Flagging request to make flaggers transparent

Elektronauts Elektronauts Feedback
#1

As a long time member of this forum I would like to start a discussion about the misusage of the flagging feature that many members including me have noticed. Coming from the standpoint Darenger tried to make there: Belektronauts?

I understand that the flagging system is supposed to be a help for moderation, while in reality it’s getting misused to specifically silence and suppress different opinions. In former times of the forum, we didn’t have this feature, but we still got along. Therefore I would like to openly request that the flagging system will get suspended, so that any opinion has a chance to get expressed and discussed.

What do you think?

Please on topic and civilized.

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Is flagging used fairly on here?
#2

I think it gets misused, I think it is ok to have differing opinions though.

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#3

But thats the point of being able to flag right? When people don’t…
Its up to Mods to deal with appropriately, unfortunately as the user base grows I imagine it becomes an increasingly more difficult job

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#4

The flags are not misused, or rather if they are, they are corrected - but people don’t appreciate that as they only ‘notice’ when they aren’t satisfied by an outcome.

Flagging is here to stay - it needs to be used appropriately. Often it isn’t, and that is frustrating. But no injustices last.

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#5

Only in that there are attempts to - eventually misuses are rejected or corrected - so in effect - it is never misused

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#6

The main misuse of Flags is non-use ironically

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#7

This doesn’t reflect the reality, only your perception of it.
You may have felt silenced at some point, but if you were it was for a reason users + moderators felt was good.

Moderators cannot read every post, so a flagging system, while unperfect, is the best tool to attract the moderators’ attention on what seems to be a problem, and avoid threads to be derailed.

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#8

I’ll happily take opportunity fo community involvement with some hiccups over whatever the hell happens on certain other forums.

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#9

I also think flagging tends to be about the manner in which something is expressed, rather than the content. Tone is important. In a rush to declare something, it’s too easy to forget that many other human beings have a share in the conversation.

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#10

I remind you that flags are judged (very subjectively by users that flag then moderators) along these guidelines:
https://www.elektronauts.com/guidelines

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#11

I also think flagging is sometimes misused to silence opinions. I have experienced it personaly. But in my experience, flagging happens much more when things get political, like B threads derailing to social/economic/moral stories instead of sticking to the gear. For a few month now, I’ve kept my comments apolitical as much as possible. I’ve accepted that this place is not about unlimited free speech. It’s about synths, music and all that. I can talk politics somewhere else. I also think moderators can’t always act against their own political views. They’re human after all.

Just keep it politically correct basically, and enjoy the gear and music threads.

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#12

the common misconception about anything that gets ‘sorted’ is that it’s the content, and not the delivery manner

it’s, to use the proper non-medical-non-scientific terminology, a type of butthurtmyopia

Ask yourself why Elektronauts is lauded as one of the best places to hang out …

There are certain cases where common sense has to be applied

Is it really okay to allow the dangerous propagation of misinformation that’s scientifically denounced by actual experts or the insensitive comments along the lines of “white lives matter too” - there are occasions where you have to just accept - this is NOT a debating society, it’s a music gear forum and there is finite bandwidth about where discussions can go safely - years of experience of doing this has shown us what works and what does not and what will start a fire.

So we shouldn’t be suspending the racists, because their views count - nobody is going to tolerate that - if you keep your extra-curricular beliefs out of it, then nobody is excluded.

You’re annoyed because of a couple of decisions made on your posts, not because the overall run of the mill use of flags which you will sometimes never see nor know because things are tidied up

Flagging posts that are off-topic are the most commonly rejected ones, and those which use the spam option to just disagree - those are misuses, but they don’t happen - so there’s no visible misuse to pin this topic on

We don’t want to create an excess of flags, we just want people to post responsibly as per the general vibe in the guidelines

Reacting in line rather than flagging a post because it’s not cool to you is running against the stream - it’s creating the turmoil that results in more flags

Flag free would be ace, but until folk post responsibly there will be matters which need attending or removal - they also help to eradicate spammers quickly if a moderator isn’t around - they’re a good thing because the internet is not a utopia

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#13

Bingo !

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#14

But formerly we got along in this forum without the flagging system too. So how does it makes it easier, when it obviously stirs up even more discussions, because ppls opinions get suppressed?

Another aspect is that in my opinion the „flagger“ should get exposed to create more transparency and you mods should at least make transparent why a post stays flagged. A lot of times the guidelines mentioned above don’t help, and it makes you wonder, why did this post get flagged, and the other post, that IS against the guidelines, does NOT get flagged? There is literally no transparency there. And many ppl feel bullied and turn away from the forum.

That’s what you think, but I got PNs from a lot of people who made similar experiences.

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#15

You know you can flag things, right?

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#16

Huh? If you want to quote me, do it properly, please. In this way, I have no idea what you try to say here.

If I would flag anything off topic, e.g. in that mentioned Belektronaut thread, I would do nothing else. That’s why I suggested that a transparent flagging system where you can see who flagged you, would make more sense.

But this…

… is imho the end of the discussion.
I will remind you of this the next time.

#17

Generally speaking, I don’t flag. I tried to raise awareness a single time about content that I perceived inappropriate via a friendly personal message to the poster. That didn’t go so well and provoked harsh language…

I took that as a lesson and will keep quiet from now on.

A handy feature I could think of would be muting/blocking a user.

1 Like
#18

I don’t know what you mean by “properly”.

Regardless, you asked me to explain my comment. I’ll try:

You sound frustrated that some things you’ve said here got flagged, and compared them with other posts you’ve seen which did not get flagged.

As I understand it, anyone can flag something which they feel goes against the spirit of the forum. If you’re seeing “flaggable” comments, but not flagging them, then you are not using the system. If you’re not using the system AND complaining about it, I feel there’s an imbalance.

DISCLAIMER: I’ve never flagged anything. I’ve had a couple of comments deleted. On reflection, it seemed fair.

EDIT: it’s possible I have flagged a couple of things and forgotten the details.

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#20

Here you go:

image
image750×1191 97 KB

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#21

Not being a flagger myself it seems that some people flag stuff they don’t agree with AND it may be off topic so gets removed, by contrast a post which the flagger posted which may also be off topic AND often was the catalyst for the “off topic reply” post stays up. This is most likely because the flagged poster does not want to flag simply because they are not that type of person, so is the suggestion that every off topic post be flagged?

Personally I think that would lead to even more work for the moderators, and would quickly descend into chaos.

Also, often times threads which go off topic can be the most popular and interesting……

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