- Local time
- Today, 07:37
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2001
- Messages
- 27,266
@Jon, have you ever stated a policy about handling reports when there is no immediately obvious violation, just a little suspicion? And do you feel it important to clear out old reports? If so, how old is "suspicious, but old enough to just drop it"? At the moment of this post, we have 8 reports, all of which reflect the chance of SPAM. Some of them relate to posts that have not actually started outright as SPAM but that "rang alarm bells."
As a moderator, I take it as my duty to occasionally "clean things up" which is why I do a "SPAM clean" when that automated report comes up. You also know I'll intervene when someone crosses a line. I am curious, though. Maybe I'm a little heavy-handed, though I try to leave things as just warning someone that a line got crossed. I may have sometimes overdone it.
I believe at least one report exists for which the user has now been banned and the content has been deleted. I'm about to remove that report - but we have often had reports that hung on for a while. I'm not saying I'm going all OCD on this, but ... is there a policy? Or have you not considered it that important? You know I try to be fair, and it's not like the reports are visible to general users. But I see the reports as a need to do something, and I don't always know what to do. I guess it comes with the territory of being (or trying to be) a conscientious moderator.
As a moderator, I take it as my duty to occasionally "clean things up" which is why I do a "SPAM clean" when that automated report comes up. You also know I'll intervene when someone crosses a line. I am curious, though. Maybe I'm a little heavy-handed, though I try to leave things as just warning someone that a line got crossed. I may have sometimes overdone it.
I believe at least one report exists for which the user has now been banned and the content has been deleted. I'm about to remove that report - but we have often had reports that hung on for a while. I'm not saying I'm going all OCD on this, but ... is there a policy? Or have you not considered it that important? You know I try to be fair, and it's not like the reports are visible to general users. But I see the reports as a need to do something, and I don't always know what to do. I guess it comes with the territory of being (or trying to be) a conscientious moderator.