This part of my user's guide covers the reporting mechanism and how to use it to maintain good content on the site. It was last updated on 25 December 2009.

As Du continue to use Fanpop, Du will come across content that is not what it should be in some way. Since Fanpop is largely only as good as the content it contains, it is important to address these issues for the good of the site and the Fanpop community.

Now, most of the content that "is not what it should be" is likely just content that Du don't like, and such content should be rated appropriately (see the link). But, rarely, there is some content on the site Mehr problematic than that, and for such content there exists the reporting function. Reporting allows you, the user, to flag something on Fanpop as being wrong in some way, so that it will be fixed.

Here's a handy guide to distinguishing between different types of problem content, and whether ratings oder reporting should be applied.

* Du disagree with a particular user (rate)
* Du don't like what the user says (rate)
* Du find the user obnoxious and harassing (ignore)
* The user uses obscene language and/or posts obscene content (report)
* The user attempts to sell a product oder encourages Du to buy a product (report)
* The user consistently attacks and demeans Du (report)
* Du suspect the user is actually a duplicate account of another user (ignore)
* Content is gepostet that Du think sucks (rate)
* Content is gepostet without Schlagwörter (rate)
* Content is gepostet with inadequate Schlagwörter (rate)
* Content is gepostet in the wrong spot (report)
* Content link does not work (report)
* Content link is to a web site which hasn't been updated in years (rate)
* Content link is for a contest which has already ended (report)
* Video link doesn't work embedded (rate)
* Video is short, low-quality, video is out of sync with audio (rate)
* Video requires users to install software on their desktops in order to view it (rate/comment)
* Video doesn't work embedded nor on the Quelle site (report)
* Video is offensive/obscene (report)
* Video takes forever to load (rate)
* Video not what Du expected (rate)
* Video is unrelated to the spot topic (report)
* Content exactly duplicates other content already in that spot (rate/comment)
* Spot duplicates an existing spot (report)
* Spot seems silly, unnecessary (comment)
* Spot name contains errors oder isn't precise (comment)
* Spot is offensive oder obscene (report)
* Image is low quality, has no description, and/or fails to have image credits (rate/comment)
* Image has no image credits and Du know the copyright belongs to someone else (report)
* Soapbox Artikel presents a ridiculous opinion (rate)
* Soapbox Artikel filled with grammatical, spelling and/or logic errors (rate)
* Soapbox Artikel shorter than a full page (rate)
* Soapbox Artikel consists of text from another site/source (report)
* Soapbox Artikel has no pictures (rate)
* Pick has no pictures (comment)
* Pick does not allow users to add Antwort that are clearly necessary (comment)
* Pick is not related to the spot topic (report)
* Pick contains offensive/obscene text/images (report)
* Pick is biased/one-sided (comment)
* The video in a Quiz Frage doesn't work (report)
* Du don't like a particular pop Quiz Frage (comment)
* There are spelling errors in a pop Quiz Frage oder answer(s) (comment)
* There are factual errors in a pop Quiz question/answer (report)
* There is no way to know the answer for a pop Quiz Frage (report)

Reporting and comments
To file a Berichten on something, look for the little "flag" icon. This is located in different places, depending on what Du are reporting. Click on the flag, and a sub-menu will appear, along with a text field for "comments". IMPORTANT: EVERY Berichten SHOULD HAVE A COMMENT! Note, however, that the user interface is poorly designed - Du must type the Kommentar BEFORE clicking the type of report, even though the Kommentare box is under the Berichten buttons. Why comment? It is VERY likely that the staff oder admins who review the reports on a gegeben Tag will not immediately understand WHY Du reported a piece of content, and if it's not immediately obvious, it may not receive any action. It's that simple.

Types of Reports
Broadly speaking, there are three types of reports Du can file as a Fanpop user.

* Spot reporting: Du can file a Berichten on a particular spot. To Berichten a spot, look for and click the red flag and the word "report" just below the spot's banner in the upper right. This will open the reporting sub-menu.


* User reporting: Du can file a Berichten on a particular user. To Berichten an user, click on the user's name to go to the user's Profil page. In the left column, labeled "about me", you'll see a bunch of information: the user's Profil pictures, name, country, Favorit films, books, et cetera. Under that, there will be several links, including one with the red flag and the words "Report Abuse". Click that link to open up the reporting sub-menu.

* Link reporting: Du can file a Berichten on a particular piece of content on the site. There are eight kinds of content which Du can Berichten on Fanpop: links, videos, images, soapbox articles, pop Quiz questions, picks, Antwort and Kommentare (Note: only Kommentare in a Forum oder Antwort to an Answer Request can be reported as of 25 December 2009). With each, you'll be looking for a grey, unlabeled flag, in the locations described here:

With links, the flag is located just under and to the left of the ratings bar.


With videos, the flag is located just under the ratings bar.


The flag for Bilder is located (as with the video flag) just under the ratings bar.

With Quiz questions, the reporting flag is located on the right, between the Frage and the Liste of answers.


The flag for Artikel is just under the Titel of the article, far to the left of the ratings bar:


The flag for picks is on the right, where the ratings bar would be if Du could rate picks:


The flag for Antwort is below the Frage and the "answer this question" button:


The flag for Kommentare is below the Kommentar itself:


What the reports mean
When Du click the flag, a sub-menu will appear, prompting Du to select which kind of Berichten Du wish to file. These choices vary slightly, depending on which kind of Berichten Du are filing. To file a report, Du must click on one of the red boxes, selecting one of the categories of reports.
If Du change your mind and don't want to click any of the reports, Du can always click the green "don't report" box in the sub-menu instead.


When Du Berichten a SPOT, there are four possible reports:
The spot inappropriate Berichten specifically means a violation of the link. This includes obscene content, spam content, hate speech content, as well as copyrighted content. A spot dedicated to "Robbing Banks" would merit an inappropriate report, as would spots dedicated to "Sex chat", "Downloading mp3s for free" and anything involving a racial slur.

The spot offensive Berichten means content that Du find offensive. It may not be obscene oder a clear violation of the Terms of Service, but Du find it offensive. "Defeating Atheism" might be a spot to Berichten as offensive.

The spot miscategorized Berichten means that the spot is catalogued in the wrong channel. For instance, if a spot dedicated to the Lynx web browser were to be listed as part of the "Travel & Places" channel, one would be well-justified in filing a miscategorized spot report.

The spot duplicate Berichten means that the spot's topic is already covered Von another spot that was created beforehand, oder that the reported spot's topic is insufficiently different from an existing spot to merit a separate spot. A "Fanpop Kids" spot would likely be reported as a duplicate of the "Parenting" spot, for instance, and a "Great car commercials" spot would be reported as a duplicate to the "Car Commercials" spot.


When Du Berichten USERS, there are three possible reports:

The user spam Berichten means that the user is clearly on Fanpop for the sole purpose of trying to sell a product oder service to the other users. An user whose only contributions are to a spot he created for "Greatest Video Downloads", including a link to the site greatestvideodownloads.com and a soapbox Artikel describing how great the same web site is, is an example of an user who should be reported as a spammer.

The user offensive content Berichten indicates that Du feel that the user in Frage is regularly posting offensive content to the site, across many spots. An user who posts Links to a blog called "Why your beliefs are stupid" to all the faith-oriented spots would be reported with this flag.

The user abusive Berichten indicates that the user in Frage is abusive to Du and/or other Fanpop users on the site. An user who regularly rates all your content as a 1 might get an abusive report, as well as an user who regularly posts attacking Kommentare in response to your comments, as well as an user who belittles someone's opinions, intelligence, appearance and so forth.


When Du Berichten CONTENT, there are five types of reports Du can file:

The content broken Berichten indicates that the content link does not work. This should be filed anytime a link goes to a page that doesn't exist, a link goes to a completely different page than what the link described, oder (in the case of videos) the video in Frage has been removed from the host web site. NOTE: a video link is NOT BROKEN if it doesn't play embedded on Fanpop but does work on the host web site. Some video hosting web sites - YouTube springs to mind - allow their users to specify whether their Videos may play embedded oder not. If the video cannot play embedded, it will Zeigen up as normal on Fanpop, but Du must click the video's title (or the little Arrow link Weiter to it) to go to the hosting web site and see the video. It is only when the video does not work embedded AND it does not work on the Quelle site that Du should file a "broken" Berichten for a video.

NOTE: pop Quiz Fragen do not have a broken Berichten option. Instead, they are the only type of content to have a bad question reporting option. The bad Frage flag is used to both indicate when a question's video link is broken (it doesn't play embedded oder on the Quelle site) and/or to indicate that the Frage is incorrect (that is, if the Frage is wrong). It is also appropriate to use this Berichten if a Frage requires the user to guess, not because Du don't know the answer, but because there is no way for Du to know the answer. For example, a Frage that asks "What is my Favorit color?" is a valid Frage only if that information is available on Fanpop. A Frage "What is the population of country X?" would be a bad question, but a Frage "What was the population of country X in 2008?" would be valid, because it can be validated.

The content inappropriate Berichten indicates that the content violates the link in some way. Among other things, this includes sexually explicit imagery, Videos that contain obscene language, Bilder without proper copyright credits that clearly were created Von someone other than the user, and soapbox Artikel that consist in large part (if not their entirety) of text that was copied from some other site (ie, plagiarism).

The content outdated Berichten indicates that the content (usually a link) points to a site describing an event that has already occurred oder a deal that has expired. A link to a site where Du can sign up for free e-mail Updates on the 5th season of "Big Brother" would be appropriate to flag as outdated.

The content spam Berichten indicates that the content is trying to sell something to the Fanpop users viewing it. This one is a little tricky, because most web sites are trying to sell something. But a link to, say, a dating service web site would not be spam if some of the site could be used for free, but would be spam if Du had to pay money up front to actually get to any content on the site.

The content miscategorized Berichten means that the content has nothing to do with the spot in which it is found, oder that there's a better spot for it. A video link to Michael Jackson's HIStory in the link spot would be miscategorized, for instance. That one is obvious, but this Berichten can also be pretty tricky. Would a picture of Carly Simon, who didn't tour oder produce any albums in the 1980s (but who was at least alive in the 80s) be miscategorized if it was placed in the link, instead of the link? Would Videos of Fanpop users' children be miscategorized if they were placed in the link rather than the link? Would an Artikel describing how to be kind to our fellow users be miscategorized if found in the link, rather than the link oder link spots? There is some leeway; when in doubt, Du can always try sending a message to the user who gepostet the content which may be miscategorized to discuss it with him/her.

A note on multiple reports
Just a quick note: Fanpop remembers the reports that Du submit. So don't try to swamp content with reports, because the site will only allow Du to Berichten a gegeben item once. Any further attempts will be met with the reply "You have already reported this as a <report type> <spot/user/link>".

What happens to reports
So you've found some content that doesn't work in some fashion and have reported it. What happens then?

Reports that users file appear in a Liste for the site staff and moderators to address. In many cases, the reason that the Berichten was filed will be obvious to them, and the staff and/or moderators will take the appropriate action. However, in many cases it is apparently not obvious why a Berichten was filed, because the moderators will occasionally contact the person who filed the Berichten via a message, asking for clarification. Then, once they've investigated what the reason was for the report, they will take whatever action they deem necessary. Such action includes chastising users, moving miscategorized content, banning users, merging spots, deleting spots, and deleting other content.

In addition, if the Berichten was a "broken" content report, a message is also generated to the user who gepostet the content originally, with the subject line "One of your Links has been flagged Von another user." In the case of broken content, the user who gepostet the content originally usually has two days to Bearbeiten the link and replace it with a working link before the broken link is completely removed from the site.

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Here's Links to other parts of the guide for your quick reference:

* link

* 1: link

* 2: link.

* 3: link

* 4: Picks: this is the generic name both for the Umfrage Fragen that Du see on the site and for the Antwort Du can pick to that question. Papa has created a link.

* 5: link

* 6: link

* 7: link

Du may also want to see:

* link feature

* link