Ability to Flag a Part of a Post

[Wannawinitallday (Kevin Potthast)]

I think instead of tagging the entire post and having mods find the off topic or inappropriate or whatever you should be able to tag a portion of the post, the part that is off topic. I think it should be like quoting where you highlight it and there is a button next to quote that says flag, and it brings up the flag menu like normal. Then you can only flag the off topic part and save the mods some time.
(This is my first post, if I do anything incorrectly please private message me)

[HAWK]

I think instead of tagging the entire post

Do you mean tag (for content management) or flag (for moderation)?
Assuming the latter, can you explain the use case?

Currently the ‘Something Else’ option affords the flagger the ability to give specifics. Would that suit your purpose?

And welcome!

[IF_Adrien (Adrien)]

I think he wants the possibility to flag a specific part of a post to make it easier for the moderators to locate an issue.

Even through I think the current flagging system is enough, I quickly edited the screenshot below.
By selecting/highlighting a specific part of a post, you’d had to possibility to flag using a button like the current quote one.

[jomaxro (Joshua Rosenfeld)]

While I like the concept of flagging a certain part of the post, I do not in any way like the UI mockup. It makes flagging way too prevalent.

[Wannawinitallday (Kevin Potthast)]

Sorry for taking a long time to get back to everyone. What @IF_Adrien is saying is what I mean. I see off topic things all the time but I don’t want to flag the entire post in order to flag a few words. That is why I made this.

[tophee (Christoph)]

I see off topic things all the time but I don’t want to flag the entire post in order to flag a few words.

If the post is not sufficiently off-topic for you to flag it, that means it is sufficiently on-topic and there is no need for action.

Besides: what action should staff take if just “a few words” are off topic?

[HAWK]

Hmmm. Follow up questions:

1. So if you were to flag part of a post, what would be the desired mod action? That they removed that part of the post?

2. Does this happen so frequently that the ‘Something Else’ option would be suboptimal?

While I like the concept of flagging a certain part of the post

Curious about your answers to the above qs also.

[jomaxro (Joshua Rosenfeld)]

Curious about your answers to the above qs also.

Sure, I’d be happy to share my thoughts.

So if you were to flag part of a post, what would be the desired mod action? That they removed that part of the post?

From the admin side I think it would function the same way. Essentially it would trigger a “something else” type flag PM where the selected part of the flagged post would appear in the PM.

Does this happen so frequently that the ‘Something Else’ option would be suboptimal?

I would not say that it happens often, just that flags on giant posts can be hard to parse through. Flagging part of a two sentence post wouldn’t be particularly useful, but flagging a part of a large post (for example my Discourse Moderation Guide) would be extremely useful.

[HAWK]

Essentially it would trigger a “something else” type flag PM where the selected part of the flagged post would appear in the PM.

So essentially you’re suggesting a quicker/easier alternative to using the ‘Something Else’ option and C&Ping the offending lines?

[jomaxro (Joshua Rosenfeld)]

Exactly. The something else composer is suboptimal because it’s a modal, I can’t copy/quote something while it’s open.

[tophee (Christoph)]

When it comes to reactions to a post other than replying, I also think there is room for improvement:

• Reply as PM
• Reply as new topic
• Like part of a topic

As an admin, I often reply to user posts in private (if only because the post wasn’t intended as a public post in the first place) and I find it counterintuitive every time that I have to go via the flag button.

The reply as new topic issue has already been discussed elsewhere, but I can’t find the topic right now.

As for for liking parts of a post, I was torn, for example with regard to Joshua’s post above:

@jomaxro

While I like the concept of flagging a certain part of the post, I do not in any way like the UI mockup. It makes flagging way too prevalent.

I do not like the idea of flagging parts of a post but if such a function should exist, I agree that the mockup makes it too prominent… To like or not to like, that is the question.

See also this topic on the subject:

Highlight parts of a post that have been quoted in a reply

I’m very interested in a highlighting feature à la medium, though more basic. Could you clarify whether the team has any interest in adding any of the following features into core (whether as PR or from the team itself) and if not, whether you’d be willing to support a plugin in core should it be required: Adding a “Highlight” button next to the “Quote” button. Pressing this button would add a very light yellow background to the selected text. Every time another user presses the button for th…

[elijah (Eli the Bearded)]

Exactly. The something else composer is suboptimal because it’s a modal, I can’t copy/quote something while it’s open.

What if highlighting as if for a quote, and then selecting flag -> something else copied that bit into the flagging modal?

[bloomexperiment (Tracey)]

@tophee

• Reply as PM

As an admin, I often reply to user posts in private (if only because the post wasn’t intended as a public post in the first place) and I find it counterintuitive every time that I have to go via the flag button.

Do you mean it as a different functionality to:

• click on user’s avatar for the post you want to reply to
• click PM button

(it creates a PM with a link to the reply)

[tophee (Christoph)]

I was not aware of this functionality but I cannot confirm it either on my mobile. When I tap your avatar and then hit “Message”, I get an ordinary PM without any reference to this post or topic.

[cpradio]

You wouldn’t, as clicking on an avatar via mobile takes you to their profile page, it isn’t opening the user card.