How do you manage flags on non-human posts?

Flags on non-human posts such as those from system, Discobot, or AI bots do not appear in the review queue. I am interested in how you handle them.

Primarily, I’m curious about how you ensure they aren’t missed. After all, it’s frustrating for users if they report something and it seems like nobody cares.

Do you have a Data Explorer query to find such flags? Do you regularly check the moderator group’s inbox? If you rely on the latter, how do you also ensure that a flagged post is not hidden or deleted somewhere because of, for example, too many spam flags?

Of course, one might say that system posts shouldn’t be spammy, but a user could still cause damage by flagging them, which can lead to them being hidden and, if no staff member intervenes, deleted. And since those flags do not appear in the review queue, there is a real risk they will be overlooked and entire topics disappear.

In addition, some posts authored by system actually originate from deleted users, which may later turn out to contain spam.
And then there are PMs with the AI bots. Users are often encouraged to report these if they contain incorrect or misleading information.

Here on Meta, also some documentation topics are posted by system.

So, how do you ensure that these kinds of flags aren’t overlooked?

5 Likes

Thanks for flagging this, @Moin.

IMO, flagged system posts should be added to the review queue like any others, so I think that’s a change worth making. We’ll look into this!

2 Likes

I would still be interested in how you have handled it so far. For example, on ask.discourse.com you also ask us to report mistakes.