Flagging Posts
Okay, I've officially had it with the flagger. Someone asked a reasonable question about how to handle a food allergy on tour and I answered based on real life experience on exactly that tour. Yes, the easy answer is tell Tauck but if you really want to be careful you need to advocate for yourself with restaurant staff where ever you go. I don't want to see anyone sick on tour. But apparently that was worthy of a flag.
If you've had enough of this nonsense then please respond to this post with Like or a longer response.
Solutions are to: not let flaggers hide their screen name, forcing them to give a reason as required by the Report flag (Spam doesn't have the same requirement), or having Tauck delete the accounts of anyone is repeatedly abuses the feature by flagging things that are not against Tauck's rules.
Comments
That's why I started this thread - to give everyone a chance to voice their feelings on it and offer suggestions.
It's nice that the spam feature lets us all get rid of true spam (Bonnie was back again this morning with "her" useless student accommodation posts) but I'm willing to make that require a little more effort if it solves this other.
I thought the flagger had been identified. So now they target the people they don’t like or think reported them or Investigated them. You know who you are!
There are definitely more then one but not many and there is definitely one who does it for sheer devilment.
I rarely look at Tauck on my phone, but did today while at an office and realized when you are not logged in, the buttons don’t appear.
There where never options to flag or like on the old forum. The only feature I think that was improved was the private message feature,
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Claudia - Above you referenced 'Bonnie', since she had posted early this morning. When I got on the forum today I noticed I had a Notification indication in the upper right of the interface. When I looked at it, it referred to a post by Bonnie, but no post if the forum itself was a Bonnie post. After I read the post via the Notification interface I concluded that Bonnie's post must have be deleted via the Spam limit being reached. I got the Notification indicator because Bonnie had posted her comment in a thread for which I was the original creator.
If that was the case, I was surprised that the Notification indicator was still present and that I could still find the post in the International Air discussion, that it was removed and had no Flags? Somehow this aspect of the forum interface is confusing.
Unless Tauck changes the interface there is really nothing that can be done to stop 'spiteful', 'devilish', etc. Flagging. I could be wrong, but I don't think Tauck is applying any of its limited resources to look at the forum for suggestions/opinions on how the Flagging interface is or is not working.
Perhaps providing feedback more directly to Tauck via the 'Contact Tauck' interface, assuming they received enough of it, would be more effective in bringing about a change. Submitting suggestions and rationale for suggested changes in this method might bring about some action. OR NOT.
I think we're stuck with it for the time being.
I've wondered too Sam what actually happened to 5 flagged posts that disappear. A mystery.
I know some have contacted Tauck directly with this but not everyone knows how or wants to take the time. Just clicking Like is faster and my hope is to get enough responses that Tauck will see something needs to change.
I kind of got it when threads went off topic but it's clear it has nothing to do with that now.
Embrace the flagger. The sad f…ker probably has nothing else in their pitiful life.
Flagging serves a purpose - to get rid of spam. It is being abused by a few miserable human beings (who I hope never to be on tour with), as they are the type of people the group tries to avoid.
I don't believe flagging should be removed. I do believe anonymity should be removed. If it's used properly, i.e., to flag a spammer, nobody should care if their ID is revealed. However, the way a couple of misanthropes constantly use/abuse it, their IDs should be public.
In absence of Tauck changing anything, the best thing to do is simply ignore them. They want the attention.
She probably kicks her cats.
The posting of photos came along with the new forum and it’s a great feature
Are we 100% sure that flaggers aren't trying to hit "like" and miss their mark? Or just don't realize that it's a negative thing? I didn't even know what flagging meant when I began using this forum. 🤷🏻♀️
I wonder how many members use their phones to keep themselves occupied while waiting for appointments, etc?
As I work in an eye doctor's office, I see many people squinting into their phones (sometimes while dilated!)...
Sorry...just trying to see the good in people - I can't imagine that someone would flag a photo from a tour!
Now I'll probably get flagged...or did YOU mean to post LIKE?
You can correct a reaction if hit in mistake. You just touch the icon again. Some may have made mistakes but sadly there is a tiny minority (2-3) who regularly flag posts as Spam because they offend some secret set of rules the rest of us are supposed to follow. As Cathy pointed out, photos are almost guaranteed to be flagged even when specifically from a Tauck tour. For what purpose do these people think Tauck added that feature?
Here”s one to flag
British - what is that thing? A printer with a keyboard attached - what a novel idea!
Yep, I got my flag, yep definitely not travel related
Tauck apparently uses software from Vanilla Forums which is customizable and open source so I am pretty sure it could be changed so flaggers are not anonymous and would have to give a reason for the flag.
I support the thinking that a reason for a flag should be specified. I already have 23 flags and counting and have no idea what they are all about.
Most likely Tauck does not have the resources to do much about it right now.
There are a few ‘unusual’ people that migrate through this venue. I tried unsuccessfully to point out one in the ‘bust’ thread. It is easy to read enough in this venue to sound like you know what your are talking about. That ‘Savor’ thread was something of an echo of several posts others had made but amplified. They tossed in a few nice things at the end, but that had a lot to do with places and little to do with the tour or the boat. That poster signed up on the day they started the thread, posted a highly ‘critical’ complaint, and then departed. They never visited this site before or since that day. A ‘spam’ grenade. Personally, I have been flagged 150 times … I have 805 likes, but 150 flags. Go figure.
Cathy - It's not possible to flag your own post. Try it. A little message will pop up in the lower of of the screen telling you that you can't react to your own post.