Make reporting easier!

[Neikos 968]

Yes, reporting is actually annoying. First, you have to snipe the report button. Then you have to do a whole page load! Before actually submitting it you have to write something ( didn't test if optional yet ) and then you have to wait another page load back to where you were. This is horrid UI Design, sure it works, but it sure makes me not report things. ( My reporting goes from "Meh, that was unecessary" to "Holy shit, why did you post that", I only report the latter due to the flow breaking. )

 

My suggestions are:

• Make it AJAX based, thus you don't quite the page! ( AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, which means that when you submit something, you do not get redirected, and your browser does it all "under the hood". Think something like the "Update your status" form, it does not redirect you, but it does submit itself. )

   

• Put in presets, things like "Spam", "Flaming/Trolling","Backseat Moderation"

I know that report texts are generally only read ( and acknowledged ) if they are longer and give insight into why someone believes this to be report worthy, but is that really necessary? Most of the All time the Moderator will actually make the decision himself anyway, so yeah. You wanna see the reports go up? Make it easier/more convenient to report something/someone. ( Do I REALLY need to go to their profile to click on that little link at the bottom of it? )

 

Possible counter-arguments:

 

But it will be abuuuuuused

Well, firstly over-used =/= abused. I know that reports can be as easily classed as done as they could be reported with that system, so in the case of being over-used I don't see a problem there. In the case of abuse of course, the usual path is taken. ( Warnings I guess with possible ban from reporting or w/e one sees fit )

People will be scared to post loads of things knowing it will get moderated quickly!

What? That's not a counter argument... you trying to trick me? Well it did not work, and that is certainly a feature and not a inconvenience.

Edited July 22, 2012 by Jubilee van Neikos

[Finesthour 7,287]

Actually, the reporting system is very, very good.

 

I had the same doubts about and and talked to feld0 about the subject.

He showed the people in skype chat what happens with a report, how everyone gets notified, and each mod and say something about it.

I don't even mind you go to a new window. What is so bad about waiting?

Patience is a virtue, and if you do report something bad, you can feel good knowing you helped clean up the site.

[NavelColt 22,880]

The only real thing about all of this I agree with is the preset options. It'd be a hell lot easier to just click one of five options saying 'spam', 'backseat moderation', etc, then making custom messages the entire time. Keep the custom messages for in case they are needed, sure, but I think they could definitely be optional, and only the presets be mandatory. The reason presets would be such a good idea is it does simplify the actual reporting. And the more active a forum, the more posts are overall going to be reported. So having simple umbrella term presets to just give the mod the simple version of what's wrong with the reported post, is a better idea than having a customary message each and every time.

Edited July 22, 2012 by ~Chaotic Discord~

[Neikos 968]

---

On a side note, you realize this less when you are a moderator as you can immediately take the necessary action, and if you do report it so that others can look at it as well there is often more to it. Think of us members who cannot hide other's posts.

 

Actually, the reporting system is very, very good.

 

What is so bad about waiting?

 

 

It is far from "very, very good", as I stated in my OP, it works. But it is not user friendly, I'm not sure about you, but I am not going to wait 2 seconds every time I want to report someone. I have no psychological degree, but to come to this conclusion you don't need one either, but doesn't the action/reward system work the other way around? If you want someone to use it, make it easy and the most convenient to use. "Patience is a virtue" is the worst excuse I can think of when trying to justify unnecessary waiting induced by lazyness to fix a current situation.

 

Oh and yes, two seconds is a lot. Actually it is enough time for me to stop caring about said post and carry on with my life! But no, somebody will have to waste their time to wait to report something.

Edited July 22, 2012 by Jubilee van Neikos

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

I would say keep it as is BUT add the option of choosing a pre-selected offense (trolling, wrong location, inappropriate, etc) while keeping the comment box for special instructions/comments

 

Is it possible to make a small window pop up when clicking "report" with all the options in it instead of going to a new page?

[Neikos 968]

Is it possible to make a small window pop up when clicking "report" with all the options in it instead of going to a new page?

 

That is what I meant with "AJAX based", perhaps I should detail what it means for those who are not into web-programming!

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

That is what I meant with "AJAX based", perhaps I should detail what it means for those who are not into web-programming!

 

Yes that would be most helpful lol. I like computers but not to that extent.

[Neikos 968]

Yes that would be most helpful lol. I like computers but not to that extent.

 

Okay, I edited the OP! Is it more understandable?

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,526]

Is it possible to make a small window pop up when clicking "report" with all the options in it instead of going to a new page?

 

That's exactly what Neikos suggested.

 

The report system that you see is simply IP.Board's implementation. Modifying the system in any way will require some custom IPB modding, and I'm not sure if IPS's API allows for access to the report system. I really like both of the suggestions, however, and will see if I can get someone from the IPS community to make them happen.

[Titan Rising 2,156]

Oh and yes, two seconds is a lot. Actually it is enough time for me to stop caring about said post and carry on with my life! But no, somebody will have to waste their time to wait to report something.

Perhaps if you don't care enough to wait a few seconds it's not really worth reporting to begin with? I kinda like the fact that you have to put a little part of yourself into helping moderate the site, it requires you to actually care.

 

I may not actually report anyone ever but it seems like a pretty good thing to me lol

[Neikos 968]

That's exactly what Neikos suggested.

 

The report system that you see is simply IP.Board's implementation. Modifying the system in any way will require some custom IPB modding, and I'm not sure if IPS's API allows for access to the report system. I really like both of the suggestions, however, and will see if I can get someone from the IPS community to make them happen.

 

If they don't I will just add it to my extension.

 

Perhaps if you don't care enough to wait a few seconds it's not really worth reporting to begin with? I kinda like the fact that you have to put a little part of yourself into helping moderate the site, it requires you to actually care.

 

I may not actually report anyone ever but it seems like a pretty good thing to me lol

 

I understand what you mean, "Perhaps it's benign." but I don't think that's the right attitude, a bad post is a bad post, whether it is meant to be a long reply and it went overboard with the accusations, or if it was a one line reply saying how they did not read the OP. The second one is merely an annoyance, "I don't want to see that, I don't care if you read it or not. If you didn't that's cool but I don't need to know that. So why post it?" See? Already annoyed by just thinking about it.

[Whiteshade 1,426]

Actually, the reporting system is very, very good.

 

I had the same doubts about and and talked to feld0 about the subject.

He showed the people in skype chat what happens with a report, how everyone gets notified, and each mod and say something about it.

I don't even mind you go to a new window. What is so bad about waiting?

Patience is a virtue, and if you do report something bad, you can feel good knowing you helped clean up the site.

 

Patience doesn't sell. Convenience is the name of the game. The report feature isn't there to make you feel good, it's there to be useful to the moderators, and for it to be useful it needs to be used, and to be used you have to sell it to the user, hence more convenience will aid in that goal. Edited July 22, 2012 by Whiteshade

[Titan Rising 2,156]

I understand what you mean, "Perhaps it's benign." but I don't think that's the right attitude, a bad post is a bad post, whether it is meant to be a long reply and it went overboard with the accusations, or if it was a one line reply saying how they did not read the OP. The second one is merely an annoyance, "I don't want to see that, I don't care if you read it or not. If you didn't that's cool but I don't need to know that. So why post it?" See? Already annoyed by just thinking about it.

Don't you think that's a bit of an excessively strict attitude to have? It's kinda like... Wouldn't you rather the people of the site want to make good posts themselves rather than make good posts out of constant fear of being reported for spam or whatever?

 

I mean spam is spam, hate is hate, off topic is off topic, inappropriate content is inappropriate content - but a lot of times posts are made right on that line verging on spam, hate,off topic, or inappropriate and the context of whether a user thinks that it shouldn't belong on a forum can give a lot of insight into whether it should or shouldn't be hidden.

 

And on that point, I also believe such a strict system will make people fear delving deeper into topics at risk of being hidden because it may be off topic.

[Neikos 968]

I'm not a mod ( I can say that now ) so I can be what ever I want, in the end it won't make a difference. Strict here is just another word for radical, you eliminate a problem at the root. If people believe they can dance on the borderline off topicness, sure I don't care, just don't go off topic! Besides, off topic is a bad exemple, simply because it is way too broad. But what I said applies to any other cases you enumerated.

 

I myself prefer to prevent rather than mediate.

[Shankveld 4,949]

My only issue is that Mods and Admins will delete and give out warning points more hastily without giving each report a proper investigation and such.

If I didn't like someone and went around reporting all their posts for example, then that person would be unfairly modded compares to other users.

~

[NavelColt 22,880]

My only issue is that Mods and Admins will delete and give out warning points more hastily without giving each report a proper investigation and such.

If I didn't like someone and went around reporting all their posts for example, then that person would be unfairly modded compares to other users.

~

 

You don't think a staff would pick up on such a pattern of report-hounding?

[Neikos 968]

My only issue is that Mods and Admins will delete and give out warning points more hastily without giving each report a proper investigation and such.

If I didn't like someone and went around reporting all their posts for example, then that person would be unfairly modded compares to other users.

~

 

There are two pre-requisites you base yourself off which just cannot be taken seriously.

• "Mods and Admins will delete and give out warning points more hastily without giving each report a proper investigation"

  Where do you get that from? How can you possibly think that just because there is more work people will suddenly do worse?

   

• "I didn't like someone and went around reporting all their posts for example, then that person would be unfairly modded"

  "What" again? How does the current system stop me from doing that? And how can you define "unfair treatment" as the quantity of posts that are being modded? If the user is shit posting, he deserves to be reprimanded. Don't shitpost, problem solved.

Perhaps you should stop going on a anti-mod campaign when your arguments are non existent? How can one be so condescending and still be wrong. Oh wait, bad posting. Edited July 22, 2012 by Jubilee van Neikos

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

If I didn't like someone and went around reporting all their posts for example, then that person would be unfairly modded compares to other users.

~

 

Couldn't that still happen now under the current system? Sure it takes extra time now instead of near instantaneous under this proposed way. But if a user REALLY had it out for someone, they'd probably go a on flagging spree regardless of the reporting system in place lol.

[Jokuc 8,173]

Sounds like good suggestions to me. Especially the presets thing. If it is possible to fix, I don't see why not.

[Shankveld 4,949]

You don't think a staff would pick up on such a pattern of report-hounding?

 

You'd be surprised.

There are two pre-requisites you base yourself off which just cannot be taken seriously.

• "Mods and Admins will delete and give out warning points more hastily without giving each report a proper investigation"

  Where do you get that from? How can you possibly think that just because there is more work people will suddenly do worse?

   

• "I didn't like someone and went around reporting all their posts for example, then that person would be unfairly modded"

  "What" again? How does the current system stop me from doing that? And how can you define "unfair treatment" as the quantity of posts that are being modded? If the user is shit posting, he deserves to be reprimanded. Don't shitpost, problem solved.

Perhaps you should stop going on a anti-mod campaign when your arguments are non existent? How can one be so condescending and still be wrong. Oh wait, bad posting.

 

No need to insult someone just because they disagreed with you.

So angry..

And I get it from personal experience, it's not really any of your business. A valid concern nonetheless.

 

Couldn't that still happen now under the current system? Sure it takes extra time now instead of near instantaneous under this proposed way. But if a user REALLY had it out for someone, they'd probably go a on flagging spree regardless of the reporting system in place lol.

 

I never said they couldn't do it now,

I have a feeling it would be more common though.

~

[Titan Rising 2,156]

• "Mods and Admins will delete and give out warning points more hastily without giving each report a proper investigation"

  Where do you get that from? How can you possibly think that just because there is more work people will suddenly do worse?

That's generally how it works in the real world...

[NavelColt 22,880]

You'd be surprised.

Well, I think you'd be the one who'd be surprised, but to each their own ^^ A concern is a concern.

[Shankveld 4,949]

Well, I think you'd be the one who'd be surprised, but to each their own ^^ A concern is a concern.

 

I'm not basing it off of assumption.

[NavelColt 22,880]

I'm not basing it off of assumption.

 

And I've been on communities where easier, more simple report systems than this with presets haven't been abused at all ^^ Neither am I assuming it'll all be fine.

[Shankveld 4,949]

And I've been on communities where easier, more simple report systems than this with presets haven't been abused at all ^^ Neither am I assuming it'll all be fine.

 

Well people seem to enjoy reporting me much more than you then ~