Warn users without affecting their flag count
The discussion focuses on finding a way to warn users about minor infractions without affecting their flag count. hunterboerner suggests introducing a “minor” flag level for minor offenses, such as reminding users to use the heart button instead of responding with a +1.
cpradio points out that using the “Notify” option does not result in a flag on the user’s account. However, hunterboerner would like to send an automated message similar to the one received from a flag, which is not currently possible.
cpradio and Mittineague suggest using plugins or extensions like Clippings or “canned replies” to save and copy-paste default messages, saving time and effort.
Say a user posts something like
I love this idea. I think it would be great to see.
I don’t want that user to be punished by affecting his/her flag count but I want to be able to easily give the user an infraction saying please use the heart instead of responding. I’ve gotten stuff like this a few times on other forums from mods with similar things like “post in a different section for that”.
Maybe just have a “minor” flag level for things like this?
I don’t recall from my testing, but does using Notify member_name permit this? I’m thinking that doesn’t actually give them a flag associated to their profile. Only Off-Topic, Inappropriate and Spam actually result in flags accumulating.
The more I think about it and play with it, I believe neither Notify options result in a flag on the user’s account.
Yes, but I would like to be able to send an automated message like the one you get from a flag. Something like this:
Hello,
This is an automated message from Discourse to inform you that your post …
I love this idea. It would be awesome.
… was hidden due to community flagging.
Your post was flagged as against the community guidelines: please use the heart button instead of replying to +1
For additional guidance, please refer to our Community Guidelines.
You’d have to write a plugin to do that. Personally, we just use an extension called Clipper that we save a lot of “default” messages to and copy and paste it into the PM box.
I use Firefox with Clippings though some prefer to use the vB “canned replies”
Not “automated” but it saves a whole lot of time not having to type the same message repeatedly.