#117

Here is part of a conversation I’m having with a moderator concerning my flagged posts in this thread.

"Can you delete those posts.I don’t really desire to be flagged where I was discussing extending empathy to people in need of love but are polar opposite to your pov.

I apparently did not violate forum rules. I had no idea that thread was off limits because it caused some people hurt in the past.

I also think that perhaps lines should change its flagging policy.

I can certainly understand bringing a post to a the attention of a moderator. Many forums have a ‘report to moderator feature’ that is not visible publicly, so the member isn’t publicly shamed until the moderator can make a decision on a particular post.

Flagging should not be a passive aggressive tool. It’s a tool that I would never use in any way shape or form.

As members who have been publically shamed (and/or personally attacked) for simply expressing a point of view, they will leave the forum.

You will wind up with a community that is not as inclusive as it pretends to be."

#118

I also replied to you directly, but this deserves to be clarified now that it’s public.

Previous comments

Flags are private. They are not seen by other members. Only the flagging member, the author of the post, and the moderators can see that is it flagged. And any action taken is private until someone chooses to speak about it.

Note
I am revising my reply, because apparently people can see that a post has been flagged, but not for what reason or by whom.

We do not condone public shaming, and have removed many posts because of it.

As I said in my direct message, we are not pretending to be anything. We are a group of humans who want to make a nice place to hang out and have conversations. Being humans, we’re fallible and imperfect, so we try our best but sometimes it isn’t quite right the first time. We aim to help foster a community that is inclusive of people who are often excluded from online and in-person communities for various reasons, so sometimes we are a little more heavy handed with moderation than other forums. But it’s always a discussion and with the best intentions, and done in good faith.

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#119

I saw that both of @Funch’s posts were flagged, so you may wish to research this further.

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#120

Hm. That’s concerning. In the Discourse docs it says that flags are private, as they should be until they are dealt with.

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#121

I don’t recall the exact verbiage, but his posts were not visible unless I clicked on something to reveal them (like when someone deletes their own post), and they were replaced with text to the effect that the posts had been flagged and were being reviewed.

Edit: I could not of course see who flagged them, which is likely what the docs mean about private flags.

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#122

I saw the same thing in the Modular Occultism thread this week. At the time, I (wrongly?) assumed that they were the result of moderator intervention.

#123

Edit: removing my image showing the flagging issue since another user duplicated below.

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#124

Ok, I stand corrected and will investigate.

Flags can occur for lots of reasons, and should not be seen as punishment. It can be about off-topic, general attention from mods, moving a post, or just wanting to talk to the author.

Here is the info I can find:

I will amend my original reply, since what I thought was happening clearly isn’t.

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#125

I had to use search to find the thread at all, it apparently no longer shows up in the listing–which is somewhat disturbing in itself.

Edit: great minds post screencaps at the same time :stuck_out_tongue: But I was slower on the draw, so @voidstar should have won the image derby. :smiley:

Screenshot_2019-07-05_09-27-26
Screenshot_2019-07-05_09-27-26.png836×431 22.5 KB

#126

Other than necro-ing what was surely not one of the modular community’s finest hours, I don’t see a legitimate reason to flag his posts among the choices presented in the docs.

#127

The thread has been locked for now, and the last-post date reset so that it’s back to 2 years ago…

This was done to avoid resurfacing hurtful content and other things that a lot of people would rather not get back into, and if there are some good spin-off discussions we want to have we can start new topics about those specifically.

That was mainly it to be honest. The flags were about bringing that thread back up unnecessarily .

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#128

At least one member disagreed and spent some time to make a thoughtful comment or two. If there’s a general policy against thread necros, then we should make that plainer–and perhaps have the forum software enforce it if possible. I know some other forum packages support this.

But the general subject itself is evergreen and I thought these new posts were a better reflection of where we ought to go than the pillory we saw nearly two years ago.

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#129

This is under discussion as well. Would love to hear thoughts on it from others.

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#130

We encourage folks to flag anything that concerns them so that moderators can be aware early and resolve issues before they blow up even larger. We don’t expect every member to have an equally strong grasp of local etiquette, so it makes sense to get a moderator involved when someone perceives a problem, so that someone who is well versed in the local culture has an opportunity to participate and, when possible, resolve issues in a manner that results in the least amount of public conflict.

A post getting flagged does not necessarily mean there’s a problem with the post. Or maybe it does. We should try to avoid drawing conclusions based on so little information.

I understand that having a post flagged might feel embarrassing. Not really sure what to do about that. It makes sense to me to temporarily hide flagged posts.

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#131

We don’t have any policy against necro-ing posts, and in fact, our habit of asking people to re-use threads rather than create duplicates actually encourages commenting on old posts.

I think this is a special case of “duh, obviously this post is about hurtful topics and hasn’t been touched in two years, might be poor taste to bring it up now”. As in, it’s more a question of taste and judgment than hard and fast rules.

Pretty subjective stuff. I hope we can be adult in our discussion about it.

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#132

If you read a little further down in the flagging docs, you will see that these things are not without longer term consequences.

Aggressively pursuing a safe space policy like this is both counterproductive and underestimates the maturity of the community. We have had plenty of difficult discussions in my time here and have mostly avoided the kinds of mud wrestling found elseweb. This is the product of a lighter moderation touch, in my opinion, not heavier.

If we can’t be reminded from time to time of where we’ve been, and we can’t handle someone suggesting a gentler way after the dust has settled and we can consider the situation more dispassionately, then I’m not sure we’re on the right track.

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#133

I agree. And I would encourage anyone, @Funch or whoever is interested, to start a thread about the topic that isn’t as loaded as the specific one in question. It will make for better conversation about a tough subject.

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#134

Just to be clear, this example was initiated by community flags, not moderator intervention. This is true of most moderation and management here, unless there is something really egregious or breaks the Code of Conduct or Terms of the site.

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#135

Yes, which is the “we”–as in “all of us”–further down. :slight_smile:

But locking a thread that no one saw fit to lock nearly two years ago is a debatable move. Perhaps an invitation to start a new thread instead, in the spirit of your above post in this thread, would be better?

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#136

Yes, that’s possibly true. We chose to lock the thread for now because the trajectory it was on wasn’t great. Sometimes we have to make a call that isn’t perfect or easy… and then try to make the best outcomes for everyone involved.

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