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Apparently, I've been flag banned again, after a very small amount of time.

This time it's because I flagged this question, which is a wonderful example of rudeness (I'm considering the question and the comments as a whole). Let me just quote a few parts:

After 3 years, i come back for using linux and its still suck with drivers

But its really stupid when you can get one laptop work properly

How the hell itsn't the error message?

end users don't have time for this stupid s**t.

Can you read? The question is very clear

Now. The importance of the Be nice policy and the same concept expressed in the Ubuntu Code of Conduct is a fact and not something debatable. Even if it was, it has already been discussed on meta. I really hope there is no disagreement here.

It seems to me that lately my flags get denied a lot more than before, even if I never changed the criteria I use for flagging stuff. I could just stop flagging altogether and go on with other contributions (of course with much less engagement than before) but I prefer to understand the reasons behind this and especially why a flag for objectively nonconstructive behavior has been declined.

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  • 3
    Your last ban never expired. It was for 6 days.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:01
  • @Seth then I'm a bit confused, since my flag history says I flagged it 6 hours ago.
    – Andrea Lazzarotto
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:36
  • Huh. Let me look again.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:38
  • From an SE employee: "Because the flag ban is a rolling limit - it's not set in stone. If some of her flags got processed as helpful after the ban, she might have dropped below the 25% threshold and been allowed to flag again (although she should have still seen a warning at that point). The declined offensive flag today probably dropped her into ban territory again."
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:52
  • 2
    @Seth Thank you. I am not a native speaker, I guess "her" is an impersonal pronoun, right?
    – Andrea Lazzarotto
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 18:00
  • 5
    English doesn't have an impersonal pronoun for that case. Andrea is the feminine form for Andrew in English so I used "her" when asking the question. I did not intend it to reflect your gender in any way. I now see in Italian it is the masculine form. Sorry if that was awkward. btw, your English is very good, I hadn't the slightest idea it was not your first language :)
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 20:44
  • 1
    @Seth, don't worry. It happens so many times. :D Andros in greek is the literal word for "man", I still don't understand how it became a female name but well, it sometimes is even here. :) I asked because I definitely recall some CS books (even Tanenbaum's Computer Networks IIRC) where a generic "user" was always referred as "she" so I though it could be a standard choice. Thanks for your appreciation of my English.
    – Andrea Lazzarotto
    Commented Aug 2, 2016 at 17:12
  • @AndreaLazzarotto some authors make it a policy to use "her" for a generic user (I think Tanenbaum even says so in his introductions/forewords). It's far more common to see "him", so some try to correct the imbalance. You could also see "they" used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun in some places, and some new made-up words as well.
    – muru
    Commented Aug 2, 2016 at 21:32
  • @muru thanks for pointing that out. I also use "they" most of the time. Anyway, I guess I opened an OT here... sorry. :)
    – Andrea Lazzarotto
    Commented Aug 2, 2016 at 22:51
  • 1
    @Seth english have impersonal pronoun, it is singular they.
    – Hi-Angel
    Commented Aug 3, 2016 at 8:32
  • 2
    @Hi-Angel Singular they is not grammatically correct, as my English teacher always told me, although I do occasionally use it anyway.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Aug 3, 2016 at 13:24
  • we should have a more flexible voting system: gist.github.com/AquariusPower/ee2b7fc44e674296a324, then we could have sub-scores to negative evaluations :)
    – Aquarius Power
    Commented Aug 8, 2016 at 17:58
  • @AquariusPower Talking about recurrence lol I think I'm getting another cup of coffee, this day started much fun. Sub votes of the Sub-votes of the sub-votes should be called infra-Votes and then we have the Dante's votes section. I liked it, this could wear off the right people. (which we don't need at Chat but the platform could be called a Troll site I guess)
    – userDepth
    Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 9:05
  • 1
    @Seth sorry, but I can't help it. Actually, singular they is perfectly fine and has been in steady use in English for centuries. Sadly, some people seem to think they speak better English than Shakespeare, Austen and Defoe and are trying to convince people that singular they is somehow wrong. However, both usage and historical precedent are against them. Here's ELU's take on it (as expressed by one of the top users and a professional linguist), and this is what Wikipedia has to say.
    – terdon Mod
    Commented Aug 13, 2016 at 19:10
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    @terdon I'll let you and my English teacher duke it out while I go do useful things ;)
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Aug 13, 2016 at 19:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I say the rude/abusive flags are only for posts which are written with a bad intention of not asking/answering a question but plainly ranting or offending people.

The post you linked shows at least tiny bits of a question, so you could (should, in my opinion) have edited it to remove all the swearing and rants and only leave the objective question.

There is of course no well defined border between rude/abusive and a salvageable question with some removable rants. It's always a subjective matter here and one reviewer would have approved your flag while others declined it.

However, please bear in mind that if a post gets deleted by spam or rude/abusive flags there is an automatic penalty for the author. Therefore those flags should be raised with care and only if an author clearly is trying to abuse the site and not trying to ask a question at all.

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    No, those effects happen for a single approved spam/offensive flag (-100 rep, IP restrictions, etc). It doesn't have to be deleted. I'm guessing that is why the flag was declined. It is also important to note most of the examples provided were from the long string of comments, not the post itself.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:17
  • @Seth, so I should've flagged every single comment by the OP rather than the question? It seems a bit overkill then, but ok.
    – Andrea Lazzarotto
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:37
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    @AndreaLazzarotto You can, or just custom flag one of the comments and mention there are more. Then someone will read through them all. People seem afraid to use custom flags, but they really are the best for anything that isn't completely obvious :)
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:37
  • «there is an automatic penalty for the author» O.O Ok I was aware regarding the spam part, but does it also apply for a single rude Q? Is it the same for comments?
    – Andrea Lazzarotto
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:43
  • @Seth I see, thank you. «People seem afraid to use custom flags» TBH now I am afraid of using any flag.
    – Andrea Lazzarotto
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:44
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    @AndreaLazzarotto The rep penalty and other restrictions only apply to posts, not comments. re 2nd comment: Remember you can talk to people in Ask Ubuntu Chat (including me) at any time if you are unsure. The system can come across pretty harsh sometimes and I'm sorry that happens.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 16:47
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    @Seth Good to know about the custom flag. I just wasted time flagging several individual comments for the same reason.......
    – Elder Geek
    Commented Aug 1, 2016 at 17:18
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    @Byte Commander, it is not subject as it can't be defined. Flagging Rude/Abusive is not about nick picking sentences and pointing at bad words. It is about what you are saying, which is when the whole message is : "GTFO" everybody and blah blah" People should not be asked to be saints and be maniacally happy and nice. That's exaggerating things to paint rainbows all over as I see.
    – userDepth
    Commented Aug 9, 2016 at 22:55

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