report to moderator

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Can we please get a report to moderator button on the discussion page?
It can be quite frustrating and upsetting coming across people trying to stir up arguments, or making abusing or defamatory statements, only to have to come here to report. Surely it's not too technically difficult to put on more button on the screen, so we can have quote, post, submit, preview, add option, and report to moderator?

There's a long story behind why that's unlikely to happen, involving aging software and a fear of upsetting a user-base that's presumed not to like change.

Also, it's sort of a filter, you have to be motivated enough to report something to go through the process, so the mods don't get bogged down with every petty violation that people think is there.

Alex looked into doing this around a year ago then we heard no more about it. Presumably he abandoned the idea due to technical difficulties.. this software is highly unstable and full of bugs as it is; adding more functionality is just likely to make it even more unstable.

I think a moderator button which simply flags a post and logs the member who clicked it (or worse, logs no name), without inviting a report, would create more problems than it solves because it assumes moderator omniscience. Well, we're not, and in all but the most obvious cases we would therefore need to PM the members clicking the button to ask why they did.
Dox47 makes a good point about the filtering aspect too. If it was possible to click a button to flag any sort of objection to a post then we would be buried under a mass of trivia, and those things definitely requiring intervention would become more difficult to see.

So a descriptive report needs to be made at some point, ideally proactively, and the moderator attention thread seems to work quite efficiently for that - a report is made and posted to it.
Also, this thread is easily bookmarked and renamed "WP Moderator Report" in the browser:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt237032.html
Now it's easily reached from anywhere on WP; just click the "post reply" button to start making a report.

But didn't Alex have any sort of plans that he was going to upgrade the forum software at any point in the future?

There is another aspect to be considered.

An anonymous "flag" would not have the identity of the person flagging the post. Thus, one person could flag each post of one member - perhaps dozens of times - and not only tie up the time of the moderators as they try to sort out a problem that may not be there, but would also make the member whose posts are being unnecessarily flagged the target of harassment and abuse.

By having members post without anonymity, it forces members to post responsibly, and to maybe even decide whether or not the alleged violation is worth reporting in the first place.

Trust me though, if a post is worth reporting, then someone will report it.

Forum software implementing some sort of flagging technique (thanks, vote up/down etc) has built-in safeguards to help prevent this sort of abuse.

I think the the report process is fine as it is. I feel members should view taking a little time to help the moderators as just part of the price of admission.