Hi gang! I see a lot of new faces on the Empire (I'm a vivid user of the /newplayers command too) and there's one issue I often see happening: (new) players who are confused (or very hesitant) about reporting a post on the forums. Honestly, I've heard plenty of players ask either the staff or myself "But won't I get into trouble?". Well, as a rule of thumb: if you honestly ask ourself that question before clicking report then I don't think you have much to worry about. Because of the simple fact that you actually thought about it before doing it. But... Let's try to take some of the confusion away and look into reporting a post on the forums. EMC is not like your average Internet forum! Before I start I need to stress out that there's nothing strange or weird about being careful with reporting forum posts. After all: on most Internet fora you should only click that report link when someone is actually breaking the rules, nothing more. If you do then it might be considered an abuse and that could get you into trouble. However... As stated above: Empire Minecraft's forum is not like any other ordinary forum. We're special. And that "speciality" also finds its way into features such as this one. That's not saying you should use the report feature casually, but its use is not limited to reporting players for breaking the rules. How to report a post? You'll find a few links below every post, even those in private conversations. And one of those is the report link. I outlined it here for you: Clicking on that link will open a text entry field in which you can describe your reason(s) for reporting. When done you can click "Report post" and you'll notify the staff about your issues: Here I'm reporting a post, although I obviously didn't actually click "Report" In case you're wondering: My example is a post I'm not so proud off. I do think it did good, but yeah... So when should you report a post? In short: every time you need the staffs help to do something which you cannot do yourself. For example: let's say that I totally messed up the title of my thread. Instead of writing "When do you report a post?" I accidentally posted: "When do you delete a post?" . Totally stupid, and unfortunately not something we can fix ourselves! That is an excellent moment to report your post and ask the staff for help. How? Well, like this for example: Of course I do need to stress out that you shouldn't use this carelessly. Just because staff can help you doesn't mean that we can simply be sloppy about things and expect them to clean up afterwards all the time. But if things do go wrong once in a while then I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help you out. Here are some other examples when you should consider to report your post: You made a mistake which you cannot fix yourself. I already mentioned the title of your post / thread, but the same applies to polls. If you post a poll then you'll not be able to change the questions later. So if you made a mistake then don't worry: staff might be able to help you sort out the mess. And then there's the auction section of the forums. To prevent cheating you cannot edit your posts in there. So what to do if you just started a new auction but you forgot to add an end time or you want to lower the starting bid? Easy: click that report option, describe your problem and then staff can help you sort it out. Please note: Of course this doesn't apply when bidding. Everyone who "plays" the auction will run into making invalid bids. You made a bid, someone was quicker and now you bid lower. You do not need staff for that, just post a new bid to show those other players who's boss And speaking of auctions.... When your auction ended Please note: the auction which you hosted, not an auction you bid on. When an auction ends then it's common practice for the staff to archive it. You may not have noticed this but every auction forum has an archive section. Here is the archive for the community auctions. Now, there are tons of auctions and it's impossible for staff to keep track of them all. So why not give them a helping hand? When your auction is over (so: you got paid and the items got picked up) then just report it (report the first post in the thread) and tell staff about it. Then they can sort out the rest. This even helps out us players. Because as you may know you're not allowed to run multiple auctions at the same time. So by reporting your finished auction (and having the staff archive it) there's no way players could become confused with seeing multiple auction threads. (that doesn't happen often, but you never know). When you want to lock (close) a thread Some threads can go on forever And that can be quite some fun. However, sometimes you don't want a thread to continue. For example: you just hosted a give away and/or AMA and long after the event is over people still keep posting to ask for a number. Yeah, not going to work guys.... Or what to think about a service which you offered on the economy forums? Your service has long ended, you sold (or bought) all the items you needed yet people still spot it somehow and either keep posting offers or they keep asking you about it in game. That can become annoying. And sometimes... You start a discussion or argument and you simply don't want it to continue. You started the thread, it served its purpose. Time to move on. So then.... You guessed it: you can report the thread (do that by reporting the first post in the thread) and then tell staff you want the thread to end. Personal comment: It's usually a good idea to also mention this on the tread itself. Because let's face it: you may want to stop it and move on, but what about those players who were (or are) active on the thread? It's not a requirement, but since you're reading this I do think you should consider to at least share with the others that you requested the thread to be locked, and why. If not for them then just for the sake of courtesy. And last but certainly not least: To report someone for breaking the rules. Empire Minecraft has rules to play by. And there are also some rules which are specifically set up for these forums, the so called forum specific rules. If you spot someone breaking those rules then yeah, you should definitely consider to report the post. Especially when things risk to get out of control. Please.. Don't think "this is so obvious, someone else probably already reported it" because if we all think that way then how will the staff ever get to know about it? When something is wrong, report the post and let the staff sort it out. How to make good reports? Reporting a post is something you should take your time for. Although the report itself will be enough to point staffs attention to the post you can help them out by trying to be as descriptive as possible. The easier it is for them to realize what's wrong, the quicker they can help. Here are some examples which I'd consider not so good: Question: what is there to fix? Just because you know what your title should be doesn't mean that the staff knows that as well. Suggestion: tell them what is wrong and how it should be fixed. "there's selling in my title and it should be buying" is much more descriptive. "my title mentions that i want to sell but I want to buy" is even better. Question: what rules? There are a lot of rules, and sometimes it might seem as if someone is breaking them while in fact they're not. And well, let the staff worry about punishment Suggestion: "This post is spamming the forums", might be a little better. But: "This post is spamming, they bump every 30minutes while it should be 3 hours" is much more useful. Bottom line: take a moment to think about your report, try to be as descriptive as you can without overdoing it of course (yes, I'm referring to myself ). But yeah... Here you go. Some tips on reporting a post on the forums.
A little thing to add to having a thread title changed. I usually just say what I want the title to say that way there is no confusion as to what I want. I think it makes things easier. Nice guide.
Nice Guide. This is just my thoughts on some of the rules on the forums. I still hate this rule on the forums. Regular threads get obliterated by auctions. We should apply this rule only to auctions and extend the time to 24 hours..
I find that not just new faces but old faces too who have been around a long time have issues with what a rule is in the first place. i have been told a few times by older members I know that because of /p that im am breaking a rule and to be sure I always go back and do research and re read the rules to see if I am actually breaking a rule and what i am finding is 100% of thee time people are interpreting the rules the way they want to and then telling players that they are breaking a rule instead of taking the rules as they are written. of curse after rereading the rules I go back and ask why they are saying im breaking a rule of curse i get an explanation from their own interpretation of it then i respond with this is what the rule is taking rule word for word while quoting it back to them and after telling them that what they feel is me breaking a rule isnt acutely breaking a rule according to the rules. usually ends up with them mad.
Mainly use it to edit auction OPs. Luckily, I've only seen enough "reportable" instances here that I could count them on one hand...
