You may have noticed that our old ‘report post’ icon has changed to an orange flag icon which looks like this
That may seem like a very small aesthetic change - which indeed it is - but we hope that it will have a significant effect on the way you use the forums.
Feedback indicated that the old icon was a bit daunting and that you weren’t sure under which circumstances it was ok to report a post.
So here you have it - it is always ok to flag a post. You might find something offensive. It might be in the wrong forum. It might be spam or fluff. Whatever the reason, feel free to flag it. If we don’t believe that action needs to be taken we’ll leave it - no harm done.
It’s worse now because the alt-text and title are completely meaningless too. I mean how the hell is a nube even supposed to know what that does - for all we know it could mean flag it as important in my favorites list. “Flag post” - how descriptive. You get to the page to even actually do it and there’s no clue what the dialog box is even for… oh wait, unless you count the illegibly small fixed-metric paragraph that nobody can actually read UNDER the dialog box. /FAIL/ hard.
Gone from bad to worse.
I’m still adjusting to that being promoted by SitePoint as an approach, since when I was booted off here six or seven years ago I was shot down for even suggesting the idea.
I agree about the off-putting note below the report input box, but it appears to have been fixed. Looks much better.
Agreed. I’d have the icon sitting left of flow text “Flag Post” rather than the icon alone with title text. (or as I like to call it, “iconified”)
I think that would clear up the issue of the flag icon being a bit vague.
I totally agree. I’d not have the actual text in the image. If it were me, the text would be within an anchor that is styled with the appropriate background and icon to appear similar. It’s just not logical to use a separate image for each button when you could be using a single background image and a single icon strip image to achieve nearly the same results with more semantic code, less bandwidth, better zoom and more accessibility.
After all, if you believe in the separation of content and presentation ideologies promoted by SitePoint then you’d agree that that the content belongs in the markup and the styling belong in the CSS. So, we should not even be presenting buttons with IMG tags, but rather with anchors and lists that are styled appropriately through the proper use of CSS.
EDIT: Even the “iconified” post controls like “Multi-Quote” and “Quick Reply” aren’t marked up as IMG tags in my book. Rather they are part of the control list as an anchor with the icon applied through CSS using background-image and the title attribute applied to the anchor. This further maintains the separation of content and presentation.
Again, agreed. I do appreciate the adjustments to the content, but it shouldn’t end there.
I’d definitely get the note set as a dynamic font.
The more I think about it the more I think that “Report Post” was more appropriate. I mean, the red sign icon with an exclamation could probably have been made a little less vibrant - but the wording was on-point. I think that the real area of concern was the note under the input box for a report, which was quite daunting before.
Looking back, it was right about the time I came to SitePoint that they started promoting it, if my memory serves me right. That would be about 6 years ago, or right after your unnecessary “permaban.” (if we can still call it that) Ironic, eh?
Yes. In this case it wasn’t text but the purpose of the thing that was still in doubt. In fact, the member may not have even looked at the report/flag icon until Jason said something about it.
Maybe there can be a short line in whatever the shortest FAQ is that people get when they first sign up? At least to catch the newer people.
For the rest, maybe instead of reporting threads ourselves we (team people) should say to the OP to “click the flag to tell mods to move it”. That should help a lot as well. Maybe that was said earlier in one of the many threads but if so I missed it (easy for me to do). This might just have to be elbow-grease : ) and llamas.
actually more what the other icon seemed to say, but that would be better text. Alert someone to this post/thread. That leaves it open for any reason (which gets added in the next step). Less tattle-y than “report”.
hm, post or thread. If I reply to a thread to say “maybe this belongs over in the X forum” then I report my own post (because it’s the last post) with the idea of reporting the thread, not just my post.
Been waiting for this since you announced it on the community blog
I think it’s a great idea and personally it works better for me too. It’s much less formal, and the note underneath the report text box is definitely something off-putting. You’ll hit the report post button then when you read the text you’ll re-think whether it should be reported or not. The new orange flag is a little less formal and along with a new, fairer toned message under the input text box I think it’ll help with cleaning up any fluff around the forum.
It’s much nicer to look at than that road-sign like icon! I agree that it may be confusing for new members though, then again, I’m sure the new members that will be using the button will be able to figure it out. It’s the new members that won’t be using the report button and will have their own posts reported against them that won’t be able to figure it out
The problem with the report post icon was that people were under the impression that using it would ‘get people in trouble’.
We want you to feel comfortable using it. It isn’t just for reporting problems, it is for flagging down attention.
The term ‘flag post’ was decided on by our team of moderators who span the globe, so I’m hoping it will be clear enough.
Well, it took me a while to realise it was also a ‘Speed Dial a MOD’ button due to “conflicting wording”. I second what c2uk said about the harsh note beneath the text box being off-putting.
I think Poes told me way-back it was a dual-purpose button and hence why I’ve had to REPORT myself today due to a net connection malfunction and my accidental double-posting.
I think the flag will be more confusing myself to newer members; it looks more like a racetrack lap flag rather than something important.
