Reporting Bad Post

I STRONGLY recommend you enable the Report Post options IMMEDIATELY. According to help, if enabled, there will be a report post button next to the quote button. It is not there, therefore, option must be disabled. Help also says we can contact the mod team though My Assistant but that is unacceptable as it may not result in a quick response when necessary.

I STRONGLY recommend you enable the Report Post options IMMEDIATELY.

Any particular reason that you say this? There are restrictions so that ordinary members cannot reply to another users HijackThis log. There are enough Staff and Classroom members active so that any other spam or malicious posts will be picked up and reported in the private staff forums quickly. This would be just as quick as using a report post button. I don't know exactly how the report button works, but if it notifies Administrators then there is large capable for abuse there. These notifications would be equaled by notifications from other staff and classroom members, which would be checked just as often.

Help also says we can contact the mod team though My Assistant but that is unacceptable as it may not result in a quick response when necessary.

You can use this forum for contacting any staff. As before, this forum is checked very often, so reponse times would not be any quicker than with any other means. Allowing ordinary members to Private Message or Email staff just leads to abuse of the system. If you wish to discuss something privately with a member of staff, post your request in here and they will try to sort something out for you.

Hope theres some useful info there,

jpshortstuff

There are restrictions so that ordinary members cannot reply to another users HijackThis log.

??? Replies? I was not talking about replies.

This would be just as quick as using a report post button. I don't know exactly how the report button works, but if it notifies Administrators then there is large capable for abuse there.

I am on the staff of several other sites and there is very little abuse. Most forum posters know how it works and are able to follow the prompts (which state the intended purpose). The system works great, is very user friendly, extremely effective and efficient. The way it typically works is all moderator/admin staff (as setup/limited by site admin) get an email notification of the report. This is much better than forcing the reporter to navigate to some other page, HOPE there is a staff member on line, fumble through a PM, then HOPE that particular staff member answers the PM and is able to handle the problem. With the report button, any staff member who is able to respond, can.

There are enough Staff and Classroom members active so that any other spam or malicious posts will be picked up and reported in the private staff forums quickly

That is NOT true! As I am typing this, a quick look at the Current Active Users shows there are NO admin or moderators on currently on line!!!

📎WtT_online.jpg

Allowing ordinary members to Private Message or Email staff just leads to abuse of the system

I am sorry, but as you noted, you do not know how the report system works. This has NOTHING to do with PMing or emailing staff.

??? Replies? I was not talking about replies.

What do you mean by the report post button then? What else do you need to report?

I am on the staff of several other sites and there is very little abuse. Most forum posters know how it works and are able to follow the prompts (which state the intended purpose). The system works great, is very user friendly, extremely effective and efficient. The way it typically works is all moderator/admin staff (as setup/limited by site admin) get an email notification of the report. This is much better than forcing the reporter to navigate to some other page, HOPE there is a staff member on line, fumble through a PM, then HOPE that particular staff member answers the PM and is able to handle the problem. With the report button, any staff member who is able to respond, can.

You say all staff get a notification of a report, well they get a notification if you contact them by any other means as well. We have had problems with abuse of the contact systems before, which is why things like this have been disabled.

There are enough Staff and Classroom members active so that any other spam or malicious posts will be picked up and reported in the private staff forums quickly

That is NOT true! As I am typing this, a quick look at the Current Active Users shows there are NO admin or moderators on currently on line!!!

There doesn't have to be moderators or Administrators online, any classroom member or helper will do, we can notify an Admin through private forums and other means, which they will be immediately notified of by email.
I admit, there will be times when no Admins, Mods or Helpers will be online, but how does a report post button help? if we're not online, we won't get whatever form of notification would be given by your report post button.

I'm not sure what the screenshot you provided proves, or even where you took it.

I am sorry, but as you noted, you do not know how the report system works. This has NOTHING to do with PMing or emailing staff.

Sorry, misread your last sentence there, my bad.

Thanks Digerati for making your concerns known.
Organizational features are being worked on right now, as you might imagine with a newly renamed site.

Your concerns are taken seriously.
I will also follow up on the information you posted directly to me via PM about the SPAM post and Offensive post!

jpshortstuff you raise some very important concerns as well, and you mention some of the strong points that we have traditionally enjoyed, namely that we "usually" have an abundance of great Members and Staff available online to respond to such.

I've enjoyed excellent responsiveness from Team and Admin folks online, even responding to my concerns when they were busy responding to HJT Logs or break-fix threads on the Tech side.

I'm sure that Admin will work hard and promptly to make the best availability and response format a part of these Forums.

Best Regards,
Doug

I'm not sure what the screenshot you provided proves, or even where you took it.

Oops, my bad this time. I was working a couple other forums when I shot the right screen on the wrong site! The point I was trying to make is it possible for there to be no staff members on line at a particular moment. If an offensive post is posted, there's a chance it could remain in full public view until someone with mod rights could be notified. With the Report Posts button, all staff is sent an email and the first person available could respond.

The chance for abuse is minimal because the reporting process makes it clear the option is to report offensive or otherwise improper posts - and there is always one or two "are you sure" prompts along the way. Any abuser could be dealt with (warned/banned) individually.

The chance the staff is occasionally inconvenienced is not significant if it means no one will be exposed to porn, software cracks, or some other illegal activity.

Most of us here have at least multi-mod powers so we can at the least edit the offensive text and close the thread before we have someone with full mod powers remove it completely, and there is always at least one staff member on, me, during the Brit daytime.

Most large forums I'm aware of do not use the report button. I'm sure there are exceptions. One problem with the Invision implementation is that it emails or PMs every moderator. At this forum all staff have moderator permissions. In my opinion, PMing or emailing them all would be overkill. I admit to not looking at it for a while, so it is possible Invision has changed its implementation. I'll revisit it. Regarding replies in the malware forum, I'm guessing jpshortstuff made that comment because the most common issue with improper posts was formerly in the malware forum. Mostly unqualified people offering advice. That has been rectified with a custom modification to the forum software. Now, only the topic starter and malware staff are allowed to make replies in the malware forum.

Most large forums I'm aware of do not use the report button

Wow! That's not what I have seen. In fact, those not using it is the exception from my perspective, at least at the sites I have spent some time at.

I note the following sites do:

PC Mechanic
CyberTechHelp
CastleCops
PC Perspective
Sharky Extreme Forums
Tom's Hardware
Wilders Security
[H]ard|Forum
Broadband Reports
Hardware Central
D-A-L
NeoWin
NeoSeeker

Notable exceptions are, Anandtech, Spyware Warrior and Woody's Lounge but it seems the above is an impressive list that does.

But again, your call. I'm just along for the ride, maybe help out a little where I can, maybe learn some new along the way. Whatever you decide is fine by me.

Again, thanks for your input. There's only one of those sites running Invision forum software (neowin), and it's been highly customized.