This guide explains how to flag a post for moderator attention in Discourse, when you should use this feature, and what happens after a post is flagged.
Required user level: Trust Level 1 or higher
Flagging is an important moderation tool in Discourse. It helps maintain a civil and productive discussion environment by allowing users to report inappropriate content without derailing the conversation.
When to flag a post
Flag a post when you encounter content that:
- Is off-topic or derails the conversation
- Violates the community guidelines
- Contains spam or promotional material
- Is inappropriate or offensive
How to flag a post
- Locate the post you want to flag
- Click the flag icon (
) at the bottom of the post - Choose one of the following options:
- Send a personal message to the user
- Flag as Off-Topic
- Flag as Inappropriate
- Flag as Spam
- Flag as Illegal
- Flag as Something Else
*Note that your specific forum may have some different options in this screen - flagging options are customizable by forum admins.
What happens after flagging
- Moderators are notified and can review the flagged post in their review queue
- If no action is taken within 48 hours, all moderators receive an automatic private message
- Posts that accumulate enough flags will be automatically hidden based on the site’s
hide post sensitivitysetting — the required score depends on the number and weight of flags, not a fixed count - A staff member can use the “Take Action” button to hide a post immediately
- Users whose posts are hidden due to flags receive a private message notification
- After 10 minutes, the user can edit their hidden post to unhide it
- If the post receives enough flags again after editing, it will be hidden again and cannot be unhidden by editing
Consequences of receiving flags
- New (Trust Level 0) users who receive enough spam flags from enough different users will be automatically silenced, preventing them from posting — this is controlled by the
silence new user sensitivityandnum users to silence new user(default 3) settings - Users with 5 or more flags on their posts cannot reach Trust Level 3
- Only flags from the last 100 days count towards the Trust Level 3 restriction
- Staff-approved flags are the only ones that count towards these limits
Automatic topic closure
A topic that accumulates enough flag score from at least 5 different users (controlled by num flaggers to close topic and auto close topic sensitivity settings) will be automatically closed until moderators can review it.
Note: The values mentioned in this guide are default settings. Administrators can adjust these in the site settings.
Last edited by @Moin 2024-07-31T07:14:17Z
Last checked by @hugh 2024-07-02T05:06:37Z
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