As many of you know, I was recently inducted into the ranks of PMC staff as a Forum Moderator. I love the job and take pride in helping the site to be tidy, spam-free, and peaceful; however, I have a well deserved rant that is about to find its way onto this page.


It is increasingly obvious to me that users would rather yell at people for breaking the rules than report them like they are supposed to.


Enter the report button.






If you didn't know where it was before, you do now.


PMC staff are not magicians. We do not own magical unicorns that summon crispy bacon. More importantly...






We do not have spidey sense for when people are breaking the rules.






We do, however, have a Bat Signal. It is called a report button. Since I am a forum mod, I will go over some instances of when you should report a user.






When to report:






Double Posts:



If you see someone has two threads on the same subject, report them. You only have to report on the the threads for us to take care of it.

Necro- Posting:

If the last reply on a thread is 20+ days old or the thread has very clearly been dead for a similar or greater amount of time and someone replies to the thread, report it. Always check when the thread was created and when the last reply was posted before posting a reply on a thread.




Bots:



Anything that has joined today or yesterday, has few posts, has an ad link in their signature, and is spamming ads is probably an ad-bot. Report it.



Here are a few bot examples that we see a lot:


- "Watch [sports event]! [link] [link] [link]"


- "Watch [free movies online]! [link] [link] [link]"


- "Free Riot Points! [link] [link] [link]"



- "Free Minecraft! [link] [link] [link]"






Flame Wars:



This is one that bugs me the most. If people are calling each other children, generally arguing about something dumb, using profanity, homophobic or racial slurs, report them. Do not argue with them about how they are breaking the rules. Do not correct them. Do not make another thread complaining about it. REPORT THEM.






Excessive Bumping:



If someone is bumping their thread more than once in 24 hours report them. Do not report every single bump in a thread. Report one. We will handle the rest.






Bumping: Making a pointless post on one's own thread in order to bump it back up into the "20 Latest Posts" or to the top of the forum section in which it was posted.






Examples of bumping are:


- "Hi."

- "Anyone?"



- "Please?"



- "I still need help."






Commercial Advertising:



This is rule number six in our site rules. If someone is advertising a company or service or selling something on this site, whether it is a Minecraft Gift Code or a car, report them.






Diamond Begging:



This is in the submission rules. If someone is begging for diamonds, report them.


Not acceptable:


- "Give me diamonds or I won't make more submissions."



- "Please give me diamonds, I have none!"






Acceptable:


- "Diamond if you like it!"






Sub4Sub/Diamond4Diamond/Bribery:



Report any and all of these instances. Report the user responsible for the post even if they are asking for Youtube subscriptions in exchange for them subscribing to another user.






Sub4Sub: "Subscribe me and I will subscribe to you."



Diamond4Diamond: "Diamond my stuff and I'll diamond yours."



Bribery: "Diamond or subscribe to me and I will make a skin for you."






Wrong Section:



Site Discussion and Support is for things regarding the PMC website such as problems with loading, saving, or suggestions. If there is an advertisement for a server in there, report it. It is in the wrong section. Skin Shops do not belong in Skinning. They belong in Shops and Requests. Youtube videos do not belong in General Discussion. They belong in Videos and Channels. If there is any other material that is in the wrong section of the forum, report it. Do not complain in the thread that the person put it in the wrong section. REPORT IT.






Blacklisting:



If someone has posted a thread warning the community about a specific user or server, report them. This is not allowed. Do not correct them. Do not complain. REPORT.






While more useful reports would be extremely helpful to keep our forums clean, useless reports are not helpful and are a waste of our time.







When NOT to report:






You disagree with what someone said:



If it is hurtful, such as an insult that may result in a flame war, fine. But if it is an opinion such as "I dislike President Obama due to some of the articles included in the health care reform, ObamaCare." do not report this person.






You got banned from a server which is advertising in the Servers section:



Their server, their choice. PMC does not police every single server for "abusive staff". Find another server.






Lastly, as stated many times throughout this blog, do not mini-mod. Don't complain. Don't argue. Don't warn the user about breaking the rules or about how their thread is going to be removed if they don't stop. I will have your soul if you do.






Report it.