dave said:
If you follow through with the report, then nothing will immediately happen, but a record of the report is made in the system. Then if other people also report the same person, then eventually (and this is not disclosed exactly how this works) the system will automatically deal with the person by revoking their ability to post to the forum in which the reports were made. After you report the post, you will also be given the option to add that poster to your ignore list.

So if someone is abusing the a specific forum, they may have their posting privileges removed from that forum. They would be able to continue posting in other forums (until they are reported a lot there, too.)

NGA staff does have the power to over-rule any automatic blocks that occur using this tool, although we will not over-rule the community's decision unless it is clear that the system is being abused.

Oh my...I had no idea that there would be a public "whipping post!"
From the (..........) forum:

admin said:Due to an excessive amount of reports issued concerning a member posting in this thread (..........), that member has automatically been removed from this forum by the Garden.org software. They can no longer post or read the threads in this forum. Thank you to those who issued reports.

great....

Admin said:
Due to an excessive amount of reports issued concerning a member posting in this thread (SpringGreenThumb), that member has automatically been removed from this forum by the Garden.org software. They can no longer post or read the threads in this forum. Thank you to those who issued reports.

Does this automatically get posted in the forums? This post replaces the post that was reported or how does that work? How embarrassing! I don't ever want to be reported now.

I don't like the idea of the public notice that a member has been removed from a forum, either; wouldn't it be better if the offending poster was notified privately and leave it at that?

I agree with Weedwhacker. I love the new features (although I doubt I will use them much, most folks here are very courteous), but the public notification seems a bit humiliating.

Definitely. Especially if you are trying to avoid people abusing it. Like others here, I believe that people are generally nice and courteous, but giving a public notice of banning or removal from a Forum could give a sense of accomplishment or achievement to those simply trying to ban people that they do not personally like. Whereas, if someone simply "disappears" from the forum, they could very well have "just not posted in a while", if that makes sense. --just my 2 cents.

I was suprised to see that... private message is much better.

My thinking in designing this is to let the members know what happened, since they were the ones who were affected. But maybe it'd be better to simply notify just those who made the reports, through system messages.

It would be better to notify the member that was banned IMHO. Letting the "reporters" know aids in giving them the satisfaction that they have the power to get rid of someone they don't like.
Reminds me of my high school days....
Letting the banned member know would be better.
Also, is the member banned from the forum for good or can they do something to redeem themselves?
I don't like the "lynch mob" mentality it might create (envisions members getting together vie t-mail to gang up on someone to get them banned) and the poor people that actually like that member wondering what happened to them.

threegardeners said:Also, is the member banned from the forum for good or can they do something to redeem themselves?

As I said above, we (admins) have the ability to over-rule this and reinstate any member that was automatically removed by this system.

Keep in mind, the member in question here had a very, very large number of reports made. After the system automatically blocked that member from that forum, I went in and took a look for myself. From my skimming of the thread, the posts were off topic for the irises forum, argumentative and inflammatory. I do not disagree with what happened. In fact, I feel like the system is working exactly as it should.

The members decided that the irises forum is not the place for those kinds of posts, they voted, and the system took care of it from there. I think the only real problem here is that the software announced the outcome to the thread. That won't happen again.

dave said: I think the only real problem here is that the software announced the outcome to the thread.

That's the only thing that I was concerned about. The rest is all peachy. Seems like a great system! Keep up the amazing work, Dave!

Dave & Trish,

Thanks for this new feature. I have two questions. One: Is this a permanent condition or can the user come back after some time. Would that come back be via administrative process (You & Trish) or via the user just going to the forum (time limit expiration)?

Two: There has been a bit of discussion about the "new" button being to close to the "Star". The system gives the user a way to back out it if accidently hit, but I think it might be a good idea to move the button slightly to the left (put an inert button where the report button is and put the report to the left of the inert). Maybe more work than it is worth, but thought I would suggest it anyway (I work with "gobs" of "programmers" and this request would probably irritate a few of them ).

Thanks.

Greg

I don't like it. At all. Just me. I think a person should first be reprimanded or perhaps guided might be a better word toward more appropriate postings. I don't follow the iris forum so have no idea what may have been the problem, but 'Big Brother' is always bad for me.

It was needed Deb, and the decision not taken lightly. It had been something ongoing for quite some time now. It got to the point where the forum members were actually avoiding the forums, it made them all so uncomfortable, myself included. We just hate to see a forum get rattled like that where others feel they want to leave or no longer post.
As Dave said in his first post, they did not " want to be in a position of becoming "the forum police". We've been put in that position in the past and we are never comfortable with making judgments about what's appropriate for the forums and what's not appropriate."
This was the best solution, with just a minor adjustment now.

Just my two cents worth... I understand why the new features were needed, but would be very hesitant to use them. And the placement of the warning icon is just fine with me. I barely notice it anymore.

Thank you Dave and Trish, and all the other personnel on this site who help to make it the very best it can be.

Sigh. I do get it though - you guys don't want or need to be the 'heavies.' I guess with growth comes compromise. I'll just continue on with my (very) occasional call-out.

Placement of the icon is not an issue for me either. I never use the star. Actually I didn't even know it existed or what it did for quite some time after I did finally notice it. So for me, the star is the inert button!

I adjusted the icon over to the far right. We'll see if people like that placement better.

Regarding the time limit: the system is not currently setup that way. Once done, I'd have to later manually intervene to lift the block.