Hi~

From what myself and others have noticed, the report function is not working as intended. This is not a mistake on your part, SE. The report function is a useful tool to point moderators and administrators to problematic discussion threads.

The report function's problem is not its intended function, but instead, its problem is how some forum posters have chosen to abuse it.

I can't imagine that this forum's designers intended the report function to be wielded as a weapon, but that's exactly what has happened. Some posters have chosen to abuse the function. Instead of facing reality and realizing that people actually disagree about things, some posters instead chose to report every post that disagrees with them without regard to the nature of the disagreement. Whether the debate is respectful or not, the report function is used.

Over and over and over again.

Instead of investigating the actual problematic threads, your moderators and administrators are likely losing a significant amount of time to a multitude of unwarranted reports that cannot be responsibly ignored.

I'd like to propose a possible solution: increase the time posters must wait before filing another report. 60 seconds between reports is not enough of a delay to dissuade posters from abusing the report function. Instead, I propose that the delay between reports be increased to a minimum of 10 minutes, but no more than 30. I would prefer a happy medium of 15 minutes.

No poster needs to make 60 legitimate reports every hour.