Add moderation complaint email to footer

[rikkimax]

Due to multiple complaints about D communities toxicity and abusive behavior, actions need to be taken to make complaints more easily made.

I have identified two things that should hopefully aid in people being able to feel the confidence to complain to the forum moderation team.

1. Add an email link at the footer of the forum for complaints. This should be a dedicated email (even if it's just an alias to social).
2. Add a set of rules about expected behavior. I am aware that Walter has been against this. But a derived set based upon what we use on Discord should give people confidence to report and not exact enough for abuse. Basically this:

Respect people
Use welcoming and inclusive language, slip ups might happen, but please be nice to each other.
Be respectful to each other, people might look at problems differently than you.

If someone tells you to stop then stop.

I know I am raising hell over this, but we very much have an image problem that can be solved with minimal moderation changes unless a complaint is raised.

[CyberShadow]

Add an email link at the footer of the forum for complaints. This should be a dedicated email (even if it's just an alias to social).

There is a post flagging feature. Only some users see it, though.

Add a set of rules about expected behavior. I am aware that Walter has been against this. But a derived set based upon what we use on Discord should give people confidence to report and not exact enough for abuse. Basically this:

That's a community bug, not a forum software bug :) Needs to be discussed elsewhere.

If you don't want to start a forum thread, maybe ask to participate in the next foundation meeting and discuss it there.

I agree with the general sentiment but I'm not going to take independent action to intervene.

[mdparker]

social@dlang.org the right email address for the link.

[rikkimax]

So I've already talked with Mike and agreed about the email, but I'm documenting the two things we can do publically.

[CyberShadow]

We can bump the flagging feature to extend it to more users, or talk about the feature in more detail (e.g. establish a criteria for making it available for more users going forward).

Or is there a need for something on top of the flagging feature?

[mdparker]

I think adding the email address in the footer is fine for now. I noted the Report functionality, but Rikki's right I think about the footer thing. It's not obvious how to contact anyone. foundation@dlang.org is obtainable with two clicks (the foundation link at the bottom in the footer, then the About page there), but I guess that's two clicks too many. So a message to direct complaints or questions about forum discussions to social@dlang.org is a probably good thing.

We can discuss further steps at a future meeting.

[CyberShadow]

Would someone like to sketch what this should look like?

Does it need to link to a web page, or a direct mailto: link?

[mdparker]

The other thing: the flagging feature only shows moderators the post in question. Adding the email will enable us to have a conversation with anyone who contacts us to better understand their concerns. It's not always obvious what's wrong with a reported post.

[mdparker]

Please direct questions or complaints about forum discussions to <a href="mailto:&#115;&#111;&#099;&#105;&#097;&#108;&#064;&#100;&#108;&#097;&#110;&#103;&#046;&#111;&#114;&#103;">&#115;&#111;&#099;&#105;&#097;&#108;&#064;&#100;&#108;&#097;&#110;&#103;&#046;&#111;&#114;&#103;</a>

[rikkimax]

Something like this should do:

[Top](https://forum.dlang.org/#top) | [Forum index](https://forum.dlang.org/) | [About this forum](https://forum.dlang.org/help#about) | [Report an abusive post](mailto:social@dlang.org)

[CyberShadow]

It's not always obvious what's wrong with a reported post.

That opens the possibility of improving the flagging feature.

We can:

• add a field where people can describe why they are reporting a post
• leave contact information (prefill it with user's email if they're registered)
• replace the moderators list with social@, so that it creates an email chain that everyone who receives emails sent to social@ can see / participate in