IPS4 Want: Remove 'Report' Function from Admin Account

[Rheddy]

Let me first say that I think anybody on any message forum who has the balls big enough to report the admin, the owner of the site, is just asking for trouble. What I'm curious about is why IPS ever included this in the software. By default, there should be no 'Report' feature attached to the admin's account because they are the ones who promote users to staff positions, install and configure the forum software, and work on administrative level things in relation to the forum software.

Second, if it isn't possible to remove the 'report' feature from admin usergroups, howabout including an option to disable it? Sort of like how you can enable or disable the warning strike system or enable and disable flood control. It would make sense to include this particular feature.

How about it? Is it time for "Occupy IPS"?

:tongue:

[Mysterioux]

Other boards have several admins. And if several members report an admin, i think he/she should be removed as staff. I don't think this was ever meant for the head admin or the owner of the site to be reported by thier own members but for members to be able to report staff and admins to the head admin aswell.

[Rheddy]

Other boards? You mean those board who are not just in the minority but who promote admins to the spot without the ability to access the ACP. There are a lot of sites who only have one or two administrators. The 'report' feature should be an option that should be disabled should the site admin warrant it.

[Soniceffect]

Let me first say that I think anybody on any message forum who has the balls big enough to report the admin, the owner of the site, is just asking for trouble. What I'm curious about is why IPS ever included this in the software. By default, there should be no 'Report' feature attached to the admin's account because they are the ones who promote users to staff positions, install and configure the forum software, and work on administrative level things in relation to the forum software.

Second, if it isn't possible to remove the 'report' feature from admin usergroups, howabout including an option to disable it? Sort of like how you can enable or disable the warning strike system or enable and disable flood control. It would make sense to include this particular feature.

How about it? Is it time for "Occupy IPS"?

:tongue:

I love it... Its happened to me a few times on my own forum and everytime I find it hilarious. I would love it to stay LOL

[Jυra]

I sometimes make stickies with guides that might have images that break, URLs that may not work, or advice that is out of date. Sometimes I might make a spelling or grammar mistake. I would hope and expect any user to report my content if it is against the forum rules, harmful, or unfair.

[GreenLinks]

On any board that is not owned as a hobbyist will continue to need this feature as all human's can make mistake and even administrators can post messages they can regret later on. Yes maybe you'll not ban an administrator but if a member reminds you your mistake , you shall be happy

Thats why reporting admin's messages is a feature that must stay on IPB.

[TSP]

It makes perfect sense to be able to report administrators. I agree with GreenLinks.

Also consistency.

[-FP]

It depends on how you manage your forum and the size of it.

To me and in reference to my current board, an administrator is someone who can access the ACP and configure the core features of the board, so I wouldn't have as an administrator someone that I don't trust, I have people I trust (currently real life friends) and thus I don't need them to be reported, and if they do get reported, I won't probably care because the report would probably be pointless.

Why would I set someone who can't access the core of the ACP as an administrator? I set people promoted from regular members to moderators or super-moderators, and these ones you can report. But an actual administrator? Hell no, only people I would lose a hand for. Yes we can use "administrators" for sections of the ACP, but some like the owners makes no sense to report, maybe the report is legit, but who would care or do something about it?

So yes, I agree with the OP, make it an option in each user group or at least per member basis... "Can be reported".

[TSP]

So you mean lots of other boards have admins they can't trust?

If I want to bring a specific item to attention to the forum staff as a whole, I report it. Simple as that. And they can do with that report as they'd like.

That members are able to report admins is not something they will see as "Wow, this forum really doesn't trust it's own staff since they let me report admins. Man, I should totally stay away from here!". I think they see it more like a button you can click when you wish to bring a post / comment / blog post etc. to the attention of the staff, it could be for any reason.

It could be because they think "Hey, this link is broken!" or "Hey, I don't think this is a good way to respond to a new user! I mean, you make me follow all these rules, and I don't think you would want to see those kinds of replies from me?" or "Well, someone has clearly taken over this admin account and is doing all kinds of crazy shenanigans!" (you could argue in the last case that the report could just quickly be deleted by the shenanigans admin, but atleast other staff could've been notified). I really can't remember when someone reported an administrator the last time, so my list of examples is running dry, but you get my point.

But if you remove it... You create all sorts of problems and questions for the user. They read the admin post and they go "Hey, I see something in this post from an admin and I want to bring it to attention of the staff. I always like to use the report function for this kind of stuff on other boards, let's do it. Oh wait... Uhmm. I can't report this guy, is there something wrong with my account?"

Then they might figure it out and they go "Well, I can't report this item because some admin is the author? Well, that's lame. How can I contact the staff about this issue with the post then? I need to find the contact information and then copy and paste the url to this thing and then.. ". And they then might give up, at least what you've done is to create extra hurdles for the user to solve, and that isn't really user friendly.

And in my mind I would probably think something along the lines of: "Well... I'm not able to report administrators? Do they not trust me? Do they not trust my judgement on when to use the report function? Do they not trust that I and other members will not abuse it? Did they turn it off because they are so often reported? Why are they so often reported then? Do they not behave nicely themselves?".

You could argue that you have other open contact methods they could use, but again; You have just created extra hurdles for the user.

And if you really want to take that decision to "block" the report function for certain staff, then make a hook request. I see absolutely no need to implement something like a setting for this into the core product.

[Dmacleo]

some want to be able to report admins, some don't want people to be able to.

so why would having the option to set it how you want bother anyone?

[TSP]

some want to be able to report admins, some don't want people to be able to.

so why would having the option to set it how you want bother anyone?

1. Because it's one more setting that most forums would not need.

2. Because it's one more setting that it really wouldn't be wise to change for most people that change it.

You also have to consider other things. How about secondary groups? This account is admin in a secondary group that I've chosen should not be reported. Should the member then be able to report them? You would probably need another setting for "Check secondary groups?" aswell.

It creates new work (implementing, testing, thinking about how it should work, does it affect other things, future bug reports etc.) for IPS that they have to do in order to officially support a useless function (Yes, I understand that is my personal opinion) that will not do any good for users nor admins, in my opinion.

[-FP]

So you mean lots of other boards have admins they can't trust?

Nope, I said I have admins I can trust, I don't know about other boards but anything can happen.

[Ryan H.]

You should not think yourself infallible.

[TSP]

@-FP: Fine, my first line was a bit too much of an exaggeration.

It seems like you think about the report feature as something you use only to bring attention to the "scary" or "morally wrong" stuff. Like personal attacks, flaming etc.

This is the first definition of the word "report" on Google: "give a spoken or written account of something that one has observed, heard, done, or investigated."

It doesn't have to be something like "This guy called this person dumb!" or "Lots of nasty words here used in this post, they are not permitted in your rules!". It could be lots of other things. In my opinion it can be used for any reason when you wish to get the attention of the staff to the item you report. It doesn't have to be a "bad guy"-report.

And okay, it's not unreasonable of you to think about it that way, since IPS have made this little text snippet into the default language below the report form: "This form is to be used ONLY for reporting objectionable content and is not to be used as a method of communicating with moderators for other reasons."

A line of text I would liked to see removed in the default language. On these forums for instance I've often reported my own or other topics when I feel like they are posted in the wrong place. And that isn't because I think that the topic being in the wrong place is something that is unpleasant or offensive for me, I don't think other people do either. Still, I haven't received any complaints from IPS staff about my reports and they are dealt with.

Really I would rather worry more about whether I trust my users and the other way around, than whether I trust my other admins.

I don't really see what sort of benefits it would bring to not be able to report admins. And I think the benefits would easily be outweighed by the downsides.

And besides, what does it matter if you get a report about an admin being a bad guy? The user think the admin is a bad guy, so why shouldn't the user then be permitted to state their opinion? There is so few reports on any user (in my experience), and I don't see why you would want to care about yourself or other admins being reported.

[Rheddy]

1. Because it's one more setting that most forums would not need.

2. Because it's one more setting that it really wouldn't be wise to change for most people that change it.

I can't believe that you just said that. Every major upgrade to the forum software, IPS adds new settings to the forum software. I simply can't believe that you just said that. LOLS I'm not proposing that it should be eliminated, but adding an option to enable/disable the 'report' button for specific usergroups is a good idea. Like some of us have said in here, we should have the ability to disable that for forum staff. I've never had an instance where my admin account has ever been reported nor has a moderator ever been reported. When a member of my community has had a problem with either myself or with one of my moderators, they have always brought the matter to me via a personal message, which made me realize that the 'report bgutton' for forum staff is kind of redundant.

While it works great for reporting regular members who post inappropriate content, it's ineffective against forum staff because of the fear of retaliation that forum staff could temporarily restrict their posting privileges. Fact is, many of us would appreciate this feature where we could disable it for certain usergroups.

[TSP]

Let's add settings for the multiquote and quote-buttons aswell, while we're at it. Let us also make some settings on which user groups can do bold text and use comic sans as a font on their content.

It might seem redundant, but one day you get that one report, which you might have not gotten otherwise. I will rather have consistency and one or two admin reports a year, than potentially confused members and not getting those reports at all.

I'm not really fighting the idea about more control on what to show to which groups and so on and on. I'm fighting the idea about IPS spending their time on this particular thing. And I'm fighting the idea about being a "victim" of this limitation myself — When I visit another forum where I'm not an admin and I come across a situation where I feel the report function would be the appropiate tool to use.

[Rheddy]

Don't start acting stupid. Just because you don't want the feature doesn't mean that you're in the majority. You're whole purpose to replying in this topic is to be overly negative? Please find another topic and stop raining on everyone in the process. You don't like the feature, okay, move on and find a new topic. We're talking here about adding a feature that a lot of us are asking for. Somoene must have spiked your latte this morning. Sheesh.

[AndyF]

Post tidy. :) Lets keep it all nice and civil.

[Rheddy]

Thanks, Andy. :thumbsup: We're being civil, some are just being negative when we're just discussing a feature that a lot of us want to see added to the forum software.

[Sinistra Sensei]

So are you wanting this feature to be for just the root admin group? I could see the report function for any sub admin groups you have.

[Rheddy]

I'm looking at requesting this for forum staff groups, whether it's the admin usergroups or the moderator usergroups. Maybe even have IPS set the feature up where yoou can either enable or disable the function and then select which usergroups to disable the feature for.

[Jυra]

I don't want to sound or be mean, but I do not want IPS adding features based on personal problems and hang-ups of forum admistrators. Sorry if that sounds offensive.

[GreenLinks]

I don't want to sound or be mean, but I do not want IPS adding features based on personal problems and hang-ups of forum admistrators. Sorry if that sounds offensive.

Exactly same mentality have.

IPB offer Administrator permissions which allow you to create unlimited number of administrators that can be assigned different positions. Adding an option like the requested will limit this option greatly.

Also most importantly , everyone should refrain making comments like : Many of us needs this.

IPS should only add things that add value to the product , they are not here to please anyone and no user on IPB is chosen to be the representatives of IPB license owners.

And one final question : Do you prefer to live in a country where you can go and freely complain about a government member or would you like to live in a country where you have no right to complain .

[TSP]

Thanks, Andy. :thumbsup: We're being civil, some are just being negative when we're just discussing a feature that a lot of us want to see added to the forum software.

Are we not allowed to be negative to an idea — and express it?

I state my opinion because I feel it's good to have different points of view come across when discussing potentially new features. There can be benefits to come from people disagreeing with each other — and telling each other why they disagree. Even when they do not end up agreeing with each other.

• They might get a better understanding of their own idea. They can learn more about potential benefits and downsides
• People might then be able to revise and improve upon the idea.
• IPS can benefit from the discussion, because they learn more about their clients and how they might improve upon certain areas (Not necessarily by implementing the idea)
• People might gain better insight into how they should run a community and the issues they really should worry about. Is this idea something I really should focus on? Will it really benefit the members of my community?
• Maybe they or someone else realize that what they really need is not what they wanted in the first place and then they come up with an better idea

A friend of mine have this quote on his profile: "Don’t give the client what he wants. Give him what he needs. Unless he’s paying you enough to retire." (I think this is the original source)

I have made wrong decisions, I disagree with things I have stated in the past and I ask "stupid" questions all the time. But it's only by discussion and experience I'm able to learn that. In the future I will continue to make wrong decisions and state opinions that I will not agree with for the rest of my life. So I'm not saying that my negative opinions about this idea is what everyone should believe in, but at least I hope you can respect my right to have and express my opinion.

[BostonBob]

I can see why you would want to disable it for certain people!  On my forums, I have a person that just REPORTS on the other person -- where there's nothing to report.  I've considered the possibility of just removing his ability to report a post since it's wasting my time.  When you have a person who cries wolf so much -- at a certain point you may want to turn off his ability to cry wolf!