In the wake of many "Questionable" articles that people are up in arms about. I wanted to post a notice that anybody abusing the Report system in Pending News, Will receive a temporary restriction. Here are a few examples of offenses that will get you restricted.

1. Multiple reporting - Spam/Fake/Lame - I like to call this Fanboy reporting. If you don't like a story Lame will suffice.

2. Duplicate Story - Because a story discusses a story - What I mean by this is that often times a story is written by a major publication, then through the power of the "Internets" a million people write a story discussing the publication. This does NOT qualify as a Duplicate. Again, If you don't like/agree with the story... Lame is your best course of action here.

3. Spam - If it is not spam - Save the Spam report for actual Spam. This "I'm gonna fail this story" attitude of the spam report is done. Use it for this purpose and you will receive a minimum 3 day restriction.

4. Blog Reporting - Spam: Blog - Blogs ARE allowed on N4G (As noted here Word to Webmasters and Bloggers) However if you click the link and the blog looks like it is made by a 3rd grader or one of the legendary fanboys of N4G use your judgement and report it Lame or Other and explain why. This is covered in the rules briefly HERE.

5. Arguing in the Report Section - Just don't do it, This will get you an instant restriction.

The restriction times will range from 24 hours to Permanent, Based on severity and past offenses.

- A few others tips for reporting in Pending -

* When marking a story as a "Duplicate Story" if you are the first please provide the link to the original. This serves two purposes. One to let the Contributor check the validity of the report and possibly change the story, and Two so that others may check the report and link, and report it as well. Obviously if the person has provided a valid link you don't have to also if you are second or third, although it doesn't hurt to do it.

* When marking a story Bad Editing please be specific on your report, some new contributors might not fully understand what they have done wrong if not explained to them. This will help people fix their stories faster.

* When reporting for a picture being to small, go the extra step and find a more suitable picture on Google images. While not necessary it can often help n00bs.

* Report a story for "Bad Editing" when the description ends with "More after the jump" or "Click the link to read more" N4G provides a "Read Full Article/Story" for a reason this is not needed in the description as well.

* If you don't like a story, then either: don't read it; mark it as 'lame' and move on, or use the comments to politely discuss why the article is full of crap. (Credit to Columbo)

Nice list Syko.  Things have gotten crazy on this site ever since the November NPDs.

But I think the main thing that needs to be pointed out is that blogs are allowed.  The rules & guidelines have a section for Bloggers and Webmasters.  So those reporting blog articles as "spam" because they are critical of a console or company should be restricted (and from your post it sounds like that will happen).  However, that doesn't mean that you need to run and create a blog of your own so you can post articles to defend your console and hate on the others.  The rules & guidelines also have a section on negative news that reads: "Again as with all news stories the important thing is that what you report is newsworthy. That some no-name-blogger writes a story about how much he dislikes console X, that is not news."

I know all these articles about consoles failing are tiresome and annoying, but this site is a news aggregate.  That's means it contains all sources of news, not just pro-Sony or pro-Microsoft stories.  If you don't like a story, then either: don't read it; mark it as 'lame' and move on, or use the comments to politely discuss why the article is full of crap.

I'm really glad that a mod created a thread like this to address all the complaints that have been springing up.  However, I have a question.  The mods always say that there is no way they can see everything that goes on daily at this site, so how should we inform the right people when we see users breaking the rules?  I know you say PM, but I just feel like I'm intruding or bothering the mods if I send PMs like that.  That's just my personal feeling.

Of course I mentioned some things like this in the thread I created a while back, but oh well.  Another thing that I think needs to be addressed is 'gamers' and 'trainees' ability to report stories, but that can be saved for a separate thread.

No, not at all. It is actually more bothering to me getting 10 PM's whining about something than a PM informing me of a problem. By addressing me or another staff member directly it can often keep headaches to a minimum and squash problems before they grow.

Very good point about the "Blog" thing. Not sure how that slipped my mind. Consider that added as well.

What about those users that approve stories despite there being bad editing, bad spelling, or wrong source reports?  People always forget to add the related game to stories, and this step is essential in catching those duplicate stories.  Its so easy to click the "related games" tab before hitting the approve button to see if there are other stories just like the one being submitted.  I know some users are so excited to read some important news or want to push through some questionable news, but ignoring real reports is serious IMO.

ORIGINAL: Columbo

What about those users that approve stories despite there being bad editing, bad spelling, or wrong source reports?  People always forget to add the related game to stories, and this step is essential in catching those duplicate stories.  Its so easy to click the "related games" tab before hitting the approve button to see if there are other stories just like the one being submitted.  I know some users are so excited to read some important news or want to push through some questionable news, but ignoring real reports is serious IMO.

This may be straying a bit O.T. from what Syko intended, but this may be worthy of inclusion in the O.P. - one of the restrictions I dole out most frequently is for approving stories with active, unfixed reports. Pushing stories through pending that have reports on them means they get out onto the site before the contrib or I have a chance to patch them up, and that's no good.

I think we need a "forum post" report option that has an auto-fail type system built in like duplicates and spam (sometimes).  Reporting it as "other" doesn't do anything at all because people just ignore the 8 "other" reports and approve, but sometimes it doesn't really quality as a "spam" report either.  Just my opinion.

Flame Wars and arguments should stay in PM's and not in reports. Also avoid swearing or calling people "Xbots," "Sony Droids" or other fanboy vocab. Avoid insulting the Contributor if they missed something... that's all I got.

Got that Boldy...Edited and added. It is annoying to see people arguing in your story's report section.

Are we supposed to report reporting violations in this thread of via PM's?

There are few below...

http://www.n4g.com/NewsPendingCom-347268.aspx
A developer of the Ghostbusters game (http://www.skankerzero.com/) made a resposne to the Lens of Truth's comparison video and it has been met with some blatant ignorance and disregard by reporters.
Sonyslave3 appears to be violating rule #3
Why dis for rules #1/#3
Blaze929 needs to read the rules regarding forum posts (which I just PM'd him).

Via PM to either me or Catastrophe is fine...

* When marking a story Bad Editing please be specific on your report, some new contributors might not fully understand what they have done wrong if not explained to them. This will help people fix their stories faster.

I guess some people dont read the rules or tips.  I just send my first story for approval and somebody said "bad editing" but no hint about whats wrong, so i have no idea what to do  lol

Chrono1e

* When marking a story Bad Editing please be specific on your report, some new contributors might not fully understand what they have done wrong if not explained to them. This will help people fix their stories faster.

I guess some people dont read the rules or tips.  I just send my first story for approval and somebody said "bad editing" but no hint about whats wrong, so i have no idea what to do  lol

Hey there!

It appears that their Bad Editing report, as detailed by one of the reporters, is that you placed a link to the same site in both the primary URL and the credit URL field.  The credit URL field is for instances where you, for example, find a story on GamePolitics but the original source is the NYTimes.  The NYT link would go in the primary field, and the GamePolitics one in the credit field.

However, your submission had a larger problem of linking only to Flickr.  This is not one of the sources accepted for news here on N4G.  A series of images of the event is definitely newsworthy, but we would want those images hosted on a site, blog, even a forum would be acceptable.

Does that make sense?

What about restrictions placed on contributors that mark reports as fixed when they are clearly not? This happens a lot with Bad Editing reports.

It will happen from time to time, but if we notice a contributor that will constantly do it they will be dealt with.

This story:   http://www.n4g.com/ps3/NewsPendingCom-396933.aspx?

Is being reported as Spam. It isn't and the reporters know it. It beats many of the blogs that are approved here. The last time I misreported a story I lost my reporting capability for 24 hours.

RE:
http://n4g.com/NewsPendingCom-401442.aspx?CT=1#Comments

Has the following reports:
Duplicate Story: (3 hours ago)
Reported by: Ziriux
Duplicate Story: (3 hours ago)
Reported by: TheReclaimer
Duplicate Story: (5 hours ago)
Reported by: KILLERAPP
Duplicate Story: (18 hours ago) Already been reported on.
Reported by: K-Tuck
As well as:
Not good - 3h ago

If it is I apologize but I don't believe this is a duplicate, simply another preview.
Why are they so against that?