As I mentioned in a post yesterday we have a new tool in the system now.  You can now flag posts to be featured or edited. 

The purpose of this new tool is to help keep the community running smoothly.  It is not to identify "bad" people, but in a large network of people certain rules are difficult to monitor from one central source.  By putting together this tool we feel that we will be giving the community better access to resources.

There is a new button next to all posts a flag that reads "Flag Post." Using this button you can call out the post for a number of different things.

Featured

If you are reading through the blogs and see something you'd like to get marked as a featured post on the main page of The ActiveRain Real Estate Network hit the flag button and you'll be taken to a new screen that will give you the option of selecting a flag to vote for the post.  If you're just flagging it to be featured it's not necessary to leave a comment just check the box that says "Featured" next to it and hit submit.

Plagiarized

If you should be reading and see a post in which it appears someone is using someone else's work without properly crediting them for it, then please go in to the flagging screen and check the "plagiarism" flag.  If you know another place were the copyrighted material originated from please enter the url of that original material in the box provided.

Inappropriate

We have yet to see much this type of stuff on ActiveRain.  But if you should see something that is clearly inappropriate for this forum then this is the box you would check.  As with all of these flags please be careful of what you check here, if it's something you just don't like, or don't agree with move on, this flag should be reserved for blatantly inappropriate content.

Miscategorized

Often times posts are showing up in the wrong places.  We've included this flag in order to help educate members and keep the network running smoothly as we grow.  IF you should see a post that is in the wrong place then flag it as miscategorized.

Advertisement

This is for posts that are advertisements and should be listed as such.  We have a check box, when posting, to indicate that a post is an advertisement.  It seems as though a number of times this box is missed when a person posts. This is another type of miscategorization but I felt it should get different treatment. If you should see a post that is an advertisement and isn't listed as such please submit the flag as an advertisement.

What is done with these?

Once notifications reach a certain threshold, specific actions will be taken depending upon the flags put on a post.  For example if a post gets enough featured nominations then it may be featured.  If a post gets enough miscategorized nominations then the poster may be notified and sent a link to read up on categorizing posts.

If ultimately an individual is found to be abusing The Network and hurting this community then they may be asked to leave.

The integrity of this tool depends upon your careful and deliberate use of it's features.  Do not use this tool unless you mean it.  These designations may be amended as we go forward with this.  The purpose of adding this tool was to give the community more of an outlet.

Thank you.

Caleb

Update:

Spam

Some posts are just spam.  There various types of posts that would fit into this category.  Many of them are targeted to drive search engine traffic with lots of key-words or links. This isn't helpful and is in many ways harmful.

Please revisit this page for updates on the category definitions.