Ability to Report Users

[Manafii101]

So earlier today I received a pm with the following:

Hello I'm a member of ThePokeCenter123. It's a Pokemon community composed of a forum and a chat. It's a great community, and everyone is friendly. Some forums that we have are: Trading, Battling, Arcade, Free Pokemon (Poke Prizes), Tournaments, PO, Off-Topic, Xbox, PlayStation, Xbox360, General Discussion, Black & White, TCG, and many more!!! One of the best parts about ThePokeCenter123 is the Free Pokemon. PokeCenter (The Owner) gives Free Pokemon (He has all 649 all 100% legit). He has every Pokemon and item Generation 1-5. All members get Free Pokemon and all you have to do is become a forum member (Free of course). Get Free Pokemon by being a member = Have fun and get Free Pokemon. Also if you’re interested in becoming a part of ThePokeCenter123 staff apply on the Announcements Forum topic Apply for Staff. Staff jobs are: Moderator, YouTube Team, Chat Moderator, Elite, and more! Check ThePokeCenter123 I'm sure you'll like it: http://thepokecenter123.com Note: If you have any questions ask on the forum. Fellow Members, Moderators, and maybe PokeCenter himself will answer your questions.

Noticing that it was an obnoxious attempt at advertising, I forwarded it to a mod. Then I received:

Dear Manafii101,

You have received a warning at Smogon Community.

Reason: Advertising
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Do not advertise other websites, especially by private message.
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This warning is worth 2 point(s). If you have fewer than four points' worth of warnings, they will result in no change to your forum experience. If, however, you reach four points of warnings, your forum access will be slightly limited. If you accumulate six points, you will be banned until some of your warnings expire.

All the best,
Smogon Community

So how am I meant to alert mods to the fact that there are spammers and advertisers? If I don't tell a mod, who will? And why is reporting other users considered advertising. :(

Therefore I propose that on a person's profile, there should be an option to report that user to a moderator. This would avoid future miscommunication, and it would remove spammers more quickly.

 

[mingot]

Hi there. Forward that PM to me.

 

[KnightoftheWind]

I'm guessing whoever infracted you got the wrong idea when you forwarded the PM, thinking you were advertising and not reporting him. It would've been better imo if you sent a regular PM saying "Hi, User X has been advertising to several people, please ban him. Thanks." But I agree, a report user function would be more useful to prevent incidents that you have undergone.

 

[Fatecrashers]

just write a simply-worded PM instead of forwarding spam, easy as that

 

[firecape]

Also, regular mods can't do much except infract a bunch of times. PM a supermod or admin about this kind of thing so they can perma ban the offender.

 

[haunter]

Exactly. Just private message a supermod or admin so they can directly ban the offender. You can check active admins\smods here.