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[Ask HN] How many submissions have you accidentally flagged?
Go to your profile > "flagged submissions". Do you see any flagged submissions that you don't recall flagging?
I have counted 48 flagged submissions, with only 2 of them being genuine flags.
I'm curious whether I am exceptionally clumsy, or whether this is a common issue for the rest of you.
- bombcar 3y agoI browse on phone. I accidentally downvote and flag with some regularity (and hide, the most annoying because the other can be undone right away). I clean them up almost immediately most times.
- janandonly 3y agoToo many. But I think I notice it and change it back quickly. Usually.
- bihla 3y ago8
- leros 3y agoQuite a lot. I've also accidentally up and down voted content.
- Ozark 3y ago[flagged]
- CM30 3y agoI'm gonna guess 3, since my flagged submissions page shows 3 entries and I don't recall flagging any of them.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoThe number of accidental flags I’ve committed is too damn high. Flags should be removed from the front page links.
- vasili111 3y agoI recently flagged one and immediately noticed that. I realized that I may have done that accidently other times too. I went in my profile and found a list of all flagged topics and I saw that I had accidently flagged multiple submissions over time. I think it will be good to have with flagging some sort of confirmation that system asks users to confirm flagging in order to prevent unintended flagging that as I saw on my personal example happens over time and gets unnoticed.
- JohnFen 3y agoI have not accidentally flagged any submissions. I've flagged two, and both of them were intentional and worthy of the flags. I don't read HN on a phone or tablet, though. Perhaps that's where the trouble is?
- nickelcitymario 3y agoTwo, and both were unintentional. Thanks for flagging this! (Pun obviously and regretfully intended.)
- fatnoah 3y agoTwo for me. IIRC, I've never flagged anything.
- wincy 3y agoWhat the heck? I have 24 flagged posts and don’t remember even having the ability to flag until recently. I often hit the hide button so maybe I’m accidentally flagging stuff instead of hiding it? Maybe you do similar? Thanks for pointing it out.
- shusaku 3y agoSurprisingly I can’t find any, I guess my fat fingers aren’t as bad as I thought. But now I’m angry after reading through a list of things I flagged.
- syrgian 3y agoI also found a lot of infuriating posts. So many people that don't belong here. I am however happy to see that there's almost nothing that didn't end up dead/demoted.
- felipellrocha 3y agoOh, god. Way too many...!
- mistrial9 3y agoin five years, fifteen flagged submissions.. no obvious errors
- karaterobot 3y agoLooks like I have probably over a couple hundred flagged that I don't remember flagging. I hide a lot of posts, and maybe sometimes I flag them by accident. Seems like either a bug or a UI issue.
- alex_c 3y agoThe “flag” button on iPhone falls exactly in the screen area where my thumb naturally rests for scrolling. I thought I usually notice when I accidentally flag something and I undo it right away, but apparently not. Looks like my ratio of accidental flags to real flags is 10:1 or worse!
- lawn 3y agoIt seems I have 12 flagged submissions, but I can't remember flagging any of them. I'm sure I have tons of accidental down votes as well as I on the phone constantly notice I've accidentally pressed the downvote button.
- NicoJuicy 3y agoYou're not alone, thanks for pointing it out! :O I knew I sometimes undowned and fixed it then. But didn't knew this.
- kayge 3y agoIn case anyone else is confused why they don't see links for Flagged Submissions / Comments in your profile: it won't show up if your current count is 0 :)
- rareitem 3y agothanks!
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoAccidentally? none Why tapping around that area? This a mobile problem? Desktop it doesn't seem to be in the area of being a problem
- phreack 3y agoPretty much yeah, it's easy to mis-tap.
- ben_w 3y agoYeah, mobile issue. I'm expecting a scroll behaviour, then a second later I see a preview window popping up giving me menu options for e.g. open in new tab, but that preview acts like clicking the link…
- Measter 3y agoIt is an issue on desktop, though only for submissions. The flag link is next to the hide link (which I use constantly), and because the username and time are to the left of these, the flag and hide links are in a different position for each submission leading to regular mis-clicks.
- skybrian 3y agoIt's next to the 'hide' link, which I use all the time. It's easy to hit 'flag' instead of 'hide'.
- Wowfunhappy 3y agoI always go back and unflag them. I checked the list in my profile, and there's a few submissions that, on second thought, maybe I should have been more generous with--but I can understand why I thought a flag was appropriate. The only ones which I thought might have been accidents, I'm pretty sure I flagged because they were dupes. I do wish there was a separate button for dupes, but it would probably make things to cluttered.
- bayesianbot 3y agoI use qutebrowser where I open links from keyboard using hints, and sometimes I press the wrong key and am not even sure which link it clicked, so I have done some accidental flags.. Good to know I can check and cancel them from profile.
- redwood 3y agoDozens
- formerly_proven 3y agoJust skimming the list I'd guess somewhere between half and two thirds are false flags.
- wiredfool 3y agoMost of them? A page and a half, and only a couple that look like what I'd flag.
- hasbot 3y agoThe last time this was brought up I checked and saw about a handful accidental flags. Currently I have no accidental flagged posts.
- senkora 3y agoAll the time. Every one of my flagged submissions has been accidental. I go through and clear them out periodically.
- SSchick 3y ago9 here, this seems like something that could use a good old 'confirm()' check :)
- ilaksh 3y agoA lot. I unflag them though. It would be nice if flag only showed up on the comments page for a post.
- rco8786 3y agoYep, 2 in there for me that I have no recollection of flagging
- fogleman 3y agoUser since 2013. I have nothing flagged.
- lathiat 3y agoYep, I have 37 flagged. Almost entirely accidental. And I have caught and undone many more. Very few in 2022, 2023 though. Mostly before that. Though I think I read HN on my phone much less than I used to, likely why.
- gunapologist99 3y ago> Though I think I read HN on my phone much less than I used to. Curious why that might be and if the pendulum is swinging back toward non-mobile for technical/creative people.
- scubbo 3y agoI don't have a "flagged submissions" link, so..zero? Mostly a desktop user, if that datapoint is relevant.
- nottorp 3y agoI have only one and it was intentional for misleading clickbait. I remember flagging one by mistake just once, but i realized and undid it on the spot. I only browse on a phone if i really really have no other choice though. Especially HN where there is a lot of small interesting text to read.
- savrajsingh 3y agowow surprised to find 2 pages of flagged posts, don't recall ever intentionally flagging
- dmichulke 3y ago18, I was completely unaware
- progbits 3y agoI have around dozen, all of them seem legitimate but I can't be sure about some very old ones about my reasoning. I do accidentally flag & unflag things like one a week though. One day I'm finally going to make my own UI overlay to make this site usable.
- skybrian 3y agoCounting over a year’s time, looks like 6 accidental and 2 on purpose. Is the flagged submissions link new? I remember looking for it and not finding it.
- MagaMuffin 3y ago[dead]
- mdwalters 3y agoNope. The Wii Remote may get figety in my hand at times, but all of my flags are genuine.
- drcongo 3y agoMine all look like things I definitely would have flagged.
- 7373737373 3y ago15, and only 1 of these intentionally
- autoexec 3y agoI had a few. Oddly, they were all submissions instead of comments. It seems like asking to confirm a flagged submission could solve this issue.
- c2h5oh 3y ago100% or 14.
- pschuegr 3y agothe styling/layout of HN could be improved a lot with little effort IMO. the upvote/down vote buttons are so easy to make mistakes with too, and I don't think my thumbs are especially fat. I would also kill for dark mode.