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I honestly think that except for the very biggest expenditures, like wars and bank bailouts and tax cuts for the rich, crying over money is pretty much always a way of saying “I wish we didn’t do this” without giving the real reason. It definitely has been for right-wing politicians, whose concern over the budget only materializes when it goes to helping people.
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You would be correct. 
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I’d go further and suggest replacing “the budget” with “having a government” (or perhaps “having a civilization”).
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Ignorant question: As a Leader do you get notified of flags and have the power to act upon them?
This table seems to indicate not:
But are these things customizable?
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No, we do not.
As far as I know, Discourse is designed with a specific structure for various user roles in mind and only allows customisation within them.
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I’m sorry, I could have replied better or not at all. I shortened my reply and it just left the snark behind.
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They very much do…
Isn’t the number just OBVIOUS! /s
Me too… my time here has certainly improved my thinking and my mode of argumentation as well.
And of course, part of the problem here is that we’re all gonna have different lines about when to challenge and when to push back… but that might not be what the mods think is the line. So, it becomes about trying to anticipate that rather than engaging authentically on pushing back…
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I use flagging with “Something Else” if I just feel something is on the way to out of line or feels hinky. This let’s me write a note explaining to the mods why I think it might be an issue or seems likely to become one. I do this partly because it seems like now when I flag something in the other categories it is enough to get it temporarily hidden, and that is not my goal.
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… or even just to quote the specific bit of a post that we perceive as a problem
It’s easy for a hinkster to hide something hinky in the depths of a long post that’s mostly OK, and easy for mods to miss it if the whole thing just gets a generic “Inappropriate” flag
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In reading your post, I’ve decided to revert a decision I made several years ago. I hear you, I am listening.
I started deleting flagged posts instead of hiding them because 1) I saw no reason to give a platform to troublemakers and 2) leaving replies up very often resulted in further derails because it didn’t allow new posters (or the 50-100K people who read the BBS daily) to experience the topic without the replies to the derail, many of which were no longer relevant without the derailing post being visible.
But the reality is, this also affects users like you, who decide to reply anyway and feel punished for doing nothing more than replying.
So, I’m going to revert my behaviour. From now on, I will only hide flagged posts going forward, and leave replies as is. You can safely “take a chance” and reply going forward.
There is a catch: I usually let replies to troublemakers go when I delete them if they, too violate the guidelines, because they’re being deleted anyway. Now that this won’t happen, those posts will instead also be flagged and moderated the same as any other, up to and including suspension. So consider this a notice to everyone: it’s never ok to violate our guidelines just because someone did it first.
Lastly, to this point:
Flagging is so much less work for us! Please do it! We review them, we make the final decision, and I do not possibly have the time to read every post and every conversation. Those flags are important signals to keep an eye on conversations and or on specific users so that if they are really just here to cause trouble, we can find out sooner. They are anonymous, and indicate nothing more than you think there might be something janky with this post. I trust the intuition of our regular community and deeply value the fact that folks take the time to throw a flag, especially those of you who take time to write a note. The civility of the BBS is directly impacted by the number of flags thrown. Please reconsider your stance here; your intuition is a valuable tool!
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Damn, I love this place.
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And this place loves you…
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It’s special isn’t it?
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The best-moderated BBS I’ve been on since the days of Usenet (heck, since the days of Fidonet). Seriously.
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So say we all; We 
the Free Ice Cream.
Cherish the community we’ve got here, for however long we may have it; as we’ve seen with twitter, shit can go horribly awry if the TPTB aren’t on top of their game.
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I hear YOU, and I’m going to set a goal to do a better job of flagging. I need to get over the fear that I’m creating drama where maybe none really exists. I should trust my instinct, and your judgment, more.
And thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for caring and listening and making the tough decisions every day. You make it possible for diverse voices to be heard here, as long as they’re playing by the rules.
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I must:
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