However, sometimes the goal of flagging a message is not to silence a post or topic, but simply to trigger moderators attention. Yet, if the flagger is TL3+, if the setting says so, any flag that user makes will auto-hide the flagged content.
Sometimes, it may be useful to simply call for the attention of moderators: e.g., you read a post which feels wrong, or you suspect the poster to be a sockpuppet, an AI, a troll or some other unwanted character. In this case, you do not want to trigger the poster’s attention, but simply to tell moderators to look into it.
Such an addition to the Flag functionality would enable softer flag behavior. I would suggest such a flag to require an explanation by the person flagging.
On another topic, the flag metaphor may feel aggressive to some people: e.g., in soccer, the referee would raise a flag when a foul is committed – i.e., when someone does not respect the rules. This metaphor may feel like exerting power over the flagged person, especially when the immediate result is that the post is hidden. Maybe a metaphor would be more neutral: I feel something is wrong, and I’d like the moderators to look into it and tell me.
It sounds like you’re referring to the high trust flaggers auto hide posts setting — is that correct?
Have you experimented with disabling this setting? If so, can you share how that went? If not, why not? It’s helpful for us to understand how you’ve tried to handle this so far and what those workarounds have been missing.
That hiding is true when flagged because of spam. I would guess nowadays same happens with unlegal too. I’ve used other reason quite many times here and it has hided nothing. Must say… I don’t remember my TL here, because it just doesn’t matter
The issue is that triggering a flag implies a strong reaction to something that has some level of gravity.
Sometimes people do actions that are inappropriate but not grave, and sometimes they do it because they do not see the implications (lack of online social skills), or do not understand the technical scope, and it bothers the conversation.
Triggering a flag on such a post can be received as aggressive and be perceived as a tentative to denounce the content of the post itself (particularly if the conversation is a little tense). There should be a way to say please moderator make sure this user respects a better behavior, without making to much of a strong intervention in the conversation.
I’m an admin on most of these sites, so any flag I make is a hammer. But I also like that other people in the community can hide spam right away, or trigger the poster to edit an offensive post rather than letting the conversation inflame.
Having a default option to just trigger moderators attention would be very helpful in many cases. Sometimes, trolls are very happy to trigger an auto-hide flag and it only motivates them to do more harm. Other times, moderators are very happy to trigger other moderators attention to discuss something. Whispers could be used, but it’s a different feature, not necessarily available to a dedicated moderator group that has no “moderator” status in Discourse.
This Theme component may help provide an extra option as it was made for what you describe
Took me a bit to find it. I have also added a vote for your Feature. Imho Flags should also be customizable to default behavior level. Ie illegal should hide and poke Moderators as should a custom flag posting private details
Ah okay, sounds like you’re thinking of a specific flag type (e.g. “Tell a moderator about this”) that notifies moderators as a typical flag would, but doesn’t follow the auto-hide process associated with other flags. Does that sound right?
I think @Heliosurge nailed it. But indeed @lindsey a “special flag type that notifies [one or more groups] as a typical flag would, but doesn’t follow the auto-hide process associated with other flags” is a great description. Since we now have the possibility to assign features to pipe|separated|entities, it would be great to turn @Lhc_fl’s theme component into a first class flag feature (and BTW, the icon looks much better than the metaphor), should it be applicable to pipe|separated|groups (the reason is: you could have a “floaters” group that does intervention when needed, but does not have moderator status, e.g., when using category mods).
metaphor would be more neutral: I feel something is wrong, and I’d like the moderators to look into it and tell me.
icon looks much better than the 
metaphor), should it be applicable to pipe|separated|groups (the reason is: you could have a “floaters” group that does intervention when needed, but does not have moderator status, e.g., when using category mods).