I tried to help someone here and got vindicated by a bunch of people who had nothing to do with it I learnt to just report if required and not "go public". Shame really.

With grammar, it's hit and miss. You can try a friendly reminder that goes like this: "By the way, keep it clean... this site is notoriously strict about proper grammar..."

Put yourself on their side. Try not to come off too "high and mighty" or sarcastic... as once you put them on the defensive, it's game over.

 

[Sage]

I would go against the grain here and suggest that PM'ing a mod is not the best way to contact us, unless what you are asking directly concerns that mod. What if the mod you pick had just popped on to check something and didn't have time? What if he was just about to log off? What if he had went away out leaving his PC on GTP and so wasn't even there?

Ditto that. Usually I only have time to quickly float in and out of GTP, so if you send me a PM there's a good chance I'm not going to get to it for some hours, while if you use the Report button it'll probably be dealt with in short order. PMs are fine for non-time-sensitive things though like "Is it okay if I make this thread...?"

 

[speedthrill]

We had a rep system in the past but Jordan removed it. People abused this system. A thank you button is less messy and less prone to be abused.

I think it is a very wrong system. It makes the wrong groups of people stitch to eachother, and defend eachother no matter what goes on with the truth.
I had that problem on another board for pc simmers, eventually 50/70 people run off there, including me, or got banned because of the group of thankers got too big and too one sided..

I like it very much how it is now here. 👍

 

[Eric.]

I'm glad someone made this thread because I had the same thoughts. Will be clicking the button many times in the future I'm sure.