What happens when you flag a post?

I’m having trouble understanding what exactly happens or is expected to happen when posts get flagged. I have issues on my forums with users posting unhelpful, spammy content (not spam as in the sense that Discourse terms it – “This post is an advertisement.” – but as in it’s irrelevant drivel that distracts from the discussion at hand).

I flag their posts as “Off-Topic” most of the time and select “Take Action.” What I think happens is their post is hidden and they get a message to revise or delete it. If the user makes any change to their message it seems to be accepted as ok and the flag goes away.

The user will usually delete their post, but sometimes they will only make a slight edit and their post is still worthy of flagging, except I can’t actually flag it again and can only send the user a message.

Am I following this correctly? It’s annoying me because users don’t seem to be understanding that receiving a flag is bad because they get rid of them so easily by making edits to their posts.

1 Like

Thanks, I’ll post my follow-up query in that topic instead. Feel free to close this.