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 u continue to use Fanpop, u 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 u don't like, and such content should be rated appropriately (see the link). But, rarely, there is some content on the site meer 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 of reporting should be applied.

* u disagree with a particular user (rate)
* u don't like what the user says (rate)
* u 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 of encourages u to buy a product (report)
* The user consistently attacks and demeans u (report)
* u suspect the user is actually a duplicate account of another user (ignore)
* Content is geplaatst that u think sucks (rate)
* Content is geplaatst without trefwoorden (rate)
* Content is geplaatst with inadequate trefwoorden (rate)
* Content is geplaatst 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 bron site (report)
* Video is offensive/obscene (report)
* Video takes forever to load (rate)
* Video not what u 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 of isn't precise (comment)
* Spot is offensive of obscene (report)
* Image is low quality, has no description, and/or fails to have image credits (rate/comment)
* Image has no image credits and u 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 antwoorden 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 kwis vraag doesn't work (report)
* u don't like a particular pop kwis vraag (comment)
* There are spelling errors in a pop kwis vraag of answer(s) (comment)
* There are factual errors in a pop kwis question/answer (report)
* There is no way to know the answer for a pop kwis vraag (report)

Reporting and comments
To file a meld on something, look for the little "flag" icon. This is located in different places, depending on what u are reporting. Click on the flag, and a sub-menu will appear, along with a text field for "comments". IMPORTANT: EVERY meld SHOULD HAVE A COMMENT! Note, however, that the user interface is poorly designed - u must type the commentaar BEFORE clicking the type of report, even though the commentaren box is under the meld buttons. Why comment? It is VERY likely that the staff of admins who review the reports on a gegeven dag will not immediately understand WHY u 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 u can file as a Fanpop user.

* Spot reporting: u can file a meld on a particular spot. To meld 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: u can file a meld on a particular user. To meld an user, click on the user's name to go to the user's profiel page. In the left column, labeled "about me", you'll see a bunch of information: the user's profiel pictures, name, country, favoriete 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: u can file a meld on a particular piece of content on the site. There are eight kinds of content which u can meld on Fanpop: links, videos, images, soapbox articles, pop kwis questions, picks, antwoorden and commentaren (Note: only commentaren in a forum of antwoorden 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 afbeeldingen is located (as with the video flag) just under the ratings bar.

With kwis questions, the reporting flag is located on the right, between the vraag and the lijst of answers.


The flag for artikels 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 u could rate picks:


The flag for antwoorden is below the vraag and the "answer this question" button:


The flag for commentaren is below the commentaar itself:


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


When u meld a SPOT, there are four possible reports:
The spot inappropriate meld 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 meld means content that u find offensive. It may not be obscene of a clear violation of the Terms of Service, but u find it offensive. "Defeating Atheism" might be a spot to meld as offensive.

The spot miscategorized meld 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 meld means that the spot's topic is already covered door another spot that was created beforehand, of 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 u meld USERS, there are three possible reports:

The user spam meld means that the user is clearly on Fanpop for the sole purpose of trying to sell a product of 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 meld indicates that u feel that the user in vraag is regularly posting offensive content to the site, across many spots. An user who posts linken to a blog called "Why your beliefs are stupid" to all the faith-oriented spots would be reported with this flag.

The user abusive meld indicates that the user in vraag is abusive to u 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 commentaren in response to your comments, as well as an user who belittles someone's opinions, intelligence, appearance and so forth.


When u meld CONTENT, there are five types of reports u can file:

The content broken meld 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, of (in the case of videos) the video in vraag 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 of not. If the video cannot play embedded, it will toon up as normal on Fanpop, but u must click the video's title (or the little arrow link volgende 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 bron site that u should file a "broken" meld for a video.

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

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

The content outdated meld indicates that the content (usually a link) points to a site describing an event that has already occurred of a deal that has expired. A link to a site where u 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 meld 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 u had to pay money up front to actually get to any content on the site.

The content miscategorized meld means that the content has nothing to do with the spot in which it is found, of 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 meld can also be pretty tricky. Would a picture of Carly Simon, who didn't tour of 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 of link spots? There is some leeway; when in doubt, u can always try sending a message to the user who geplaatst 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 u submit. So don't try to swamp content with reports, because the site will only allow u to meld a gegeven 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 lijst for the site staff and moderators to address. In many cases, the reason that the meld 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 meld was filed, because the moderators will occasionally contact the person who filed the meld 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 meld was a "broken" content report, a message is also generated to the user who geplaatst the content originally, with the subject line "One of your linken has been flagged door another user." In the case of broken content, the user who geplaatst the content originally usually has two days to pas aan 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 linken 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 enquête vragen that u see on the site and for the antwoorden u can pick to that question. Papa has created a link.

* 5: link

* 6: link

* 7: link

u may also want to see:

* link feature

* link