We all know about how many times posts has been flagged for no reason, like this for example:
Regulars should flag because the flag system is easily abusable, and members don’t know what “off-topic” means.
Regulars should flag because the flag system is easily abusable, and members don’t know what “off-topic” means.
6 Likes
It’s because the like button exists, saying things like “This looks amazing! Nice job!” is sort of considered spam when you can just like the post.
However, if a post with feedback is flagged, depends on context but likely the post will be reverted.
39 Likes
I disagree with this request. All members should have the right to flag posts that break a rule. The flags do not automatically take down the post. Once a moderator has reviewed a post/topic that has recieved various flags, the post may be taken down if it doesn’t abide a rule. If it doesn’t, the moderator won’t take it down. You can’t assume that every regulars are more well-mannered and professional than members.
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This is not a correct decision for staff to make. In addition, as it has already been stated, these topics truly violate the rules (no offence to the OPs). Announcement replies should preferably be used for suggestions and bug reports. These replies simply praise the updates without adding any information to the topic itself. Even though they were not falsely flagged, afaik DET does not plan to remove such replies because they want people to interact with announcements.
This is not the main problem though. What will happen in the case of the forum being raided (which has already happened, for minor reasons like people wanting their accounts deleted)? What will happen if NSFW gets posted?
Finally, who told you that only TL1 users could flag such topics? I don’t mean to offend you, but this topic mostly seems to be a rant asking for looser rules rather than asking to lock this ability to Regulars, which is a terrible decision. There’s a reason they were hidden by flags. It wasn’t just one person who flagged those replies.
10 Likes
All of the examples look like spam to me. Making conversation and comments that don’t add anything are better reserved for real-time chatrooms such as those on Discord. On a forum people should avoid making conversation and use the Like button for showing agreement. It’s a different communication medium with different etiquette.
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No, unless you want moderation to get worse.
1 Like
This wouldn’t fix anything. Not only are the examples spam, but flags aren’t anything public that would cause inconvenience. And regulars are more likely to flag something, at least much more than new members.
Think about it. New members usually aren’t very familiar with rules and guidelines, and might think that this sort of behavior is fine. Regulars (and other members) on the other hand, know what’s correct and what’s not. People get tired of newbies spamming, and are more likely to flag even if the post doesn’t necessarily violate anything. The only exception might be comped accounts (potentially also bots), however DET takes care of that pretty quickly.
This isn’t the right thing to do and wouldn’t help with anything. Members flagging possibly rule-violating posts is a good thing. They know realize that the posts are bad and will refrain from doing the same. Even if they flag incorrectly, your rank doesn’t necessarily mean you’re worse than the other. I am a member, and I knew that those replies were spam right away. I’d flag them if I saw them.
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Interestingly enough, all the screenshots you posted were useless spam replies, which are in violation of the devforum rules. I think flagging is fine as it is right now, final action is left up to human moderation, I would be more worried about that then the flagging. 
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Bad idea. There’s usually more Members around than Regulars during the day and it would be impossible to have malicious posts flagged down if they were locked to Members only. There is an option to make the flags have less weight than the one’s from Regulars however, Roblox did turn from this method as there were regulars who often misused the flags to target members.
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All of those are valid flags. If you like a post then give it a like, a reply is unnecessary and clutters the forum. You should only reply if you have feedback or questions, etc.
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Absolutely nothing would change. I bet that all regulars would still flag those posts.
Assuming that only regulars flag posts is a bad mindset. I know a lot of Members that utilize the flagging option in a way that is valid (just like shown in examples listed by the OP).
3 Likes
Regulars are a huge minority on the forum. If flagging was only restricted to Regulars, bad posts would take forever to get taken down. As many states above, those flags are completely valid. Additionally, it is a rare case that posts will get hidden without breaking rules. AFAIK it takes three people to flag a post. At this point in time it isn’t really an issue.
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If it’s for meme based reasons that won’t offend anyone then that’s fine but yeah I think yeah I agree because this gets really annoying because they really just want likes and such. They should give actually feedback in order to actually support something based upon the topic that is being discussed. Even though I am a member I think this would show people what and what not to reply like but they shouldn’t be accused or feel like they should scared that their comment is flagged but still regulars haven’t been given out in a long time
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as a member i can tell you I indeed know what it means.
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No, if it doesn’t get flagged for a good reason it won’t be taken down. We’d have an insane amount more and I definitely know what off-topic means.
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These are true flags. They literally should have just used the 
button. Not make meaningless compliments with no added information.
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If only regulars were allowed to flag, the forum would quickly devolve into a cesspit of the worst posts you’ve seen, just 10x more of them.
1 Like
Sometimes people should contact moderators instead of just flagging it as off-topic, especially in DD, else no moderator will notice that off-topic post with people bumping it for no reason, keeping it on the front-page. (for topics)
1 Like
Flagging posts actually works better than messaging staff directly. Flags are displayed separately from messages and with people messaging them in general, it would get buried.
6 Likes