Use of Flags

[ondrej]

I can see that other members have given you some great suggestions already!

it seems that you are not the admin / moderator of the site in question? ^[1] However, I will post some ideas for everyone to read.

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Its not healthy for discussion if people are using flags as a ‘weapon’ for personal disputes/disagreements. Users should be criticising ideas, not people.

Something that hasn’t been mentioned is changing the hide post sensitivity of flags so that it takes more flags to reach a threshold and be hidden. However, that does not address the fact that the post can still be flagged unjustly by others.

Really, the best options are what has already been suggested which is reaching out directly and issue an official warning explaining they will be trust level locked or suspended if they continue.

You could maybe use this as an example?

Hello [@Username],

I’m contacting you regarding your continued inappropriate use of flags on posts you merely disagree with. Us (the moderators) have noticed a pattern of repeated flagging activity from your account that does not align with our community guidelines. [link relevant guidelines]

The flag feature is a tool for reporting clear violations of our guidelines such as spam, harassment or off-topic posts. Not for expressing disagreement, disliking someone’s opinion, or targeting specific users.

Your use of flags is disrupting discussions and creating unnecessary workload for the moderation team. As such, if you continue misusing flags, it will result in your trust level being locked wherein you will lose the flag feature temporarily or permanently or your account will be suspended from the forum. [say for how long based on your rules]

Please consider this your first and final official warning.

If you have any concerns about a specific post or user that you feel requires moderator attention, please message us directly instead of mass flagging.

Thank you for your understanding,
The Moderation Team

Other options are to turn down max flags per day in your site settings.

@TonyG

there doesn’t seem to be a way for people to appeal community TL1 moderation if the community TL1 moderators have the ability to suppress appeals.

I’m not quite sure what you mean here by “appeal community TL1 moderation”.

@Ed_S

Never feel that your community needs to retain all its users at all costs.

I’ll reiterate this
Even if the user has been a long time active member, if they cause a detriment to others they shouldn’t be there. Your community, your rules.

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1. Please correct me if I’m wrong ↩︎