In this Storque article, Marymary explains the new flagging system for forum posts.
Today, we launched a report this post feature to Etsy’s forums. The Community Team at Etsy always appreciates your help in keeping a lively and fun community atmosphere when participating in the forums and we hope this new feature will help make your posting experience run much smoother! The report this post feature should be used when you see a post that doesn’t fit within Etsy’s forum guidelines and you want to alert the Community Team.
At the bottom of every post, after the timestamp, is a blue link reading “Report this post”. Clicking on the link will bring you to a new screen where you are presented with the following options to select as a reason for reporting the post.
-Thread is in the wrong section of the forums.
-Post discusses private matters (transaction detail, feedback, copying, etc)
-Post is abusive or insulting to another member
-Post negatively “calls out” a specific user by name or identifiable hints
-Post is from an alternate or “sock puppet” account
There is also a box for additional comments.
Once you have filled out the necessary information in the submission form, just click submit report and your report will be sent directly to the community inbox completely anonymously! This should make the forums run a lot smoother and help the Community Team stay on top of concerns amidst the community in a timely fashion.
There is an accompanying forum thread here.
UPDATE:
There has been some confusion as to who exactly the report is anonymous to, so Matt has clarified in the thread:
matt says:
Hi,I was wrong.
The reportee does not know they have been reported, but we are able to see the username of the reporter. in short, only you and Etsy will know you reported a post. Sorry, I was confused and spoke too soon.
Thanks, Matt
May 10th, 2008 at 3:44 am
Windy, :-(
I’m sorry to hear that. I guess it wasn’t related to any protests or criticism of this feature, since you say you like it. I did see some “protests” of the profanity filter that I wouldn’t be surprised if they resulted in mutings, but that almost seemed like those poster’s goal. Like civil disobedience, where the protesters expect to be arrested. Although IMO, posting random strings of profanities =/= The Freedom Riders.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:31 am
*raises hand*
May 9th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Robwhite has commented on the “report this post” feature.
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5602573&page=43
May 9th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Has anyone been muted since the “report this post” link was introduced?
Overall it seems like they are locking fewer threads and muting fewer people, compared to say, January and February when Danielle was in charge of the forums.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Thanks JB, I was hoping that was what was up, but unless you hear it from the horses mouth, it just speculation.
I just hope they put as much energy into removing flagged items as they are closing threads and muting offenders.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Windy, Robwhite touched on that issue in his office hours last night. They do plan to revamp the “flag this item” function too, but it takes a little longer and they want to spend more time making sure it’s perfect, since that is a more important part of the site than the forums. He didn’t say it directly but my guess is that the “flag a post” feature is sort of a guinea pig for the “flag this item” feature. The things they learn after the “flag a post” has been working for a little while will help them build a better “flag this item” function. They agree the flagged items are more serious which is why they are spending a bit longer on that. But it is coming!
May 9th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I actually welcome this feature, although, I do have to wonder why so much energy is being spent on flagging forum posts and not items for sale. This feature now assists maybe 5% of the etsy population, where an item flag would benefit 100% of the etsy population.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:31 am
The form that you submit is all screwy?
The ‘cancel’ button doesn’t even work! First, it asks you to choose a category - even though you pressed cancel! And then, once you’ve done that and pressed cancel again, it just reloads the page.
The gray does look a lot better. Why does Etsy not realize things like that in the first place, you’d wonder?
Both of those things point to the testing and design and engineering staff all being a bit lax! Not to mention the judgement of whomever decided that this was a priority.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Oh the grey looks MUCH better, much less distracting.
At first Etsy may get more “false alarms”, i.e. reports about posts that aren’t against the rules. But I think if they handle them correctly, and do not reward those who cry wolf, that the number of complaints will even out and reach their own natural level. The number of complaints should have no influence on a judgment- only the reported post itself and the forum rules should be used to make the decision.
The key to this, of course, is that Etsy MUST moderate the forum according to the actual rules, not according to how many people complain. Even if 1000 people (or one user 1000 times) reports a certain post, if it does not break the rules then no action should be taken. They must retain the ultimate decision and not let the mob majority rule.
As long as Etsy follows the rules and doesn’t cave in the the mob, this system can work and has been proven to work. That has been difficult for them in the past, they have punished innocent people because of organized gangs of complainers, so hopefully they have learned from those mistakes and will judge each case on it’s own merits.