@SonictheIntrovertedHedgehog @SonictheIntrovertedHedgehog at the moment the mods consensus is that in most cases, we are not sure what the appropriate action is, and will defer to the CMs
Until such a point where we are confident it's the right acton
So unfortunately you will have to wait in those cases
@Rob dosen't matter. We don't do personal attacks. If you have a problem with decisions, feedback on meta. If you think a mod is doing a terrible job, use contact us.
It's very much best effort. There is no formal obligation, and while it's recommended you spend half an hour a day modding - that real life can get in the way is understood
@SonictheIntrovertedHedgehog These are volunteer positions. While we do have more expectations of SO moderators than the general mod teams, this is really only held to if there's a shortage of hands. All moderators are allowed to take time off, we generally hope they'll tell us when they do, though, and have tools for that. If there's an overabundance of work and absent seats, that's a problem. If everything's getting handled and people feel comfortably busy, it's not.
When should moderators move comments to chat?
This option is available at any time from the mod menu on any post with comments:
How you use it depends on the situation...
Handling an active tangential or off-topic discussion
Simply copying the existing comments to a chat room and leaving a ...
hmm, that makes this feature a bit complex since the system cannot differentiate between normal comments deletion or moved to chat (both remove pending inbox notification), while mod's comment on deleted post retains the notification. Well, might be trivial to fix thought...
Or people just blindly count on the spell check/auto complete which prefer thought over though since it's a more popular word. (1,980,000,000 vs. 1,950,000,000 Google results.)
Okay, I'll tell a story and you all get to guess who Nespresso is: instead of cherry-picking code from one branch to another (which we don't want anymore) this person has now thought up a way to avoid having to do that: By not picking out what you want to keep, but by removing everything you don't want from 1 branch, then merge that branch into the next release branch, then put everything you don't want back into the development branch...
This person is also known from the now famous 'Is this code, which has your picture and name on it in GitLab, and a reference to a story on JIRA that has your picture and name on it, yours?'
Hello, not sure I'm asking in the right place, but I will try. A comment I made on SKepticsSE, where I simply asked another user about his opinion on a certain subject, got deleted by an administrator, following reason given "Personal opinions are not allowed here". Isn't this a bit exaggerated, to say the least? Thanks for any feedback.
Comments are meant to be ephemeral and may ultimately get deleted for whatever reason. There isn't such a high bar for deleting comments
Of course, this doesn't mean mods can go nuts with the deletions, but my point is there doesn't usually need to be such a strong case for removing a comment for it to happen
That said, some sites also have a problem with lots of problematic comments, usually noisy, chatty or opinionated, so they establish policies and per-site culture on dealing with them more aggressively.
So a singled out comment might have nothing obviously wrong with it, but if it fits a pattern seen in too many unuseful comments that have previously been moderated, then it might get deleted.
@SonictheIntrovertedHedgehog monolog wrecker
@Adrenaxus ^
Also, you might look around a bit on Skeptics meta to find said policy meta posts on it, but I wouldn't recommend starting a thread on why your comment was deleted.
Thank you M.A.R. for the clarifications. I understand what you are saying and it makes sense. I guess I was a bit shocked about a rule prohibiting personal opinions, on a SKeptic forum... but ok. Thanks again.
@Adrenaxus Well, the ideal Q/A on Stack Exchange is mostly devoid of personal opinions, and that's how these sites differ from forums in the traditional sense of the word.
@Adrenaxus well - the Hardline opinion is comments are meant just for clarifications. The softer line is somewhere like 'if it's not too long and vaguely on topic it can go later
I don't see any reason to be skeptical of any exaggeration, so I'd say
"no, it hasn't been exaggerated".
from Has the Holocaust been exaggerated? Apparently that sort of statement is worth +30 around here.
Ironically, this so-called "skeptics" stackexchange:
1. Provides "answers" (that a...
@Adrenaxus Sometimes the OP formulates the question to validate their bias, but even then, I'm not sure asking if they're being biased will help anything
Thanks, although it had nothing to to with political opinions. I do understand that political opinions are discouraged. I simply asked another user about his opinion on Plato's Timaeus Dialog. Having said that, I wont engage in discussions there anymore, now that I know that personal opinions are not allowed. I think personal opinions are really important, especially if you want to be skeptic.
@Adrenaxus Despite the obvious human element, a question and its answer should look more like a dictionary entry. Of course opinionated and chatty comments get removed but it's not because they're bad or something, just that that's not where they should be.
There was, to me a few issues with careers as the main revenue stream. Basically it's a saturated market with many strong incumbents. And no ongoing revenue stream
The nice thing with what SE does now is that no one else does Q&A better - there's no real competition in that space. Of course there comes the fun part of balancing new users and retaining veteran users
Trigger warning: depression, suicide, anxiety
What brings me to ask this question today is because I recently created a Stack Exchange proposal which scope may partially overlap the IPS scope. One of the proposal's followers raised that concern and I was dazzled by that answer to the question:...
I agree with you though; even people that identify with severe problems need professional help. On the interwebz we don't even know if they identify with it!
I am seriously thinking about murdering time. Provide some emotional support pls kthxbye.
Scroll down for updated, ready-to-use comments.
I think Shog9's answer to the Meta Software Engineering question is good enough:
I hate to sound callous about this, but... This isn't a support group;
y'all probably aren't trained to deal with the outpouring of grief and
despair of someon...
Maybe I have thought too far then, until "we might help emotionally, but we can't even guarantee their physical security! If you said 1 wrong word that might trigger their traumatic memory, would you be responsible if they suddenly not responding to you anymore?"
@Tinkeringbell Those are normal user actions. I'm asking if a moderator has to do anything specifically. For example, on Wikipedia, there is a special "emergency" email address one can use to contact them about such things.
@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Well, I don't know about there, but over here you have suicide helplines/chats that are mainly staffed with random person volunteers... Though they had a bit of training on how to handle, probably.
@Tinkeringbell Regardless of training, when you volunteer there, you expect to be in touch with such people, and when you volunteer here, the biggest mental anguish you should be seeing is WHY THEY DOWNRATE.
@Tinkeringbell When everything else is struggling, I picture a guy that's about to drown in the ocean, but when an SE site is struggling, I picture an active meta with people that care, so not sure it's a negative thing
The alternative is the apathetic look of a site's regulars at a mess that's supposed to be neatly categorized. (Yeah I'm talking about meta.ELL, and yeah, I'm biased)
@Bookends If you include Trump it'll hit HNQ
"Did Donald Trump claim parrots are smarter than dogs?"
Or, hmm, "which one is smarter, Trump's dog or Trump's parrot?"
If I open a question that I have already answered, I think it is better to show some icon or link telling me something like, "You have posted an answer to this question." This will scroll me directly to my answer and let me reuse that information.
For example, this could look like:
@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ if you were the last to answer on one those contest questions, it is likely you won't immediately find your own answer. Having an navigation option near / at the question resolves that.
When should moderators move comments to chat?
This option is available at any time from the mod menu on any post with comments:
How you use it depends on the situation...
Handling an active tangential or off-topic discussion
Simply copying the existing comments to a chat room and leaving a ...
I don't see any reason to be skeptical of any exaggeration, so I'd say
"no, it hasn't been exaggerated".
from Has the Holocaust been exaggerated? Apparently that sort of statement is worth +30 around here.
Ironically, this so-called "skeptics" stackexchange:
1. Provides "answers" (that a...
Trigger warning: depression, suicide, anxiety
What brings me to ask this question today is because I recently created a Stack Exchange proposal which scope may partially overlap the IPS scope. One of the proposal's followers raised that concern and I was dazzled by that answer to the question:...
Scroll down for updated, ready-to-use comments.
I think Shog9's answer to the Meta Software Engineering question is good enough:
I hate to sound callous about this, but... This isn't a support group;
y'all probably aren't trained to deal with the outpouring of grief and
despair of someon...
If I open a question that I have already answered, I think it is better to show some icon or link telling me something like, "You have posted an answer to this question." This will scroll me directly to my answer and let me reuse that information.
For example, this could look like:
