Title: Reporting threads issue Last modified: August 27, 2020 --- # Reporting threads issue * Resolved [Viktor Nagornyy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/viktorix/) * (@viktorix) * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/) * Not sure if it’s an issue or not. In [another thread](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/site-redirect-5/#post-12854731), [@tobifjellner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobifjellner/), mentioned the new reporting feature is suppose to allow us to include a private message when reporting a thread. * I reported a thread for a security issue and didn’t get an option to include a private message. I just wanted to mention it in case that’s a bug. * Thanks. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) * Moderator [tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn “Tobi” Fjellner)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobifjellner/) * (@tobifjellner) * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/#post-12861126) * If you under “Report this topic for:” select “Other”, then an additional field“ Your own reason:” will be shown. * But I take it that the freetext field may be useful in other cases, too. * Moderator [Jan Dembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/) * (@jdembowski) * Forum Moderator and Brute Squad * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/#post-12861168) * [@viktorix](https://wordpress.org/support/users/viktorix/) You are using multiple accounts and that’s not permitted. * [https://wordpress.org/support/guidelines/#do-not-create-multiple-accounts-sockpuppets](https://wordpress.org/support/guidelines/#do-not-create-multiple-accounts-sockpuppets) * Pick one to keep, the other will be disabled. * **Edit:** The other account is a plugin author account and has been made a “Spectator” and cannot post in the forums any longer. It can be used to update the plugin files. * Please do not use “company accounts” in the forums again. Use one account only. * If you need to contact the moderators about this then you can do so via the Slack# forums channel. * To use that channel you need a Slack account. You can obtain one via these instructions. * [https://make.wordpress.org/chat/](https://make.wordpress.org/chat/) * When you contact the #forums channel, inform them what your WordPress.ORG forum user ID is. That will help the moderators find your account and ascertain what the issue is. * If you do use Slack do not direct message me or any other moderator. Use the # forums channel and any moderator there can assist you. - This reply was modified 6 years ago by [Jan Dembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/). * Thread Starter [Viktor Nagornyy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/viktorix/) * (@viktorix) * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/#post-12861299) * [@tobifjellner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobifjellner/) thanks! * [@jdembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/) thanks for the heads up. When I joined back in 2010, the guidelines didn’t have a section on“ sockpuppets”. That was probably the first and last time I ever looked at them. You can see what it was in 2010: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100626045918/http://codex.wordpress.org/Forum_Welcome](https://web.archive.org/web/20100626045918/http://codex.wordpress.org/Forum_Welcome) * So here are two issues that I see, which should be considered suggestions: * 1. When a user registers for wordpress.org profile, they are not asked to agree to any terms of service or guidelines. So the user won’t know there are rules they need to follow or where to find them. And legally, you can’t enforce a contract user did not agree to. There were cases about Terms of Service in the footer, those can’t be enforced unless user explicitly agreed to them. There should be a checkbox that a user must check when they register to agree to the guidelines. * 2. Terms of Service (aka guidelines) constantly change. How do you expect a user to abide by the rules that recently changed if they didn’t know about the change? There should be a modal notification when the user logs in to notify them of changes to the terms/guidelines. * I don’t have any questions about the account and understand the revised guidelines. This is simply to bring up a bigger issue with guidelines and changes to them. * Thanks. * Moderator [Jan Dembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/) * (@jdembowski) * Forum Moderator and Brute Squad * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/#post-12861537) * This will be a bit long. I’m trying to explain well and completely. Please excuse the gross grammar mistakes. * > When a user registers for wordpress.org profile, they are not asked to agree > to any terms of service or guidelines. * You are correct. But be aware that this place is not a service, it’s not a market place and there is no service level agreements (SLA). In the almost 10 years since that snapshot, yes the forum guidelines have been updated. That’s natural. * If anything this place is a community soup kitchen. I’m not kidding. Have some free opensource code as soup. * The guidelines (they are not terms of service) are just that: guidelines. If you think of that scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where Barbossa says “the code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules” then you’re not far off. Some parts of it are flexible. Using multiple accounts, sharing accounts and other things like that are not. * As you may be aware of, multiple accounts have been abused horribly in the past here and elsewhere. That’s how most of the items in the guidelines came to be. It’s been updated and will probably continue to be updated. * These forums are not for anyone’s marketing, they are not for real people helping other users. They are not for helping people to establish a company reputation. If you want to help people then please do as yourself. * **Other companies do that!** * You did not write that but I’m trying to be complete for you and anyone else who comes here to this topic. * Plugin and theme author’s occasionally do use their company account and _are asked to restrict that account use to their plugin or theme support forums here_. When the “company” account wanders outside of those support forums they are frequently asked to stop that and make a choice: do they want their company account to be made “Spectator” in the forums? * They’re also allowed to reply to topics outside of their support forum if the topic relates to their work. For example if a user had a problem with plugin ABC and it conflicts with theme XYZ and posts about it then yes, they can support users in those topics as well. * **What if someone does not want to use their real name?** * That’s fine. I would not be surprised if there’s more than a few movie character names as accounts on these forums. An alias or a handle is fine too. Many users here do just that. * But not company names please. That’s not really cool. You can put your company name and bio in your profile here. * **None of what you’ve written is in the forum guidelines** * Updating the guidelines is a challenge. The goal is to be concise and capture the intent behind them without being a 10,000 word treatise. They will get updated at some point again but that will (again) be a big group effort and attempt to get it as good as it can be. - This reply was modified 6 years ago by [Jan Dembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/). Reason: Fixed gross grammar too evil to let remain * Thread Starter [Viktor Nagornyy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/viktorix/) * (@viktorix) * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/#post-12862100) * [@jdembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/) thanks for a detailed reply, I understand where you’re coming from. Borrowing your Barbossa example, he knows what the code is, to begin with. I think that’s really my point and concern. How can you expect users to follow or even know about guidelines if they don’t know about them when they register? * As a moderator you want users to follow the forum guidelines. They can’t follow what they don’t know about. So giving them an opportunity to read them when they register would help the user and the moderators. It can be as simple as redirecting them to the [welcome message](https://wordpress.org/support/welcome/) page (maybe that’s already happening, I haven’t registered in years). * This also applies to changes to guidelines. When guidelines are changed to include new information, it’s only fair to let users know. It can be a simple notification bar at the top of all the support forum pages for a few days, or a simple modal notification when the user logs in and dismisses it. * All I ask is for you to consider these to help users and the moderators. There’s really no downside to this, only the upside. * Thanks! * Moderator [tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn “Tobi” Fjellner)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobifjellner/) * (@tobifjellner) * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/#post-12862131) * [@viktorix](https://wordpress.org/support/users/viktorix/) As Jan described above, the guidelines evolve, just like everything else around us. And now you’ve been informed about one of the least flexible rules that we’ve had to add over the years in order to protect the forums from a tide of unwanted content. * You’ve been given a choice about which profile you want to keep as your active member in the forums. The other account may remain, but its role will be changed to “Forum spectator”. If you continue arguing about “ToS”, then you’ll just force a forum admin to make this choice on your behalf. * [hastibe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hastibe/) * (@hastibe) * [5 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/#post-13320987) * I’ve been surprised by items in the forum guidelines myself, before, and think what [@viktorix](https://wordpress.org/support/users/viktorix/) is suggesting is really reasonable. I would encourage them to be considered, [@jdembowski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jdembowski/), [@tobifjellner](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobifjellner/), and others– as [@viktorix](https://wordpress.org/support/users/viktorix/) pointed out, there really is no downside to his suggestions, only an upside. * Moderator [tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn “Tobi” Fjellner)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobifjellner/) * (@tobifjellner) * [5 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/#post-13321403) * [@hastibe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hastibe/) If you want to discuss the forum rules, moderation, etc., then the right place for that is the `forums` channel in the global Slack team for WordPress contributors. You can join via [https://make.wordpress.org/chat](https://make.wordpress.org/chat) * I’ll go ahead and close this thread so that we don’t spam previous participants in it. Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total) The topic ‘Reporting threads issue’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Requests and Feedback](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/requests-and-feedback/) * 8 replies * 4 participants * Last reply from: [tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn “Tobi” Fjellner)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobifjellner/) * Last activity: [5 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/reporting-threads-issue/#post-13321403) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics