Best Practices When Reporting

Hey Everyone,

It was brought to my attention that there was a bit of confusion over what was the best way to report posts/users, and when you should email us, and when you shouldn't etc.  So, here's a quick rundown... 

Example 1:

Post/Comment: "Shut up! You b***, you're a c***" /Comment: "You're an idiot."

Action: Use the in-app tool located at the bottom right corner of the post/comment to report it to the admin.

Example 2:

Post/Comment: *reference to something, or someone else, that's offensive but without context in the comment itself it's hard to tell. Perhaps it uses an obscure racial slur or a veiled insult that only people in a certain community know the context of or it's part of a really long passive-aggressive fight*

Action: Use the in-app tool to report - leave a note for the admin explaining what  the problem with the comment is, because you aren't sure that it's clear enough.

Example 3:

Post/Comment: "*completely innocuous*" BUT posted to EVERY GROUP and/or 10 times in one group

Action: Use the in-app tool to report - leave a note for the admin that says "they've posted this to every group/multiple times and/or spamming!" - this way, you don't necessarily have to report every single occurrence, but the admin still know what the problem is. 

Example 4:

Post/Comment: *definitely rule breaking* - why is it still up? It's been 4+ hours!! It's well into the work day! You've reported it ten times! 

Action: Email support@glowing.com or use the "report abusive content" feature in the Help and Support section - this will double check that we've seen it. Something might have gone wrong with our system (if you don't hear from us over email AND a really obvious rule-breaking post is up after more than 7 hours - it's safe to say that something in the system is broken, and we'll be back shortly to bring the ban-hammer down on anyone who needs it). Or, if you're concerned that it might be a case of us not understanding why the post is rule-breaking, you can explain your concerns there.

Caveat: Sometimes people report posts/comments for being stupid and/or bad advice and/or politely disagreeing. Unfortunately, being stupid isn't against the rules, nor is giving bad advice (unless that advice is dangerous), nor is not sharing the same opinion with you. If someone is stupid on the internet, please politely educate them if you have the energy to do so. OR, even better, answer the post yourself with good advice/opinions, and completely ignore the stupid comments or the opinions you disagree with. If someone is politely disagreeing with you, you are free to politely disagree with them as well. The keyword is "politely" as soon as someone ISN'T polite, that gets us back to Example 1.

Example 5:

No particular post or comment, but you have concerns about some ongoing problem in the Community. You aren't sure if the admin team know about it or not, or you're assuming we already know about it and are doing nothing. Or perhaps, you have suggestions for how we might improve the Community.

Action: Email! Maybe we don't know about it! Maybe it's important feedback that can lead to eventual improvements!

Reporting a User:

Because you can't leave notes on user reports (yet), the absolute best way to report a user has two steps:

1. Go to their Community Profile, select the three dots in the top right corner, and select "Report"

2. Email us, or use the "Report abusive content" feature in the Help and Support section, and tell us something like "I've reported user *username* because *reason*" 

OR

2. Report one of their comments using the in-app tool, and leave a note to the admin in the note feature there - something like "reporting user for *reason*" 

Please keep in mind that just because you report a user, doesn't mean they're suddenly going to be banned for life. Depending on why they're being reported, we may just send them a warning. Or, if you're reporting someone just because they politely disagree with you, we might do absolutely nothing at all and be mildly annoyed.

If you do email, it's always nice if you include screenshots. That helps us locate users/posts quicker to double-check things if we need to. 

General expected wait times:

In-app reporting tool: Last time we did averages, our average response time was 2-3 hours. Obviously, shorter wait-times happen during our work-day with longer wait-times overnight.

Email: Email usually takes 24 hours for a response, which is why people who email for the first time (or who haven't emailed in a long time and/or are emailing under a new email address) often get a response making sure they know about the in-app reporting tool.  A lot of new users don't know that you can report a post in the app, so we like to make sure that everyone is aware  - because the in-app tool is the fastest. As in the examples above, we don't need an email every time someone calls someone else a c*** or an idiot, but we DO want an email if you think a user is secretly three raccoons in a trench-coat and they're up to no good. Email responses don't tend to happen on the weekend, but we'll follow-up on all email reports on Monday or ASAP.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Please note that I will NOT be responding to any admin call-outs on this post, and most likely deleting them instead, because I don't have the time to engage with something like that. So, please ask clarification questions only - and I'll do my best to reply throughout the day.