pick a reason to flag January 22, 2011 8:12 PM Subscribe
What's the correct flagging reason for posts on the Blue we think are just plain bad?
If a post seems, well...crappy...does that in and of itself "break the guidelines?" Help me FIAMO for the right reasons.
If a post seems, well...crappy...does that in and of itself "break the guidelines?" Help me FIAMO for the right reasons.
The guidelines include making posts of a certain level of quality so that's what I use (not that it happens very often). Or you could use 'other', I don't think it makes much difference based on previous comments from the mods.
posted by shelleycat at 8:14 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by shelleycat at 8:14 PM on January 22, 2011
Flag it as 'other' if it doesn't clearly fit the other flags.
posted by flatluigi at 8:15 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by flatluigi at 8:15 PM on January 22, 2011
I use "breaks the guidelines" for that. (One time Jessamyn said that was the right answer.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:18 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:18 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
When in doubt, use "other". It's more the volume of flags than the individual flag reason that will give us a clear idea that there's a serious problem with a post.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:25 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:25 PM on January 22, 2011
I miss the old flag reason "totally lame, like super duper lame." That said, it doesn't matter that much which flag you use.
posted by grouse at 8:57 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by grouse at 8:57 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
What do you mean "bad"? There must be something specifically bad about it that you don't like. I would imagine that this is probably against the guidelines ("A good post to MetaFilter is something that meets the following criteria: most people haven't seen it before, there is something interesting about the content on the page, and it might warrant discussion from others"), in which case you can choose "breaks the guidelines."
posted by John Cohen at 9:00 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by John Cohen at 9:00 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
What not to do: Bitch and whine in thread.
posted by Artw at 9:03 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 9:03 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Flag it as Fantastic. (Sarcastically.)
posted by Sys Rq at 9:08 PM on January 22, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by Sys Rq at 9:08 PM on January 22, 2011 [4 favorites]
To piggyback, what's the appropriate flag in AskMe for "does not actually answer the question"?
posted by Ian A.T. at 9:34 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Ian A.T. at 9:34 PM on January 22, 2011
Noise.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:39 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Sys Rq at 9:39 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
All my posts are just plain bad.
Not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good.
/goes to listen to RUN-DMC
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:48 PM on January 22, 2011 [5 favorites]
Not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good.
/goes to listen to RUN-DMC
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:48 PM on January 22, 2011 [5 favorites]
To piggyback, what's the appropriate flag in AskMe for "does not actually answer the question"?
Derail.
posted by John Cohen at 9:51 PM on January 22, 2011
Derail.
posted by John Cohen at 9:51 PM on January 22, 2011
Hey everyone! Let's all flag Sys Rq's comment as a Fantastic Comment. (Sarcastically.)
posted by zachlipton at 11:26 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by zachlipton at 11:26 PM on January 22, 2011
Ian A.T. writes "To piggyback, what's the appropriate flag in AskMe for 'does not actually answer the question'?"
Breaks the Guidelines.
posted by Mitheral at 11:55 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Breaks the Guidelines.
posted by Mitheral at 11:55 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
What not to do: Bitch and whine in thread.
Unless it's a thread about art that includes Steve Jobs, in which case you have full license to be a complete dick.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:41 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
Unless it's a thread about art that includes Steve Jobs, in which case you have full license to be a complete dick.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:41 AM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
Use the flag I always use in those circumstances. Flag as, "Oh well, that was shite. I'll look at the next post instead."
posted by Decani at 4:31 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Decani at 4:31 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
It's probably been a year since I flagged anything as anything other than "other".
posted by Plutor at 5:44 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Plutor at 5:44 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
Sometimes, when you're trembling with rage and/or spam and/or thwarted guidelininess, your finger slips while flagging and you end up accidentally choosing "fantastic".
Then you feel gross for a few minutes imagining cortex slowly shaking his head at your egregious flag.
posted by Sallyfur at 6:21 AM on January 23, 2011
Then you feel gross for a few minutes imagining cortex slowly shaking his head at your egregious flag.
posted by Sallyfur at 6:21 AM on January 23, 2011
I love that everyone has different answers to Ian A.T.
I'm curious what the mods would want in reguards to his question.
Can we add: Ugh, why did they even bother?
posted by royalsong at 7:22 AM on January 23, 2011
I'm curious what the mods would want in reguards to his question.
Can we add: Ugh, why did they even bother?
posted by royalsong at 7:22 AM on January 23, 2011
I asked this question a few months ago. The mod-approved answer was "other".
posted by phunniemee at 7:40 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by phunniemee at 7:40 AM on January 23, 2011
...asked this question...
Ah, a drop-down pony
Yup and someone in that thread writes "more flags, more fun."
But flagging "other" can be oddly satisfying. Like a turbo-charged Move-On.
Flag-It-And What
posted by Namlit at 7:51 AM on January 23, 2011
Ah, a drop-down pony
Yup and someone in that thread writes "more flags, more fun."
But flagging "other" can be oddly satisfying. Like a turbo-charged Move-On.
Flag-It-And What
posted by Namlit at 7:51 AM on January 23, 2011
I flag things as Other because I have Privelege.
posted by Artw at 8:26 AM on January 23, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by Artw at 8:26 AM on January 23, 2011 [3 favorites]
I still want "Weak Sauce" as a flag.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:27 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by cjorgensen at 9:27 AM on January 23, 2011 [1 favorite]
I use offensive/racism/sexism because bad posts offend me. I also sometimes use HTML error because I'm like, "seriously, there is no way he could have meant to write that."
posted by Mister_A at 10:29 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by Mister_A at 10:29 AM on January 23, 2011
We use the term "flag it and move on" a lot. The thing to remember about "move on" is that not only does it mean that literally, it also means don't obsess over it. It may not get deleted. Take pride in the fact that you're part of a self-policing community that allows you to flag posts but also recognizes that others may hold different opinions.
posted by tommasz at 11:29 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by tommasz at 11:29 AM on January 23, 2011
I want a WTF? flag. That would cover all manner of sins.
posted by deborah at 12:27 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by deborah at 12:27 PM on January 23, 2011
I suspect that "Look at this! It's bad!", "Look at this, it's good!", "Whoops, can you fix a broken thing?" and "OMG, immediate attention required!" would cover 99% of flagging requirements.
posted by Artw at 12:58 PM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Artw at 12:58 PM on January 23, 2011 [2 favorites]
The thing about flags is that the author of the post never sees them. A brief criticism of the post in the comments section is a good idea as well.
posted by LarryC at 4:11 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by LarryC at 4:11 PM on January 23, 2011
A brief criticism of the post in the comments section is a good idea as well.
No, it really isn't. How often are you 100% absolutely sure that a thread is going to be deleted? If a poster really wants to know why their FPP was deleted, they can ask the mods.
From the guidelines:
Please keep comments focused on the topic at hand. Comments about the quality of a post are better left for MetaTalk.
posted by girih knot at 4:21 PM on January 23, 2011
No, it really isn't. How often are you 100% absolutely sure that a thread is going to be deleted? If a poster really wants to know why their FPP was deleted, they can ask the mods.
From the guidelines:
Please keep comments focused on the topic at hand. Comments about the quality of a post are better left for MetaTalk.
posted by girih knot at 4:21 PM on January 23, 2011
No, no it's not. Because your brief criticism of the post is the same as someone elses threadshitting. Just resist the urge, flag, and move on.
posted by Artw at 4:22 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by Artw at 4:22 PM on January 23, 2011
I like to send my criticism via mefi mail. Makes it more personal.
posted by ryanrs at 5:50 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by ryanrs at 5:50 PM on January 23, 2011
I also want a "Thread Shit" flag. It can only be applied in the first hour a thread is open or the first 15 comments, whichever comes later. After this "Noise" or "Derail" is fine, but I have to say the thing that makes me question staying a member here is the consistent thread shitting.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:32 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by cjorgensen at 7:32 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
I use breaks guidelines.
And then I flag all the comments by people bitching in the thread as noise.
posted by chunking express at 7:15 PM on January 24, 2011
And then I flag all the comments by people bitching in the thread as noise.
posted by chunking express at 7:15 PM on January 24, 2011
Yes, but the moderators admitted in a podcast that a single flag does nothing unless it is a statistically unlikely slow-news day. As Cortex admitted, they go by volume, not type. That means if everyone thinks a thread is total shit but only one person flags it, the thread stays.
posted by joeclark at 4:35 AM on January 25, 2011
posted by joeclark at 4:35 AM on January 25, 2011
Yes, but the moderators admitted in a podcast that a single flag does nothing unless it is a statistically unlikely slow-news day.
It's a bit more complicated than that, though. If it's a busy day, yeah, we may not be checking out single-flag items so much because we're busy dealing with actively problematic threads or discussing/explaining stuff in metatalk or trading email with users and each other.
That's more true for flags on the blue and the grey than on the green: on the former two, the threshold for deletion is a bit higher and the reasons for deletion more subjective than on the askme since there's not the firm utilitarian guideline in place and so there's a tendency toward more personal and less slam-dunk obvious perceptions of deletability on those parts of the site.
A single flag in askme often amounts to "hey, this seems like it violates the general answer-the-question guideline" can be pretty clear to us. A single flag on someone being a little grumpy in the blue or the grey is more often a heads up to maybe keep an eye on it than a clear-cut argument for deletion since on the one hand I think it sucks when people are grumping at each other but on the other there's no bright-line "don't be a little grumpy" guideline in place.
If there's a situation where a user feels like something needs mod attention but isn't satisfied with flagging and moving on, they can always hit us up at the contact form and say "so, this is happening and I wanted to make sure that (a) you saw it and (b) it was clear why I thought it was problematic". If there's some weird subtlety or backstory that makes it clear why something otherwise not super notable needs the attention, this method is good because it gives us details and because if it's a weird or subtle thing other folks might not notice and flag.
So, the takeaway is something like this: we deal with the flag queue on a worst-first basis; how far down that list we get is going to depend on how busy it is and how busy the rest of our jobs are that day; if you're the only person flagging a given comment or post, especially on the blue or grey, it's possible in the worst case that we won't get to it promptly and it's possible that when we do see it we'll not really see what's problematic or just plain not conclude that it's something that needs visible action. If you personally feel a need to know that we have looked at something or need to know our opinion on that thing, drop us a line via the contact form.
As Cortex admitted, they go by volume, not type.
Well, we go by type in some respects (display error and double are both very useful as "this is broke" alerts, offensive/sexism/racism may in context tell us something different than derail or other, etc). The more important idea is that we won't ignore flags on the basis of them being "wrong"—if you think something needs flagging but are not sure which flag to use, holding your nose and picking the closest match is probably a better idea than decline to flag at all.
That means if everyone thinks a thread is total shit but only one person flags it, the thread stays.
Realistically, if everyone thinks a thread is total shit more than one person will flag it. If nobody is flagging it, that pretty strongly indicates that people don't by and large think a thread is total shit or anything close to it. Flagging is easy to do and people do it pretty freely generally speaking.
We're deeply, deeply unlikely to delete a post on the basis of a single flag. We're reasonably likely to delete what we think is a genuinely bad post for mefi/askme/etc for the sake of its badness regardless of the flag count, said count being pretty low in a lot of cases where we delete things promptly. But a post that we don't see as being bad, and that no one is flagging, is a post that's sticking around. If an individual thinks that post is total shit and people in general don't signal agreement with that in some way that's visible to us, that's pretty much just a bummer for the individual and so it goes.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:40 AM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
It's a bit more complicated than that, though. If it's a busy day, yeah, we may not be checking out single-flag items so much because we're busy dealing with actively problematic threads or discussing/explaining stuff in metatalk or trading email with users and each other.
That's more true for flags on the blue and the grey than on the green: on the former two, the threshold for deletion is a bit higher and the reasons for deletion more subjective than on the askme since there's not the firm utilitarian guideline in place and so there's a tendency toward more personal and less slam-dunk obvious perceptions of deletability on those parts of the site.
A single flag in askme often amounts to "hey, this seems like it violates the general answer-the-question guideline" can be pretty clear to us. A single flag on someone being a little grumpy in the blue or the grey is more often a heads up to maybe keep an eye on it than a clear-cut argument for deletion since on the one hand I think it sucks when people are grumping at each other but on the other there's no bright-line "don't be a little grumpy" guideline in place.
If there's a situation where a user feels like something needs mod attention but isn't satisfied with flagging and moving on, they can always hit us up at the contact form and say "so, this is happening and I wanted to make sure that (a) you saw it and (b) it was clear why I thought it was problematic". If there's some weird subtlety or backstory that makes it clear why something otherwise not super notable needs the attention, this method is good because it gives us details and because if it's a weird or subtle thing other folks might not notice and flag.
So, the takeaway is something like this: we deal with the flag queue on a worst-first basis; how far down that list we get is going to depend on how busy it is and how busy the rest of our jobs are that day; if you're the only person flagging a given comment or post, especially on the blue or grey, it's possible in the worst case that we won't get to it promptly and it's possible that when we do see it we'll not really see what's problematic or just plain not conclude that it's something that needs visible action. If you personally feel a need to know that we have looked at something or need to know our opinion on that thing, drop us a line via the contact form.
As Cortex admitted, they go by volume, not type.
Well, we go by type in some respects (display error and double are both very useful as "this is broke" alerts, offensive/sexism/racism may in context tell us something different than derail or other, etc). The more important idea is that we won't ignore flags on the basis of them being "wrong"—if you think something needs flagging but are not sure which flag to use, holding your nose and picking the closest match is probably a better idea than decline to flag at all.
That means if everyone thinks a thread is total shit but only one person flags it, the thread stays.
Realistically, if everyone thinks a thread is total shit more than one person will flag it. If nobody is flagging it, that pretty strongly indicates that people don't by and large think a thread is total shit or anything close to it. Flagging is easy to do and people do it pretty freely generally speaking.
We're deeply, deeply unlikely to delete a post on the basis of a single flag. We're reasonably likely to delete what we think is a genuinely bad post for mefi/askme/etc for the sake of its badness regardless of the flag count, said count being pretty low in a lot of cases where we delete things promptly. But a post that we don't see as being bad, and that no one is flagging, is a post that's sticking around. If an individual thinks that post is total shit and people in general don't signal agreement with that in some way that's visible to us, that's pretty much just a bummer for the individual and so it goes.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:40 AM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]
This is at least a helpfully expansive explanation of why so much noise is allowed to remain in Blue threads.
posted by joeclark at 12:49 PM on February 12, 2011
posted by joeclark at 12:49 PM on February 12, 2011
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posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:13 PM on January 22, 2011