Reporting more than one post in a single thread

[Haruki-kun]

Suppose for a moment there are several posts in a thread that are off-topic, inflamatory or in any way something we should report. The thread itself, however, is not breaking any rules. For instance, a thread's been going for 15 pages and only several posts in the last 2 are rule-breaking.

What should we do in this case? Report every single post, report the first post of the thread, report the first problematic post? Or just PM a mod?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Mostly thinking of how to make it easier for mods to look at the reports.

[Douglas]

From my understanding of the limited mod comments on how this system works, I think there is essentially a mod-only forum containing the reports. The first time a particular post is reported, a new thread is created in that mod-only forum with the report and a link to the offending post. Any further reports of the same post are added as extra posts in that same thread.

Reporting every single rule-breaking post in a thread would create a whole bunch of report threads, one for each post, in large part defeating the point of the mechanism that consolidates multiple reports of the same post into one thread. PMing a mod would defeat the point of the system being set up so that any mod can respond to a report. Reporting the first post of the thread in a long thread where only recent posts are problematic would bring mod attention to the wrong spot and might force the mods to look through a lot more material than necessary.

It seems best to me to report the first problematic post and note in your report that several posts after it are also breaking the rules. This creates a single report thread without spamming the report forum, points mods straight to the problem area, gives the report to all appropriate mods, and informs them to look further for more problems.

Note: I am not a mod myself, so I could have some of the details wrong and this is not an official answer.

[Mystic Muse]

From what Douglas said, it sounds like reporting the one post and then listing the other posts you think break the rules is the best option.

[John Cribati]

You can only report one post at a time, but it would probably be nice to leave the links to the other offending posts in the message, whether or not they're hyperlinked.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff:

If you want to let us know that a thread has gone entirely south, a single post report of first offense with a comment about how the whole thread is now a mess is sufficient.

If there are a few specific posts you believe to violate the Forum Rules, feel free to report each. If there are many, you may want to use the above single post report method. There's no specific cut off number, but by default, individual post reports explaining why/how each post seems to violate the Forum Rules are more helpful.

You're always welcome to explain things in your Post Report, including providing links (or even easier for you, post numbers found in the upper right corner of each post) pointing to specific problem posts.

Post reports about a specific post are aggregated so it's no more trouble if ten people report a given post than if one does. Reporting something doesn't guarantee we'll take any action, only that we'll look at it. So don't be shy about reporting something.

Don't PM a mod to report a post. That is burdensome on the mod and unhelpful to the system. Also, obviously, don't report posts in an abusive fashion (such as reporting every post in a thread, posts of people just because you disagree with them, or posts of people you don't like even when no Forum Rules is implicated).