what is the "report" button for?

[jasonbmerrill]

i just wanted to see if it goes beyond what is stated when you click it:

"Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts. "

or whats in the faq:

What if I see something offensive?

You will find 'Report' links in many places throughout the board. These links allow you to alert the board staff to anything which you find to be offensive, objectionable or illegal.

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now these "report" links are on posts that i cannot delete (forum posts of other members) as well as posts i CAN delete (visitor messages on my page)

so obviously, its not just a call for deletion, right?

perhaps someone can explain.

[mshilarious]

Sure, I'll explain: (at least) two mods have reviewed your reports and told you the reason why we aren't going to delete your personal messages for you.

Reason #1, you can delete them yourself, so it is a waste of our time. It would take you less time to delete them than it does for you to type up a report, all eight or so mods (we all get emails when you report) to read it, check the message in question, read the entire conversation and try to track that conversation back to the public posts and try to figure out what is really going on. I don't want to encourage that sort of use of the report button, so I am not going to delete your messages for you.

Reason #2, you also have the ability to turn off visitor messages and PMs entirely. I have both disabled. Try it, it's bliss!

Reason #3, there seems to be some sort of back-and-forth regarding neg rep you are leaving other people, which I can't see, so I can't make a reasonable judgment as to who started it first. Like that really matters anyway. That sort of garden-variety rudeness is par for the course for HR.


I could go on, but I think is should be clear why we aren't going to take any action on your visitor messages. If somebody was popping up randomly and putting nastygrams in your visitor messages without provocation, I might be compelled to act, but that is clearly not the case in this instance.

[jasonbmerrill]

no one actually EXPLAINED why, about this inconsistency.

but i will accept this, thank you.

i give plenty of positive rep as well, and my negative reps are always constructive and never rude.