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 PM’ing you over a “Report” 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 don’t know how much it would cut down on the PM’s, though it should help in some cases. Another option might be to implement some sort of reputation function, and limit the use of the “Report” button to people with a large enough reputation on the site. I don’t 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 wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t seen the “Report” on my post. Other times, I get hit and never do figure it out, so I assume it’s a “revenge” hit, or a “dislike” hit. I’ve known from the beginning not to “worry” 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 “Reporter” specify what the hit was for would help at least me, and maybe a few others. Someone recently suggested a “Challenge” capability be added to the “Report” feature. I think that’s a nice idea as well. It might also cut down on the personal PM’s.
I just really prefer the “Report” function to be visible to the person being hit by it. Otherwise, might as well get rid of the button completely. You say misuse isn’t 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 can’t 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. I’m 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.
That’s 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 user’s account.
Why don’t 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 can’t see what they have written that has been marked rude by someones opinion so don’t 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 it’s a total psychopath they always get several warnings first. As I mentioned, most bad behavior comes from a small number of repeat offenders that don’t really appear to care about their number of reports and aren’t trying to improve. In my experience here, I’ve 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 don’t mean cases where I don’t personally agree with the report. Everyone has their own opinions and particular sensitive spots, and I respect that. So don’t 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 can’t 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 ‘report’ 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 ‘report’ 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 can’t stand the idea that they may have done something wrong, and will vigorously insist that they haven’t 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 ‘report’ button.
- If this doesn’t happen often, things end there. Otherwise…
- 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.
I’m not sure that the few spats in here raise to a level of 1 on the animus scale. At worse, it’s just hurt feelings and occasional pride overdrive.
SB, just a suggestion….delete the content in offending post and THAT should be enough of a warning. “CONTENT DELETED BY ADMINISTRATION” gets people’s attention.
My bigger beef is with sb and choosing a product code as a name. Seriously,…sb56637. Is that a test tube number? Amazon product number?
What’s wrong with …Boss? Big Guy? Master? Warden? Even Flashalot has more gravitas.
Just saying…. 
TK, you can tell from your analysis above that you do a lot of coding!
And the numbers would be “LEGGS” if you look at it upside-down in a calculator.
Like Barkuti’s pic that scarred me emotionally for life?
I mostly don’t really care to flag nor report any posts. I’ve learnt to just reply via PM or ignore it. Trollers feed on our replies.
Keep posting useful stuff guys, share what you think is good for the community and ignore those bad.
- Clemence
I never noticed that!
sb
It’s a bit of a stretch, but yeah… LEggSqs
leggs qs
Leggs queues?
Leggscuse? Like an excuse for legs?
It could be used in a sentence like: “Honey, I know it looks bad coming home four months late and three sheets to the wind with two eyepatches and a wooden leg… but I swear, I have a really good legscuse.”