Does any work actually ever get done here?

Can you please stop posting on this thread? Please. Everything you have said has either been (1) irrelevant (2) inflammatory (3) caused other used to post inflammatory things. It really seems to me like you don't think before you post. I just want this thread to go in a healthy direction and at this point with your involvement, it is not really possible.

Wasn't this SCA as you call it discussed something like a year ago? How am I supposed to even consider that a valid response given the current track record. I try to ignore statements that consist of outright lies, misdirection, or complete nonsense. All of these things that were "Brought up" have been mentioned multiple times in months past, none of them shown to have been acted on. The database is dying, and you folks are un-intentionally hurting the entire community by not embracing actual change.

There are claims over and over again of not having enough time. How is the community supposed to view that as an answer? If a person does not have the time to actually make something that people rely on functional, they should allow someone who does have the time take the helm.

read(rd)
v. read (rd), read·ing, reads
a. To discern and interpret the nature or significance of through close examination or sensitive observation: The tracker read the trail for signs of game.

And we've never denied a problem, hence why this thread was kept open and why SR staff have been involved in discussions.

Nope, SCAs are an active thing that we currently use (I was responding to your suggestion that CAs come in and do reports). There's a number of them and they all handle their own reports. We're actively trying to increase the number. The issue is that, people say "these things were brought up and were not acted on".

• Greatly expand SCA. -- We've been trying to add in more as we get more Associate communities. Actively being done, privately.
• Making more SR tools available to regular community admins. -- There's been an increased amount of discussion about sharing tools across sites. Actively being done, privately.
• Adding more SR staff. -- Wuvs, Penguin, Clive and Myself. If we go back further, Pretender, Thomas and etc.
• SR leadership delegate out more to SR staff. -- Something that we're working to improve and have started a bit.
• Allow SR mods to do more in terms of processing appeals/reports. -- Something that was mentioned and will have to be looked into.
• Streamline the submissions of reports and appeals. -- The reports form was added and has already done this.

I'm not saying there's not more work to do, or that we don't have a problem. But I don't believe we're sitting here idly. I've done hundreds of reports lately and also taken time to address this thread because I believe in community input.

While I believe in input, from what I see, this thread is heading for a lock.

Okay here my points:
•spread productivity
-allow mods more freedom (as someone said temporary precautions stuff like that)
-automatically delegate different cases to admins and mods that way they all share workload evenly
•I think there should be more admins and more mods but apparently the pool of candidates isn't good so maybe that isn't an option.
• Adjustment to the rule that newer reports should be solved first. Surely people that have been waiting longer deserve help first?
•if certain admins are more for the development and coding of steamrep then make a separate team who deal with reports.

1 question also; how long does an average report take and why would it take that long?

The mod's job is to weed through the reports and prepare them for the admins, if you split reports between mods and admins, there will be essentially no difference between the position of admin and mod.
I agree, people who wait longer should get help first, but remember what the purpose of the report function is. The reporters aren't getting help. SteamREP does not return scammed goods. What happens is the COMMUNITY gets help as a dangerous user is tagged with a scammer mark. Because of this, newer reports are taken first because they represent the users who are currently, actively scamming right now. Those are the people who need to be tagged. Certainly far more than some account that scammed a year ago and hasn't logged in since May 2013.

How many half-measures equal a full measure?

Depends on reports, I've had to spend literally a few days on one before. Dealing with witnesses, logs, and various communities.

Wait, so us trying to start changes and work on them the best we can is not enough?

So that then brings about another point that reports should not be done on Xenforo/BBCode as it must means there are limitations to what resources you can put on a report. For example there must be a way to integrate steam API so that when an admin clicks on a report they can see instantly some information about the reported person, like how long ago they logged in.

So something that could be done in the immediate future is that when an mod reads a report for review they can also select the condition/severity of the report. This way reports that are more serious are dealt with sooner.

I'm sorry, I was frustrated and made an unnecessary comment. I do not have any faith whatsoever that the proposed (working) changes will result in the level of change that is required. I deeply hope you consider what I've said, I have everyone's best interest in my mind. Time will tell who is right. I hope the community is best served by whatever decisions are come to, and whatever actions are taken.

That's all available via Steam and SR profiles. I don't really think that we can count reports being done in "BBCode", as that's just a formatting tool, not an actual coding language. Anyway, ticketing has been suggested before and there's always been complaints that it wouldn't be transparent. People state having admins/mods just have all reports private and just mark people without having anything in the open would be corruption and like a dictatorship and etc.

I'm not saying that we've done all that we're going to do, and it's going to be tough and difficult process to update and work through the reports. I hope that people such as yourself hold us to a standard and challenge us to do better and encourage and invest your own ideas and time into it. That's how the community can change and things get better.

(Going to go relax now away from my computer, let's not burn down this thread while I watch some Netflix.)

Without getting too deep in the discussion, the function he mentions would be just above trivial to implement, though I've never worked with Xenforo specifically, it's just a case of altering the rendering of the BBcode.

Does steamrep have plans to improve the report system, get rid of xenforo and create an improved report system.

A ticket system would be an awful move. Even if everything was submitted via more elaborate forms, everything would still need to end up in a place open to everyone and a ticket system doesn't allow that. I can't think of a way that justifies the time spent creating/implementing a new system and still has the transparency that a forum does. Maybe there are better forum softwares our there but again, the reward for implementing one is much too slim to actually consider in a real world. In a theoretical one, sure, go nuts but in the real world, time is precious, an asset that SR cannot afford to waste doing such trivial things.

In this whole thread, I've only seen a couple of you actually try to think about all the actual issues and possible solutions before hitting submit. You all have a brain, use it.

SR does not have a problem with receiving reports. That part of our 'process' goes QUITE well, as everyone can see. SR has an issue of reviewing those reports, and no matter what we use, ticket, forum, carrier pigeon, it does NOT solve the issue of actually reviewing them.

Let's say we shut down SR for 3 months (liberal estimate) and release a new super duper ticket system and now people can submit in seconds. Well now we have thousands in the backlog and triple the amount coming in daily with the same staff, if not tired from having to implement/learn a completely new system. Not to mention the whole 3 month period when things were hectic.

^ not going to happen btw.

Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, we're trying to focus on real solutions to real problems, it's fine and dandy to look into a new forum software, or a new addon or a fancy skin with blue buttons! But do so when you have the time. SR has one focus, to improve and maintain the review process, whether it be Reports, Appeals or Applications.

At the end of the day, I agree there can be changes made to SR and to improve the back-end/technical components. However, I don't believe that is a discussion for now. I believe the right answer is to fix the underlying problems. To motivate the administrators, to strength the moderators, to expand both, to work further with community and increase their ability to manage their own tags, and to streamline and organize a clear A to B method of dealing with reports, appeals and applications.

If we can work down the backlog, to diversify SR and bring things to a place where we want to be, then we can commence the talks for re-inventing the wheel.

Fair enough. I may have been brash in what I said, you have my apologies. I still hold on to what I said about solutions for SR, as unpopular as it may be.

With that said I'll escort myself outta.

^escort myself outta here.

Why can't I edit my posts....

So therefore you could solve the problems and backlogs by; delegating workload throughout admins and moderators, give moderators more power, and implement features that streamline processing reports for admins ?

What you suggest is impossible. Moderators and Administrators hold two different positions. You can't split work between them. You can't give them equal powers. What the heck is the point of a Mod position if we do that? I'll answer that question myself... There is none. Giving mods more powers is one thing, upping current mods to admins is another and removing the moderator position is not even on the same planet as the other two. It just isn't practical nor logical. to delegate workload between Admins and Moderators.

I think you may have misunderstood, spread the workload to solve reports between admins, spread workload between mods to accept reports.