Do you like to notify your members about how you deal with reported actions?

[StormyWays13 91]

So here is what it boils down to. Do you tell your user's how you deal with problems on your site? This could be in the form of updating the users on the progress of reported content.

 

Site members, share your thoughts on this post:

 

[Elena 546]

Yes, I do. Otherwise, they would feel they didn't count.

[Bro 89]

Depends on the report. If the're just reporting to me that something got double posted and one needs to be deleted, I'll just delete it. I don't usually feel the need to get back to them with a "yep, deleted it". They can see it was deleted just fine. If something more serious is reported, like a breach of the rules, then I will at least say "thank you, the staff is looking into it now" as a start to let them know their concern is heard, and depending on how it is handled, I might report back to them that the offending material has been removed, or it turned out the post didn't break the rules. 

[xexes 108]

IMO it's better and easier if the reporter says whether to follow up or not.

 

If someone has a lot of feelings in their expectations, they create unnecessary drama when your mind-reading is incorrect. 

[Huskerdust 625]

Um...... toughie. To be honest I think telling members about problems behind the scenes can be kind of a detriment. If they report something and ASK for follow up I might unless it is a delicate matter and not really their business. But I’ve honestly never had anybody report content on my site so who knows. My gut says no though. 

[Dragon 673]

15 hours ago, StormyWays13 said:

Do you tell your user's how you deal with problems on your site? This could be in the form of updating the users on the progress of reported content.

 

Only if the reported content involved direct harassment of the individual reporting. If that is the case I will explain how the situation has been handled, and what further action they need to take if it becomes necessary. 

 

If the individual is just reporting a general issue, then I'll only tell them that it is being looked into. If they aren't directly impacted by the decision, then it shouldn't matter to them what action was taken. 

 

Outside of a person reporting harassment or other personal attacks, there's no reason to share the results. There comes a point where it amounts to play ground tattling. That kind of behavior shouldn't be encouraged or rewarded. 

[Robyn 54]

Depends on the report to be honest. Unless it's a severe offence that involves the reporter somehow, there really isn't a need.

While I think all reports need to be taken seriously and it's always required to let a member know it's being looked into... The outcome, in most cases, should remain private. It would reflect badly upon staff if they were spouting around who they warned (or worse) for what reason.

 

If a member is being harassed or personally attacked in some way or another by somebody then, yes, I'll follow up. I'll talk to that particular member, and them alone. But even then I might not spell out precisely what actions are taken.

Certain matters simply aren't for the general public. Or any public, really.

 

There are also enough reports that don't require a follow-up. I.e. a spam-bot finding it's way into our borders.

 

[Nariko 15]

The last time I had a report, it was for behaviour that was happening right in front of everyone in the chat-box. It was pretty obvious what happened when the problem player suddenly shut up.

 

However, for one thing, these sorts of things aren't really anyone's business except the staff's. I don't believe in transparency; I'm not here to make people feel better because they know what's going on at all times, nor give them the platform to tell me how to run my games. I'm also not about giving them something to talk about, because things like that don't need to be talked about, they need to be dealt with and then disappear. It kind of all bundles together into, if they pay attention, they can figure out what happened, roughly. Beyond that, I don't have to explain myself.

[Morrigan 1,826]

I agree with @Dragon and @Nariko on this. I don't even think notifying someone "thank you for your report" should be a necessary action unless it's a 1x1 conversation in like Discord or a PM as that's just polite otherwise the report system (like we use here on the Initiative) is enough to know that it's logged and the staff has been made aware of it. (Some of you have seen the secret little man that notifies us staff people of how many reports or pending items there are lololol).

 

I don't believe any report requires follow up. In fact a follow up feels skeezy and like a breach of privacy to the person that the report is about to tell some third party what the actions taken were let alone telling them that it's "been taken care of". It sounds like you are backwards admitting the guilt of the other person even if no action was taken as it wasn't a breach of rules.

 

Harassment is different as that involves two parties however I don't believe in a he said she said thing. With harassment that involves two people and determining the root of the issue which means that both parties should be involved in the resolution of the issue and so no matter what there both parties involved will know the resolution.

 

In the end, I think that notifying members is counter-productive and can cause undo stress on users that are served a punishment of some sort and actually push them away from a site.

[Sage 289]

I'm in agreement with @Dragon, @Nariko, & @Morrigan on this - transparency for this kind of thing is really not necessary in my view. However, this way of thinking has also bitten me in the ass before where not letting our members know anything other than "we're looking into it" made them feel like we weren't taking their reports seriously. We were, and were dealing with it extensively with the reported members, but those who reported it weren't seeing the results they wanted so they felt like we weren't doing anything. It was a whole thing. So...idk just something to keep in mind I guess.

[Morrigan 1,826]

2 minutes ago, Sage said:

I'm in agreement with @Dragon, @Nariko, & @Morrigan on this - transparency for this kind of thing is really not necessary in my view. However, this way of thinking has also bitten me in the ass before where not letting our members know anything other than "we're looking into it" made them feel like we weren't taking their reports seriously. We were, and were dealing with it extensively with the reported members, but those who reported it weren't seeing the results they wanted so they felt like we weren't doing anything. It was a whole thing. So...idk just something to keep in mind I guess.

 

This is where you post this in your code of conduct or in your "we're looking into it" PM that "results of reports are private". You have to put your foot down on this stuff when it comes to privacy.

[clipsed 231]

If it's a straight-up issue, I'll give some sort of generic "Thanks for bringing this to our attention; we're looking into it/discussing how best to handle it. Please let us know if it continues to be an issue." I think anything less risks making the reporter feel as though they don't matter, while anything more could (depending on the situation) violate the privacy of the reportee.

 

In cases where two players aren't getting along for whatever reason, my first reccommendation is simply a mediation chat w/ staff in which case the reporter can clearly see what's happening since they're  a part of the process.

[Elena 546]

20 hours ago, Sage said:

However, this way of thinking has also bitten me in the ass before where not letting our members know anything other than "we're looking into it" made them feel like we weren't taking their reports seriously. We were, and were dealing with it extensively with the reported members, but those who reported it weren't seeing the results they wanted so they felt like we weren't doing anything. It was a whole thing. So...idk just something to keep in mind I guess.

 

This is my way of thinking, why I say it is necessary to tell something, that the report was important and welcome and things were taken care of. Otherwise, nobody would ever report anything, if convinced it didn't matter.

[Morrigan 1,826]

I guess that's all in the setup. Because here on the Initiative we don't send PMs but all reports are taken seriously and as long as a staff member is online, taken care of immediately. That's why we encourage it instead of other staff contact methods. It also auto-notifies the staff.

[Surinen 7]

I've got a 110% zero tolerance for harassment etc, but also a VERY high standard when it comes to burden of proof.  I expect players on my site to understand that, and if they are reporting something that isn't some sort of technical error ... they (the reporter) are not going to hear anything back.  They'll see results, one way or the other.