Oh, I see. You want to put it to a membership vote.
I vote no.
I have a two-part response: first, this is a dumb idea for a thread, and you should stop making these threads in ATMB that are better handled through other means. Second, report the stupid insult already.
Maybe you could PM a mod with your request. I’d be hesitant to stray from the topic of your OP without mod OK.
Posting as a moderator
We prefer that you just go ahead and report the post even if it isn’t an obvious breach of the rules. The worst that happens is that we find that it’s not a breach of the rules and we take no action on it, which is no biggie and certainly doesn’t count against you in any way. It’s definitely not “tattling”.
We deal with post reports all the time, and many of them are reports where the person reporting isn’t sure if it’s allowed or not, and says so in the post report.
Next time, just report the post.
I have reported the post in question. The GD mods will figure out if it’s a rules violation or not.
No, let’s talk about both, shall we?
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I may just moderate that post. I’ll duck over and look at context after I finish up here but it’s late, I’m still at the office, and I want some damn Doritos or something so it may wait a bit. I take a fairly tight line on accusations of lying in Great Debates. There are so MANY other constructions with which that can be said without saying it plainly.
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On the other hand, FXM, this is your second time airing your grievances against another poster in public rather than private. This does not endear you to me, or I’d wager, the rest of the moderation staff. It begins to look more like passive aggressive insulting than actually posting with intent to clarify anything.
By the rules, I agree, you are well within your rights to ask these questions in ATMB. Good for you. But a person - not you, certainly - would also be within his rights to get rip-roaring drunk at a family reunion. It does not make him welcome or more appreciated by those who have to deal with his antics.
We have no problems at all with you reporting posts with a ‘could this be an accusation of lying’ or ‘maybe an insult’? Such reports happen most days in Great Debates (I can’t speak for the other fora, I don’t get those reports). I, for one, appreciate getting such and may or may not act on them. If I don’t act on them Tom may choose to do so. But what you must count on - because it’s absolutely true - is that each and every report has been read and a decision made. If any GD mod believes an action is required it will be acted upon. It’s a low bar, any one of us who wants to act may do so. I encourage you to use the ‘Report a Post’ button rather than starting more threads here.
I post this to report to you that I have reported the post you posted about reporting posts. A report on this report will be posted to you.
So you’re the bastard who keeps doing that?!?!?
As I mentioned in GD, I apologize for that post. I was not thinking that it was a lie. In this case I was referring to a mistake from Sam Stone when he told wolfpup that:
Not really a nice thing to say, in any case I cited in post 72 why Sam was wrong.
If it makes you happy you can do so, and the mod did agree, but I was referring to a humongous error.
I’m a girl, so I guess I’m the bitch who keeps doing that. 
And no, I don’t do it that often.
Well, technically speaking, a female mod could be both. Not you of course - but it is possible. 
When asking whether something is a rules violation, I say it needs to be in public so we all will know if it is one. Since mods don’t respond in thread when they don’t see the need to moderate, other users have no way of knowing if the post fell afoul of the rules or just was never reported.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to assume someone must have nefarious intent just because they do something in a way other than you would prefer. I especially think it’s bad for moderation, as the last thing you need to do is to have an unfair assessment of the person in question. It’s hard enough to moderate with integrity, without your personal feelings towards the other person getting in the way.
Granted, I don’t make ATMB threads about this stuff, but that has more to do with my not caring as much as I used to. At least, not enough to put up with people telling me I’m stupid for asking.
Okay…
A doper sees a post that he questions and reports it to a moderator. The mod reviews the post in question does one of two things:
- If the moderator determines a rule violation did, in fact, occur, he gives a note, a warning, a suspension, or a ban and announces the same on the board.
B) If the moderator determines no rule violation occurred he does nothing.
Maybe the crux of the problem (or part of it) here is if situation B occurs, there’s no way the poster who reported the post knows his report was ever seen by a mod. Perhaps if whenever a moderator reviews a reported post, he sends a PM to the report just to inform him that the report was read and the post is under review? With a pre-written response on tap, it would just be a couple clicks and a copy & paste for the Moderator.
Just throwing this out here. Please don’t smite me.
All reports are seen by a mod. That’s what Jonathan’s said in this thread (“But what you must count on - because it’s absolutely true - is that each and every report has been read and a decision made”), and I see no reason to disbelieve it.
Now you want the mods to compose a PM for every report they think isn’t a rules violation? You do realise they’re volunteers with real day jobs, right?
snerk
I think people are missing the point. Complaints concerning wild whoppers need to be reported to here.
Maybe some sort of report from the moderators, like this:
Post Report Incident Resolution Recap
Incident Number: 1234567
Thread Number: 1234567
Post Number: 1234567
Sent to Moderator: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Assigned to Moderator: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Reporting Poster: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Reported Poster: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Incident Category: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Incident Sub Category: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Moderator Analysis:
Rule Checked: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Did Post Violate Rule: Y/N/A (A=Amibiguous)
If Yes:
Provide Violating Excerpt: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Is Warnable Offense? Y/N
If Yes, Was Warning Issued? Y/N
Is Bannable Offense? Y/N
If Yes, Was Poster Banned? Y/N
If No, Provide Explanation: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
If Ambiguous, Follow Dis-Amibiguation Workflow below:
Does this Incident Require Mod-Loop? Y/N
If Yes, Submit Incident to Mod-Loop Incident Collaboration Module
Did Moderator Discuss with Poster? Y/N
Did Moderator Discuss with Other Posters? Y/N
Did Additional Data Dis-Ambiguate This Incident? Y/N
If Yes, Submit New Sub-Incident with Resolution
Y’know, that might work. As an alternative, however, consider:
Post Report Incident Resolution Recap
Was this report actionable?
[ ] Duh--look in the thread for the action!
[ ] Pfft--if it were, there'd be a note in the thread with the action!
Or, if I may simplify it:
Post Report Incident Resolution Recap
Was this report actionable?
Look in the thread for the action!
Or, if I may simplify it further:
Look in the thread for the action!
Got it, thanks.
It’s a funny thing, you describe asking about insulting behavior, as “airing your grievances against another poster”, rather than “taking issue with what seems like an insult, and a breach of the rules here”. It’s also funny, because the first time I was criticized for not naming a name, and linking to the posts in question. You know, to avoid singling out a single person, or airing any grievance in public. It seems like a Catch 22.
Clearly you don’t read the Pit, if you think for a moment I am passive or not aggressive when I want to call somebody on their bullshit. There was certainly a chance the comment I asked about was actually innocent, as the word “whopper” might have some other meaning.
See? He got to amend his comment, and inform us the intent was not to violate the rules. It gives me no joy to report a post, and see somebody dinged for something they didn’t actually mean to imply.
You are certainly trying to paint me in a bad light, and it’s within your rights to do so. However, it does not endear me to your choice of words.
Certainly if I ever work up caring enough to do so, that will be the way to go. Following the rules, the guidelines here, and starting a thread to ask about something, might just be viewed as some sort of drunk Uncle disrupting a family reunion, and nobody wants to be that guy.
That certainly seems to be the intent of the guidelines I quoted in the OP.
That is understandable.
I certainly won’t be doing it again, which should endear me to the Mods.
Good lord, this is getting an awful lot like Office Space now.
Bill Lumbergh: Hello Peter, whats happening? Ummm, I’m gonna need you to fill out post reports. If you could get right on that, that would be great.