Flag a post for moderator attention

Flagging is an in-built moderation measure in Discourse, intended to dissuade bad behavior and spam, as well as to promote civilised discourse.

If you want to raise an issue about a post without derailing the topic at hand, the best course of action is usually to flag it.

By default, clicking the flag button will present a user with the following options:

  • Send a personal message to the user who created the post
  • Flag it as:
    • Off-Topic
    • It’s Inappropriate
    • Spam
    • Something Else

Marking a post as Off-Topic, Inappropriate or Spam will trigger a moderator notification so moderators may review the issue in their flag queue. If after 48 hours a flag is still in the flag queue without any action taken, an automatic PM will be sent to all moderators. (See also: What happens when you flag a post)

The content which is flagged may be subject to some automatic moderation:

  • A post with 3 flags will be automatically hidden. Users may click-to-view the post.
    • A staff member can use the “Take Action” button, which will cause this to happen immediately.
    • When a post is automatically hidden due to flags, the user receives a PM informing them their post was flagged. After 10 minutes, the user may edit their post and it will be unhidden.
      If another 3 flags occur, the post will be hidden again and editing will not unhide the post.
  • A topic with 12 unresolved flags from at least 5 different users will be automatically closed until the moderators can intervene.

Users who receive multiple flags also face some consequences:

  • A new (TL0) user whose post is flagged as spam 3 times from 3 different users will have all their posts hidden as a result.
  • A user whose posts have accumulated 5 flags can not reach TL3.
    • These flags do not revert, however for TL3 only flags within the last 100 days are counted.
    • Only flags that a staff member agrees with count towards this limit. If a staff member ignores or disagrees with a flag, it isn’t counted as far as TL3 is concerned.

Note: All values mentioned above are the default settings. They can be changed by admins in site settings.

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