7 ms·

HN: New flag feature

64 points by naish 18y ago

Posts now appear with a flag link. Anyone care to explain its proper use?

run4yourlives 18y ago
I'm sure he's writing it up as we type...but I would assume this is a "downvote" compromise.
- pg 18y ago
  Actually it's not related to the downvoting problem. I added it because spam submissions have been increasing.
mechanical_fish 18y ago
I am so tempted to just press it and see what happens. But I fear that I will end up banishing you to the netherworld.
- hugh 18y ago
  I'm hoping somebody will start submitting some rubbish stories so I can try flagging them.
  - kirubakaran 18y ago
    I flagged this post :-) (the post, not your comment) edit1: I did this before pg explained what 'flag' is for. Now I feel bad. edit2: oops... I am used to clicking on the last link 'parent'. Did it once by mistake on a comment.
    - ajbatac 18y ago
      i wish we could un-flag. some will be curious to what will happen if you click on it.
      - pg 18y ago
        ok; here's the source, btw: (def flaglink (i user whence) (when (and user (> (karma user) flag-threshold*)) (pr bar*) (w/rlink (do (if (mem user i!flags) (pull user i!flags) (push user i!flags)) (save-item i) whence) (pr (if (mem user i!flags) "unflag" "flag")))))
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
  - pmjordan 18y ago
    Flag! You're it. Now I probably get banned for misusing it. ;)
  - hugh 18y ago
    Well that was boring. The "flag" link changed to "flagged". No big explanatory screen like craigslist.
  - mechanical_fish 18y ago
    Hm, all I see is a toggle: my post now says "flagged". I presume this means that Anubis is weighing my heart and deciding whether I'm bound for the netherworld.
    - mechanical_fish 18y ago
      Okay, upon further warning from PG, I deleted my flagged post to save myself from the netherworld. This uncovered a bug: a deleted + flagged post produces a strange looking thing in Safari: the words "deleted" and "flagged" superimposed on each other.
      - pmjordan 18y ago
        Same for opera.
        tjr 18y ago
        Same for (corporate-provided) IE 6.
      - run4yourlives 18y ago
        same for FF3/WIN
      - wensing 18y ago
        Same for 10.4 / FF2.
- bayareaguy 18y ago
  There are some things man was not meant to know.
pmjordan 18y ago
I suspect it's a "report this post to the moderators" feature, although so far I've not really seen the need for it, so who knows. EDIT: Ugh, it's already annoying me on the new/front pages, as the "<n> comments"/"discuss" links are harder to see and click now. pg, would you mind swapping the "flag" and "discuss" links on story listing pages? Thanks! EDIT2: same for the "parent" link on thread pages, I've had a couple near misses in the last 2 minutes.
- hugh 18y ago
  Yes, but what is considered kosher to report? 1. Blatant machine-generated spam? 2. Really nasty stuff? (child porn, incitement to violence) 3. Slightly nasty stuff? (ordinary porn, Rick Astley) 4. Slightly spammy stuff? (unjustifiable advertising-like links?) 5. Comments which are insulting or nasty? 6. Comments which are just plain stupid? 7. Comments which only slightly stupid? 8. Things which you think are "not appropriate for HN"? 9. Other categories of stuff you don't want to see? update: Never mind, answered by pg elsewhere.
- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  It's funny... I hadn't realized the extent to which my subconscious was trained to scan down the right-hand side of the links, evaluating the "X comments" display and using it as a guide for what to click on. When I hit the homepage I got this sudden feeling of wrongness in my stomach, like vertigo. Only then did I consciously see the new "flag" links. So, yeah, I also vote to move the flag links to the left. (This reminds me of Teresa Nielsen Hayden's stories about the superhumanly-talented copy editors who perceive typos as literally jumping out of the page, or blinking, or who feel physical pain at the sight of misspelled words.)
  - hugh 18y ago
    I agree with this. At the moment the "flag" link, which you want to use very rarely, is more prominent than the "comments" link, which you want to use often. Maybe changing the colours to make "comments" dark and "flag" light might work as well.
- gojomo 18y ago
pg 18y ago
You guys are so fast I didn't have time to write anything about it. The purpose is to let users over a certain karma threshold flag spam and troll submissions. It should only be used for spams and really egregious trolling, not for stuff that's merely vapid or mistaken or off-topic. Please don't click on it just to try it out. Flags are really being recorded, so flagging something randomly could damage the reputation of the flagger and/or the submitter of the thing that got flagged.
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  whoops... excuse my first few flags then... I gave them to some that were merely off topic.
- icey 18y ago
  Is there some sort of cost associated with flagging? I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "could damage the reputation of the flagger".
  - pmjordan 18y ago
    Presumably, you're wasting moderator time, for which you will burn in hell eternally! By which I mean, you might lose navbar colour and flagging privileges.
    - wensing 18y ago
      Navbar colour? I have 143 karma but I don't see that yet (although I do see 'flag'). Hmm.
      - pmjordan 18y ago
        Er, I didn't say nothing about the navbar secret. >_> Seriously, you get to change the colour of the orange bar at the top when you're at or above 250 karma. Either then or if you can be bothered to set up some user CSS or javascript. :) No idea if there are further perks beyond that.
aggieben 18y ago
heh...could we have a list of flagged posts, in the lists page?
- eru 18y ago
  You want to see all your spam trophies?
  - aggieben 18y ago
    something like that..., but I was really thinking of something resembling the "Best of the Worst" of the last-man-standing reality genre (American Idol, Last Comic Standing, etc). It would be good fun to occasionally look at the list of flagged posts just like it's fun to occasionally poke fun at William Heng.
- jrockway 18y ago
  That would be neat. Then we could use "flag" to mean "really good" and restrict upvoting to those-in-the-know and those-with-lots-of-karma. The main page would then be just a front for the underground hackernews community :) Wow, actually I like this idea.
icey 18y ago
The flag link still shows for deleted comments
ojbyrne 18y ago
Having both a downvote and "flag" on comments seems a bit too much. Nobody seems to spam the comments, and trolls get downvoted.
vlad 18y ago
There should be a popup confirmation and the action should bring you back to where you were last, instead of the top of the page. Ideally, the row where the username where you clicked flag (starting from the point total and ending with the flag link) would turn yellow, and also keep you on that same page, like the voting buttons (which use ajax).

64 points by naish 18y ago

Posts now appear with a flag link. Anyone care to explain its proper use?

run4yourlives 18y ago

I'm sure he's writing it up as we type...but I would assume this is a "downvote" compromise.

pg 18y ago
Actually it's not related to the downvoting problem. I added it because spam submissions have been increasing.

mechanical_fish 18y ago

I am so tempted to just press it and see what happens. But I fear that I will end up banishing you to the netherworld.

hugh 18y ago
I'm hoping somebody will start submitting some rubbish stories so I can try flagging them.
- kirubakaran 18y ago
  I flagged this post :-) (the post, not your comment) edit1: I did this before pg explained what 'flag' is for. Now I feel bad. edit2: oops... I am used to clicking on the last link 'parent'. Did it once by mistake on a comment.
  - ajbatac 18y ago
    i wish we could un-flag. some will be curious to what will happen if you click on it.
    - pg 18y ago
      ok; here's the source, btw: (def flaglink (i user whence) (when (and user (> (karma user) flag-threshold*)) (pr bar*) (w/rlink (do (if (mem user i!flags) (pull user i!flags) (push user i!flags)) (save-item i) whence) (pr (if (mem user i!flags) "unflag" "flag")))))
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
- pmjordan 18y ago
  Flag! You're it. Now I probably get banned for misusing it. ;)
- hugh 18y ago
  Well that was boring. The "flag" link changed to "flagged". No big explanatory screen like craigslist.
- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  Hm, all I see is a toggle: my post now says "flagged". I presume this means that Anubis is weighing my heart and deciding whether I'm bound for the netherworld.
  - mechanical_fish 18y ago
    Okay, upon further warning from PG, I deleted my flagged post to save myself from the netherworld. This uncovered a bug: a deleted + flagged post produces a strange looking thing in Safari: the words "deleted" and "flagged" superimposed on each other.
    - pmjordan 18y ago
      Same for opera.
      - tjr 18y ago
        Same for (corporate-provided) IE 6.
    - run4yourlives 18y ago
      same for FF3/WIN
    - wensing 18y ago
      Same for 10.4 / FF2.
bayareaguy 18y ago
There are some things man was not meant to know.

pmjordan 18y ago

I suspect it's a "report this post to the moderators" feature, although so far I've not really seen the need for it, so who knows. EDIT: Ugh, it's already annoying me on the new/front pages, as the "<n> comments"/"discuss" links are harder to see and click now. pg, would you mind swapping the "flag" and "discuss" links on story listing pages? Thanks! EDIT2: same for the "parent" link on thread pages, I've had a couple near misses in the last 2 minutes.

hugh 18y ago
Yes, but what is considered kosher to report? 1. Blatant machine-generated spam? 2. Really nasty stuff? (child porn, incitement to violence) 3. Slightly nasty stuff? (ordinary porn, Rick Astley) 4. Slightly spammy stuff? (unjustifiable advertising-like links?) 5. Comments which are insulting or nasty? 6. Comments which are just plain stupid? 7. Comments which only slightly stupid? 8. Things which you think are "not appropriate for HN"? 9. Other categories of stuff you don't want to see? update: Never mind, answered by pg elsewhere.
mechanical_fish 18y ago
It's funny... I hadn't realized the extent to which my subconscious was trained to scan down the right-hand side of the links, evaluating the "X comments" display and using it as a guide for what to click on. When I hit the homepage I got this sudden feeling of wrongness in my stomach, like vertigo. Only then did I consciously see the new "flag" links. So, yeah, I also vote to move the flag links to the left. (This reminds me of Teresa Nielsen Hayden's stories about the superhumanly-talented copy editors who perceive typos as literally jumping out of the page, or blinking, or who feel physical pain at the sight of misspelled words.)
- hugh 18y ago
  I agree with this. At the moment the "flag" link, which you want to use very rarely, is more prominent than the "comments" link, which you want to use often. Maybe changing the colours to make "comments" dark and "flag" light might work as well.
gojomo 18y ago

pg 18y ago

You guys are so fast I didn't have time to write anything about it. The purpose is to let users over a certain karma threshold flag spam and troll submissions. It should only be used for spams and really egregious trolling, not for stuff that's merely vapid or mistaken or off-topic. Please don't click on it just to try it out. Flags are really being recorded, so flagging something randomly could damage the reputation of the flagger and/or the submitter of the thing that got flagged.

run4yourlives 18y ago
whoops... excuse my first few flags then... I gave them to some that were merely off topic.
icey 18y ago
Is there some sort of cost associated with flagging? I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "could damage the reputation of the flagger".
- pmjordan 18y ago
  Presumably, you're wasting moderator time, for which you will burn in hell eternally! By which I mean, you might lose navbar colour and flagging privileges.
  - wensing 18y ago
    Navbar colour? I have 143 karma but I don't see that yet (although I do see 'flag'). Hmm.
    - pmjordan 18y ago
      Er, I didn't say nothing about the navbar secret. >_> Seriously, you get to change the colour of the orange bar at the top when you're at or above 250 karma. Either then or if you can be bothered to set up some user CSS or javascript. :) No idea if there are further perks beyond that.

aggieben 18y ago

heh...could we have a list of flagged posts, in the lists page?

eru 18y ago
You want to see all your spam trophies?
- aggieben 18y ago
  something like that..., but I was really thinking of something resembling the "Best of the Worst" of the last-man-standing reality genre (American Idol, Last Comic Standing, etc). It would be good fun to occasionally look at the list of flagged posts just like it's fun to occasionally poke fun at William Heng.
jrockway 18y ago
That would be neat. Then we could use "flag" to mean "really good" and restrict upvoting to those-in-the-know and those-with-lots-of-karma. The main page would then be just a front for the underground hackernews community :) Wow, actually I like this idea.

icey 18y ago

The flag link still shows for deleted comments

ojbyrne 18y ago

Having both a downvote and "flag" on comments seems a bit too much. Nobody seems to spam the comments, and trolls get downvoted.

vlad 18y ago

There should be a popup confirmation and the action should bring you back to where you were last, instead of the top of the page. Ideally, the row where the username where you clicked flag (starting from the point total and ending with the flag link) would turn yellow, and also keep you on that same page, like the voting buttons (which use ajax).