Report Queue - and its recent importance

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Given the recent collapse of the Moderator Queue its seems critical to mention that the Report Queue can be accessed through Moderation Page -> "Reported" tab.

Head straight to the final page. Note that if there is Nothing Reported, the chances are that the previous page was filled only enough to cause a new page to be created but not enough to populate it. In this case the Page selection controls disappear and you need to manually enter the page number from the page before into the URL.

Users do seem to be reporting inappropriate content, duplicates, spam, advertising, irrelevance and "Somebody not being very nice" with some frequency. It transpires that a lot of these reports are actually made by moderators with sufficient priviledges to whoop an ass, themselves. Don't be afraid to use the tools with which you have been given. Delete that nonsense post, suspend that dodgy account. Follow up by tracing them through and obliterating their spam. Reports do not end up at Support.

Please be aware: that you should not Delete Reported content simply because the Report states "Duplicate" or any other reason. In a lot of cases it appears that the Reported content has already been dealt with in that the OTHER duplicate was deleted in which case you'd be destroying a valid post and ALL its Replies; Reported Content is NOT Quarantined like Moderated content - it still exists in the visible domain. Posts receive 'false' or 'inappropriate' Reports all the time and they should all be followed through fully before any decision is made. I have found much reported content that was totally verified by its replies.

It sounds like a lot of work but in reality its a lot less than the old Mod Queue and in fact feels a lot more like real moderation should; it actually utilises the user base to generate its queries rather then the Moderators having to Randomly encounter objects needing housekeeping.

BE CAREFUL not to destroy valid content. MASS DELETE WOULD DESTROY MUCH VALID CONTENT. A final note is that Provided you do not navigate away from the current Reported page, you fully have a chance to UNDO the last action (Suspend, Delete, Cancel Report). It is a very good idea to check your actions to Absolutely Prevent Loss of Valid Content.

Apologies for posting a Statement as a Question. Thoughts welcome.

Answer 1

I see your point about the Report feature - people are using it. Not to discourage, but it needs to be completely cleared to have any hope of Mods reading it Any new Mod who somehow manages to find it now will see 5+ year-old unhandled reports and conclude we don't touch it.

But the whole cleaning the site process is a mess:

o Users with <1000 rep can and should use Report to flag things. I think Report should be open at 0 rep, since plenty of full-grown adults with 0 rep know how a Report button works.

o Users with 1000 rep should stop reporting and instead move things into the Mod Q (or the Help Room, but many don't think it should exist.) They should also sometimes check the Mod Q (and the Reported Q.)

o User with 5K(?) rep should stop moving things into the Mod Q and just handle it directly. And also check both Queues.

= How much Rep does it take to use the Report Q? That list is never mentioned anywhere. To Delete reported spam, sure it takes 5K or whatever. But anyone with 1000+ could move valid reports into moderation, or clear and do-nothing for a silly report.

= Does the Delete button in the Report queue do anything? It doesn't appear to delete the reported item (I go to it and the dotted red lines aren't around it.) Why does the "do nothing and clear this report" button require a confirm?

All-in-all, this makes the site seem even more hopeless. Now not only are we not moving bad Qs off the front page, and leaving Qs baggily stuck in moderation for days (since no one checks that.) We've also been ignoring helpful users Reports for years. They're been reporting Spam, then seeing it's still there 6 months later.

Report Queue - and its recent importance

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