Moderators cannot flag a message after it has been unhidden after a first flag?

AI-generated summary

Moderators are discussing limitations when handling flagged posts. reaperoa noticed that after initially flagging and hiding a post, if the user edits it, they can unhide it, and moderators can’t rehide it by flagging again. sam believed this is intentional, suggesting moderators should either delete the post, send a private message, or copy-edit the content to avoid endless flagging cycles.

However, reaperoa pointed out a previous statement suggesting that after a second round of flags, a user can no longer unhide their post by editing it. sam acknowledged this, clarifying that the issue is that moderators can only delete the content on the second round of flags, and there’s no option to leave the “hidden” stub without removing the content.

I’m not sure whether this is a bug, oversight, or working as designed, but I’m a mod on another forum, and currently the mods are talking about how to handle a certain person. The person is posting things that are against the rules (nothing warranting a straight ban or anything, but flag and hide forcing them to change their posts).

The problem I’m having is that once I flag something and hide it, if they alter their post they can unhide it without changing the content, and I can’t rehide it by flagging it again (the only thing that appears is the “Send a private message” option.

5 Mi Piace

I think this is intentional for moderation.

Second time around you would simply delete it, the system only gives users one “edit to turn hidden into visible” chance.

At that point you have 3 options

  1. delete content
  2. send a pm to user telling them to stop with this
  3. copy edit content

Endless cycles of flag → hide → show → flag → hide , can only lead to tears.

1 Mi Piace

It’s possible that I may be simply misunderstanding something, but I thought that, after a second flagging, it became impossible for a user to unhide their post by editing it. If that’s not the case, what exactly does the below indicate?

Yes the user can no longer unhide.

OK I think I follow.

So you want another option here, you want to leave “hidden” stub as opposed to removing the content so people can still see it?

At the moment second time around you only get an option to delete, if you initiated the flag.