The Report feature allows all users with the appropriate permission to flag content they believe is inappropriate; this content remains in the community but a "copy" is sent to the Reported Posts Category, where an Admin or Moderator can decide what to do (e.g., edit the post, delete it, etc.).
Enable the Reporting addon
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Addons > Addons.
- Click to slide the Reporting toggle to the right.
Required permission
Users must belong to a Role with the Reactions > Flag > Add permission to use this feature. This is typically reserved for "Member" Roles.
To learn how to access and manage your Roles and their permissions, check out the article below.
Define reporting reasons
If configured in your reporting settings, users can optionally select a pre-defined reason why they're reporting the post (see below).
- These reasons function as "canned" responses that make it easy for users to indicate a reason for the report without having to type anything. Because of this, taking the time to define a comprehensive list of reasons is recommended to make the process as simple as possible.
- Creating these reasons is optional; if not done, users can still write a note in the provided text field.
You can control both the number of reasons available and their language, ensuring your community's needs are aligned with your organization. Let's learn how.
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Addons > Addons.
- Locate the Reporting addon, and click the settings icon.
- In the dialog, enter one reason per line (compare the image below with the one above).
- Click Save.
Report a post
1. Navigate to the discussion, comment, idea, poll, etc.
2. In the Reactions menu below the post, click Flag > Report.
3. In the resulting dialog, you can:
- Select a reason (if they've been created in the addon settings)
- Provide an optional note in the text field for the moderation team
- Click View Post to view the full post
4. When ready, click Send Report to flag this post in the Reported Posts Category for an Admin or Moderator to review.
Upon sending the report, the reporting user receives a popup confirmation at the bottom left:
Notifications about reported posts
To receive popup and/or email notifications about new discussions/comments in the Reported Posts Category:
- Admins and Moderators need to Follow the Reported Posts Category.
- After doing so, it will appear in your Notification Preferences (on your Profile > Edit Profile page, click Notification Preferences), where you can then decide how to be notified.
✔️ TIP: To learn more about Category Following, including how to enable the addon and Follow a Category, check out the following article:
View reported posts
When a user reports content, a "copy" is sent to a special moderator-only Category called Reported Posts.
- To access all reported content, click your profile icon > Reported Posts.
✔️ TIP: You can access this Category from the main Categories page.
Each piece of reported content is listed on the resulting page, and you can click one to view it. The report includes a rich quote of the reported post, a link to the original post, and each comment represents a "reason" and any free text entered by the reporter.
- Each discussion represents a piece of reported content. The discussion starter is whoever reported the content first.
- Additional reports of the same content (the exact same post) add new comments to the discussion.
- If different comments in the same discussion are reported, each will get its own unique report discussion.
Additional resources
Click the link below to access a video expanding on what you learned in this article.
