I know general policy is If you’re unsure, report it and let a Mod sort it out but…
What about socks ? Us plebeians can never be sure but sometimes you read a post and you think Yeah, like you’re really a guest. Fucking Sock
Would it be overzealous to report the post and say “I think this is a sock because of This, this and this”
On one hand, Report it and let a Mod sort it out is a safe policy so we’re told there’s no harm in reporting stuff.
On the other hand it would feel kind of, Gestapo-ish to be reporting ones fellow posters based on nothing more than suspicion.
I have to admit this more intellectual curiosity than any real concern for the boards, as I’m lead to believe sock’s don’t last long on the boards anyway.
The mods can do various sorts of detailed checks on anyone at any time. But they can’t do them for everyone, or for all new members. If you report a suspicion, they will do such a check. If it turns out to be someone innocent, no harm done. If they turn out to catch a sock, well, then, good done. And mods often make such checks based on nothing more than their own suspicions, and your hunches probably aren’t too much worse than the mods’.
The reason socks don’t last very long is that usually, someone gets a suspicious hunch about them pretty quickly, and alerts the mods.
Yeah, OK, there’s a certain uneasy feeling to reporting every suspicion to the police. On the other hands, we don’t have enough mods to monitor everything, and we rely on y’all to help out.
Let me try to reframe your analogy: Rather than think of this as reporting to the Gestapo, how about thinking of reporting to the sanitation department? You’re walking in the park and you see something that looks like disgusting litter – perhaps a used condom, or a hypodermic – lying there in the grass. Nearby is a grounds-keeper with gloves and equipment for safe pick-up and proper disposal. Don’t you tell the grounds-keeper so she can remove the (potentially dangerous) trash?