Thereās a lot I could say, but Iād probably get my post āReportedā so Iāll just say that I wonāt say. 
The Rudeness Meter
Born 2016-06-11
Died 2019-03-08
Rest in Peace little meter
:sunglasses: Nice, thanks!
Interesting. The visible meter certainly had tradeoffsā¦ On the one hand, it gave people behavioral hints without the need for admin action. On the other hand, it had a tendency to turn small conflicts into large conflicts. And the way people responded to it, by either correcting their behavior or escalating conflicts further, seems like it sped up the process of identifying the people most likely to cause trouble. Basically, if there was going to be an explosion, it would happen sooner rather than later.
If itās ever feasible to do on a per-user basis, Iād still like the option of seeing when my posts are flagged. But itās not a big deal; people have other ways to let each other know when they went too far.
(edit: fixed dvorak typoā¦ dvorak makes it too easy to switch vowels)
Drama Meter
Thanks a lot for your input TK.
That was the idea at least. But in practice I would receive a personally written PM from many users each and every time they got flagged. It was a surprisingly strong reaction, often vehemently defending their opinion that the report was unjustified. I usually begged to differ. 
Thatās sort of the paradox here. Users that make a concerted effort to follow the rules and keep the peace (which are the large majority of you) were invariably the same ones that genuinely cared about fixing their flagged posts. Consequentially, with that great attitude those users are almost never on the reports āscoreboardā. Iām not exaggerating when I say that the overwhelming majority of users here generally stay out of trouble; at any given moment there are usually 1 or 2 names on my overview list of users that have recent non-expired reports, and they are usually from the same small group of repeat offenders.
You could have a page listing their handles and mugshots, like are posted behind the counter at stores, those people who bounce checks and the like. :laughing:
So, people were personally PMāing you over a āReportā hit? Maybe a way to deal with that, if technically possible, would be to make the reporting person choose from a list, which rule is violated. That would cut down on revenge hits, and also make the report more useful to the one who gets reported. I donāt know how much it would cut down on the PMās, though it should help in some cases. Another option might be to implement some sort of reputation function, and limit the use of the āReportā button to people with a large enough reputation on the site. I donāt know how that would be done technically either.
I know that sometimes, without realizing it, I break a rule that is important to some member. I recently did that, and apologized. But I wouldnāt have known if I hadnāt seen the āReportā on my post. Other times, I get hit and never do figure it out, so I assume itās a ārevengeā hit, or a ādislikeā hit. Iāve known from the beginning not to āworryā about a hit here or there, but I like to see when it happens. I like having the ability to look at my post and try to understand why it was flagged. Making the āReporterā specify what the hit was for would help at least me, and maybe a few others. Someone recently suggested a āChallengeā capability be added to the āReportā feature. I think thatās a nice idea as well. It might also cut down on the personal PMās.
I just really prefer the āReportā function to be visible to the person being hit by it. Otherwise, might as well get rid of the button completely. You say misuse isnāt very common. I think hiding the meter and the hit list could make misuse of the button more common. Shady characters love the shade.
I had to google this word indignant i canāt even pronounce it properly lol sigh.
Thumbs up on a great job of keeping BLF on the top! 
Hey DavidEF, also thanks to you for your input.
The thing is, this assumes malicious intent by the reporting user. As I mentioned earlier, I often review the reported posts, and the report is almost always justified. Iām not trying to cut down on the number of reports, but rather on the amount of ancillary fights and arguments that break out (usually in public) as a result of a report, however well justified the report may be.
Thatās a fair point. But I would like to emphasize that this is not granting impunity to any shady actors. I can and do fully audit both the receiving and the giving parties with the Report button, and in the rare cases that I have observed abuse I usually permanently close the userās account.
Why donāt people just send a PM when they think someone is rude (not to sb 
) and have a wee argument about it between themselves? 
So what happens now?
I understand that not much has changed except people canāt see what they have written that has been marked rude by someones opinion so donāt get a jist for it and may continue genuinely unaware.
Do you have a limit that once reached forum members get a surprise (or not so surprise) dressing down or warning message from the admin, or banned?
Asking for a friend
No firm limits, every case is different. But unless itās a total psychopath they always get several warnings first. As I mentioned, most bad behavior comes from a small number of repeat offenders that donāt really appear to care about their number of reports and arenāt trying to improve. In my experience here, Iāve seen more cases of users reacting well to one of my PMs and changing their behavior than users that analyze their reported posts and self-moderate themselves. Nobody has been banned on a whim just because of an occasional slip-up or for having a bad day; you practically have to ask for it to get banned.
Also I should mention that when I talk about closing the account(s) of users that abuse the Report button, I donāt mean cases where I donāt personally agree with the report. Everyone has their own opinions and particular sensitive spots, and I respect that. So donāt hesitate to report a post if you think it violates the BLF Rules. Accounts are only closed for abuse in extremely obvious cases of somebody trying to game the system, and I canāt even remember the last time that happened.
my only personal complaint was for trying to moderate a rude comment.
I should have just pushed the button.
Probably the best move for everyone SB.
Good work sb56637!
In keeping with making BLF a happy place, what about a LIKE button?
Typically, what happened was:
- Someone posts something rude.
- Someone else hits the āreportā button.
- The person who was reported explodes into a flurry of angry messages. Some are public, which turns the thread into a war zone for a while, and some are private, which tend to go to SB.
- More people hit the āreportā button, or respond to the angry posts.
- Explosion intensifies.
- SB and everyone in the thread ends up with a headache.
Most people are fine, but there are always a few who canāt stand the idea that they may have done something wrong, and will vigorously insist that they havenāt erred. The only way they know to respond is by escalating the conflict. This, of course, only makes things worse.
By making the meter invisible, the expected outcome is:
- Someone posts something rude.
- Someone else hits the āreportā button.
- If this doesnāt happen often, things end there. Otherwiseā¦
- If a lot of reports come in, SB intervenes to do something about it. SB is good at this, and things usually turn out well.
In theory, there should be far fewer headaches.
Iām not sure that the few spats in here raise to a level of 1 on the animus scale. At worse, itās just hurt feelings and occasional pride overdrive.
SB, just a suggestionā¦.delete the content in offending post and THAT should be enough of a warning. āCONTENT DELETED BY ADMINISTRATIONā gets peopleās attention.
My bigger beef is with sb and choosing a product code as a name. Seriously,ā¦sb56637. Is that a test tube number? Amazon product number?
Whatās wrong with ā¦Boss? Big Guy? Master? Warden? Even Flashalot has more gravitas.
Just sayingā¦. 