Flags do 3 things:
- Alert mods that something has happened that we should probably take a look at, or if it’s the same person getting flagged it gives us a heads up on who to keep an eye on.
- Enough flags and the post is automatically hidden without moderator intervention, which we can eventually undo if we choose. Flags set by users with higher trust levels carry more weight, so fewer flags are needed for the system to take action automatically.
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Optionally count as a black mark against the person. The only effect of this is it may prevent or revoke their ability to reach Trust Level 3, aka Regular.
The optionally bit is important, because as was mentioned earlier, all flags get reviewed. Here’s what we do, basically:
- Approve. This option can optionally hide the post. This option also goes on the persons “permanent record”, so to speak.
- Disapprove. This basically deletes the flag and un-hides the post, if it was hidden. However, it’s also counted against the person who set the flag, so that people who misuse flags have some powers removed and their flags carry less weight in the future.
- Ignore. The flag wasn’t wrong, but it’s either not important, we disagree, or it’s not a big deal. The vast majority of flags are dealt with this way.
From a user’s point of view, Approvals and Ignores don’t look any different. We’re not going to tip our hands and let people who get flagged know what we choose is and is not appropriate. We’ve had plenty of experience of people who like to dance on the line of getting disciplined, and I’d prefer not to make that line so clear.
I hope that clears things up a bit.
On the topic of over-flagging… to be honest this is something we encourage. There’s ~900 to 1000 posts a day now, and I don’t know about everyone else but I’ve got no desire to personally review all of them. We greatly depend on everyone here to use the flag feature if they see something that doesn’t follow the community guidelines or rules. Given that most all the flags don’t result in any action I would recommend you try not to feel as if they’re disciplinary actions or that you’re trying to be censored. Not exactly easy given how noticeable they are, but I assure you that unless your post is truly bad nothing will come of those flags.
