The Escalate to Admins form in the forum mod-log got upgraded to match the dropdown + template pattern used on the suspend/ban panels, with a user-search autocomplete and a separate required "your specific context" box.
What's new on the form
- Reason dropdown with 12 pre-written templates drawn from the Community Guidelines and Terms of Service §4 — harassment pattern, suspected doxxing, credible threats, CSAM, malware, impersonation, pirated commercial software, spam at scale, ban evasion, vote manipulation, cross-forum pattern beyond mod scope, and "Other". Picking a reason scaffolds both the subject line and the description body.
- Target user (optional) — start typing a username and autocomplete suggestions show up (same
/api/users/searchendpoint used by @-mention autocomplete). Pick the match and the username drops into the field. Resolves to areported_user_idso the admin mod queue shows the target next to the escalation. - Default description — auto-filled from the reason. Edit inline to add specifics.
- Your specific context — separate required field, minimum 30 chars. Forces you to write real evidence (post links, usernames, timestamps, why forum-level action isn't enough). Submitting just the default template gets rejected with a clear error — admins need evidence, not a category name.
What's unchanged
- The escalation still creates a thread in
/forums/escalations-to-admins. - Still creates a
forum_escalationreport in/admin/moderationand notifies every admin + super-admin. - Forum-scope action still auto-escalates on its own — this form is for situations that don't fit a forum-scope Suspend/Ban/Shadow (cross-forum patterns, ladder-skipping offenses, ambiguous cases).
Tip
Pick the reason first. It fills in a scaffolded subject + description that matches the CG wording, so you're not retyping boilerplate on every escalation. The "specific context" box is where you put the pieces that make this escalation different from the last one — that's what admins actually read.
