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It appears there is a "feature" that's always existed where I get suspended from chat for having messages flagged.

It is annoying that suspended users do not get told why they were suspended.

Can we have a list of which messages were flagged when we get suspended.

At least this way people can learn why they were suspended and not do it again in the future.

As a further aside, the fact a room owner can get suspended for flagged messages in his room is rubbing salt in my wounds.

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  • That feature is not new. It has always existed.
    – balpha StaffMod
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:18
  • @balpha Don't worry, I corrected the grave error.
    – Incognito
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:22
  • @balpha really? I've only recently being getting suspended. And other people have been getting suspended recently. Maybe the flag limit has reduced? I think it's 3 flags and you get suspended (for an hour or two).
    – Raynos
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:24
  • No, that hasn't changed either. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/100414/…
    – balpha StaffMod
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:45
  • 2
    I think that, in light of the points made by Incognito's answer, a better (?) feature request would be to move the "flag" button as far away from the "star" button as possible.
    – Chris Frederick
    Aug 16, 2011 at 21:23
  • See also: Show who flagged a message in chat
    – Chris Frederick
    Aug 16, 2011 at 21:26
  • @Chris complied
    – Raynos
    Aug 16, 2011 at 21:27
  • The most important thing being said here is that there is no feedback! Why does SE have so many user related features that don't have feedback?
    – GUI Junkie
    Aug 16, 2011 at 22:11

3 Answers 3

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16

This may just be Jeff's staff not listening to him: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/03/the-opposite-of-fitts-law.html .

Many of these flags might just be human error because we put the FM Radio next to the Ejector Seat button.

enter image description here

I can tell what you're thinking. Did he click Flag or Star Now? Well, to tell you the truth, in all the excitement of reading that message, I kind of lost track myself. Good thing we can easily undo a flag'd item! Oh wait, we totally can't.

To make it worse, the star is always highlighted on mouse-over of any of these items.

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  • 4
    "Yes, the rap button is just to the right of the radio knob. Go ahead and press it if you like rap..."
    – Pollyanna
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:06
  • 2
    Wow. That is a horrible, horrible design decision. Not only are those buttons right next to each other, but they're actually smaller than the mouse cursor. This is one of the most blatant violations of Fitts's Law that I've ever seen.
    – Chris Frederick
    Aug 16, 2011 at 21:20
  • There's a confirmation dialog after clicking the flag icon, you can't really hit it accidentally.
    – Brant
    Aug 19, 2011 at 17:07
  • @Brant Bobby it's new.
    – Incognito
    Aug 19, 2011 at 17:15
  • 1
    Oh. Well, in that case, pretend I said "there is now a confirmation dialog". ;)
    – Brant
    Aug 19, 2011 at 17:22
  • @Brant Bobby Touche.
    – Incognito
    Aug 19, 2011 at 18:23
  • Please stop making up stuff when you're proven wrong. That dialog is not new. /cc @Brant
    – balpha StaffMod
    Aug 31, 2011 at 21:38
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OK, I ran the queries. Your must "popular" remarks are:

  • (redacted) you deserve to be called an idiot for writing code like that
  • (redacted) because windows is for gays. gays
  • Look google is full of shit
  • dont like me random shit please.
  • If I want my website to look like shit then I'll ask you
  • I simply consider non english language noise and spam
  • shit
  • (redacted) don't be a dick :D
  • Fuck thread safety
  • (redacted) Anger issues my ass!
  • my f key is acting up
  • (redacted) I just defined a language limitation in this room
  • You want to speak in a foreign tongue then take it somewhere else.

where "(redacted)" is any other user, just to keep it context free.

I think the flags were correctly earned. My main thought now is at what point the system should escalate the suspension time, or whether to just keep that manual. Please remain civil in the chats; it isn't an open forum for abusing people, nor an outlet for homophobia and xenophobia.

I will, however, think about ways in which we can make the "why was I suspended" automated so there is no uncertainty. In other news, there is a secondary issue with people using flags incorrectly; in this case, I don't think that applies.

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4
  • I do agree that most time's the flags were just. However it's still user friendly to identify which message causes me to be suspended. And I also raised this issue on behalf of other people who are suspended and don't know which message was flagged (and caused them to be suspended).
    – Raynos
    Aug 18, 2011 at 11:59
  • @Raynos granted - I'll look into that.
    – Marc Gravell
    Aug 18, 2011 at 12:00
  • also apologies if I seem to be "complaining" that I was unjustly flagged. This was not the intend.
    – Raynos
    Aug 18, 2011 at 12:01
  • @Raynos I'll be adding something to track this
    – Marc Gravell
    Aug 18, 2011 at 12:44
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I suspect that some people treat "flags" like an opposite for "stars". Like a dislike button. That could be one of the reasons why people get flagged almost randomly.

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7
  • To add to this, we've seen people flag for entirely valid and useful debates such as, is LOC a valid metric for code quality, and how?
    – Incognito
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:16
  • 3
    @Incognito: but the idea that LOC is a valid metric of quality is patently offensive; this is a bad example.
    – Wooble
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:18
  • @Wooble , well , i got flagged for defending UncleBob's statements about size of functions .. at least that what i gathered.
    – teresko
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:22
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    @teresko: I'd certainly flag you for defending his use of white text on translucent white background, although possibly not his opinions.
    – Wooble
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:24
  • .. was't that a common knowledge, that developers usually are colorblind when it comes to making a design ?
    – teresko
    Aug 16, 2011 at 20:25
  • Any theories on why they do this with chat messages, but not with comments?
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Aug 17, 2011 at 9:40
  • because when you flag comments, it asks you to elaborate, and there is no option for "i disagree".
    – teresko
    Aug 17, 2011 at 14:14

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