The following statistics summarise the post reports we received from members in 2017.
This is the eighth set of post report statistics that we've disseminated. Previous post report statistics cover 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, the first half of 2011, and the second half of 2010.
About post reports
The forums are maintained by a small group of volunteer moderators and administrators whose aim is to keep them enjoyable and free from problems. There are thousands of posts every day, and the moderators don't have time to review all of them. We instead rely on post reports that bring particular posts or threads to the moderators' attention.
Post reports are submitted by members by clicking the report button (the small exclamation mark in a circle), located at the bottom right of each post to the left of the "Like" button. You can use this any time you want to get the attention of a moderator, not just if you think a particular post violates a rule (for example, if you want a moderator to move or delete your own post, or if you want to bring attention to a thread or member in general). The moderation team will review every report, although in some cases we determine that no action is necessary. We are always grateful when you alert us to a potential problem, even when we take no action, so if in doubt, it's always better to report.
Behinds the scenes, generating statistics on post reports helps us to monitor the forums, for example to highlight problem areas that we need to address, or to tell us when and at what times we're in need of new moderators. We release a subset of these statistics publicly for the interest of our members.
2017 post report summary
About 1 in every 116 forum posts made in 2017 were reported.
The graph below shows the trend in both posts and post reports, by month, since mid-2006.
Report reasons
Moderators deal with a wide range of issues when handling post reports. The graph below shows some of the common issues and how the breakdown has changed over time. Note that this categorisation is done based on keyword analysis of the reasons members provide when reporting posts, so these numbers are likely to be an underestimate.
Spam remained the most common reason throughout 2017. However, it increased substantially in the latter half of the year, rising from 13% of reports in the first half of the year to 24% in the second half of year, including a third of all reports in December. Previously, this had stabilised at about 10% after the transition to XenForo in 2015, but it seems that spammers are increasingly able to circumvent XenForo's spam prevention tools.
Time of day
The distribution of reports over the day roughly followed forum activity in general, peaking during the North American day between 10 AM and 6 PM Pacific time. The busiest hour (1 - 2 PM) had 2.7 times as many reports as the quietest hour (5 - 6 AM). There was a much flatter spread across the day than in 2016; for comparison, the busiest hour in 2016 had 5.2 as many reports as the quietest hour. This was in large part due to the increase in reports for spam, with these reports not following the same distribution across the day as other reports. As with 2016, activity was highest on Mondays, gradually reducing over the remainder of the week.
Reported forums
The iPhone forum overtook MacRumors.com News Discussion to be the most reported forum of 2017. Interestingly, reports in the iPhone forum are highly seasonal (and in line with the typical iPhone release schedule): in the last five years, it's never been the most reported forum in the first half of the year, but has been four out of five times in the second half of the year.
The top 20 forums by number of post reports were as follows; deltas are in comparison with figures from 2016.
Post reporters
2177 members reported posts in 2017. Of these members, 54% reported just one post, while 90% made 10 or fewer reports each. The top 10% of reporters made 74% of all reports, with the top ten reporters alone making 34% of all reports - an average of 530 each. Whether you make 1 report or 1000, we always appreciate the help to alert us to potential issues, especially as many issues are likely never reported.
Reported threads
Some threads, particularly long or controversial ones, have a large number of posts reported. 69% of threads containing a reported post received just one report, while 89 threads received more than 10 reports. The thread with the most post reports for the year was The 11.x.x Release Speculation Thread (74 reports), followed by Apple to Offer $29 iPhone Battery Replacements, More Battery Health Info in iOS (51 reports). Overall, 12.2% of all threads had at least one post reported.
How we handled reports
We encourage members to report posts even if they're not completely sure if the post is a rule violation. In 2017, 82% of reports were found to be rule violations and acted on in some way. About 11 out of 12 post reports were found to be clear-cut cases; the remaining ones required moderator discussions, and additional time, before the appropriate action or non-action was determined. Both of these figures increased from 2016, which was likely due to the increase in reports about spam, which are generally clear-cut cases.
Other
We don't publish statistics comparing how many reports each member makes, both for privacy reasons and because we don't want to turn post reporting into a competition. If you want aggregate information about your own post reports, you can contact me privately and I can provide this.
As well as thanking all the members who take the time to report problematic posts to us, now is also a good opportunity to thank all the moderators for volunteering their time to handle over 15,000 reports over the year and ensuring that we can maintain an enjoyable forum experience for everyone!
This is the eighth set of post report statistics that we've disseminated. Previous post report statistics cover 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, the first half of 2011, and the second half of 2010.
About post reports
The forums are maintained by a small group of volunteer moderators and administrators whose aim is to keep them enjoyable and free from problems. There are thousands of posts every day, and the moderators don't have time to review all of them. We instead rely on post reports that bring particular posts or threads to the moderators' attention.
Post reports are submitted by members by clicking the report button (the small exclamation mark in a circle), located at the bottom right of each post to the left of the "Like" button. You can use this any time you want to get the attention of a moderator, not just if you think a particular post violates a rule (for example, if you want a moderator to move or delete your own post, or if you want to bring attention to a thread or member in general). The moderation team will review every report, although in some cases we determine that no action is necessary. We are always grateful when you alert us to a potential problem, even when we take no action, so if in doubt, it's always better to report.
Behinds the scenes, generating statistics on post reports helps us to monitor the forums, for example to highlight problem areas that we need to address, or to tell us when and at what times we're in need of new moderators. We release a subset of these statistics publicly for the interest of our members.
2017 post report summary
- Number of post reports: 15399
- Mean per day: 42.2
- Max per day: 154 on Oct 17
- Min per day: 8
- Number of post reporters: 2177
- Number of reported members: 6899
- Number of posts reported: 13119
- Number of threads with a post reported: 8889
About 1 in every 116 forum posts made in 2017 were reported.
The graph below shows the trend in both posts and post reports, by month, since mid-2006.
Report reasons
Moderators deal with a wide range of issues when handling post reports. The graph below shows some of the common issues and how the breakdown has changed over time. Note that this categorisation is done based on keyword analysis of the reasons members provide when reporting posts, so these numbers are likely to be an underestimate.
Spam remained the most common reason throughout 2017. However, it increased substantially in the latter half of the year, rising from 13% of reports in the first half of the year to 24% in the second half of year, including a third of all reports in December. Previously, this had stabilised at about 10% after the transition to XenForo in 2015, but it seems that spammers are increasingly able to circumvent XenForo's spam prevention tools.
Time of day
The distribution of reports over the day roughly followed forum activity in general, peaking during the North American day between 10 AM and 6 PM Pacific time. The busiest hour (1 - 2 PM) had 2.7 times as many reports as the quietest hour (5 - 6 AM). There was a much flatter spread across the day than in 2016; for comparison, the busiest hour in 2016 had 5.2 as many reports as the quietest hour. This was in large part due to the increase in reports for spam, with these reports not following the same distribution across the day as other reports. As with 2016, activity was highest on Mondays, gradually reducing over the remainder of the week.
Reported forums
The iPhone forum overtook MacRumors.com News Discussion to be the most reported forum of 2017. Interestingly, reports in the iPhone forum are highly seasonal (and in line with the typical iPhone release schedule): in the last five years, it's never been the most reported forum in the first half of the year, but has been four out of five times in the second half of the year.
The top 20 forums by number of post reports were as follows; deltas are in comparison with figures from 2016.
Code:
Rank Delta Forum Reports Percentage
---- ----- --------------------------------------- ------- ----------
1 +1 iPhone 3334 21.7%
2 -1 MacRumors.com News Discussion 2759 17.9%
3 n/c Politics, Religion, Social Issues 1439 9.3%
4 new iOS 11 934 6.1%
5 -1 MacBook Pro 780 5.1%
6 +2 Community Discussion 761 4.9%
7 +2 iOS 10 555 3.6%
8 -2 iOS Blog Discussion 532 3.5%
9 -4 Marketplace 382 2.5%
10 +5 Apple Watch 241 1.6%
11 +5 iOS Apps 228 1.5%
12 n/c iPad 195 1.3%
13 -3 Alternatives to iOS and iOS Devices 188 1.2%
14 +5 Jailbreaks and iOS Hacks 186 1.2%
15 +2 iPhone Accessories 184 1.2%
16 -2 Mac Blog Discussion 177 1.1%
17 +3 iPhone Tips, Help and Troubleshooting 147 1.0%
18 -5 Mac Pro 143 0.9%
19 +17 PowerPC Macs 132 0.9%
20 +3 iOS Programming 131 0.9%Post reporters
2177 members reported posts in 2017. Of these members, 54% reported just one post, while 90% made 10 or fewer reports each. The top 10% of reporters made 74% of all reports, with the top ten reporters alone making 34% of all reports - an average of 530 each. Whether you make 1 report or 1000, we always appreciate the help to alert us to potential issues, especially as many issues are likely never reported.
Reported threads
Some threads, particularly long or controversial ones, have a large number of posts reported. 69% of threads containing a reported post received just one report, while 89 threads received more than 10 reports. The thread with the most post reports for the year was The 11.x.x Release Speculation Thread (74 reports), followed by Apple to Offer $29 iPhone Battery Replacements, More Battery Health Info in iOS (51 reports). Overall, 12.2% of all threads had at least one post reported.
How we handled reports
We encourage members to report posts even if they're not completely sure if the post is a rule violation. In 2017, 82% of reports were found to be rule violations and acted on in some way. About 11 out of 12 post reports were found to be clear-cut cases; the remaining ones required moderator discussions, and additional time, before the appropriate action or non-action was determined. Both of these figures increased from 2016, which was likely due to the increase in reports about spam, which are generally clear-cut cases.
Other
We don't publish statistics comparing how many reports each member makes, both for privacy reasons and because we don't want to turn post reporting into a competition. If you want aggregate information about your own post reports, you can contact me privately and I can provide this.
As well as thanking all the members who take the time to report problematic posts to us, now is also a good opportunity to thank all the moderators for volunteering their time to handle over 15,000 reports over the year and ensuring that we can maintain an enjoyable forum experience for everyone!
