On Reporting

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I've noticed a real trend lately of reporting people not for breaking the rules, but for expressing opinions that the reporting party thinks are politically incorrect, and that's really not what the reporting system is for, especially when we're short on mods and don't need to be distracting them with attempts to silence people we disagree with, doubly so if the posts in question already are in PPR. Really, the reporting priorities should be personal threats, direct personal attacks and name calling, spam, personal info in public, and obvious trolling, not 'somebody said something that offends me'. Even trolling is fairly subjective, and I would hesitate to report anything other than an ongoing and blatant pattern by a particular user, as being AS can make it easy to read intent into things that people really didn't intend. If you think someone is a troll, report it privately to a mod along with a list of posts you think fit that pattern, rather than a single instance, as that's far more persuasive, and saves the mod team a lot of time and effort.

While I'm at it, don't read too much into the letter of the rules, they're a standard ToS boilerplate and not really adapted for an AS support site, and subject to wide interpretation by the mods in any case. They're simply a means to an end, keeping the site running smoothly and relatively calmly, not an end unto themselves; you could scrupulously follow them to a T and still be a disruptive menace, or break them constantly and be a valuable site asset, which is what moderator discretion is for.

Finally, if you're reporting something that's not blatant and obvious, such as spam, strongly consider reporting via PM, as public accusations have a way of back-firing if others don't agree with your perception of a post as being rule breaking, and you risk being labeled a tattle tale if half your post count seems to be in the mod report thread.

This is why I don't report things. I don't want to be one of those people who goes reporting things that weren't against the rules because I didn't like what was said.

10/10 thank you, this is a problem but when you are under attack by it you can't really argue for it being a problem with out looking like a troll yourself.

Your concerns are noted.

I'll work on improving my moderation skills. Please be patient as the staff is down to two people and the recent implosion in leadership has left things on shaky ground.

Thank you.

While I'm on the subject, something I would like to see reported more often are accusations of bullying, trolling, or "gaslighting", which are often thrown around quite cavalierly without consequence, when they are in fact personal attacks that should be treated as such. "Gaslighting" particularly annoys me when the accusation is casually flung around, as the term refers to a systematic form of harassment designed to make someone think that they're crazy, where as what is usually actually happening is that someone is having their opinions challenged and is insisting on clinging to their own set of "facts" while rejecting arguments calling said "facts" into questions as "gaslighting", ironically causing observers such as myself to be the ones questioning their sanity, or at the very least their perception of reality.

If you truly feel that someone is doing this to you, and I urge you to think through the likelihood of someone pursuing such an elaborate scheme against a stranger on the internet for no personal gain, then report it to a moderator, don't start making wild accusations in public, since as I said, that's a personal attack and exposes you to sanction, regardless of how deserving you think the target is of the label. This is actually a pretty universally applicable guideline for WP posting; if you feel that someone is attacking you personally, harassing you or others, trolling, etc, don't make a scene in thread, don't make accusations, and please don't threaten to go to the moderators, just take a break from the thread and link the offending post(s) to a mod via PM along with a brief explanation of the situation. Really, as soon as you "hit back" you muddy the waters as far as any moderator action goes, it's much better to withdraw from the thread until the issue is sorted out, and more likely to get the result you want as well.

^
I am going to chime in here because this has been tainting my opinion about WP, and it bugs me because previously I thought WP didn't "stand" for this sort of thing. I agree with Dox47. Also, I realize the mods situation is rather dire and I appreciate what the remaining mods are up against.
That one particularly bothers me ("gaslighting"). In reality it's a serious and extremely personal dilemma. The way I've heard it used recently around here demeans its true expression, and its use as an erroneous accusation is imho a red flag for a number of problems.

Once the new forum software has been upgraded tomorrow, there will be a report post button next to each post. This will make it much easier to view the exact post that is allegedly breaking the rules.

That will be super Alex. Best of luck with the big change-over.

Not really sure hitting the report button would be much like a public accusation unless the person posts 'Hey I reported your post' or 'I reported that post just now' which is kinda pointless. Also though I'd hope the majority of people here have moved past the 4th grade and don't seriously b***h about 'tattle tales' if someone mistakenly reports something that turns out not to break site rules. Either way one could get that accusation anyways even without the report option as before you had to go post a link to threads that looked inappropriate or posts for the mod to look at which was much less anonymous than a report button.

But I agree the report function is not a tool to try and silence those you disagree with, its to draw attention to posts that actually break the site rules...so hopefully people will keep that in mind, though I am sure there will be slip ups and I am sure there are individuals that would click it out of spite but that really is a waste of time for the moderators I assume .

The report button should only notify the moderators of the reported post.

But wouldn't that mean they would have to spend more time scrolling through approving and disapproving reported posts? Should there be more training for the moderators to use that appropriately or do they have that information already?