Submitting a Report

If you identify content that you think is problematic, the best thing to do is to submit a Report. By doing so, all staff members assigned to that content area will be able to review the content, discuss any issues with that content, and then take appropriate action.

To submit a Report about content, find the three ellipses that appear near that content. The images below use posts in the discussion forums, but other site functions (e.g., Clubs, Blogs, etc.) have a similar process. If you click on the three ellipses, a drop-down menu will appear:

Simply select "Report" from that menu and the Report form will appear:

While entering a message with the report is optional, we request that you include a message that explains the issue(s) you see with the content. Sometimes things are obvious to you, but they are not obvious to us. If you don't include a message explaining the problem, we may ignore the report unless something stands out to us.

It's important to note that the messages you submit with a report are subject to the same community standards as any other content you post at the site. Calling members names, using profanity, and other behaviors that are not allowed at the site are not allowed in reports.

Once a report is submitted, all staff members that have authority over that content (i.e., any Moderati assigned to the location in which the content was posted and all Administratum members) will review the report, discuss the issues, and determine if any action needs to be taken. This doesn't always happen quickly, however, as we don't want to rush into action without giving the issue due consideration.

The full range of options is available to us when dealing with problematic content. The two most likely outcomes that you may notice will be that content is edited or it is removed. If we determine that disciplinary action beyond editing/hiding is necessary, we will typically resolve that in private with the member that posted the content. Sometimes, however, we determine that no action is necessary. If you have questions about how a report was resolved, you are welcome to contact the moderators assigned to the location in which the content was posted, or you may contact the administrators. We will be happy to explain our determination (though disciplinary action on other members will generally be kept confidential).

The Report tool can also be used for other purposes. For example, we occasionally close discussions temporarily with the option to re-open them later. This is most often done with rumor discussions. In those instances, we will ask members that have updated information on the subject to report the topic so that they can inform us of the new information, at which point we can re-open the discussion.