I know the mods encourage us to report posts we have any doubts about since they can’t be in every thread all the time. Every now and then I’ve sent a report for not just obvious spam, but also for posts that I think need some kind of mod attention.
I almost never get any reply back saying the report was at least received, even if they don’t say what they chose to do about it. If there’s no obvious action (like a spam thread that gets deleted) I get stuck wondering if the report got through (since sometime I’m using my Tapatalk app- does the report button actually work?).
So what do I do? Do I send another report? Assume the mod got it and chose to do nothing and my concern was baseless? Ignore the whole thing and shrug my shoulders?
So… I’m asking that, except for really obvious spam threads/posts that get immediately deleted or a thread needs a form change, can mods reply a quick “received” note back when someone reports a post? Especially when the report deals with poster behavior or other judgment calls- just some quick acknowledgement that the report has been received?
Is this feasible with the number of reports you each get?
I worry that it just never got through. I don’t care if they disagree with my concern and do nothing, but if the report was never even seen, well then what I think is an answer (no action) really isn’t.
That’s what I’d like to hear- is the workload too excessive to reply, or has it just not been an issue.
Dex is really good about responding to all post reports. I am not.
If it’s just a spam report or similar, I usually just deal with the spammer and leave it at that. If someone says “I’m not sure if this is a problem or not,” and I act on the report, I assume they can tell that I agree it was a problem by the fact that I acted on it.
If it’s a “I’m not sure this is a problem” report and it isn’t, I probably respond to the person half the time or less, depending on the issue – and, frankly, depending on how busy I am. (As a freelancer, some days I’ve got nothing but time, and other days I’m completely slammed.)
So – don’t assume that the report didn’t go through. As far as I know, the function is quite reliable, though I don’t know that for a fact if you’re interfacing through Tapatalk.
And, please, don’t take it personally if you don’t get an email from a mod about the report. Except for Dex, most of us are extremely spotty in our response rates.
I rarely respond because for one thing I see it as QtM suggests, now my problem and the reporter need not worry about it.
As a practical matter, since the reports come from “the system” and not the email address of the person sending in the report, it is a slight pain to copy the persons email address open a new email window and compose the post. Yes, not quite as labor-intensive as a kitchen remodel, I know, but enough to keep me from responding as if it were just a matter of hitting “reply” and saying “thanks.”
That said I think we can feel fairly assured all reports get through. I do see a number from you, ITD!
When I report and nothing happens I assume that they didn’t agree with me and move on. If they react the way I would I believe that great minds think alike. I have received a couple PMs but not many. I figure there are probably multiple reports for that post so I don’t expect a reply to each one.
I didn’t realize that about the “system” and you’d have to cut and paste the adress! That does add a layer of work on top of it that I wasn’t aware of.
I will respond to reports about 1/4th to half of the time. Most of the time if I don’t think any mod action is needed, I will not respond, because it’s usually about something small or just about general opinion about something (like whether or not something is regarded as an insult).
The majority of the reports we get are either about spam or moving a thread to another forum and those I never reply to, I just take the action (usually).
I think if you’ve sent a report and no action was taken, it’s probably a sure bet that the mod didn’t think any action had to be taken OR the mods are busy discussing the situation. Sometimes we talk among ourselves about a report, even if we don’t reply to the reporter.
No, no – never! Please always report anything that concerns you! Even if something isn’t “actionable,” I appreciate seeing things that bother people. I find you need to “see it all” to know what’s truly a problem.
Frankly, I’d prefer not to get a response to reports.
I appreciate getting thanked when they act on my reports, but could get along just as well without it. And I really don’t care to know in the instances when they’ve determined not to act on whatever I’ve reported, or their reasoning in why what I reported doesn’t require action.
I don’t report to get action taken, I report because I think mods should look at a situation and make a determination on what to do. If they don’t think what I reported is actionable, I don’t need (or want) to know why.
That said, if there’s ever a case where I did for some odd reason want to know, I could certainly add something like “please let me know what happens” to the report (not that they’d have to oblige me) or ask via PM or ATMB.
I can’t help but wonder if this OP was inspired by that ambiguous post about Social Security fraud that showed up last night. It looked awfully spammy and the grammar was blood-curdling bad, but didn’t contain any links or anything like that. Looked like a set-up for a future spam with link to appear later in the thread.
I debated myself whether to report it. (I decided to leave it be Somebody Else’s Problem.) What would I have posted as Post #2? Simply the word “Reported.” as usual? For a post that I wasn’t totally certain was a spam? (Although, to be sure, I felt fairly certain.)
As for Loach’s remark above: “I figure there are probably multiple reports for that post so I don’t expect a reply to each one.” – If someone reports and also puts adds a post saying “Reported”, then the whole idea of that is to prevent lots more people from flooding the mods with the same report. So in that case, there might not be multiple reports.
Actual, not. It was tangentially related to a post I reported late last night with a NSFW link. I didn’t think someone should have responded to me by then, but I was just thinking about it.
I usually only reply to a report when I’ve chosen not to take action on a report, and the same poster reports the same post again (or PMs me). Then I’ll send an email explaining why I didn’t take action before.
As has been said, you can usually assume that the report has gone through, and that if no action was taken we decided none was warranted. (In GQ, it usually means that all of the mods have seen the report and all of us decided to take no action.)
In general, I take Qadgop’s view: once reported, it’s the mods’ problem, not mine. On the rare occasions I strongly disagree with a mod decision, there’s nearly always an ATMB thread discussing the issue
If I’m really unsure of the appropriateness of a report (“This sounds to me like a forbidden personal insult; how do you read it?”), I will explicitly request feedback from the mod handling it. If done in moderation, they’re always good about giving their thinking, which tells me whether or not to report similar situations in the future.
