PSA: Flagging is NOT the replacement for downvotes!

Community General Discussion
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Hey that happened to my post just yesterday. Admittedly it was a bit long but had a Semi-TLDR. Was as constructive and concise as possible but it had some controversial points such as anti TF and anti instant gratification (not anti casual mind you) which is why I’m assuming it got flagged.

This is a fantastic post though. I completely agree. No idea why people are trying to block posts they disagree with as opposed to having a discussion about it. If you can’t discuss things then it’s probably a bad idea to be on an internet board made for discussing things.

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I’ll continue to flag some Classic topic posts as spam, so that they get moved to the correct forum.

You aren’t telling us anything new. We already know everything you said.

Whenever I see a post that is basically saying classic will kill retail, then I know that the person making the post is trolling. There is a flag for trolls.

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I agree with you I’ve seen a thread that shouldn’t have been flagged ,it had nothing offensive it at all. Just a plan discussion.Thank goodness it’s still there.

Glad you brought this up :+1:

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There isn’t a reason.

Nope. Those ideas or topic haven’t been posted before. I did search just to make sure.

There is no valid reason. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that thread. At all.

But we shouldn’t be able to flag into oblivion a well thought out idea with that much effort put into it.

Thus why this topic exists to explore a better way to handle the wording of flagging and not have good threads flagged just because someone doesn’t like it.

But that’s still not a good reason to be reporting posts. We can dislike something by posting about it. We shouldn’t be abusing it for disliking the topic or opinions when they’re not against CoC. I’m sorry you were a victim of that. :confused:

And yet recently two threads so far have been incorrectly flagged into oblivion… :thinking:

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Nothing is flagged into “oblivion”. With a simple click, even a hidden topic is revealed and it doesnt disappear from the list of topics.

I dont even think a community temp lock can happen anymore. I havent seen one in a very long while.

Note: that doesnt mean I agree with flagging threads that dont break any rules or that I think flags should be the new downvote.

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Now you’re arguing semantics. The entire point is that there are people who won’t even read a post if it’s hidden and will just auto flag it, assuming there’s a reason others flagged into hidden. That shouldn’t be able to happen to those types of topics for no reason. If the flagging system is re-worded, we would see less of this.

And I know exactly why it was brought up. That guideline was created for the old forums for when people would spend their weekend bumping old threads from years ago just to spam the forums. That’s why that guideline exists. It was for a time when pagination existed and threads could get lost.

Threads can no longer get lost. The new sorting features and lack of pagination take care of this.

Me bringing up a still relevant topic in the same thread isn’t spamming. The CoC specifically states not to create duplicate threads. And I’m not spamming a bunch of years old topics back into existence. I brought up a reminder and a discussion that’s only back from January for people to have the same discussion in.

Now I’m going to move on from this part of the argument, because it’s not part of the topic on how to make the flagging system more clear and better to use.

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Can someone ask the owner of the high elf megathread to put this under their main post of the OP? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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So people are not reading and insta flagging based upon the fact that other people flagged a post. Right… if anything I’m clicking on it and disappointed if there was nothing juicy to be read.

Are there things wrong with the flagging system. Sure. Are people really mindlessly auto flagging content they haven’t even read based solely upon others flagging it. Nah.

I have seen some threads that were flagged recently that shouldn’t have been and I can only assume someone doesn’t care for the poster.

Bumping a thread from three months ago is still arguably annoying for a few different reasons.

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Yes there are some people that do this. Because it’s literally been said by people in threads before.

Which is also just silly for people to do and abusing the system.

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Or maybe was your choice of words was off?

I would never flag something without even looking at what the content is. I know this is GD, but isnt it kind of patronizing to your fellow posters to just assume anyone would give a flag without knowing what the content of the post was? Some are obvious from their title maybe, but I would hope people would at least look at it before flagging since they can be actioned for falsely flagging something.

Id go check and see if you can even flag a post thats already been hidden, by the way. I never flag something thats already hidden, but others and I have noted they cant be flagged once hidden now.

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I’m not patronizing anyone. People have literally said so in threads before.

Yeah, they can be.

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Both sets of people should have their rights to flag taken away.

We’re dealing with a new forum software (that they have little actual control over changing) and a forum that by design feels like it’s moderated far too much by players.

Quality services are a thing of the past and this is our new reality.

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So I has not noticed before but when I see a post that is hidden there is no option to report it.

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You should be able to unhide it, and the flagging option should appear.

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I’m not sure why you can’t, but I can.

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Yes I unhid it and the flag option is not there.

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Weird. Don’t think I have seen that happen. Various other bugs seem to appear and disappear on a whim though so why not this, lol.

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Maybe a trust level thing? I’m not sure.

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Id like to see other people corroborate the claim that a hidden post can even be flagged once its hidden, because thats not an option for me.

Then again, a flag on a hidden post is a waste, so I guess it doesnt matter.

Yup just checked again. Collapsed or hidden, there is no flag option for something once its reached the hidden stage. I guess youre special.

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Meritha, Rhielle, it could be a trust level thing. I thought I had the option at one time to report a hidden post, memory isn’t great and unless the post was truly vile I would not have reported it anyways. Either way…for me at this time the report isn’t there on a hidden post.