Meta-PokéBase Q&A
14 votes
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Don't get me wrong, I do think having a way to address issues that pop up on the site is important, but there's a bunch of childish crap that almost constantly goes down on the site. It drives too many people away, and really works away at my patience; I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel this way. I think the Ban report page acts as a catalyst to this problem. I think the current report system in itself pretty good, but I don't think the meta is a really bad place to put it. This is why I propose doing away with the page itself.

Obviously, the point is for any user to at least have some safe haven and address some issue popping up, but from what I've seen, things run into any of these scenarios:

  • Someone doing something serious, warranting a ban. This is exactly what the thread was made for.

  • Someone reporting someone, that person defending them self (understandably), then others chiming in and starting an argument, usually ending with one of us mods striking a warning and telling everyone else to stop.

  • Someone posting something that really isn't a big deal, which gets overblown and results in making more bad blood than the small warning was worth.

  • Someone making a false accusation or something without concrete evidence.

I think posting stuff that isn't a huge deal initially, but may escalate if left alone is an important thing, which is why I don't completely disagree with the idea of the ban report open to people. However, I think that the current status gives too much opportunity for how open and subjective the "scenario" can be. It can range from someone hurting your feelings to someone making thousands of racist comments on every single post on the site. My proposed change is to do this:

  • Make a simple submission box to the site, open only to someone with an account on the site of course.

  • Have a single drop box labeled with categories like "Duplicate Account," "Spam," "Inflammatory content" "Inappropriate avatar," "other," etc The person making a report will choose which one it is based on what they're reporting.

  • Have a text box for them to describe the situation, their evidence, and anything else important. The submission goes to the moderator section Pokemaster made, so that it's not visible to everyone.

I understand the concern that not everyone can see it, but I think that's part of the current problem. EVERYONE can see and comment on any of these posts, and while it can be great to have those extra people testifying, it usually just ends up in people overblowing things, people trying to backseat mod, or just pointless arguing. I'm sick of it, and it's clear that we need a better way of handling things. I know that in almost every case where we don't know the full situation, the mods will go around and investigate with others to get the full situation. If it was really such an open/shut case that we don't need any evidence (like a duplicate account, where nobody but the mods can tell unless the person confesses), then we wouldn't need anyone else commenting on anything. This way, if the person is innocent, we don't have the issue of bad blood and everyone at each other's throats.

  • I mentioned that they would be sent to the "admin" page for moderators to look up. If it's a situation where we need more information, then we'll investigate and go to who we need to. This way, if something comes up, it'll be easier for mods to keep things under control and properly deal with a situation. If the person being reported turns out to be innocent, then the person making the accusation won't have to put up with any problems of bad blood. If it requires more attention, then the mods will deal with it. Other than duplicate accounts, I've noticed that we rarely have to do more than a warning to someone, and I don't think all of that is worth all the arguing that comes with these public posts.

  • For taking action, the mods can leave a comment on that report post saying their action. (Banned user, banned dupe, gave warning, kicked, etc), and possibly have a log on our banning actions to ensure that everyone is fair. I trust you guys enough to think you guys will do right, but it helps to establish our credibility with everyone else, since I think we'll do better than most internet mods.

Other than that, I think most of this comes back down to people not backseat modding everything, staying calm about most of this stuff, and seeing that it's not really an issue unless people are doing stuff to hurt the site. I'd say there has been very little that has actually destroyed the site, and more of it is everyone trying to get political and try to go rogue with their problems. If we're a community, then we can sure as hell start to act like it and deal with problems better than we are now.

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I was so close to leaving this site because of all the false accusations onto me. +1. I would like to mention that do not post anything on the ban report page without evidence. Reaserch and stack evidence before doing anything onto it.
DT is doin his magic again

1 Answer

7 votes
 
Best answer

As usual you are full of common sense, DT. Honestly I have taken my eye off the ball with regards to the ban report thread - I don't check it nearly as much as I should do and I can see that it has gotten out of hand on several occasions.

I think your idea is an excellent one and basically what I thought as soon as I read your first couple of sentences there. Your idea of the dropdown box is pretty much what I am developing for flagging posts, so I could probably roll that out to user pages as well.

Anyway for now, as a warning to other users, please don't start arguments on the ban report thread. Report a problem and leave it at that, the mods will take care of it.

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