Accidently reported someone?

[CosmicHobbit]

I reported someone's post, but then looked again and saw that no rules had been broken. How do I fix this? Is there a way to withdraw a reporting? Thanks in advance!

[Grey_Wolf_c]

I reported someone's post, but then looked again and saw that no rules had been broken. How do I fix this? Is there a way to withdraw a reporting? Thanks in advance!

There isn't, but it is no big deal. I'd imagine the moderator that reviews your report will determine, as you did, that no rules were broken, and they will move on to the next report.

Grey Wolf

[JeenLeen]

Would most moderators like us to do a follow-up second "Reporting" to state that we did it by mistake?
I think I heard that reports are put together in the mod-only view that can see them, so a second report on the same post/thread doesn't create a completely new message.

I can see 2 benefits
1) the mod sees it was a mistake, potentially saving time reviewing the post/thread
2) the mod knows the poster wasn't intentionally making frivolous reports

Possible cons
1) now 2 messages the moderator has to read

[Peelee]

Would most moderators like us to do a follow-up second "Reporting" to state that we did it by mistake?
I think I heard that reports are put together in the mod-only view that can see them, so a second report on the same post/thread doesn't create a completely new message.

I can see 2 benefits
1) the mod sees it was a mistake, potentially saving time reviewing the post/thread
2) the mod knows the poster wasn't intentionally making frivolous reports

Possible cons
1) now 2 messages the moderator has to read

So long as nobody is spamming reports left, right, and center, I would think obvious mistakes and frivolous reports are fairly easy to tell. It's not a forum rule or even a guideline, but I tend to shoot for making the mods deal with less work whenever possible.

[Rockphed]

There isn't, but it is no big deal. I'd imagine the moderator that reviews your report will determine, as you did, that no rules were broken, and they will move on to the next report.

Grey Wolf

Since the mods have on occasion said, "if you think a rule is being broken, report it and otherwise ignore it", I'm pretty sure that they would rather get a false positive report than have people not report things until they are out of hand. At least half the reports I file are along the lines of "either I am really tired and misinterpreting things, or this is a rule violation". If my reports were a problem, I'm pretty sure the mods would have sent me a message asking me to stop. Part of why we have human mods is that humans can exercise judgement about whether something is actually violating a rule (and whether said violation is an innocent slip-up or a malicious act).

[Roland St. Jude]

I reported someone's post, but then looked again and saw that no rules had been broken. How do I fix this? Is there a way to withdraw a reporting? Thanks in advance!

Sheriff: There's no need to fix anything. We'll take a look at the report, see it isn't a problem, and move on.

If you want to report the post again and explain it was an "oops," that's fine. It's no extra work on our end. But it isn't really necessary.

If you're making a bunch of erroneous reports, at some point you'll probably get a PM suggesting that the line isn't quite where you think it is and maybe back off on the reports. But that is exceptionally rare. Mostly, we just appreciate the report so that we have a chance to look at the potentially problematic post.