poser
Active member
In most cases I'd agree that sending a msg to the creator would be a good idea. Personally, I haven't run across anyone here who doesn't want to play by the rules. I think everyone who posts here cares enough to try to work within the rules (at least as far as I can see).Would it be an idea to actually message your concern to the creator(s) so they could get the opportunity to edit the posted images in a thread, before playing the policeofficer? We are some who actually care enough to try to work within the rules. We are not perfect and I do realise that there can be some who may have a concern, and that some images may be considered right on the edge of the rules - and that is absolutely fair. I don't intend to break any rules and I'm sure that JennaJJ feels the same way as me. I have seen things that I find much worse than what we have been posting - but again, not everybody agrees to the same things and as long as the moderators have accepted what has been posted then it's fine with me - but don't treat me (or other creators) as criminal low-life child abusers.
There's two problems here. First, you say "as long as the moderators have accepted" as if the forum moderators view each and every post before it's posted to the general public. That's true as to a posters' first few posts but once they've been screened for spam I haven't seen anything that suggests a moderator views each post and "approves" them for content. I could be wrong, but I doubt they have enough moderators for that. Second, I don't think of using the report button as playing police officer. It's just a method for a forum to police itself - especially if there aren't enough moderators to go around.
There are some valid reasons for an anonymous report function, probably the biggest is to prevent reporting wars where two or more posters do almost nothing but report each other's posts just for revenge. Another might be because a poster is just sick and tired of putting up with the arguments that a moderator doesn't have to put up with. There are more, but those two are particularly common (IMO).
Like you suggest, sending a direct msg to the creator might be great, it's not always going to be the best way too do something. In the case of potential child pornography I'm going to err on the side of caution and report things. I'll try to msg the creator when I do so, but I can't guarantee I'll always msg the creator.