I noticed a story thread that appears to violate the site guidelines by referring to a character by terminology which can be strongly construed to indicate it is a minor. The way this is presented, however, makes it appear as if this might be a careless oversight, albeit potentially a very embarrassing one. Giving our fellow site user the benefit of the doubt, I was planning to contact them via a private message to point out this error rather than make a comment about it on the thread page. Is this advisable, or is there a preferable alternate course of action?
I think that the moderator should be contacted. The moderator could dismiss the complaint, or suspend the story while they discuss it with the person who approved the story and if no response (such as a suggested edit) is forthcoming then remove the story.
I wonder if it's possible to force a story to hide until it's fixed, and then remove it automatically when enough time is passed, but removing threads must be so complicated given the possibility of leaving holes. I wonder if there's a way of tracking where in a story map a thread used to be, and then sending that misplaced thread to its author's draft pile. Or just leaving a "There is a hole here" thread, which might get awkward, although it would be an interesting task for other writers to come in and fill in the blanks. But I digress.
I would contact the author if it seems accidental. If they don't respond to your message or fix the error in a reasonable time, then report it. If it seems intentional, then I would contact the moderator. That's just how I would handle it.
I'm with hematoma, my response would depend on what the intent seems to be. There's nothing wrong with contacting the author directly about (what seems like) a mistake made in good faith. It's when they double-down on the violation that it's time to get a mod involved.
