tagged w/ flag abuse
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House on Fire by dvs on flickr.com
Here's the situation. You come home from a nice night out only to find that your next door neighbor's home, and everything in it, is on fire. This isn't just a tiny fire, this is a full blown blaze. So, what do you do?
You could:
1. Rush inside in an attempt to put out the fire, or save anyone who might happen to be trapped inside.
2. Take the "who cares as long as it's not me" approach, ignore the flames, and settle into bed for the evening.
3. Call 911 and report the fire to the fire department.
Let's consider these options.
Choice #1: While altruistic and noble, puts you at great risk. You're not equipped with fire retardant gear, and you could easily find yourself sucked into the blaze, injured, or even blamed for having something to do with the incident.
Choice #2: This is obviously the selfish route. No one would blame you for wanting to avoid risk, but option #3 is really not that difficult to do, so why not lend a helping hand?
Choice #3: Let's face it, you share a community space with your neighbors. A burned up house will only drive down the value of your own home, so you're somewhat invested in taking some action. The fire fighters are only human, so they can't patrol every cul du sac looking for imminent fire hazards. Reporting a fire is a really easy way to help others out without putting yourself at risk.
Obviously this is a hypothetical situation, but it definitely relates to some of the issues that arise in online communities such as our own here at Current.com. Our site is designed to facilitate discussions. We welcome all points of view, and we encourage debate.
Wherever debate exists, differences of opinions are sure to crop up, and when those rear their heads, things can easily spiral from debate into attacks in a very timely fashion.
As a member of our community, we ask that you avoid taking option #1 wherever possible -- no matter how heated an attack on you or your connections may be. If you step in and attempt to put out the fire yourself, there is a good chance that you might find yourself surrounded by flames, or resorting to actions that are in violation of our community guidelines.
We also ask that you refrain from taking choice #2 as well. We're all in this together, so please contribute to making Current a better place for everyone to debate and discuss.
As a community member, please take a look at our newly refined community guidelines, and help out by reporting any potential fires you happen upon while participating on Current.com.
Sending a flag to the online community team is not a negative thing, it's a good thing. It helps us keep abreast of some of the things going on within the community. We do our best to be everywhere at once, but even with our internal tools this isn't always possible. So we enlist your help. If you're not sure, flag it. You may find that what you report is not actually a violation of our community guidelines, but it is still helpful and we appreciate it.
Also, reporting a flag doesn't give you the right to attack someone on the site. Just report it and let us take a look. We have a 24 hour response window, so you should get feedback on your flag in a relatively short amount of time.
Similarly, electing not to flag comments doesn’t give you license to respond in suit. You may not be responsible for the fire down the block, but that doesn’t mean you get to set fire to your next door neighbor’s house because the one down the block is on fire.
Thanks!
House on Fire by dvs on flickr.com
Here's the situation. You come home from... more
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