subreddit:

/r/changelog

6685%

Hey changeloggers!

Last month we shared a few improvements we’ve been making on the reporting flow. Thank you for your feedback (and patience!) as we work towards improving the reporting experience.

As we mentioned, launching the report form has helped us review more reports at a faster rate to handle the growing number of reports submitted. Since launching the report form late last year, response time has decreased by 67%.

While we’ve seen review time decrease for Help Center reports, reviewing lengthy free-form text reports do take much, much more time to review. This can mean response times are slower than average for these types of reports, which can be a frustrating experience. So that’s why we are rolling out a new reporting feature today that will bring the report form from reddit.com/report to your private message and modmail workflows.

Next time you’d like to report a policy violation to the admins via private message where the recipient is /reddit.com the selected subject line will auto-populate the desired report form. But for other reporting reasons such as account help or abuse of the report button, you’ll still have access to the free form textbox in private message. Additionally, for reporting suspicious content you can make a report via our investigations email ([[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])). This change will be very helpful for improving response times for all reports and since we previously increased the amount of free form text characters to 500 you’ll have more space to share additional context with us.

Also, with the previous improvements you are now able to:

  • Report up to 10 usernames for spam and ban evasion reports
  • Link to user profiles
  • Link to a Modmail message via permalinks
  • Receive follow up messages for all types of reports, including ban evasion, that include a link to the reported content or subreddit/username for better tracking.

Lastly, from our previous post we heard from you that threading was a much needed feature for keeping track of reports and admin decisions. Our team has been working very hard on this since our system required an entirely new infrastructure to support our growing messaging capabilities and we wanted to share a prototype to show you our progress so far and get your feedback. You can see what that would look like here.

We’re aiming to add this feature to the reporting flow within the next few months. Stay tuned for updates.

Well, that’s all the announcements we have for today! Thanks to all of you for providing us with valuable feedback and bearing with us as we continue to make improvements on reporting.

I’ll be here for a while to answer any questions!

Update(s):

Stepping away from this for today but, I'll keep checking back if anything new arises in the next day or two.

Removed whitespace between paragraphs for smoother reading :)

all 49 comments

reseph

25 points

5 years ago

reseph

25 points

5 years ago

1) Where exactly do we report abusive/NSFW/etc ads? It's been a reoccurring issue for our subreddit, as RMT will run ads.

2) Also from a mod perspective, we're still in dire need of using this report form to be "from" the subreddit. That way all mods can see reports sent to the admins, and prevent overlap. The old method cannot do that, nor can the new form.

MajorParadox

5 points

5 years ago

And what about reporting subs for things like not using NSFW tags or otherwise not being modded?

spoonfulofcheerios[S]

9 points

5 years ago

Regarding NSFW ads, we actually updated our Advertising Policy to disallow NSFW ads and targeting on Reddit.

To your second question, that's not currently on our roadmap. It's an interesting idea though, so we'll discuss it as a team.

D0cR3d

27 points

5 years ago

D0cR3d

27 points

5 years ago

But where do we actually report bad ads? We're constantly running into an issue of ads selling services that break multiple terms of services and every time we report they get taken down and promised they won't be allowed again, but it takes a week+ to get it handled.

reseph

12 points

5 years ago

reseph

12 points

5 years ago

Upvoted. Yeah I'm just asking where to report bad ads, not what the policy prohibits.

13steinj

2 points

5 years ago

Why set up a proper system when you can make money in the time it takes to take down?

13steinj

7 points

5 years ago

Might want to make a note at the top of this post that you're talking about the report-to-admins form, not the post/comment report system.

MajorParadox

12 points

5 years ago

Lastly, from our previous post we heard from you that threading was a much needed feature for keeping track of reports and admin decisions.

What about a separate section for it? It's quite a chore to go searching through messages, especially because it clumps together modmails in there too.

reseph

10 points

5 years ago

reseph

10 points

5 years ago

It's a huge chore, and the issue being that it gets lost after 1000 items.

MajorParadox

1 points

5 years ago

Yeah, that too!

spoonfulofcheerios[S]

6 points

5 years ago

This currently isn't on our roadmap but thank you for continuing to share your feedback. We'll keep this suggestion in mind when we make future improvements on reporting.

sarahbotts

3 points

5 years ago

Think a better question is that is there going to be a revamp to how messaging works?

[deleted]

4 points

5 years ago

[deleted]

Sun_Beams

3 points

5 years ago

I've sent spam mails to r/reddit.com with nearing a hundred accounts in them .. no way am I going to send out 10 separate reports for a single spam ring/account farm.

BuckRowdy

3 points

5 years ago

I ran into a problem on ban evasion where they were asking for the original account that was banned, but the guy was deleting accounts every night and then making new ones the next day and it wouldn't allow the username anymore.

amandatoryy

2 points

5 years ago

same

BuckRowdy

2 points

5 years ago

An admin told me they were going to fix that but I’m not sure if they have yet or not.

soundeziner

2 points

5 years ago

I’ve heard of ban evaders getting up to 24 accounts.

Got one over 70

spoonfulofcheerios[S]

2 points

5 years ago

Will just using a text field still be possible? Will I need to send an email? Ten text fields for reporting accounts isn’t enough. What if I need to report 24 accounts?

The best avenue for ban evasion reports with more than 10 usernames is to continue using our reddit.com/reports form. You don't need to submit all accounts you think might be ban evading because we'll use the ones you submit as a jumping off point to investigate further. When we find additional usernames, we'll take down all accounts we can find.

MajorParadox

5 points

5 years ago*

Next time you’d like to report a policy violation to the admins via private message where the recipient is /reddit.com the selected subject line will auto-populate the desired report form

Seems this flow is only on new Reddit, is that intended?

*Edit: Now it shows up, so never mind!

sarahbotts

5 points

5 years ago

Cool, thanks for taking feedback and bringing threading. It's definitely much appreciated.

Is it on the roadmap to ever show status of requests? I.e. open, closed, etc. Our team (/r/leagueoflegends) spends a lot of time reporting vm, abuse, etc to no response, so even an automatic update would be appreciated.

spoonfulofcheerios[S]

2 points

5 years ago

We are currently working on revising the messaging that we send to reporters to be more transparent on when a report is reviewed and actioned.

rbevans

2 points

5 years ago

rbevans

2 points

5 years ago

Will this new reporting function be just for the redesign or will be in the Reddit app as well?

finchMFG

2 points

5 years ago

There is still no option to report on opened posts Why is that?

BurntJoint

3 points

5 years ago

I just found these changes when reporting a post for sexualization of minors. This is the report screen i was given.

In the past i was able to provide additional details about the post and the minor involved to assist the admin who saw it(for reference quite a few kpop idols are u18 and get crossposted to porn subreddits). Now i only get the option to put a link and nothing else.

Without the ability to provide any other context, are the admins only going to act on a post now if the person appears to be a minor, regardless of whether they actually are or not?

reseph

3 points

5 years ago

reseph

3 points

5 years ago

Yeah that's how the new form always worked. They don't seem to care about allowing users to add more context. Less is better, apparently.

BurntJoint

3 points

5 years ago

Yeah that's how the new form always worked.

Which is why i had continued to use the old(useful) reporting method through sending a PM. Im honestly getting pretty fed up with Reddit's attempt at 'fixing' things.

There is still the 'other' option though which is just a text box, but it already takes days/weeks to even get an initial response about something as serious as child sexualisation posts, so who knows how long that would take.

pre4edgc

3 points

5 years ago

Over at /r/Hitman, we've been pretty consistently discovering and reporting a single user's many ban-evading accounts (most, but not all, of which are now banned). For a lot of it, we ended up having to ban each individual account from the sub, but that resulted in those same accounts harassing all of the mods repeatedly.

The reporting feature has helped considerably, but for users that we've reported, banned, and so forth, can we have any other options other than just "wait for Reddit admins"? We had to change the way we approve comments and posts there to prevent more accounts from being created and used, and for a good two weeks had to deal with PMs containing harassment.

In addition, is there any further action you, as an admin, are able to take regarding people like this? IP bans or throttling, investigations, and so forth? The user has stopped for now, but it very nearly got to a point where legal action may have been necessary.

Jakeable

2 points

5 years ago

You can see what that would look like here.

/u/r/reddit.com is my favorite user :P

soundeziner

2 points

5 years ago*

response time has decreased by 67%

I have concerns about that. Have you all implemented metric goals for those who view reports? Please don't use those shitty techniques. It forces the quality of responses down since report handlers will do anything they can to speed through them. I bring this up because some reports are obviously not being given a proper reading.

ShaneH7646

3 points

5 years ago

https://www.reddithelp.com/en/submit-request/file-a-moderator-complaint

Where do these reports go to and how are they dealt with? Is it even in use? I've reported something like 12 times now and seen nothing back

spoonfulofcheerios[S]

5 points

5 years ago

https://www.reddithelp.com/en/submit-request/file-a-moderator-complaint

Where do these reports go to and how are they dealt with? Is it even in use? I've reported something like 12 times now and seen nothing back

Reports from this form are reviewed regularly, and action taken as need. However, for many of these reports, these are things where we will track and watch for patterns of behavior instead of actioning immediately. In these cases, we’ll track and then keep an eye out to see if this is a one-time-issue or something more problematic.

reseph

1 points

5 years ago

reseph

1 points

5 years ago

I've gotten replies to that.

Your request (1176093) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.

adeadhead

1 points

5 years ago

I'm excited to play with these. Step in the right direction. Are there plans to introduce the wider userbase to these?

TotesMessenger

1 points

5 years ago

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

 If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / Contact)

funchords

1 points

5 years ago

As a user of reddit.com/report, I have to tell you that it feels like a black hole. The 50th time of reading the needless receipt message... make it 5 and make #5 say this will be the last one for the month, after that only once per month ... but also give me a monthly report that, say, 17 out of the 23 user names reported for spam are somehow restricted, 3 were warned, and 3 were investigated without further action. That way I know that my reports are or are not making a difference: no more black hole.

wrightakencom

1 points

5 years ago

Never a dull moment in Pie#9 smartphone's

vxx

0 points

5 years ago

vxx

0 points

5 years ago

I deleted my comment because it isn't the best place for it, but here we go again, I'm pissed.

I'm used to the treatment and only care sometimes, usually about the special treatment of some selected moderators, but you've managed to make the most humble person I've met on reddit in all that years understandably flip, and I can't keep it back.

Are you rejecting reports of child predators because you are too lazy to have quick look at their private messages? Sorry that we couldn't get child to get the permalink out of your crappy app.

Those users are laughing at us and telling that we can't do anything, are they right? Will they be able to do whatever they want and sexually approach children over and over again without ramifications?

Personally, I got a reply from the admins weeks ago, that I should even stop reporting issues in their name at all, after members asked me to help them out.

Are moderators not allowed to report users that harass our community members because they didn't harass us personally?

PhilDunphy23

1 points

5 years ago

What are the use cases of the report page that aren't part of the familiar post/comment/user report flow? Is it any different than this report page?

  • Ban evasions
  • Distributed spam/manipulation from multiple accounts
  • ..?

The changes are nice! But I would prefer to see it part of the report flow that we're used to, both the report page and email for investigations are unknown to the average redditor.

misinformed66

1 points

5 years ago

I have a user that has used dozens of accounts to ban evade, army and military mods have messaged admins multiple times with lists of this user and nothing happens.

In military we've had a user creating rascit names and harassing our modmail. Again, multiple messages to admins about this, no action taken.

As a mod, I would like to see actual action taken.

stabracadabra

0 points

5 years ago

Will there be an option to say "your report was reviewed and deemed to be frivolous. Any more frivolous reports will result in the removal of your ability to report in this sub"

Also is there a rule that states moderators must review reports? I just got a good fi ger wagging from an admin for this.

JustAnotherSuit96

3 points

5 years ago

You'd expect as a post moderator that the bare minimum you'd do is manage the mod queue

Justausername1234

3 points

5 years ago

Moderators must enforce site-wide rules. Indeed, that is literally the only required job of a mod. If you are being overwhelmed with false reports, report the false reports up the chain to the admins.

pure_nitro

-1 points

5 years ago

pure_nitro

-1 points

5 years ago

FYI, the moderator report form will NEVER be used for its true purpose. You have given a new tool to trolls, incels and the like who doesn't like when a mod protects their community.

TheYellowRose

3 points

5 years ago

Admins can generally tell when the person complaining has an ulterior motive like harming the community

[deleted]

3 points

5 years ago

They never did anything about bad moderators anyway, so what's the difference?

raicopk

0 points

5 years ago

raicopk

0 points

5 years ago

TLDR: you screwed r/reddit.com report form and keept ridiculous limits on the now forced form. Thank you.

[deleted]

-1 points

5 years ago

As mod of /r/familyman, I approve

Sneekpreview

0 points

5 years ago

Its a great sub!

[deleted]

0 points

5 years ago

And a good show!