Where Are the"Talk" Rules?

So…
I recently received my first admonishing post hiding from an admin due to it’s being “…flagged as inappropriate: the comnunity feels it is offensive, abusive, or a violation of our community guidelines.”
Further I was advised that “Multiple community members flagged this post before it was hidden…”.
The admin was also kind enough to include specific links to sections of the community guidelines where I was in alleged violation.

After 24 hours of reflection, I have a couple of questions.

  1. Where are the rules for this talk forum? I have been unable to find them, but when it comes to this sort of thing, I tend to be the blind squirrel…

  2. Did you know you could be flagged by “multiple community members” and have your post removed? I did not. Not that it surprises me. Of course something open to the public has the capability to suppress inappropriate material, but I did not realise the “flag” icon meant it was being flagged for review by an admin. I took it to mean you were flagging it for yourself. Thank heaven I never wanted to “privately flag” anything “for attention”.

  3. How many “community members” does it take for this action to be taken?

  4. Are admins allowed to be among the “multiple community members” who provide the grounds for retraction of said post? They shouldn’t be…

  5. What is the method by which the retracted post may be defended and reinstated, and to whom is the appeal made?

And finally, a statement followed by explanation/context:
a flag is not feedback.
The correspondence I received advised “Multiple community members flagged this post before it was hidden, so please consider how you might revise your post to reflect their feedback. You can edit your post after 10 minutes, and it will be automatically unhidden.”
What feedback? A flag is not feedback. I have no idea what was objected to, other than some general “may have violated some of the rules” information. I suppose the elaboration by the admin could be considered “feedback”, but this clause just appears to be out of place. Instead just say “if you revise your post to please the community, it may be allowed to stand.” That way it’s clear what’s needed and does not assert information has been passed along when it has not.

Thank you. Looking forward to a good night’s read of the rules…

That is the purpose of a “bookmark”.

This may help with some of the questions…

And, for what it’s worth, I also find “Flag” confusing. “Report” is a better choice.

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I don’t think there are rules, its just whatever the few volunteer admins want to do, I guess you just lobby the infrastructure committee if you want to be an admin?

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What kind of beer does “the infrastructure committee” like?
:smiley:

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There is some semblance of rules for the forum here --> https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/read-first-welcome-to-the-dallas-makerspace/8

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Oh, here are the guidelines…
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/guidelines

and here’s the guidline about flagging:
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/guidelines#flag-problems

So I guess these “guidelines” are what I was looking for, but are a bit nonspecific. I guess that’s what makes them “guidelines”…

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Sorry if this isn’t helpful, but I’m reading this from my phone. To the best of my knowledge any member of the talk forums can flag a post. After a post has been flagged an admin is notified. After a post has been flagged three times the talk forum hides the post automatically.

Not sure how the posts are unhidden probably through some admin action. Andrew Lecody once explained to me that the admins try not to step in and hide posts, but instead let the community self police.

The admins can give flags just like any other forum member.

My knowledge to this point, hope it is helpful.

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This appears not to be documented anywhere.

In my opinion, because they hold the power, they should not be allowed to flag. They could unilaterally decide to hide for flagrant violations, or they can hide at the request of the community, but both should not be allowed.
I appreciate your elucidation.

I flagged your post with “off-topic”

FYI, I am a moderator and I believe I was your 3rd Flag. This is what it looks like on my end.

Under the Mod area it appears like so.

Like Nick said the mods tend not to intervene unless requested (EG: please delete my post)

Hope that clears some things up.

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Thanks guys, for the practical demonstration. I really appreciate it, and I hope others get their curiosity satiated as well.

When you first register to the forums, the system sends you a message (from my account) with the subject “Welcome to Dallas Makerspace Talk!”.

This message goes over some of the basics of using the forums (trust levels, posting, notification settings, etc). The “Actions” section has this to say about flags/bookmarks:

If you see a problem with someone’s post, privately let them, or our staff, know about it with the flag button. You can also share a link to a post, or bookmark it for later reference on your user page.

At the end of the welcome PM it has the following link to the FAQ/Guidelines page:

We believe in civilized community behavior at all times.

Additionally, the main page of the forums has a permanently stickied topic: READ FIRST: Welcome to the Dallas Makerspace

I suggest that anyone who hasn’t read the Welcome PM, the sticky and the FAQ/Guidelines do so, as they explain much of the system/processes. As for admin users, there is 1 admin user (myself), and 2 moderator users (@AlexRhodes and @LisaSelk). All moderator/admin actions are logged, and I get alerts for most things.

I fully expect that all users of this forums (including moderators) use the flagging system, as the entire point of the system is to let people know that their post was problematic in some way. The explanation in the “Post hidden due to community flagging” PM changes, based on the options selected when a posted was flagged. Those options are:

  • It’s Off-Topic
  • This post is not relevant to the current discussion as defined by the title and first post, and should probably be moved elsewhere.
  • It’s Inappropriate
  • This post contains content that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or a violation of our community guidelines.
  • It’s Spam
  • This post is an advertisement. It is not useful or relevant to the current topic, but promotional in nature.
  • Message @username
  • This post contains something I want to talk to this person directly and privately about. Does not cast a flag.
  • Something Else
  • This post requires moderator attention for another reason not listed above.

If your post is hidden, you can unhide it (as explained in the PM) simply by editing the post. If it gets hidden a second time, a moderator/admin has to step in if it was hidden incorrectly. Typically we only have to step in and unhide posts that the spam filter mistakenly hides, though even this is rare.

If your post gets flagged, this doesn’t mean you are banned, or you have a black mark on some kind of permanent record. It simply means that you should step back, look at what you posted and think about why others might have viewed it as off-topic, offensive/rude or spam-like. If you disagree, by all means, unhide your post.

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