diff --git a/proposals/2414-optional-content-reporting-reason.md b/proposals/2414-optional-content-reporting-reason.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..43cdf6c72ff --- /dev/null +++ b/proposals/2414-optional-content-reporting-reason.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +# MSC2414: Make `reason` and `score` optional for reporting content + +## Proposal + +On the [report content endpoint](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client_server/r0.6.1#post-matrix-client-r0-rooms-roomid-report-eventid) +we remove the `required` flag for both the `reason` and `score` parameters, as +well as the "may be blank" clause in the description of `reason`. + +## Rationale + +### `reason` Parameter + +Currently, the spec says that the `reason` parameter on the content reporting +endpoint is required, but also says that the string "may be blank." This +seems to be a contradiction. + +Note that the kicking and banning endpoints already have optional `reason` +parameters. The other membership endpoints mentioned in +[#2367][membership-endpoints] will also add optional `reason` parameters, +so it would be more more consistent with the rest of the spec to make this +optional as well. + +### `score` Parameter + +The spec also requires the `score` parameter, but its usefulness is limited. +Offensiveness is difficult to measure and is likely not going to be applied +consistently across several rooms. Because of this ambiguity, it seems, many +clients [simply hard-code the integer value][hard-code]. + +To make this useful, for example, room administrators would need a way to map more +specific values to the integer range and perhaps even instruct the client to +display those mappings to the user. That may be possible to do in a closed +client/homeserver implementation, but not generally across the Matrix protocol. + +Making `score` optional would enable this feature to be used in specific contexts +while not forcing clients to support the ambiguity it brings. + +## Backwards Compatibility + +Since servers currently expect these fields to be sent by all clients, making +them optional is a breaking change. Clients should check the spec versions +the homeserver supports to detect this change. + +[membership-endpoints]: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2367 +[hard-code]: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk/pull/3290/files#diff-551ca16d6a8ffb96888b337b5246402dR66