"Your post was flagged as spam"

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#1

Hello,

I engaged @mentaljam in discussion under the announcement of Storeman Installer at

The software in question is hosted at OpenRepos, and the discussion revolved around installation instructions on its page there. Comments including OpenRepos URLs I submitted yesterday were posted just fine but they’re hidden today, and I’ve received automated messages that my posts were “flagged by the community as spam”.[0][1]

I suspect this is not entirely honest, because I couldn’t even submit a comment including an OpenRepos URL today[2]. Unless the forum software is called “the community”?

I have a question, and a note I guess…

Question: how do I appeal the flagging? Even if just to learn about the logic behind treating an OpenRepos URL in a discussion of the text on that URL as spam.
Note: Jolla literally owes the EUR50 received from me to the existence of OpenRepos. Sabotaging comments mentioning the site, esp. when the topic is a software hosted there, is extremely short-sighted. Please reconsider.

[0] Announcing new installer for Storeman - #22 by roman-neuhauser
[1] Announcing new installer for Storeman - #23 by roman-neuhauser
[2] it let me edit the proto and hostname parts back in just now

1 Like
#2

First:
The flagging was done by a forum member not Jolla.
And open repos link are fully allowed.

Second:
So I had that happen to me (mainly based on misunderstandings or even wrong assumptions :frowning: clarified via PMs :slight_smile: ).
And also seen a few other occurrences.
Really problematic is you have no idea who flagged you and have no chance to ask this one personally why he did that. (in earlier times one could guess based on badge timing :wink: )

I do not see any problematic wording in your posts but as said flagging can be done by anybody who might feel different about it.
It is up to you to edit that post and it will reappear. No idea how the guy will handle that: it might re-flag it and it will be hidden for good or it might let it go.

TBH this is something I do not like with this forum SW. At least one should get notified who flagged own posts or this should be only done by forum admins / high-level members…
(reasoning for flagging to suppress spam is another topic)

3 Likes
#3

@peterleinchen thanks a lot for the response! I made a trivial edit to both comments (added a trailing dot) and they’re still “ignored content”. I have no idea what change is necessary and sufficient for the comments to leave the limbo, and it’s kinda beside the point anyway. The beef I’m having here is with the setup, the whole thing feels like Franz Kafka story. a single person is the accuser, the judge, and the executioner, and there’s no need for a “proof”. is there a mechanism where a third person can revive such killed comment? i guess it’s up to staff…

stackoverflow.com could serve as inspiration here: you need to choose one of a handful of predefined broad reasons when “shooting down” a question or answer, and you cannot take it down on your own, it’s “just” a vote. other people can dispute your decision, and other people still can “judge” all this.

BTW I’m not wild about making the flagger’s identity visible without other changes: it could enable retaliation. let’s say Alice and Bob both post good contributions, and Alice hates Bob for whatever reason. she goes around the site and flags his posts. if Bob knew it was her he might retaliate which would not improve the site… I mean, clearly Alice needs to be stopped in the first place and this forum software (AFAIK) does not give the community any visibility into her behavior…

#4

It might also just be someone misinterpreting the spam rules or an accident. It seems like I can’t unflag the post, so probably a moderator needs to look at it and decide to unflag it.

#5

I do not understand this! I (as a ‘normal’ member of this forum without special rights) cannot find any way to mark some or any post as spam! So the question remains: who did it?

As @peterleinchen wrote in post #2 (TBH…), automatic flagging is a big problem and I fully agree.

#6

Click on the three dots under a post and you will see a flag ;-). Click on the flag and you will get another menu.

#7

This looks to me like a message to the operators with 4 choosable reasons, so the operators can check the post. This should not automatically lead to automatic cancellation of the post! Discussion is needed before cancelling a post!

#8

Seems like a single flag isn’t enough to hide a post, unless the user has TL3, or is a known good flagger.

We sure aren’t a whole lot of TL3 around here if you don’t count staff.
(I even double-checked i hadn’t pocket-flagged those posts :slight_smile:)
Wonder if Roman was TL0 at the time, and if that then just takes even less…

1 Like
#9

Seems like it was just weekend and probably @vige was not around?
Roman’s posts are now unflagged and openly readable again. :slight_smile:

To me it seems posts will get hidden by just one flag coming from any member?

1 Like
#10

Not always, f.i. with a spammer there is no discussion needed.

#11

So true. :frowning:
But even for those the post should not get deleted/hidden by a single flag (iirc TJC needed 3 clicks).

#12

@s_mario regarding REAL spammers, I agree.

#13

They were automatically flagged by the system, with reason:

This new user tried to create multiple posts with links to the same domain. All posts from this user that include links should be reviewed.

8 Likes