Flagging- is it necessary or not? And possible solutions for over unnecessary flagging

[Captain_C]

A discussion was being made on the meme topic about necessary and unnecessary flagging and moving it to this topic so memes can just be memes. DHBM Meme Center - #1159 by One_Little_Spark

@Polaris . A group of us feel there is a lot of unnecessary flagging going on the forums, especially if it just constructive criticism. We believe every flagging should go to perblue’s review, not just the second one, and the messages should be more specific on what exactly was offensive or against the rules. Or maybe flagging can only be done by regulars or a new forum title. It really becoming frustrating to write our frustrations or suggestions just to be flagged. Yes I will admit some people write in a diminishing way and deserve a flag, but not all are “hey u s***” kind of messages and are still treated as such.

@Polaris, thoughts ?

[PawpsicleSticks]

@Captain_C

Or maybe flagging can only be done by regulars

Not gonna help, Regulars already do most of the flagging.

What would REALLY help is once a user’s flag score dips too low (Polaris said there’s something like that, I believe) they’re banned from flagging for a week. Then if they keep abusing flags, they have the ability removed for good.

[PawpsicleSticks]

@PawpsicleSticks

Polaris said there’s something like that

Found it.

Abusing The Flag Button

I’ve said this in other places, but I can put it here too: All flags that are made by players are put into a queue and reviewed by me. I agree or disagree - players have a score that goes up when they get a flag right, and goes down if they get a flag wrong. If someone is truly abusing the flagging system, I do remove their ability to flag posts.

Maybe Polaris should be a little stricter? Or issue warnings.

[Lucas1999]

@Captain_C

We believe every flagging should go to perblue’s review, not just the second one

It would be nice if this were possible, but I’m afraid there must be a reason behind the current system. PB probably does not have enough employees to check all flagged posts.

@Captain_C

the messages should be more specific on what exactly

This is an improvement that might be possible, hopefully. Maybe PB can make a box where someone who flags can explain their flag. The explanation will anonimously be send with the report to the flagged player.

@Captain_C

maybe flagging can only be done by regulars

Regulars are not always right and could abuse this power as well. It might contain the problem, not remove it.

[Spark]

I have an idea. What if Polaris could elect forumers (regulars) from different timezones (24 hour support) to analyze flags.

I am sure there are faults with this system

[Captain_C]

Yes I agree maybe doesn’t solve the problem, but just want a discussion for the better.

Not just related to the game but life, I am always looking for solutions and want things fixed, not linger and keep going. Why made the topic for everyone to share their views, and hopefully perblue can help with the problem going on.

Appreciate the further information of what has been said before on this too.

[Filadae_Djaq]

What if there was a way we could report undeserved flags to Polaris? Like a flag appeal application?

[Pipsqueak]

I don’t think there’s any feature to ‘appeal’ flags, but what can be fiddled around with is -

• the ‘score’ threshold above which a user’s flag will automatically hide a post (ie. it can be increased)
• the number of ‘flag points’ (all flag types are not equal) a single post needs in order to be automatically hidden

[Black_Widow]

I would love to be able to see my flag score as well so I know if it’s useful when I’m flagging comments (not that I’ve ever really needed to)

[Filadae_Djaq]

@Pipsqueak

I don’t think there’s any feature to ‘appeal’ flags

I’m only proposing an idea, not saying there is one currently

What I mean is like there could be a link to a google form application for a flag

Like this

What is your username?
Filadae_Djaq

Which comment has been flagged?
DHBM Meme Center - #1045 by Filadae_Djaq

(this post actually got flagged)

What was it flagged as?

[Poll]

• Off-Topic
• Inappropriate
• Spam
• By Moderation

Why do you think this flag should be appealed?
It was not inappropriate at all. It was just a meme with no bad meaning to it.

[Pipsqueak]

oh i mean like, i don’t think there’s any such thing they can enable in the discourse software. But yeah an external thing like that would do it

[Witcheress]

I think flagging is abused a lot and the main reason for that is the same reason there are trolls on the internet - people who flag remain anonymous. If there was an option that when you flag someone, you have to write (not just select) your reasoning and your forum name will be published, everyone would think twice or thrice before flagging someone.

[PawpsicleSticks]

Problem is, then there’s a good chance that people who are being flagged because they deserve it will harass or start targeting the person who flagged them.

[Spark]

Then they should be silenced

[PawpsicleSticks]

And we all know how quickly that happens, particularly on the weekends when the 10-year-olds have their free time.

[Spark]

Maybe @Polaris has a good idea