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Posted by: RoffleChops
I'm a moderator on a lot of forums, I always send a PM to the reporter to let him/her know their report helped.
The report function is just a button/hyperlink next to "reply message user" in a post. It would take you to another page with a textbox, where you enter the problem (Spam, content leak, etc). Could be a drop down box. On one of my forums, there is a Reported Board, where when a report is made, the system makes a post including details. When the issue is solved, the solver locks the topic.
RoffleChops, as it stands, I appreciate your thought but respectfully disagree with your idea.
Bungie.net is unique in many ways, which is what makes it so addicting. It has done quite well with just a few very skilled and dedicated moderators. Bad threads very rarely last longer than an hour or two, and in the vast majority of cases, are handled in just a few minutes.
As a result, I must question what the purpose is of any kind of report system. If it is to allow moderators to find bad threads, then such a system is clearly unnecessary. If, however, it is to make their jobs easier, then that's a good purpose. But I do not see that this proposal makes moderators' jobs easier in any way. In fact, it seems to make it markedly harder for both the Bungie web team and moderators themselves for a couple of reasons:
First, the idea is open to abuse. Spammers can easily create alternate accounts, and some members have admitted that they have dozens of "alts." These individuals could "spam" the report system by hitting the report button multiple times on different accounts. They might do so for a myriad of reasons -- personal vendettas against moderators or other regular members, for their own amusement, a post that they don't like, or even just out of boredom.
The second problem is that even well-intentioned members are frequently wrong. Look at the high number of threads where users reply "this is gonna be locked" where in reality, there has been no violation of the rules. This frequently happens in poorly written threads, threads which may appear to be spam at first glance, and controversial threads (the latter of which are, in my opinion, the most interesting and often spark the best discussion). Not that the final decision would not belong to a moderator, but you must consider that moderators seem to be capable of finding bad threads most of the time.
It is clear that any further feature for reporting threads to moderators should result in less, not more work for the moderators. The problems outlined above with flagging or reporting features that are open to all b.net members would result in more work, as moderators would have to sort through mis-reported threads. Furthermore, the "reporting board" that you mentioned takes a lot more work than a moderator's merely locking the thread and moving on. Imagine during the Halo 3 Beta Phases 1 and 2 entries if the moderators had to lock TWO threads (the original the "reported thread" autopost) for every ONE bad thread created. It would have been Hell on Earth for them.
I do not want to completely crush the idea however, because I like the idea of making things easier for the moderators. Currently, the system is complicated. Moderators must either be incredibly vigilant in reading every thread, or must rely on MSN messages and PMs. I have inquired about people's thoughts regarding a "flagging" feature (here if you want to view it) to make it easier for moderators to quickly spot bad threads. The system would have specific limits on exactly WHO can flag (read the thread for further details).
Frankly, I am not even sure if such a feature would be necessary, but I do think that it would make moderating easier rather than harder. But as for your idea, it seems to do the opposite. Do you have any thoughts for improvement? If not, then I do not think that this idea should be implemented.
[Edited on 04.15.2007 1:18 AM PDT]