I just had an idea from your post, since you said we merely need to press the report button, which is clearly false, even though I understand your point.

Why not make it to where the user only has to click on "report post" and be done with it? Why does the user have to fill out who the name of the offender was, and what they did? Shouldn't that be the mods' jobs to do?

And again, having feedback from the mods would be great. It helps us users grow and learn when to report posts, and could very well help save the report inbox from getting so many more reports than is necessary.

For instance, if I reported someone, but the mods decided that it wasn't a bad offense and let the guy go, I'd like to hear that from the mods so that next time I can be aware and maybe not report people as often, saving the mods work in the long run.

True, its 90% a WARNING first then futher action is taken later.

you aren't forced to put anything in the description. All that needs to be there really is a little something on what you think they were doing wrong. "trolling" "flaming" "calling my mother a fat ho when she is actually an upstanding woman" anything. If you're reporting a post I know who posted it because it links me to that post.

About the feedback, just takes time and seems largely unnecessary.

Ah... it tells me I need to name the person who made the offense when I'm on that page. Still, it would definitely be easier for people to just have to click one button, while the mod does the work he has special privilages and volunteered to do.

About the feedback, it appears that many users would really appreciate it. I've seen it in two threads today, counting this one, where countless users post that they wish to have feedback from the mods.

For a "community driven site", us community members sure are left in the dark about how helpful/not helpeful our actions are and how we can better ourselves for dealing with issues such as when to report and when not to.

Giving feedback to the members of the community helps them become better judges of when to report or not. Why should you do it? Because it betters the members of this site. You expect us to better this site by reporting users, but you won't give us feedback in order to also help better this site? You want us to work for it, but you guys won't help us back in your own way?

Seems a bit hypocritical. :P I suppose it does raise the question of whether or not it would be beneficial to give the community feedback on issues with reporting. I for one think it would, especially considering this is a community driven site.

Please tell me if I've gone off somewhere wrong, I'm not trying to prove a point or anything, I'm just speculating and trying to figure this all out, meanwhile seeing if we can't all make moves to make this site better off.

It just seems like you are thinking way too much into this.  Report someone and move on, right or wrong it doesn't matter.  YOu know the post was offensive to you, that's why you reported it.  You are asking far too much from a bunch of volunteers.  All I ask is that if something bothers you enough that you make it known, otherwise leave it be.

BTW, exactly what special privelidges do you think I get for being a mod, daily tea times with Brett?  I get a green name, that's it.  Before I became a mod I had the ability to write and post reviews, and the ability to content edit the reviews of others.  Becoming a mod did not add any tangible privelidge that I'm aware of.

I am a mod on another site - it's part of my job some days - and my job is to deal with reported comments. I do it because I want to make the paper's site better. I enjoy it - but sometimes, if I'm in a foul mood, everything reported gets deleted. However, most days, I'll look through the reported post and deal with it appropriately. However, the site mods are NOT allowed to interact with the users at all. The head online dude deleted all of my posts - and I was like 'Huh?' Then, I was pulled aside and told not to interact with the users - at all.

When I have down time, I just surf the site - usually the most commented stories - and look for really, really off-topic and hate speech stuff and delete it.

Different sites have different standards. Good thread, good posts.

Am I the only one getting sick of all this debating? It's almost like Wfz is too scared to admit that he is wrong. This has to be one of the few big debates on the site that made me feel like there was a nail being driven into my head. It's one thing to question, it's another thing to over-analyze every freakin' aspect of every freakin' thing imaginable. You keep on saying that mods rely too much on people reporting posts. They don't. Part of dealing with someone is knowing if people actually care. If someone trolled but nobody seemed to care, it's a lot less likely that a mod would take action. This is why people can also choose in real life to press or deny to press charges against a person for an offense towards them.

Just admit you're wrong about this. I've been through so many boring arguments today that went nowhere.

I think most people would agree that we have one of the most well modded sites on the internet. Doubly so when considering this sites subject matter and the sort of people it tends to attract.

I think it's odd that someone would reach the conclusions I've seen in here. If 1) You report a person and 2) Nothing happens, why would you conclude that we never saw that report? Or, alternatively, if 1) you thought you saw a banworthy post and 2) Nothing happens, why would you conclude the same?

Just consider, as is more likely, that we don't consider those issues banworthy. Just as a note, we are made immediately aware of any posts that are reported. There's a big red button on the side of my UI every time it happens. We do not miss reports, it's basically impossible. If the person doesn't get banned, it's because we didn't want to ban them.

Which brings us to the real question: yes, we are deliberately lax with our rules. We'll stomp on people if they draw a penis in a thread or tell someone they're a #O*@)#$*(@)#, but for the most part we're deliberately open with discussion because we don't believe in highly rigid rules for an internet forum (or at least, most of us are this way. We have a few that swing the ban hammer more heavily). If you don't agree with that approach, that's fine, but we didn't decide on this approach magically. It is thought through.

1. No mod is paid (except for VG$ and naz nickels).  We get nothing other than the occasional headache for this.
2. I think we have a good number of mods.  It's pretty rare I see more than 2 or so jobs in the queue.  I know there for a while there would be 10+ jobs waiting all the time.
3. Some posts are easy to moderate, some aren't.  Those ones that aren't, the ones where we have to read a 5+ page thread, research someone's past behavior, and make tough choices, take time.  Don't always expect to see results minutes after you report a post.
4. Not all reports require action.  If I had to make a very rough estimate, I would say I dismiss a good 1/3 of the mod jobs I see.  I'm never upset at people for reporting anything they have even the smallest problem with, but just understand that not everyone will see everything as you do.
5. You don't always see everything that goes on.  If the user isn't banned and we don't make a warning in the thread, the mod actions are completely invisible to you. 
6. We cannot be expected to read every thread and every post.  We are human and we will miss things.  We have lives and we will not read every thread.  That's just the way it is and that's why we have the report button.  It's not because we want you the user to do our jobs.  Our job isn't to find the problems, it's to take care of them.