Please distinguish flags for "bad" things from organizational and "please help" flags

feature
1

Apologies if this is already discussed — it’s hard to know what to search for.[1]

Right now, although users can select why they are flagging something, all flags seem to be treated equally in the review queue — and they all go on the “permanent record” of the person whose post got flagged. I mean, I know you can filter by “Type”, but they still notify staff in the same way.

I would like to encourage people to flag posts (including their own) which could benefit from curation but aren’t problematic per se.

That is, for things like:

  • Please move topic to a different category, or add or remove tags[2]
  • This (and possibly replies) should be split to new topic
  • This topic is a duplicate – please merge into this other topic[3]
  • I can’t edit my own post anymore but need to make an important update
  • other similar things that I can’t think of right now

… I’d like:

  • A different notification indicator (different color and shape)
  • No permanent record
  • Won’t hide the post or anything like that
  • Not treated as a negative for TL

We could try to train people to not flag for these things, but instead post in our Help category or send a PM, but that feels like more trouble for users and less likely to be used.

  1. and the new AI search didn’t find anything either ↩︎

  2. bonus feature – allow suggested tag and category changes, allow review/action at a configurable TL, and automatic action based on enough agreement at even lower TL ↩︎

  3. I’d really love first-class mark-as-duplicate support, a la Stack Exchange ↩︎

16 Likes
2

hmmm. why does an unaccepted flag (answering NO in review queue) to delete the flag still count as a flagged post against the user?

i tend to agree with this - i get users flagging duplicate topics or posts that need to be moved. these cases need a moderator yes, but not an actual negative “flag”.

5 Likes
3

I agree as well—this is a great suggestion. Tangentially: I find the flag system very confusing in general. For example, when it says “so-and-so has X helpful flags” in a user profile, is that other people flagging that user’s posts as helpful? Or is it that user flagging posts for moderator attention and those moderators responding affirmatively to those flags? I know it is the latter, but every time I read that phrasing I have to think for a moment again to remember what it means. Maybe a feature like this could also provide some space to tweak how flag-related information is presented in general?

2 Likes
5

you can change the text to something you prefer in the text replacement console via admin-customize-text. the two strings you want to edit will be in:

js.user.staff_counters.flags_given.one
js.user.staff_counters.flags_given.other

or you can search “helpful flag” in the search field there.

2 Likes
8

I do too. It’s perhaps the only aspect of Discourse where I feel this way. When I’ve dealt with a flag, I set it to ‘Ignore’ because that feels like it should have fewest side-effects.

1 Like
9

Agreed, we use flags to allow users notify mods of exceptional replies and then we award them a custom badge, but flagging doesn’t make sense for this in it’s current state. And yeah, I dislike the flag system as well. Very confusing!

1 Like