Danbooru

"There are worse pictures than this on Danbooru, so this picture shouldn't be flagged!"

Posted under General

Would it be out of line for me to give a negative record to anyone I see using this argument in the comments of flagged pictures?

Because at this point, it's either that or get to work writing an RFC for face-punching-over-IP.

Updated by theadonicus

Probably. People who don't frequent the forums aren't aware of how sick we are of hearing that argument.

At this point I'm almost inclined to say that non-janitors shouldn't be able to see which posts are flagged. Most of the time it just sparks that same old complaints by people who probably don't even understand how the moderation system works.

In my view, yes, it would be out of line. We have a whole bunch of reasons why that excuse doesn't hold water, but the two biggest ones are "our standards of quality have changed over the years" and "the approval process is inherently subjective." Neither of these reasons are obvious users who are unaccustomed with exactly how Danbooru works, and it's just not fair to hold that fact against them by giving them a permanent punishment. Just warn them that it's a very taboo argument, and link them to the relevant wikis or forum topic.

In general, the idea of giving someone a neg for a single bad comment doesn't sit well with me. But of course, if they've been warned before, by all means fire away.

I'm with Dogenzaka, if it's like a one time thing then it shouldn't warrant a negative record. If it's repeated, and it has been stated somewhere along the line to the person why that argument doesn't work, then it should be fine to give them a negative record. More so because it would be clear then that they're just trying to cause a disturbance.

I'm pretty much with evazion here. I'm so tired of seeing people get berated because they flagged a post.

People seem to think that posts get flagged simply because someone didn't like it, and not because, you know, that person thought it could benefit from a second review.

So with that said, I'm almost inclined to agree with evazion's almost-inclination of restricting which users can view flagged posts' statuses.

Maybe this misunderstanding could be avoided if the box didn't read

This post was flagged for deletion. Reason: X. By: Y.

, but

This post was unapproved and is pending moderator approval. Reason: X. By: Y.

or something similar, which would make sense, since "flag for deletion" has been changed to "Unapprove".
Contributor+ posts which are flagged are actually not so different from normal status:pending posts. The red border is useful for all those who can flag/approve, but gives users a reason to click on that post and complain about [see thread title].

On that note, the popular flagging reason "needs review/second opinion" is pretty useless and redundant, but the more and better reasons I give for a post to be deleted/reviewed, the more people complain in the comments. Typically, it's "X is not so bad", "that's the artist's style" and "I've seen worse approved".

That mightn't be good enough to keep them visible but flagged posts are helpful to users willing to learn about "danbooru quality".
And more importantly they're necessary to any user with the ability to unapprove, for them to know beforehand how it should be used.

It's time to update the howto:comment (janitors are forbidden from editing this page too).

  • If you have question regarding flagged images, ask in forum #45532. Do not make comment such as "But there're worse pictures on Danbooru!" because those are not helpful comment and are annoying. Flagging is a moderation process which will be handled by janitors/moderators/admins to ensure only qualified images stay on this site. Read more in about:mod queue.

And I definitely support changing the line "This post was flagged for deletion" to "This post was re-sent to mod queue". More accurate, cause less defense.

Updated

glasnost said:
Would it be out of line for me to give a negative record to anyone I see using this argument in the comments of flagged pictures?

Because at this point, it's either that or get to work writing an RFC for face-punching-over-IP.

I understand the frustration. It has to do with feeling that you're getting the short end of the stick while others gets away scottfree or get shown favoritism. Its an understandable emotion. A negative record won't do. Just explain how the mod queue works in detail and then tell them to deal with it.

Action_Kamen said: Just explain how the mod queue works in detail and then tell them to deal with it.

You'd be surprised at how quickly doing that gets tiresome.

I used to do it, but gave up because explaining the exact same thing over and over again was insanity.

Speaking of images of dubious quality, the only way for a Member to bring them to the attention of the mod squad is to mention it in the forums, right?

Perhaps a thread could be started to discuss the images that are... let's say, less than stellar? Or was that proposed before and shot down?

The problem I have with giving out negative records is that it seems to punish those who simply stated a common, if unproductive, question that they don't know the answer for. I'm willing to let it go providing that the person does not repeat that argument again and again or act abrasive in expressing it.

There could be a copy+paste message that could be made and sent out and then, if it persists, add the negative record.

As for creating an appeal, there are two threads dealing with deletions: one to appeal and one to receive feedback on what was wrong. Both, together, will give all the answers a person needs.

One thing that can't be discounted is simply messaging a janitor and asking them what they think of it.

But flagged posts are fairly rare so my issue is that I've gone back 3-4 years in the archive to see something flagged, and I'm not sure on what the process is, I'm only afraid that an obscure image could be flagged and not be reviewed. Other than that, the process isn't that bad since if the picture is either approved previously or uploaded by a trusted user so it seems fairly rare for it to be flagged.

It is frustrating given the sometimes arbitrary nature of Danbooru's upload process but people either understand and deal with it, understand and decide not to deal with it by going elsewhere, its usually the people who don't understand it but are upset anyways that cause the problems since listening to reason isn't a priority.

Okay, the blinding rage has subsided and I wrote about:unapproved_posts. Please give it a look.

Arrei said:
Speaking of images of dubious quality, the only way for a Member to bring them to the attention of the mod squad is to mention it in the forums, right?

Perhaps a thread could be started to discuss the images that are... let's say, less than stellar? Or was that proposed before and shot down?

Hee hee, "mod squad".

But yes, I considered adding something to the penultimate paragraph along the lines of "If you believe that a specific post not appropriate for Danbooru has been overlooked by those with unapproval ability, make a post in forum #xxx", but my clusterfuck sense started going off and I decided against it. On the other hand, I've underestimated the civility of people on the Internet before, and such a thread might be a good thing, I dunno.

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