On the subject of whether or not we should show that content has been flagged as objectionable:
The way it's done in most online communities, is that when you flag content as objectionable, it does *not* hide it from other users, until an admin reviews your objection and agrees with it. As Ruslan said, this is to avoid abuse of the flag feature.
The main exception to this behavior is for sites that use a "karma" system, like Slashdot, where users can vote each comment up or down, and they can set a threshold to hide comments that fall below a certain karma level. But I think that falls outside the scope of this issue.
On the subject of whether or not we should show that content has been flagged as objectionable:
The way it's done in most online communities, is that when you flag content as objectionable, it does *not* hide it from other users, until an admin reviews your objection and agrees with it. As Ruslan said, this is to avoid abuse of the flag feature.
The main exception to this behavior is for sites that use a "karma" system, like Slashdot, where users can vote each comment up or down, and they can set a threshold to hide comments that fall below a certain karma level. But I think that falls outside the scope of this issue.