Is it allowed to abuse the forum moderation flags?

[Aiko_Danuja]

lol! now my posts in this thread are being removed for spam. loool

[Nevyn_Auscent]

You know why you never see it. Because it means threads become an echo chamber. Facebook is good for that. Being able to drop misleading or abusive threads on a forum and then able to censor everyone who dares point that out is bad.
And frankly yes you are trolling in a lot of those threads, posting to deliberately get people emotional is the very definition of trolling.

[Aiko_Danuja]

@Nevyn_Auscent

Because it means threads become an echo chamber.

I wouldn’t say that. It hasn’t really been tried, so we couldn’t know for sure what the result will be. Some threads will certainly be an echo chamber, it will depend on the original poster. People who boot everyone out of their thread will find themselves talking to themself. Other people will foster more open discussion. Unfortunately, moderators can’t moderate every thread, which is why we see this attempt to allow average users to moderate. However, if just anyone can do it, then it will be abused as people go from thread to thread flagging everything. So it seems reasonable to grant the OP moderator powers, as a compromise between no community powers and granting everyone widespread powers. Shrug. If I ran a forum, I’d definitely try it. If it doesn’t work, switch to something else.

[Aiko_Danuja]

@Nevyn_Auscent

posting to deliberately get people emotional is the very definition of trolling

Well, I think we would have to disagree. I think getting emotional is a form of trolling - these people are choosing to get emotional, and I am not deliberately inviting that. They could just as easily be calm and reasonable, if they were mature enough to do so.

Don’t blame me for other people’s bad behavior. I will concede CODE. has had its fair share of bad actors (as has every alliance), but by and large we are by far one of the most polite and reasonable groups of people. People want CODE. to be the bad guys, and get triggered when we insist we are the good guys. It’s not our fault that everyone gets triggered by a wonderful saint like James 315. Yes, he expects you to get a permit. Yes, it’s the law. Yes, we actually believe that, and no we aren’t roleplaying either.

Did that make you emotional? That’s you pal, not me.

[Scoots_Choco]

Nice. I just got another one of my posts hidden.

This is an automated message from EVE Online Forums to let you know that your post was hidden.

https://forums.eveonline.com/t/will-prices-go-up-or-down-as-more-casual-players-leave/167797/39

Your post was flagged as inappropriate : the community feels it is offensive, abusive, or a violation of our community guidelines.

Apparently showing examples of bots that I’ve reported is “offensive” “abusive” or a “violation” of the community guidelines. Now I’ve got to wait 10 minutes before I can edit it, and watch as it gets flagged again then hidden once more. Oh joy.

In what was is this “offensive” or “abusive”? Is providing circumstantial evidence of what I claimed “offensive”? Is it “abusive”?

[Elsebeth_Rhiannon]

@Aiko_Danuja

Oh, am I too in character for you?

It’s not about too much, it’s about in the wrong place. On the lore forums, there is the Intergalactic Summit part that is for roleplaying, and there’s the Lore discussion part that is for talking about lore as players.

When people flag OOC stuff on the IC part and IC stuff on OOC part, it is not about disagreeing with you or attacking you; it is about trying to keep the board clean so that they are easier to read. There’s no need to become upset about it or thing you are being censored or any such thing. Just move the stuff where it belongs, just like everyone else?

[Anderson_Geten]

Yeah, just respect the rules, like everyone else.

[Omnathious_Deninard]

@Elsebeth_Rhiannon

@Aiko_Danuja

Oh, am I too in character for you?

It’s not about too much, it’s about in the wrong place. On the lore forums, there is the Intergalactic Summit part that is for roleplaying, and there’s the Lore discussion part that is for talking about lore as players.

When people flag OOC stuff on the IC part and IC stuff on OOC part, it is not about disagreeing with you or attacking you; it is about trying to keep the board clean so that they are easier to read. There’s no need to become upset about it or thing you are being censored or any such thing. Just move the stuff where it belongs, just like everyone else?

If you let the ISD know, you can get a thread moved to the appropriate sub forum. which is the more appropriate thing to do. rather than hide it for being spam or off topic.

[Ms_Steak]

@Scoots_Choco

Apparently showing examples of bots that I’ve reported is “offensive” “abusive” or a “violation” of the community guidelines.

Forums are not meant to be used for “naming&shaming” or reporting in-game misbehavior thus your post was probably (and rightfully so) flagged for

“violation” of the community guidelines.

[Anderson_Geten]

@Omnathious_Deninard

If you let the ISD know, you can get a thread moved to the appropriate sub forum. which is the more appropriate thing to do. rather than hide it for being spam or off topic.

You don’t hide it. You just report it for being off topic and an ISD is supposed to move it - or consider it’s not off topic. I think that posts being hidden as soon as they are flagged is a bad thing.

[Ms_Steak]

@Anderson_Geten

I think that posts being hidden as soon as they are flagged is a bad thing.

i agree. I think there should be the only option for report and you have to type the reason why you think the flagged post is inappropriate. You can already do so by using “something else” option but it seems hidden and underused. Or have reporters select type of report and then add commentary instead of having auto-hide “feature” which i have seen easily circumvented.

[Nyalnara]

@Aiko_Danuja

One idea I’ve always had, that I’ve never seen in any forum, is to allow the original poster of a thread to BAN people from their thread. This would make it difficult for trolls to troll someone else’s thread, and people would be able to self-moderate the threads they create. A lot of these flame wars and harassment concerns would disappear if the original poster was the moderator of their thread.

One more time, we would be in a situation where ONE person has immediate moderating power. Which can be abused as much as what we currently have, to silence dissenting opinions.

While it is a possible solution to our current problem, it is a bad solution as it brings other problems and does not fix the underlying issue that the flagging system is badly done.

What I’d propose is several tweaks:

1. No hiding at first flag, always wait for a certain flagging total value to be reached, show a “this message has been flagged” tooltip until then.
2. Repeatedly flagging in a short time-frame lowers your personal flagging score.
3. Repeatedly flagging a specific person lowers your personal flagging score toward everybody else, and even more toward that specific person.
4. [resource-hungry] In case of mass flagging, automatically check for flag brigading, and if positive, lower all participants global flagging score.
5. [resource-hungry] In case of repeated specific flagging, automatically check for flag brigading, and if positive, lower all participants flagging score, both as global and even more toward the specific person being brigade flagged.
6. [resource-hungry] Retroactively apply lowered flagging score toward all the posts flagged by someone who see his flagging power recalculated, and unhide if applicable.

2&4 are meant to combat people downvoting of opinions in a thread, 3&5 are for targeting of a specific individual on top of that.

[Ms_Steak]

@Nyalnara

No hiding at first flag, always wait for a certain flagging total value to be reached, show a “this message has been flagged” tooltip until then.

It already works that way: if your flags are deemed appropriate by mods - your flagging power (level of trust?) is increased to the point of 1-flag-hide. If you are caught abusing flagging system - your flag power is reduced.

[Utari_Onzo]

They were flag for spam because you posted the exact same message three times in a row.

[Aiko_Danuja]

No, that’s not true.

[Krzysztof_Niwinski]

Yo Princess! Where did you lose your pills? I will find it and everything will be alright again, I promise.

[Aiko_Danuja]

Oh thanks buddy! However, if I posted that, though, it would be flagged for harassment and abusive spam - so I hope @ISD_Dorrim_Barstorlode can see the hypocrisy here.

[Bataav]

@Aiko_Danuja

No, that’s not true.

Yes
It
Is

[Aiko_Danuja]

No, it’s not.

[Bataav]

So, how do explain the three linked posts, all repeating exactly the same thing, replying to yourself, over the course of a couple of hours?