There is a function on Vizzed called "Report Abuse". This function shows up on every post made on the site to the top right of the post between "Post Rating" and "Link". You can see it on my post right now. It is in red.

This function (though not properly named) is to report any single post you think is breaking the rules. When you click on the "Report Abuse" link it send you to a PM screen that is sending to the local moderator group PM inbox. This allows the staff to be aware much more quickly about a problem on the site than trying to summon the moderators of the specific forum. You are also able to customize the message being sent to the moderators so we are quickly aware of what you are trying to bring to our attention.

This function is preferred to anyone posting in the thread itself for a couple reasons:
1. It is faster to get the attention of the staff.
2. You don't post in a bad thread or in response to a bad post asking for mods. This quite often results in the situation getting worse before it gets better.


Going forward I would prefer people use the report abuse function to report any spam, flaming, etc instead of confronting users directly in the threads. This goes for anyone who is Site Staff or lower in rank. It is the local mods and above whose job it is to deal with the forums and users actions in those forums.

Any questions please ask them here. I would rather clarify now than wait for people to mess up.

Here's a question.

Why do we need to make this post?

I'm not questioning you or the moderators. I'm questioning the community by and large.

It's literally right there in big red letters. If you are using Vizzed Classic, it's one of the few red things on screen. Even on the christmas theme, it kind of stands out.

Is it the word "report" people aren't getting? Or is it the word "abuse"?

It is true that the word "abuse" should probably be "post", but even so, there are many forms of "abuse". For all intents and purposes, spam is "abuse" of some kind. Flaming is "abuse". And anything against the rules is, again, generally abusive.

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Is there a way to make an announcement about this? Because I think this is more important for everyone to see than the hundreds of competition and streaming announcements I see what seems like every day.

Not trying to be a jerk about it. I'm just surprised we need this post to be made. Anyone who thinks this post is confrontational can make good use of that "report abuse" button.

legacyme3 : I think it needs to be made because of the word abuse in the function title. People seem to think that reporting people needs to be a very serious thing. Or people simply don't know about the function at all. Although the people who tend to do the most in thread modding are trusted members and site staff members who take it upon themselves to handle things that aren't their job so they should know better.

Also why are you surprised? You remember being a mod. People jumped in and tried to mod long rather than properly notifying a moderator.

[edit] I made the suggestion to David about changing the name. If/when the name change is done I will likely make an announcement regarding the function with the new name it has and summon to this post. I'll have to edit my first post and the thread title but that's all good.

geeogree :

It's been almost three years now since I last modded!

But that does ring a bell, people want all the recognition of doing the job in the hopes it will make them more appeasable to the mods when it comes time to hire new ones.

Little do they know, the people with the best chance of that are the ones who follow the rules and regulations of the forums. We like people who will toe the line, and meet us where we want to be met.

I do think the name needs to be changed if there is any confusion. In my opinion, it's very straight-forward, but maybe I'm just giving people too much credit.

legacyme3 : agreed. I've already talked to David about making the change to Report Post instead of Report Abuse. Abuse implies something more serious and I think it would be used more if it had the more appropriate name.

I think its a good idea to change it.
Report abuse does sound like it would be limited to something a lot more serious than spam or flaming/flame baiting.

The name has been successfully changed to Report Post. It was a needed change, for what people has already stated.

It really is a function that people needs to use more. For example, right now I'm the only active mod in General Chat, and I was away for the past few days, so it's always safer to let all the mod team know about a rule-breaking post, as most of the time it's only the local+ who are aware of which mods are active and which not.

I know I've modded through mobile while I was away, but the rest of the mods have a different way of modding, so this function is the only one that ensures we tackle any potentially bad post. It's use is highly encouraged.

I really like this change. It will make modding a bit easier than having to comb through every thread and post. Or receiving 600 summons by different members to the same thread.

I can't say very much outside what everyone else has said a few times now. We needed this change. Anyway I'm glad it's in effect. It would be nice if there weren't much need for the button. But when it does, I wonder if I'll be a first responder.

A user of this : that's the hope. It's not like people don't notice these things or summon moderators to the thread already so hopefully this thread (and the announcement) will help get people posting correctly instead.

EX Palen : yeah, David let me know and I updated the thread title.

And that is the main reason why I want it done through the report post function. People aren't always around but there is usually a global on the site every couple of hours that can also deal with those things in case the locals aren't around.

i was kinda confused on the report abuse myself the change is a great idea

I'm glad that clarification was made, but I don't think that changing the title of the link is going to change much in the way that people use it(or don't) but hopefully I'm wrong.

For whatever reason this community has always gone the route of self-policing. The motives behind such aren't always clear, but that's the way it's been for as long as I can remember.

Hopefully now after seeing this post, people can start to realize how we like to keep some of this stuff private, rather than calling out people in public for minor offenses. Makes things more intimidating to a new member that makes a mistake and breaks a rule to have everyone in the thread yelling at them for doing something wrong.

Jordanv78 : I have started to link people to this thread any time I see them self-policing threads rather than referring to mods.

I'm hoping to see the mods getting more and more work so that the need for more mods grows. If the mods aren't needed then I won't hire new ones but if the site is active and people are using this function as it was intended then I will hire more people.

geeogree : Sounds like a good plan. I'll refer to this thread too when we get summons for mods in thread.

I think people have just gotten used to summoning mods to the thread. Which is probably a little quicker for them and they get credit for a post.

I'm not really expecting so much of an uptick in mod activity with this though as we don't get many summons now to threads as it is. Maybe like a handful a week?

I do think that it will help the overal morale of the forums doing it like this, rather than the aforementioned battles within threads, especially concerning newbies.