A brief note about the use of flags and editing in the Discourse forum. Flags are an important part of the platform that enable community moderation and feedback on problematic posts, rapidly by the users reading the threads. There are obvious categories (spam) and some other more nuanced ones.
When a post is flagged, it’s added to a queue for moderator attention and review, but the platform also will take automated actions, and that includes hiding posts. When a post is hidden, and the flags accepted, a note is sent to the author asking them to revise the post.
The expectation on all users is that this will be done responsibly, that users are participating in good faith, but that sometimes things are said that should be revised, and this system is designed so that users can let each other know and improve their contributions.
This is good, and proper use of this system is encouraged.
Recently, there has been a lot of use of this system, not all of it good. I want to highlight two points here:
I posted a note reminding people that misuse of flags to hide things you merely disagree with will be considered abuse of the moderation tools. That’s somewhat buried in a thread and deserves repeating here.
We have seen a number of trivial edits clearly intended to just get posts unhidden without substantially addressing the reason they were flagged. This will also be considered an abuse of the tools.
The two go hand in hand; either kind of abuse encourages the other. Neither is acceptable.
Addendum: when flagging a post, you have the option to include additional comments about the problems you see and your reasons for flagging. This can help make it clear what is actionable, and that the flag is not merely for disagreement. So that’s also encouraged.
Is the reason for flagging (when given) visible to the poster? Sometimes I have had posts flagged and I have been genuinely confused as to why. I am conscious of your point about editing to make the post visible without addressing the flag, but it is hard to address a flag when you don’t understand the reason for the flagging, so most of the time if I am flagged I just leave it be. Which honestly feels pretty kafka-esque and infantilising. I don’t like second guessing my participation.
If thought I was contravening community norms and forum rules I wouldn’t post, so by extension, if it gets flagged with no communicated reason, I can’t know what I did wrong. At best, if I were posting maliciously I would know what norms I thought were violated, but those might not even be the reason for the flag!
Note: I’m not suggesting some right of appeal or extended rules lawyering, just some indication of what to correct.
Good questions. As far as how the platform works generally:
By default, any text added is part of the report to the mods only, and the text sent to the poster is automated and generic.
You also have the option of having it sent to the user directly, in which case it’s essentially a short-cut to create a PM
For when we react to flags:
there may or may not be extra text added, and sometimes we face the same uncertainty
often there are multiple flags, sometimes for different categories… and they might get assessed individually or as a group depending on timing.
sometimes the problems are obvious, and the post as a whole is the problem
sometimes the discussion is worthwhile but something about the post detracts from the point or crosses a boundary, but can be rectified or something can be learned.
In the latter case, mostly, we will often engage with the author and provide some editorial guidance or request, and that can be informed by notes provided with the flags. There have been some rather long and detailed discussions in cases like this.
If you get a post flagged, feel that hiding the whole thing materially detracts from the thread, but are unsure of the report or how to improve things, feel free to ask. You should be able to reply to the automated DM. We’re here to improve the conversation for everyone; we might not always have time for extended coaching, and certainly not debate, or be as prompt as you might like, but do ask if you’re unsure. At worst, we give you some blunt clarity on what not to do and avoid repeat occurrences.
Note also that we always try and keep the flags anonymous and these conversations private, so that people can report safely. Sometimes, when it’s two people flagging each-other’s posts and responses, that’s somewhat pointless, but in those cases the discussion itself is often somewhat pointless also, and we’ll set slow mode or close the topic or take other actions instead.