Screenshot Policy: Please Read!
This means we are no longer accepting third-party sites to upload screenshots. All screenshots are to be directly emailed through the respective channel.
Note: Some have asked how to report inappropriate usernames and bios. As a community member, you can flag them here for the Safety Patrol Team to action. You could also consider joining the Safety Patrol to contribute to flagging!
@Heather225
Thank you for the update!
If you have a Chromebook https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/183101?hl=en
Take a screenshot: Press Ctrl + Show Windows
Thank you for the policy change.
@Heather225
I really think you guys should consider another method of report verification because screenshots of chats are literally the least believable thing right after a claim that someone did something without any evidence. They add no authenticity to a report whatsoever, and yet, are used religiously in report processing.
So in the spirit of bringing more attention to this issue and also demonstrating actually how easy it is to fake chat screenshots, I have done just that in PMs between my L and M accounts.
* Trigger Warning: Profanity *
It took me no more than 2 minutes to type in all the words in place of the *** that cups would normally display.
And it's not just limited to changing the content of the messages. New messages can be added, old messages can be deleted. All sorts of stuff can be done with just a little bit of poking around.
This takes no extra tools, no special software, just a plain old browser.
I like the idea that @cloudySummer put forward, about having a built-in report functionality, like in forums that makes a record of perhaps 10 messages in either direction of the reported message, compiles a report of it, and then sends it for review.
This would be much better with regards to authenticity since it can't be tampered with by users.
I hope you guys can come up with a solution to this issue because this really is a very big flaw if the most actionable evidence used is so easily forged.
@Mahad2804
THANK YOU for a great demonstration of how this can be done. I agree with you that evidence can be fabricated and there ought to be a better system in place.
@Mahad2804
You are a genius among us poor lemmings :D
@Mahad2804 it is possible to fudge a report but it takes a lot of time and work and it takes someone who has malicious intentions and is disregarding the consequences of false reporting which can be quite serious. Hopefully anyone like this will be reported.
So my reports go in within minutes of taking screen shots and there are usually 5 screenshots and I could not possibly edit those screenshots matching the font and color perfectly. If one is subject to someone's misuse of reporting, report them and appeal any penalty incurred.
What I appreciate is in discussions, that everyone participates in the discussion and there is no need for screenshots and reporting. We have multiple people taking screenshots to insure accuracy.
The problem in PMs is a trade-off of having anonymous discussions versus auto reporting. I think that we have to use our abilities and wisdom to avoid situations where someone starts to act inappropriately. There are no tech solutions to a problem of people who want to harm others although that can be made more difficult and have graver consequences.
I get most of your points @soulsings but part of the reason I actually trialed this and attached a screenshot is because, contrary to what most people think, it doesn't take all that much time and work.
I don't need to edit the pictures themselves, and worry about fonts and sizes and colors and what not.
Courtesy of developer tools built into literally all browsers, I can simply edit the message in place. And that means it will have perfect size, font, color by default. Also, it literally takes 2 minutes, if not less.
Now yes, malicious intent is still necessary for someone to do that but once reported, there's not much the reported individual can do. They aren't given access to the content of the report. Neither are they given specifics in most cases.
And, in the absence of any other form of verification, it's one person's word, against another person's image. We all know how this ends.
Think about it. All it takes is one person with mal-intent to literally flush down the drain years of progress. With anonymous reporting, anyone can get a seasoned listener banned from the site.
And since this is so easy to do, I'll just put some extra words into your forum post for another demo.
(read the last line)
If this was in a chatroom, someone would be losing roles.
Now I'm not saying don't do anything when you get reports with screenshots. The only point I'm making is, don't think it's too much more accurate because it has a screenshot. We need a better, more foolproof system so that things like this aren't (easily) possible.
@Heather225
I think that when a chat is not going well, the listener's mind is all over the place, maybe in a low panic mode, and not able to go through all those steps in order to make screenshots and report. It ought to be done automatically by the 7cups system at the press of two buttons : "Report" AND "Confirm report" (in case of a wrong click).
Someone, earlier, was able to demonstrate how easy it is to make a fake screenshot and it is cause for concern.
@Fradiga
This would be a great solution Fradiga provided it can be done technically etc.
@Heather225
Thank you for the information.
