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