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I've wondered this before, is there a character limit to the report comment field? I've refrained from going into more detail in some cases, for example posting links to back up why i'm reporting the thread/post. There doesn't seem to be a 'hard' limit which basically doesn't allow you to enter any more characters or deletes them. But, I'm not familiar with the report interface for moderators and was wondering whether if there is a limit or if including too many characters can make it act funny or cause a nuisance to the interface.

I would install a local instance of Simple Machines, but I know that this forum is modified and it's quite possible that the report function has been too, at least back-end.

I sometimes write several fairly lengthy sentences and include a link. Since I never got a mail or PM about it, I dont think its a problem. It would be nice to get some input from someone that actually handles reports though.

In terms of character entry, I got to several million before I called it quits. Would definitely be useful to know exactly how many of those get submitted.

I've seen some pretty long ones before and never any that have seemingly been cut off so I'm sure you'll be ok. Why do you want to know exactly?

There are good reports with 4 character comments and bad reports with 7 line comments. If you feel longer explanation is needed there is no problem for our side.

Cool. I find myself quite often finding people posting multiple topics in a short period of time and they've been missed. So, I was wondering if posting the reason for reporting & including all the links to the topics which are double posts. I've avoided doing this in the past due to thinking there might be some limitation, so reported 1, included 1 link. Then reported the rest the same way.

I'm not looking to write you a story, don't worry about that  ;). Just want to include some links to other sources.


Thanks for the responses everyone.

I think that there should be a box to comment in when you report a post, similar to when you reply to a topic, instead of the line that shows when you report a post.

That way, it's easier to revise the text you have written.

I have sometimes written which milestone in reporting I had just accomplished when i report a thread/post along with what is wrong with the thread/post and have received a congratulatory PM from a moderator.

I have also included several links documenting why a post/thread is illegal (or why other threads are similarly illegal) and have never been contacted by a moderator for clairification. So I would assume that the limit (if one exists) is longer then enough for ~1.5 sentences plus three SMF URL's

That would actually be a good idea. It's hard to edit or spellcheck in just one line sometimes.

I have found no difficulties editing & spellchecking report to moderator texts; however, I'm used to write reports with notepad or Miscrosoft Word and sometime even with bitcointalk post editor.  ;)

I have not seen any character limit in the "report comment field" and mostly my reports consist of a single word or two "Spam". The rest I leave on the moderator to judge the comment and delete it or leave it. It's tough though to write in a single line text box and I need to press the home and end buttons to re-read my reports.

IMHO you should add more details when reporting. For example, if you just add "wrong section" and if mods see any other reports about this topic, they will move to correct section. When they do, your report will go to another mod's queue. When he looks, he mostly likely will mark your report as "bad" as the thread is in correct section and mod won't know whether you made the report when it was in other section.

Borrowed from BadBear's post.

P.S. This wouldn't be a problem if you don't care accuracy rating.

BadBear's post is better than mine:

OK got it. I care about the accuracy rating and as of now it is 69% when it was 77% earlier. I find abusive comments and just write "Abusive comment" in my report as there is no more explanation to give but when I find something not making sense, I don't get what explanation to give and just write "an off topic/spam post". May be I should now give detailed reports as few of my reports have been already marked bad.

The percentages will seemingly never change once you reached 1000-2000 reports. I was at 94% for ages and just recently it switched to 95%. I dont think my reports have gotten any better though.


I wouldnt care too much about bad reports. I feel like you get a feeling over time whats a good report and whats not. It also changes from time to time as different mods are active/handling your reports. Ultimately a report is judged by the person handling it and mods have different opinions about what is spam/offtopic/etc. Without a report though they might not even notice the post/thread. I think its best to keep reports shot and to the point. Thats not always possible though.

Usually that would be enough, but you have to remember what is spam or an 'abusive comment' or post that doesn't make sense to you might make sense or be completely valid to others.

I understand the fact that what I may find spam, the MODs may not find it spam and hence my percentage is dropping.

However, some members make personal comments/attacks on other users, make bad comments about religion, help others to commit suicide, talk about drugs and so on and I report all those comments but I find that the reports are excluded and so I don't get what can be the reason as they being considered "BAD."

Also, what if half the number of my reports are "BAD", will the MODs start disregarding my future reports?

Well, personal comments/attacks, talk about drugs, etc. are unmoral, but not against the forum rules, so if you report those things, they will be disregarded, as they are not against the forum rules.

Just report what you think is against forum rules and what things need addressing. Accuracy means nothing. Only you see your accuracy unless you tell everyone.

I was able to enter just around 1050 characters. May be I did something wrong on my end?

(Of course I didn't submit it. ;))

They won't disregard your future reports but if bad reports marked by a mod is very high, my guess is that he/she might give lower priority to your reports mainly in the section he/she is moderating. However, there hasn't been any issue or any talkings about this AFAIK.

None of theose things are against the rules as long as they're on topic and in the appropriate threads/subs so you will get a bad report for them.


No. It might effect your chances of ever becoming a mod if your accuracy isn't very good though (if that is something you would be interested in).

I don't think there is any limit. This box is just like reply box, no limit. I was able to enter 9,951 characters and I didn't get any errors when I submitted. I mentioned the report is for testing and to mark it bad(they will do it even if I didn't mention). Hope they won't have a problem because of my action.

lol. So I can't be a mod any time soon? ;)

You have reported 12 posts with 40% accuracy





I kept on copy pasting 100 characters, stopped when my broswer got stuck. Tried to continue, I thought nothing happened. I coulted at least 4k+. But when I copied everything and pasted and counted, it was just 1047.
Dunno where I went wrong..

I think I remember that being what 60% to be considered good enough to be a member of staff.  I just think a lot of users will avoid reporting controversial content just because they are not 100% sure and could get a bad report. That's not the way they should be thinking if they want to be a moderator, rather they should focus on helping out the forum rather than focusing on accuracy and rather the reason given and how much detail and effort was put in.  

So don't panic if your accuracy isn't very high. To be honest you've only reported a very small amount so the accuracy will fluctuate very easily if a mistake was made etc. When you reach the 1000+ mark it seems like you've broken it because it won't move for months on end.


On topic: Seems like there isn't any limit and doesn't matter how many characters you put it won't become a problem visually for the moderators. So including my links to other sources should not be a problem from now on.

Not anytime soon but you've got plenty of time to catch up  :D, though there's probably a handful of people who will likely be next in line with 1k+ posts reported and high accuracies of 90%+ so you might be waiting a while  ;). People should just keep reporting and don't be discouraged and your time may come eventually. Mods always come and go so new ones will always be needed.

BadBear had a great post regarding that in the past, Im too lazy to search for it now. The essence was that the accuracy is not as important as long as its not horrible and you show an understanding of the rules. A major factor is the time you are online. Are you active durring a time where no other mods are? As we have seen with Mitchell or other recently nominated mods beeing active in a local section also helps as a local mod might leave the board or be less active.

tl;dr: A multitude of reasons are considered when asking someone to become a mod.

This?

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The problem is, like Welsh said, most of the persons when they are in doubt about the post, they usually don't report it as if it is marked bad, their accuracy will decrease and it isn't really good IMHO.

Yes, nice find.


I have the feeling we are derailing another topic in meta[1], but maybe here its more fitting because its closer to a mods work, reports and how they are handled.

I think its silly to not report something because you are not sure. Creating a report and watching your accuracy or the thread/post is a great way to figure out whether your opinion is somewhat in line with the mods. Even the most knowledgable mods make decisions that get contested and revised later[2]. I think this is a great misconception that wanders the board. The rules are considered guidelines for the mods and users alike and not strict laws. There is a reason the "unofficial" list of rules is not official. If the rules are set to strict people will start to find loopholes.


[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1022225.msg11067696#msg11067696
[2] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=963031.0