Members have the ability to flag posts and comments for a variety of reasons by clicking the [!] link by the post or comment. The current options for how to flag something are: double post, noise, derail, offensive content, breaking the guidelines, other or fantastic post.

Flagging a post sends a message to a queue read by mathowie, jessamyn and cortex and helps to alert them to problem posts and comments early, as well as indicate the level of severity of a problem post. The categorization of the post is not mission-critical since all flags go into one queue. Flags are not cumulative; there is no need to flag a comment or post more than once. Flags also point out troublespots, there is no need to flag 20 comments in a thread, choose a few and leave it at that. Flags are generally used for current comments and threads, flagging old posts and comments doesn't usually result in any action.

The fantastic post flag alerts the admins to particularly good posts or comments. Sometimes these are highlighted on the MetaFilter sidebar. You can also view posts and comments that have been flagged as fantastic on this page.
(tags: flag flagging fantastic ) March 6, 2006 - back to questions