Reporting abuse - PM system?

lellie

I sometimes want to report abuse, but I use webmail most of the time - so this is a pain in the neck and I often don't bother. If I click on the usual abuse icon it tries to open thunderbird - which I don't have set up at the moment, and makes a new message.. However that's no use to me - so I have to open my webmail, type in the abuse email and copy the subject from the thunderbird window - I don't want thunderbird to open at all and I don't want to have to get my webmail open in order to report - it should be quick and easy.

One way this could be done was if there was a second abuse button added that took you to the PM system and pre-filled the PM form with the post ID to report and sent it automatically to a MSE abuse account.

Another way it could be done (which is probably a lot easier to implement) was if there was a button that opened up a simple php mail form in a popup that took the query string of the post ID and stored this in a hidden field which was then emailed with any additional information that users could fill into a form and it could all be emailed to the abuse account. This is really simple and would probably only take a few minutes to knock together. It would make it much easier to report people.

espresso

lellie wrote:

I sometimes want to report abuse, but I use webmail most of the time - so this is a pain in the neck and I often don't bother. If I click on the usual abuse icon it tries to open thunderbird - which I don't have set up at the moment, and makes a new message.. However that's no use to me - so I have to open my webmail, type in the abuse email and copy the subject from the thunderbird window...........

Why don't you simply set up Thunderbird or any other e-mail client? The abuse button seems to be fine for other forum users! If anything the site needs streamlining not additional features adding!

:rolleyes:

lellie

because I don't want to! I had thunderbird set up and used it happily for years, but then I moved house and had no internet for a while - I used webmail then because it could be accessed anywhere - and now I just use webmail all the time as I prefer it. 2 of my email accounts for uni don't have pop/imap access anyway so I couldn't use thunderbird even if I wanted to.

I just think that when a php webform is soooooooo easy to add, takes up hardly any resources and would make things simpler for users it makes sense.

iwanttosave_2

Thats the one thing I dont like about this forum, the email system. Most other forums have a nice little pop-up box that you submit to them and then its over and done with and this works great, esp for people that know little about reporting posts and how to do it.

Where as this, you have to get your email client to open (mine takes ages to initialise) then send, then you get the pleasure of having to delete loads of auto-respondants from your email box all the time, not time consuming, but very annoying.

Edinburghlass_2

I think perhaps though you'll find the current system was set up to aid those receiving and dealing with the abuse reports

DrFluffy

lellie wrote:

I sometimes want to report abuse, but I use webmail most of the time - so this is a pain in the neck and I often don't bother. If I click on the usual abuse icon it tries to open thunderbird - which I don't have set up at the moment, and makes a new message.. However that's no use to me - so I have to open my webmail, type in the abuse email and copy the subject from the thunderbird window - I don't want thunderbird to open at all and I don't want to have to get my webmail open in order to report - it should be quick and easy.

One way this could be done was if there was a second abuse button added that took you to the PM system and pre-filled the PM form with the post ID to report and sent it automatically to a MSE abuse account.

Another way it could be done (which is probably a lot easier to implement) was if there was a button that opened up a simple php mail form in a popup that took the query string of the post ID and stored this in a hidden field which was then emailed with any additional information that users could fill into a form and it could all be emailed to the abuse account. This is really simple and would probably only take a few minutes to knock together. It would make it much easier to report people.

Couldn't agree more.

This is the only V-bul forum I use that doesn't have a PM system for abuse reporting, and I know it's lazy, but I've let stuff go that I would have reported on other forums just cos I couldn't be bothered with the hassle...

iwanttosave_2

Edinburghlass wrote:

I think perhaps though you'll find the current system was set up to aid those receiving and dealing with the abuse reports

Other forums seem to manage just fine with it.

sra

The vbulletin system (last time I checked over on the vbulletin demo board so it might have changed in new versions- will have a look right now) is built on the idea that board moderators deal with abuse.

Under that system, all abuse reports are always sent to the board Moderator. There is no option to send the report to a centralized email address - which is the way MSE organize and deal with reports.

That's why we're different - I assume

iwanttosave_2

sra wrote:

The vbulletin system (last time I checked over on the vbulletin demo board so it might have changed in new versions- will have a look right now) is built on the idea that board moderators deal with abuse.

Under that system, all abuse reports are always sent to the board Moderator. There is no option to send the report to a centralized email address - which is the way MSE organize and deal with reports.

That's why we're different - I assume

I can only speak for one other forum because I moderate on it, but they have the PM system where it sends it to like a mod log and once we deal with it then we can tick it off, but it is also sent to the main admin for him to see also. Once anyone logs on, we all mods and admin have to first check the mod log for any outstanding reports, and as I gather admin have it sent to them and they have a noice notificatin to let them respond striaght away.

lellie

sra wrote:

The vbulletin system (last time I checked over on the vbulletin demo board so it might have changed in new versions- will have a look right now) is built on the idea that board moderators deal with abuse.

Under that system, all abuse reports are always sent to the board Moderator. There is no option to send the report to a centralized email address - which is the way MSE organize and deal with reports.

That's why we're different - I assume

That's why I suggested the pop-up email form - it can be created independant of Vbulletin in a matter of minutes - it's a simple php script, and will allow the email to be sent to a central email address.

the pm system does however work perfectly adequately on most websites.

sra

lellie wrote:

the pm system does however work perfectly adequately on most websites.

Other sites aren't as much of a great big pain in the backside to big compaines like this one is

I imagine that's why we have a moderation system where everything goes through the same email system and can be verified and retrieved if someone gets all legal