Unflag/Reflag

March 29, 2012 12:30 PM

Any chance we could have the ability to unflag/reflag a post or comment?

I inadvertently flagged something as derail when I meant to flag it as something else. I also may have flagged something as having been breaking the guidelines when I meant to say it was a flipping fantastic post. I realize I suck at using my phone to traverse MeFi and that's partially why this is a problem for me, but is there any way that you we could change the flag system so you can unflag something once you've flagged it and either reflag it with the appropriate commentary or rest assured that you didn't flag something you didn't mean to after all?

A cursory search of MetaTalk returns this comment, but no posts on this topic.

posted by These Birds of a Feather to Feature Requests at 12:30 PM (37 comments total)

There's no way to undo a flag, no. That has very minimal negative implications, though; a random flag that makes no sense will get shrugged at and ignored, so no damage done. If in the narrow case of you preventing yourself from flagging as fantastic something that you really really want us to know you think is fantastic, you can just drop us a line at the contact form.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:33 PM on March 29, 2012

I know this is easy to say and maybe tough to do, but don't worry about it. We always, always have human eyes looking at flags so a stray flag here or there is a non-problem. In fact, the way we currently tabulate and visualize the flag stuff, the unflag/reflag thing might create more of a problem [in figuring out how to count an unflag and/or a reflag] than it would solve.

There have been very rare instances where there have been flags I did not understand and I've been able to just MeMail the person "Why are you flagging that as HTML error?" or "Why did you just flag your own comment?" and I've been able to get speedy answers.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:34 PM on March 29, 2012

Huh, you're right. I just experimentally flagged this as "other" to see if I could unflag, but nope. Seems like it would be more important to be able to unflag than it is to unfavorite--which we can do.
posted by yoink at 12:34 PM on March 29, 2012

That's fair. I figured that misflagging isn't that big a deal but I thought I'd ask all the same. Thank you!
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 12:37 PM on March 29, 2012

Seems like it would be more important to be able to unflag than it is to unfavorite--which we can do.

The difference is that flags are a fire-and-forget tool for bringing something to the mod team's attention; favorites are a publicly-visible thing that you "own" and manage the lifetime of. There's a long-term relationship with faves that doesn't exist for flags.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:42 PM on March 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

There have been very rare instances where there have been flags I did not understand and I've been able to just MeMail the person "Why are you flagging that as HTML error?" or "Why did you just flag your own comment?" and I've been able to get speedy answers.

Yep. I recently got a memail from jessamyn saying "I do not understand this flag" and I was like "Whatyoutalkingaboutwillis" and she was like "No, really, I do not understand this flag" and I was like"Awwwwwwwwwwwdayum" and she was "Is this flag for real" and I was "All flags are special" and she was "Right, I have gnomes to deal with, so I'm outta here" and I was "Hey, wait, can we talk about that" and she never responded.

True story.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:47 PM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

...the hell? I've been using them as bookmarks!
posted by griphus at 12:53 PM on March 29, 2012 [22 favorites]

I confess that I have flagged myself. Negatively. I should just FIAMO but its hard since the shadow is connected to the body.
posted by infini at 1:17 PM on March 29, 2012 [4 favorites]

I flag a different person every day. Usually multiple times.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 1:42 PM on March 29, 2012

I never flag with the same user twice.
posted by Edogy at 1:45 PM on March 29, 2012

Brandon Blatcher: "
Yep. I recently got a memail from jessamyn saying "I do not understand this flag" and I was like "Whatyoutalkingaboutwillis" and she was like "No, really, I do not understand this flag" and I was like"Awwwwwwwwwwwdayum" and she was "Is this flag for real" and I was "All flags are special" and she was "Right, I have gnomes to deal with, so I'm outta here" and I was "Hey, wait, can we talk about that" and she never responded."

Sharing of memails without indication you've gotten permission to do so? Tempted to Flag for breaking guidelines. But then I'd have to move on, and I'd rather just post about it instead.
posted by radwolf76 at 1:52 PM on March 29, 2012 [4 favorites]

We're kind of a big deal.
posted by gnomes at 2:03 PM on March 29, 2012 [5 favorites]

I've flagged things as fantastic that I meant to flag as breaking the guidelines and that made me grumpy that I couldn't fix it. Mostly because it was the kind of post a subset of metafilter would have thought was fantastic and I didn't want to muddy the "is this a good post for metafilter" waters even more.

Then again the post stayed up so it probably didn't matter anyway.
posted by aspo at 2:15 PM on March 29, 2012

These Birds of a Feather: "I realize I suck at using my phone to traverse MeFi and that's partially why this is a problem for me..."

It's a shame the 'right swipe to favourite' experiment never got extended to 'left swipe to flag' (or made to work beyond iphones, but that's another story). Flagging/favouriting on a tiny screen is very difficult and, sure you can zoom in, but that's another step that I'm too lazy to take. Not that I do either very much, so why am I even here?
posted by dg at 2:17 PM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

I literally just flagged myself a few minutes ago (asking mods to delete my non-answer on AskMe). I also fat-finger the flag button all the time on my iPhone when I'm trying to favorite. I hate it when I do that.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 2:19 PM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

So this is the second time I've seen someone refer to the right-swipe-to-favorite thing on an iPhone. I've tried this on my iPhone and nothing happened. Am I doing it wrong or is this some kind of joke that I just don't get?
posted by rabbitrabbit at 2:21 PM on March 29, 2012

It was probably me both times. Have a look here to join the secret swipers club.
posted by dg at 2:27 PM on March 29, 2012 [9 favorites]

SWEET! Thanks.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 2:30 PM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Flag me
Fave me
Anyway you want me
As long as you swipe me baby
It's all right.
posted by The Whelk at 2:46 PM on March 29, 2012

Secret swipers! Awesome.

Clearly I do not spend enough time in meTa, since I missed that way back when. Thanks, dg!
posted by rtha at 3:04 PM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

I literally just flagged myself

After the last thread on self-favoriting, this is making me snicker.
posted by Sidhedevil at 3:17 PM on March 29, 2012

Insert "swiper no swiping" joke here?
/notasfunnyasyou, foreveralone, etc...

Thanks dg! I shall be fav!swiping all day long now.
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 3:22 PM on March 29, 2012

cortex: " There's a long-term relationship with faves that doesn't exist for flags."

There's a gay marriage joke in here somewhere but I just can't seem to come up with it.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:31 PM on March 29, 2012

Returning to the bathroom I still can't can't come up with an Adam and Eve/Adam and Steve parallel I was looking for, so I'm just going to go with "Mod Hates Flags" and head out for the night.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:35 PM on March 29, 2012 [11 favorites]

Out of curiosity, is there a limit to the number of flags one can give, similar to the one that there is with favorites? Has anyone ever hit it? If there isn't, do the mods ever wish there was such a limit?
posted by Scientist at 4:45 PM on March 29, 2012

There's no existing limit, no. We've never noticed anyone flagging too much over the long term or anything; about the only time "flagging too much" has been an issue is when someone goes through and flags like a dozen or two separate comments from the same thread, which is not useful because after the first couple we'll be looking at the thread anyway and it's just more stuff to clean up on the admin interface. At that point we'd rather folks just write us email explaining what's up in a thread if there's a big/complicated problem.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:55 PM on March 29, 2012

I hate accidental flaggening, so I email the mods. *Then* I move on.
posted by Mom at 5:18 PM on March 29, 2012

I never flag with the same user twice.

That is because, after that flag, they are no longer the same user, and you are no longer the same flagger.

Also, I think, after enough flags, we should switch to flogs.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:35 PM on March 29, 2012

A DEAD HORSE
posted by brain_drain at 5:50 PM on March 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: a long-term relationship with faves.
posted by Rumple at 5:54 PM on March 29, 2012

Instead of flagging your dead horse, brain_drain, I favorited it. Kinky, yes?
posted by Sidhedevil at 6:52 PM on March 29, 2012

I literally just flagged myself

self-flaggelation
posted by ian1977 at 10:27 PM on March 29, 2012 [3 favorites]

It's a grand old flag.
posted by trip and a half at 11:14 PM on March 29, 2012

I have a feeling my favouriting numbers will go up for a while until I lose the novelty of swipe favouriting!
posted by knapah at 3:18 AM on March 30, 2012

I one accidentally flagged something that I meant to favorite. I've never forgiven myself. Only mostly kidding.
posted by echo target at 6:54 AM on March 30, 2012

Excitedly armed with the newfound ability of swipe to favorite, I returned to this thread with the plan to favorite dg's comment as a thank-you for initiating me into the Secret Swipers club. Swiftly, boldly, and without hesitation, I clicked the (+) under his comment. Mission accomplished.
posted by k8lin at 7:56 AM on March 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

This makes me feel better about accidentally flagging while trying to click on the tiny little plus sign on my phone. A lot.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:54 AM on March 31, 2012 [1 favorite]