General Moderation Topic

That’s a good point. It happens to everyone now and then. It’s best not to dwell on why it happened, and instead focus on avoiding similar comments in the future. Explanations might be nice, but they are not owed to anyone.

4 Likes

The purpose of this topic is to help clarify these decisions where possible. In the case of your recently moderated posts, we have a much stricter policy than most forums on making assumptions about individuals unless they have been previously reported, including mental state.

You can read more about that in the original topic about that policy:

15 Likes

Thank you for the insight. If I may ask, can we go ahead and assume that this policy also applies to “speculation” in addition to outright “assumptions?” For example, would a post to the effect of “Is it possible that she is suffering from bipolar disorder?” (which could possibly come from a place of concern) be treated the same as a post to the effect of “Damn, she must be bipolar.” I ask not because I want to go around speculating about these things, but just because it has become quite common these days (see the million op-eds diagnosing one Donald Trump), so I think it would be useful to clarify the distinction between speculation and assumptions, if any.

in general, a violation reframed in the form of a question is still a violation

17 Likes
5 Likes

I see. Thanks for a more useful explanation. I see how what I wrote could he interpreted as you did, though I certainly didn’t intend that interpretation.

3 Likes

I’m confused about the physics of hidden posts. I’ve had a post “hidden” by community flags, and yet the post is still being replied to, with quotes from my post in the replies.

I would have thought that if a post is hidden, it wouldn’t be possible to reply to it, or quote from it.

If it’s removed, the thread usually goes with. Hidden is a waiting zone for its final judgement.

6 Likes

until or unless a comment is removed by moderation, it can still be liked and replied to.

as @mclemens says, replies are likely to be eaten if the comment goes.

10 Likes

Is it just me, or is there a flood of newly-minted randos jumping on with “I like you comment :heart:” type replies?

14 Likes

Not just you. I’ve noticed two today.

14 Likes

I always hold out hope that some Boing Boing article or other has suddenly attracted the interest of a large group of ESL Happy Mutants, but this ugly world makes me wary.

14 Likes

18 posts were split to a new topic: Self-aware CAPTCHA overlords

Huh, no. Now I feel left out. :slightly_frowning_face:

:wink:

8 Likes

I like you comment :heart:

23 Likes

Comments are for :heart:‘s.

13 Likes

User Michael_R_Smith has been given a timeout for, again, passive-agressive rules-laywering in topics because they believe the community should not be moderating them.

Folks here flag for all sorts of reasons. Most flags tend to be genuine violations of our guidelines. I get that our guidelines are stricter than that of common forums or public discourse but that’s sort of the point - we’re not trying to recreate twitter here, we’re trying to recreate a place where everyone can feel safe and protected from ableist, bigoted, or intolerant remarks, even if those sorts of remarks are allowed most places.

The nature of Discourse means people need to scroll through topics with some level of cohesion. Users aren’t fans of long offtopic asides for that reason, and that’s ok! We can split of topics for those asides. But it doesn’t mean it’s ok to go take over a conversation because you don’t like the fact you were moderated, then bring it up repeatedly every chance you get. It just makes you look like an energy leech to try and take up everyone’s time like that.

There’s already a topic (other than this one!) to talk about moderation. I know this user knows this because they have posted there! And yet, they persist in leaking their rules-lawyering and bruised ego all over other topics when it suits them.

Perhaps this is not the forum for you. You now have some time to consider that possibility.

23 Likes

Well said. :clap: Assuming they come up often enough to be repeated, I wonder if a compilation of replies like these would be useful as a playbook for moderators? :thinking:

(We already have a “canned replies” feature in Discourse, I’m thinking more generally about how we can help proto-moderators, or people interested in assisting the moderators.)

11 Likes

There is a new member who is asserting things about the IQs of other members. To me this certainly violates the spirit of

Is this behavior allowed? I flagged the post but maybe I shouldn’t have.

ETA: The poster in question went on to clearly violate the first rule.

17 Likes

Yes. That’s absolutely flaggable, not only for the reason you link to, but also due to it just being an obvious attempt to insult others.

26 Likes