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)
Do you mean tag (for content management) or flag (for moderation)?
Assuming the latter, can you explain the use case?
Currently the âSomething Elseâ option affords the flagger the ability to give specifics. Would that suit your purpose?
And welcome!
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, youâd had to possibility to flag using a button like the current quote one.
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.
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 donât want to flag the entire post in order to flag a few words. That is why I made this.
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 âa few wordsâ are off topic?
Hmmm. Follow up questions:
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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?
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Does this happen so frequently that the âSomething Elseâ option would be suboptimal?
Curious about your answers to the above qs also.
Sure, Iâd be happy to share my thoughts.
From the admin side I think it would function the same way. Essentially it would trigger a âsomething elseâ type flag PM where the selected part of the flagged post would appear in the PM.
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 wouldnât be particularly useful, but flagging a part of a large post (for example my Discourse Moderation Guide) would be extremely useful.
So essentially youâre suggesting a quicker/easier alternative to using the âSomething Elseâ option and C&Ping the offending lines?
Exactly. The something else composer is suboptimal because itâs a modal, I canât copy/quote something while itâs open.
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 wasnât 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 canât find the topic right now.
As for for liking parts of a post, I was torn, for example with regard to Joshuaâs post above:
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:
What if highlighting as if for a quote, and then selecting flag â something else copied that bit into the flagging modal?
Do you mean it as a different functionality to:
- click on userâs avatar for the post you want to reply to
- click PM button
(it creates a PM with a link to the reply)
I was not aware of this functionality but I cannot confirm it either on my mobile. When I tap your avatar and then hit âMessageâ, I get an ordinary PM without any reference to this post or topic.
You wouldnât, as clicking on an avatar via mobile takes you to their profile page, it isnât opening the user card.