So I learned recently that if someone writes something in comments on this website that is a violation of the posted rules, but some how it manages to go unreported for 2 months or more.. then some how it is not acted upon when it finally is reported.

I find this a bit odd.. why should time have any effect on messages? What if someone happens to find it later and brings it to the attention of staff.. then it's thrown away due to time.

And because of this they get away scott free and nothing happens.

I'm just highly confused on how things work around here I guess.

It wouldn't be fair to punish users for something that they wrote years ago, maybe when they were having a bad day. So there has to be some statute of limitations.

If a comment isn't reported within a couple of weeks, it probably wasn't bad enough to report in the first place. And a time limit usually stops users from making pointless reports about old comments that have already been handled ages ago. (Neutral grey records can expire and be removed...)

I believe the right to report expires after one month, unless they're saying they're underaged, in which case that only expires if enough years have passed that they're of age now.

Bad behavior still counts for something.
If an admin gets a user report about bad commenting, checks the users record, and sees month after month of shitty behavior, they'll probably punish that user a little bit harder than if it was just a one shot thing.

Well.. then we're just advertising to folks how to get by with breaking the rules. And.. I just won't ever bother reporting anyone ever again, even if I see anything.

At least I know how the site works now.

I've reported obvious rule violations at least 10-15 times over the past several years.. every single last time it's always discarded, and ignored.

So, no point bothering with it any more now.

kithylin said:
I've reported obvious rule violations at least 10-15 times over the past several years.. every single last time it's always discarded, and ignored.

The admins don't ignore someone if they're causing trouble, the site wouldn't function for long if they did. It was likely just outside of the set parameters for valid reports, whether that might have been report time limit or something else.

Trust me. Shit don't get past the admins long enough to expire anyways

kithylin said:
Well.. then we're just advertising to folks how to get by with breaking the rules.

By hoping that nobody discovers it within a month? That seems rather risky.

Like I said, most things that actually warrant a report end up reported. Often repeatedly. Sometimes tag warring and vandalism might go unnoticed... but I can't remember the last time I spotted anything major that should've been reported but wasn't.

There's not much context to go with here.

As far as commenting goes, there's general guidelines for what to do and not to do (basically: don't be a dick), but haven't seen any strict rules for those. So if you find someone making disgusting comments or being big meanie, of course when time goes on others should simply downvote it so it gets hidden for majority instead of punishing the user way after they made those comments.

If you found malware/pirate links, someone literally threatening other users with murder or being meanie constantly, then of course those should always be reported, however I'm pretty sure many will report them pretty fast, not after two months!

You have created 4 tickets since joining in 2008, none of them valid.

The first was about a comment where someone said that they have seen better things from Strype, the second was about a comment where the user already received punishment for it, the third was about a 5 month old comment where the user got banned permanently 2 months before you reported it, and the newest one was about this 2 months old comment.

NotMeNotYou said:
You have created 4 tickets since joining in 2008, none of them valid.

The first was about a comment where someone said that they have seen better things from Strype, the second was about a comment where the user already received punishment for it, the third was about a 5 month old comment where the user got banned permanently 2 months before you reported it, and the newest one was about this 2 months old comment.

Thanks for calling me out in public and telling everyone about my history and everything I've done, that's really nice of you.

Things like this is why I generally avoid making threads.. or ever asking anyone about anything here. I'll just go back to lurking and never report anything or bother anyone ever again.

I don't bother with tickets where the issue reported took place 3-4 weeks ago or longer unless it's some kind of illegal activity. Any longer than that and there just isn't much point.

That would be like punishing your child for doing something they did years ago, because you only just found out about it. Why bother?

If you see it as "advertising to users to break the rules", how about seeing it as advertising the users to actually report things when they happen so something can be done about it? We do expect our users to help us by reporting problems when they occur.

kithylin said:
Thanks for calling me out in public and telling everyone about my history and everything I've done, that's really nice of you.

Things like this is why I generally avoid making threads.. or ever asking anyone about anything here. I'll just go back to lurking and never report anything or bother anyone ever again.

that was.. not calling you out. that was only a debunk for your false claim that you have made 10-15 valid tickets that were all just disregarded for no reason.

kithylin said:
Thanks for calling me out in public and telling everyone about my history and everything I've done, that's really nice of you.

In addition to what Mutisija said, you were the one who made it public in the first place, by starting this thread.

Just remember that we handle reports on a case-by-case basis, and generally if someone makes one comment months ago that's report-worthy, but has remained clear before and after, we'll be more lenient than someone who is posting recently.

That's not to say we'll NEVER do anything, but we try to be more nuanced than simply one size fits all, since we try our hardest to enforce the spirit of the rules, instead of just the letters. So if you see and old comment that you feel breaks rules, by all means report it. But don't expect the staff to simply apply the rules like a hammer.