Although Thousand Roads has a group of moderators tasked with keeping discussion running smoothly, the people who actually have the largest impact on the quality of the community are all the members without mod powers! The moderation team does their best, but they can't read every post made on the forums, follow every channel on Discord, or keep on top of everything happening in a community of hundreds of people. That means we rely on reports from users to know where things are going wrong and where we need to step in to make sure the community keeps functioning well for everyone. This guide aims to cover everything you might want to know about sending reports to the mod team--when to do it, how to do it, and what to expect if you do.

Broadly, you should report any sort of content or behavior that you believe doesn't belong in the community! If something's making you uncomfortable, if people are having an argument in the chat, if someone posts an image you think might be out of line but you aren't sure--any of these are valid reasons for making a report. In general, we'd prefer that you lean towards reporting over not reporting if you're unsure whether something's out of line. It's good to know if something is making people uncomfortable even if it isn't technically against the rules or the moderators haven't noticed a problem with it yet. The worst that can happen is we tell you that we don't consider something an issue; it's no big deal, and you won't be bothering anyone. Taking reports is a big part of what the moderators are here for!

Please know that you can report things that happen in DMs or voicechats as well as messages posted in public. You may also send reports about moderators' behavior; moderators can make mistakes the same as anyone, and they are not immune from disciplinary action.

Also, please feel free to message the moderation team about forum matters not related to a specific incident or post--if you think there are rules changes that should be enacted, problems in the community that don't really relate to any one user or group of users, or new events or features that you'd like to see. We welcome all feedback on how the community's running, and we've received a number of messages about these sorts of things in the past. Many rules changes, community events, and other improvements have come about as a result of ideas and feedback provided by people outside the moderation team!

Discord has no built-in reporting system, but there are three ways to alert staff members that something's going wrong in the chat:

1. DM an online moderator - You can send a DM to any moderator you see online. In your DM, please include the channel where you see trouble and a brief description of what's going on. Something as simple as "Negrek's fighting with Dragonfree in #pokemon-gaming" works perfectly! If you think there's a particular message that's out of line or that staff should look at, please include a link to that post as well. If you think a post is representative of a larger problem or one instance of something you've seen happening elsewhere, please include that context in your report! As much as possible, please be specific about what's wrong with a post or what's bothering you about a situation.
2. Ping the staff role - Sending "@staff" to a channel that needs mod attention will ping all moderators at once and draw their attention to an area where trouble is happening.
3. Use the sirsprite bot - It can sometimes be intimidating to reach out directly to a moderator with a report, especially if you've never spoken to them directly before, or to post a staff ping in the channel where everyone will see. As an alternative, you can send a report via the sirsprite bot. There are several ways of doing this. General reports can be submitted by clicking the green "Submit report" button in the #rules-and-welcome channel. On desktop platforms only (including web), you may also access the report form by right clicking a message or user, hovering over the "Apps" item in the context menu, and selecting "Report message" or "Report user," respectively. All of these options will open the same report submission form. The form contains two text boxes, one to describe your report and another to enter your username if you desire follow-up from a moderator. If the second box is left empty, the report is submitted anonymously; please take care that entering anything in the box will identify you in the report. Reports submitted through sirsprite will be seen by all moderators.

To report a post, visitor message, or DM on the forums, use the "Report" link that appears in the lower left corner of that piece of content. This will open a text box where you can write what you think is wrong with the item. Then hit the "Report" button to send that information to all of the moderators. The forums will automatically add context (links, the full text of the item being reported, etc.). If you think this post is representative of a larger problem or one instance of something you've seen happening elsewhere, please include that in your report! As much as possible, please be specific about what's wrong with a post or what's bothering you about a situation.

If you'd like to make an anonymous report on the forums, you can use the Staff Contact Form while logged out. This form requires a name and e-mail address, but you can make up anything for a name, and the e-mail address doesn't have to actually work. Anything that takes the general form of an e-mail address, like "nobody@test.com", will work perfectly fine. This form automatically sends a report to all moderators.

If you send an anonymous report, you won't know what happens next, as these provide no way to contact you. Otherwise, you should receive a response either indicating that staff members are taking action based on your report or that no action will be taken. The specifics of the disciplinary process are kept private--a moderator won't tell you that "we're going to mute Negrek" or "Negrek's really close to being banned"--but they will be able to tell you if an issue is being actively pursued. Please allow some time for a response to your report in order to allow staff to discuss the appropriate action to take--unless you're reporting that the chat is actively on fire, there will usually be at least a brief discussion of what to do. Reports of more severe behavior that require active additional investigation will take longer. You should receive updates every couple of days on what's going on with your report, but it may take several days for the mod team to decide on a course of action. Alternatively, you can choose to receive no follow-up on your report--simply indicate that you don't want any further discussion when you send your report. On the forums, reports of some simple matters, like spambots, will not be followed up on unless you specifically request a response.

Note that the person who sends a report is usually kept confidential, even from the staff members who weren't contacted if you sent a report to one person directly. The person or people you made a report about will not be informed of who sent a report about them except in cases where it's essential to be able to ask that person to stop what they're doing. For example, if someone's been sending you unwanted DMs despite you telling them to stop, we will have to give them your name so that they know who to stop messaging. In general, though, we prefer to make reporting as anonymous as possible so that no one has to worry about retaliation for getting a moderator involved in something. We really appreciate everyone who takes the time to send reports, and we want everyone to feel as safe and comfortable doing so as possible.