See: What are Flags and how do they work?
A post with 3 flags will be automatically hidden. Users may click-to-view the post.
- A staff member can use the “Take Action” button, which will cause this to happen immediately.
- When a post is automatically hidden due to flags, the user receives a PM informing them their post was flagged. After 10 minutes, the user may edit their post and it will be unhidden.
If another 3 flags occur, the post will be hidden again and editing will not unhide the post.
The down side of using flags as noted above are:
- There are very few active users at this site, so getting three of the same flags on a single topic may not be easy.
- Users are very hesitant to flag a post.
- The admins usually see the flag and take action before a second flag is added so users are not seeing post hidden via the three flag rule.
Note: Flags go into a queue to be handled by moderators/admins and not a specific user, so I do not get an audible alert when a flag is used, but I do see a notification icon when there are unprocessed flags in the queue.
The only way to be able do it as an individual with the way the SWI-Prolog Discourse site as currently used/configured is to be manually approved for one of the higher trust levels, e.g. TL4, moderator, admin
For more details on this and related topics:
One thing that was done recently to give more rights to an individual who creates a topic was to create the tags on-topic-only and discussion. See: Tags to clarify a topic as ‘discussion’ or ‘on-topic-only’