Reporting Yourself

[Gatekeeper Giggle 2,902]

I know that you can do this, and there have been a few times where I almost did it out of morbid curiosity. But exactly how is this sort of thing handled? I would greatly appreciate some feedback from the moderators: 

 

• If a post you made is offensive, and you report yourself for it, are you granted any extra mercy?
• If a post you made is not offensive, and you report yourself for it, do you get in trouble for wasting everyone's time?
• Is a self made report looked at any differently then a report made by another user?
• Why does this feature exist?  

I greatly look forward to everyone's answers.

[碇 シンジン 27,442]

I'm pretty sure that the reports that are made are handled anonymously and the one that reported are not known by the staff, but I might be wrong.

[Gatekeeper Giggle 2,902]

 

 

I'm pretty sure that the reports that are made are handled anonymously and the one that reported are not known by the staff, but I might be wrong.

I hope not. Then I'd look like an idiot for asking such a stupid question!    

[Dattebayo 2,850]

I want to report myself for being an a$$hole.

Who do I think I am, taking to myself that way?

[Pat.Rio.T. 305]

I reported myself once a while back, because I believe one of my topics was misplaced or something. It was later resolved by a mod.

[Pinkie Apple Dash 23]

IMO, by being honest, it would probably pay the price for doing it in the first place.

[SCS 7,538]

I know that you can do this, and there have been a few times where I almost did it out of morbid curiosity. But exactly how is this sort of thing handled? I would greatly appreciate some feedback from the moderators:

• If a post you made is offensive, and you report yourself for it, are you granted any extra mercy?
• If a post you made is not offensive, and you report yourself for it, do you get in trouble for wasting everyone's time?
• Is a self made report looked at any differently then a report made by another user?
• Why does this feature exist?  

I greatly look forward to everyone's answers.

 

 

If someone had reported themselves I would be inclined to be more lenient, but that doesn't mean the individual wouldn't receive any moderation action. It largely depends on the severity of the offense and the context of the situation.

 

People will never get in trouble for using the report system unless they deliberately spam it or play with it in some way.

 

A self-made report might garner more leniency, but as I discussed earlier that mainly depends on the severity of the offense.

 

There are some situations in which it's useful to report yourself, so I'm glad the feature exists. For example, you might have accidentally posted a duplicate thread, or posted a thread in the wrong section. Reporting it would make it easier for the staff to see it and deal with it accordingly.

 

 

I'm pretty sure that the reports that are made are handled anonymously and the one that reported are not known by the staff, but I might be wrong.

 

Reports are not anonymous, but we never reveal who reported what to non-staff.

[Andaasonsan 3,205]

I've actually done it on some other sites when I was engaged in some really nasty flame war and I was aware of what an asshole I had been being.

[Shanks 10,817]

For the record you can edit your posts so if you think you said something out of line you can edit out what you said. I think the main reasons that users can report their own posts is because sometimes a thread can be in the wrong place and perhaps the user didn't know until after. People occasionally make accidental double posts, I have done it before. And there are also situations where a user may no longer wish a thread to be open which I have seen happen in the "life advice" section, it could be because their problem has been resolved or perhaps some other reason.

[SCS 7,538]

For the record you can edit your posts so if you think you said something out of line you can edit out what you said. I think the main reasons that users can report their own posts is because sometimes a thread can be in the wrong place and perhaps the user didn't know until after. People occasionally make accidental double posts, I have done it before. And there are also situations where a user may no longer wish a thread to be open which I have seen happen in the "life advice" section, it could be because their problem has been resolved or perhaps some other reason.

 

Just keep in mind that moderators and administrators can view full edit histories for any post.

[Shanks 10,817]

 

Just keep in mind that moderators and administrators can view full edit histories for any post.

I know, but it can at least is something for some damage control I am not advocating people try to cover their tracks to avoid trouble but trying to lessen or avoid bad situations like flame wars for example.

[Simon 4,557]

This appears to be asking a question of the staff instead of providing feedback or opinions to the staff, so I'm going to go ahead and move this to Site Questions & Tech Support.

 

That being said, SCS's answer pretty much applies to all the staff I believe.  While we may be inclined to consider that and grant some level of leniency if you report yourself for a rule violation instead of waiting for someone else to report it, there are certainly no guarantees and ultimately everybody is responsible for their own conduct.  That being said the main goal in warning a member is to try and make sure it doesn't happen again, so if a user demonstrates in some way that they truly acknowledge they made a mistake, I'd be inclined to consider that fact when discussing a warning with the rest of the staff.

 

As for your second question, reports are never a waste of our time.  If something offends you or you think it may be against the rules, report it.  It's much easier for the staff to close a report on a post that didn't break the rules than to go out and find a post that wasn't reported, so we always appreciate users reporting things they believe may be problematic, even if ultimately we decide not to act on the report.

[Jeric 46,894]

as both SCS and Simon fully addressed your question I'll close this policy inquiry out.