Give a reason for reporting

To answer your question: yes, I have been a mod, an admin, and also a GM in a private server (not exactly "user-submitted material", but close enough, in terms of people breaking rules, and other people reporting them). On top of that, I develop software, most of which have at least an admin, and some that also include "lesser" roles.

But... all that doesn't necessarily means anything, because not every community, nor every system, is "the same", nor "similar enough". If we are going to get into "user psychology", then you are analyzing it the wrong way: instead of asking "why don't people report?", in my experience makes more sense to ask "why do people report?". In most cases, it's because either they have a stake in it, or because they have a personal problem with the reported, and they just use "the rules" as a weapon.

For instance, if a forum rule is "do not use curse words", most people won't report it when someone curses, because they don't feel affected by it, so if you have only one report of that, then it's worth looking into it (not to mention is very quick and simple to confirm). On the other hand, if a game has a glitch (namely, there is a way to get mobs stuck and you can kill them without receiving damage), and you get ONE report that says "I saw [player] exploiting the glitch", then, unless you have a lot of time on your hands, you won't be following him around for days just in case you can catch him exploiting the glitch, because if he is truly exploiting it, odds are you are going to get a lot of reports, since everyone feels affected by him getting an unfair advantage.

The giveaway part of this site is more like a game than a forum. We all feel cheated when we see someone post a "bad giveaway".

Regarding your own suggestion, I think it's "just a little" better than what we actually have, and makes it "a bit" harder on admins/devs/mods. What's bigger, "just a little" or "a bit"? I don't know, that's for the admins/devs/mods to answer, since they are the ones that would benefit (or not) from it.

A drop down box, WOULD be an improvement for SG. As Zevs clearly pointed out; it's basically a way of filtering giveaways. Variety is the spice of life, give people the ability to click and they shall. Tell them to write an essay or reason, they mostly likely wouldn't attempt to do so.

Being a 'Mod' in any sense requires time and dedication. If you are not prepared to put the HOURS in then what use are you? This site seems to be expanding at a rather rapid rate, IF the current Mods don't feel up to the task. (i.e. more hours to filter through reports), then outsourcing and getting another Mod to spread the load IS ideal.

Either that, or close the site for new members and stick with the current consumer base until they have an adequate method of checking giveaways.

Penny for a thought. [insert Penny here]

"As regards expressing a reason for why you reported something: even to a staff member who should know what they're doing, what might be wrong with a giveaway may not always be readily apparent."

This is true, but in my opinion still doesn't justify the original suggestion. This is true, as I said, but also very uncommon, and in those rare cases where this happens, you can post about it in the forum, which not only will get the admins/mods attention, but, perhaps more important, the rest of the community will now also share this obscure knowledge, and will start reporting this kind of situations.

As for the rest of your message, that is exactly my point: balance between the benefits and the costs.