# Mod contact.....
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [June 30, 2004, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860 "2004-06-30T09:58:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/1 "2004-06-30T09:58:48Z")
Just today I stupidly hit the ‘reply’ button rather than the ‘new thread’ button and ended up with 2 questions, one after another, in the same thread 😛
My real problam is that I had hoped to quickly contact a mod to have it fixed and was surprised to find that there was no ‘Report this post to a mod’ button. Something I’m sure that VBB has as an option.
As well as that, there was no way to find out which of the 4 mods of GQ was currently surfing the board at the time (VBB hack) and even if I knew, no way to PM them (something I’d like to see given to paying mambers).
Is there an easier way to contact a mod rather than randomly e-mailing them?
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### Author:  [@SpasmicChaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpasmicChaos)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/2 "2004-06-30T10:07:07Z")
I believe the little blue box with the exclamation point in the upper right hand corner of a post is what you click for reporting bad posts. Not 100% sure since I have never used it.
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### Author:  [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/3 "2004-06-30T10:16:07Z")
It is the ‘report to mod’ button but you never see it on your own posts, only on others 🙂
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### Author:  [@SpasmicChaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpasmicChaos)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/4 "2004-06-30T10:21:39Z")
See, I never even noticed that. I’ll just go crawl back in my hole now.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/5 "2004-06-30T13:18:20Z")
You cannot report your own post to a Moderator using the vBulletin software option. E-mail is one option (and the one to use if you’re reporting your own OP of a new thread). Some of the Mods. ask for, and I’ll guess it would be a courtesy to all of them, using “SDMB” as a part of the Subject: line to help tell it from spam. What I’ve done on other boards (I don’t recall ever needing to do it here) is to report the post before or after my own, with the information that “that post is not a problem; the problem is with my post #15 just after it, because…” One other thing is that an actual hyperlink to the post or thread in question is invaluable to a moderator in getting to exactly what you’re talking about. “My post on page three of that thread on politics in Great Debates” is going to be about as useful as directions to Kansas written in Old Hittite on _rangu rangu_ sticks.
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### Author:  [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/6 "2004-06-30T16:35:40Z")
It’s always a good idea to email more than one moderator when you want something done. There’s nothing wrong with emailing all the mods in a forum. Please put SDMB in the subject line so we don’t think it’s spam.
If the other thread has any posts, you could take **Polycarp** ’s suggestion and report someone else’s post and include a link to the thread you inadvertently started.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/7 "2004-06-30T16:46:38Z")
> [@Polycarp](#):
>
> You cannot report your own post to a Moderator using the vBulletin software option.
You can. I’ve done it. You have to replace the PostID in the Report Post URL with the PostID of _your_ post. Unless they’ve made a change to make that impossible, it should still work. I’ll try it on _this_ post, by way of a test.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/8 "2004-06-30T16:51:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> You can. I’ve done it. You have to replace the PostID in the Report Post URL with the PostID of your post. Unless they’ve made a change to make that impossible, it should still work. I’ll try it on this post, by way of a test.
…Which isn’t exactly using the vB option, either, so the **patron saint of many martyred goldfish** is still correct. And that method is probably more difficult than just e-mailing directly, anyway.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/9 "2004-06-30T16:52:23Z")
The test report went through without error. Hopefully **TubaDiva** or whoever gets the report will post a confirmation that it was received and linked to the correct post here at some point.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/10 "2004-06-30T16:55:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> And that method is probably more difficult than just e-mailing directly, anyway.
Not really. You only have to remember the last four digits of the PostID. Then just click a convenient Report Post button and edit the url before clicking Submit. At least, _I_ think it’s easier.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/11 "2004-06-30T17:09:04Z")
How is a multistep process easier than a single-step process?
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/12 "2004-06-30T17:25:49Z")
> [@dantheman](#):
>
> How is a multistep process easier than a single-step process?
1. Find email addresses of each forum mod – optional if you have them memorized.
2. Click on Mailto: link, or copy and paste into web-based email, or manually launch email client and select recipient(s).
3. Type subject with username and SDMB, to avoid spam filters
4. Type message.
5. Click Send or Submit or whatever.
This is a single step, how exactly?
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/13 "2004-06-30T17:36:12Z")
Well, since you don’t have to find the email addesses of each mod - they’re listed on the forum’s main page - you can eliminate that step entirely. Simply click on their name, and voila! your email program opens up a blank email for you.
Now, perhaps you consider “typing the email” and “typing the subject” to be two different steps, but I certainly wouldn’t. I wouldn’t really even consider “clicking the moderator’s name” to be an actual step, since it takes a gazillionth of a second.
So you click, type the email, and you’re done. With your way, you have to memorize the stupid number and manipulate the URL and THEN send the thing.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/14 "2004-06-30T17:42:57Z")
> [@dantheman](#):
>
> Well, since you don’t have to find the email addesses of each mod - they’re listed on the forum’s main page - you can eliminate that step entirely.
Not really. You still have to copy the thread URL, click the back button to get to the forum index and the mod emails, then paste the URL your email. So, you replace one step with another. 😛
All things being equal, **Polycarp** ’s method of reporting a post prior to yours is probably the least labor intensive, anyway.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/15 "2004-06-30T17:54:04Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#):
>
> Not really. You still have to copy the thread URL, click the back button to get to the forum index and the mod emails, then paste the URL your email. So, you replace one step with another. 😛
**Polycarp** was right; you cannot report your own post using the vB option. You were wrong when you said you’d done it, since your method had little to do with the vB option and much more to do with your own finessing.
In any case, if you think that fiddling around with the URL is quicker than simply shooting off an email, more power to you.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/16 "2004-06-30T18:05:55Z")
And you were wrong when you said email was a one-step process. _shrug_
I certainly hadn’t intended this to become a great long debate on the merits of various methods of reporting one’s own posts to the staff, I only wanted to provide another option; why you felt it necessary to argue the issue is anyone’s guess. Anway, I’m done, with apologies for the unintended hijack.
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/17 "2004-06-30T18:11:34Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#):
>
> And you were wrong when you said email was a one-step process. _shrug_
>
> I certainly hadn’t intended this to become a great long debate on the merits of various methods of reporting one’s own posts to the staff, I only wanted to provide another option; why you felt it necessary to argue the issue is anyone’s guess. Anway, I’m done, with apologies for the unintended hijack.
I’m not wrong. Email IS a one-step process. You, on the other hand, lied about using vB to report your own post.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/18 "2004-06-30T18:21:53Z")
> [@dantheman](#):
>
> You, on the other hand, lied about using vB to report your own post.
Uh, no. The method I described uses vB’s reportpost.php module, just the same as the Report Post button, only you’re feeding it the URL manually. I really do not see the need for resorting to accuasations and insinuations here, **dan**. This isn’t the Pit, sir.
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/19 "2004-06-30T18:47:21Z")
> [@dantheman](#):
>
> I’m not wrong. Email IS a one-step process. You, on the other hand, lied about using vB to report your own post.
I think this sort of heat is really uncalled for here, as well as not a fair characterization of the situation. So knock it off already.
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
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### Author:  [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)
#### Post date: [July 1, 2004, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mod-contact/252860/20 "2004-07-01T09:45:19Z")
Ohhh, didn’t expect to start a pit thread in here !
Thanks for the reply but how about the hack that allows us to see who is online?
That way We wouldn’t have to send off a bunch of emails but just to whoever is active?
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