[2018-11-30] Report post button

Hi everyone,

It’s been a few years since the Rude! button and “Rudeness Meter” were implemented to crackdown on rude and conflictive posts and users. I admit that it was a rather controversial measure, and some users absolutely hated it. But I also suspect that most of the haters would admit that they disliked it because they frequently racked up points by getting into arguments or being… rude. Which is exactly what the Rude! button was supposed to make people aware of. :wink: In addition to alerting users that their posts were offending others, the “rudeness meter” has also been of great help for me when moderating difficult situations to determine whether a given post was offensive to others too, if it was just my personal criteria.

So you were probably expecting this post to be about the elimination of the Rude! button. But it’s actually not going away. Instead, its name has been changed to: Report. And the “Rudeness Meter” has changed its function to measure “Reported Posts”. And that’s about all that has changed. The reason for this change is that many users did not understand why they were getting Rude! hits when their posts did not contain profanity or overt insults. And I admit that it was a bit of a misnomer, because the instructions for proper usage of the Rude! button were not limited just to insults and profanity. In reality, the instructions always were, and continue to be for the current implementation of the Report button:

So this means that the new Report button should be used on posts that violate BLF Rules #1 through #4:

Rules #3 and #4 are often the most frequently overlooked:

  • Please strictly avoid all conversations about religion on this forum, which is not the proper medium for such topics. Also please strictly avoid all discussions that even touch on politics. I understand that there are flashlight-related topics that are relevant to our hobby and have a political aspect to them. (For example, “Country X increased its import tariffs for Chinese products.”) There are also unfortunately certain tragedies such as human and natural disasters that BLF users simply want to talk about, and these discussions are not prohibited categorically. However, great care must be exercised to not make such topics veer off into a political discussion. If any posts do head into that territory, please mark them with the Report button. Religious and political topics on this forum never end up pretty, so it is in your own best interest to avoid them here and help to control them via the Report button.
  • Also please absolutely avoid fighting. If you and/or somebody else starts getting hot under the collar, please drop the subject completely. The Report button should be used when somebody starts or participates in an argument, even if there is no profanity or direct insults. Very few users are determined enough to simply shout off into an echo chamber, and in almost all cases a fight will die out immediately if everyone ignores it completely. Also, please do NOT quote other users’ rude posts, and don’t try to moderate the situation. That’s my job, and I do it with the help of your Report button clicks.

Just as before, if a given post gets too many reports, it will be automatically removed. I understand that this places a lot of power in the hands of users, but so far it’s been much more helpful than harmful. Of course, I can fully audit the creation of puppet user accounts and the systematic abuse/manipulation of the system, and I usually permanently ban users that do so.

As before, you can see which of your post(s) were flagged as problematic by visiting this link:

A huge expression of thanks is also in order to our thousands of users that make a concerted effort to be helpful and polite. Keep up the good work! Thanks to all of you collectively for usually not being problematic and making my job generally hassle-free. Oh, and:

:wink:

Hi SB, just curious as I’ve never seen it officially stated anywhere, obviously as the admin you’re in the top position as our “super mod” but are there other members here also in supporting moderator roles? It seems so but with no official stance it’s hard to know if they’re acting on their own, acting in an official capacity or just totally gone rogue…

I won’t drop any names as to the user’s I suspect to be in supporting mod roles (and I have no beef with any one) but I’m sure I’m not the only one to come to this conclusion and it’d be great if we could get an “official list” of who these people may or may not be. It could potentially keep some arguments from even starting if we were all on the same page that xxxxx is a “basic mod” and yyyyyy has the power to nix certain topics or whatever. Maybe just a posted list or custom user title group?

I can honestly say that I have never clicked the Rude button on anybody. I have a pretty thick skin and don’t get offended easily. Everybody has bad days or sometimes days, months, or years. :slight_smile: Some people I think are just angry old buzzards who lost the will to be positive and decent. Everyone has probably been angry or agitated for a day or so, then there are those that have been that way for decades.

Take care SB, you do a job I probably couldn’t do. Hope you know you are appreciated for all you do.

Thanks for the question, I guess I should have made that clear a long time ago. Nope, BLF is rather unique in the sense that it is a large forum with precisely one (1) moderator. I do wear a lot of hats, but fortunately you guys and gals usually make it pretty easy for me. And this fact really underscores the critical importance of the semi-automatic “community moderation” buttons that are in place. In a certain sense it could be said that you are all moderators, so I appreciate the help.

Very true. I’m definitely willing to cut people some slack in that respect. We’re all only human.

Thanks very much! My pleasure.

Ah, very interesting. I’ve been convinced for a while now one other very popular member was some sort of mod here as he/she has stated, more than once, that they’re somehow responsible for thread moderation (specifically regarding SPAM posts not caught by the filter / spam button).

So to confirm 100%, NO ONE else shares ANY mod duties, in ANY capacity?

P.s. Thank you for everything, BLF is like no other internet community I’ve ever been a part of (hopefully it’s obvious I mean that as the highest of compliments)

Correct.

Thank you very much!

Thanks for all you do :+1:
Mind the 6th needs stickied :wink:

Ah, thanks for the reminder, I just sticky’d this post.

What about Surefire worshippers? :wink:
MIke

Oops, sorry, gotcha now. :innocent: Also sticky’d.

:smiley:

Since your implementation of the “Rude” button, Ive noticed a steep decline in the number of infantile trolls and their collaborators. This saddens me, because I had organized a hunting part to decapitate them and shrink their heads to add to my collection. That aside, I still enjoy the fruits of my labors while clicking the “Mark as Spam” button. Its so satisfying to click, then receive a response that the thread can no longer be found. You could probably charge a fee for its use and collect bitcoins! :smiling_imp:

I too was under the impression there was more than one moderator. Its good to know that isnt the case. We accept you as judge, jury, prosecutor and hangman. Again, there are bitcoin opportunities in there for you!

Yes, yes! Ban all threads related to Surefire! If the word is used in this forum, the system should immediately delete the offending account with all its comments, then block the IP and MAC. Yes! That sounds great! And… may as well add another trigger of the same consequence for “CPF”. That horrible menace of dictatorial servitude should never be mentioned, and is easily the most offensive vernacular that could ever be posted anywhere. But since their mods are typically “Rude”, how would we “Report” them with the new changing of the button? Maybe several additional buttons could be created to cover a large number of adjectives and pronouns, with the ability to choose more than one! Indeed, there are many things to ponder, as we pour ourselves another while contemplate such irritating vagaries. :smiley:

All in good fun! As always, thank you for all your hard work in keeping the gears turning for the rest of us mere groundlings. It’ll be interesting to see how others interpret the “Report” button and find ways of abusing it. Hopefully, it makes your job easier as the membership and number of posts continues to grow.

Someone observed a few years ago that “it’s not the trolling, it’s the biting” —- a caution about being hooked that I found very cautionary.

Some of us try to “warn” others of impending doom, rather than summarily mark posts “Rude!” (now “Report”). I’m guilty of that. I feel like the “Report” button has enough weight to it that I don’t want to wield it unnecessarily. I try to give people the benefit of doubt that maybe they don’t know and just need to be made aware. So… are you saying you don’t want us to give this kind of “heads up” but just mark the post and let them figure it out on their own? I can do that, if that’s what you want. But it feels like bringing a gun to a “rap battle”.

seems a good thing to allow ppl to report to you any transgressions they perceive by others.
as opposed to chastising them theirselves with no letter of marque behind them

:+1: good change

@FlashPilot: Thanks for the kind words! I’ll be sure to add another “Report Surefire” button per your request. :slight_smile:

Nice! I should make that the new BLF slogan.

@DavidEF: That’s a good question. I didn’t mean to be dismissive of such efforts to deescalate a situation, and I have indeed noticed those gentle nudges at times. If somebody can do so without further riling the offender and without getting emotionally pulled into the argument then I guess I don’t see any problem.

I'm sure the Report button will provide you with plenty of entertainment.

Was joking ... never used the rude button