Moderators removing posts.

[Blade]

I get that a moderator deeming a post to be improper or unsuitable is very much their prerogative, but it's both unhelpful and confusing for the original poster for his comment to simply be removed without any form of explanation. This is something I've encountered with increasing frequency of late, and I'm finding it to be rather hard to understand on a logical level. Sure, I get it, you guys probably don't feel that you need to explain yourselves when you're carrying out forum moderation tasks, but the crux of the matter is that you're going to struggle to modify people's behaviour, thereby doing nothing to reduce repeat offenses, by carrying out silent acts of censorship and moderation.

It would be welcome to be given some kind of written notification, even if not an outright justification, via a Private Message, as this would ensure that the poster is aware of why his post was removed - thus empowering him with the knowledge that in turn will reduce the chances of him falling foul of the same rules in future. It would also alleviate the confusion one can feel when their post suddenly vanishes without a word of notice, which can lead one to simply re-posting in the belief that some form of error has taken place during the submitting process, which in turn could very easily appear petulant to a moderator, leading to the user unnecessarily receiving a more formal reprimand.

And before someone goes and replies with a link to the Forum Rules - I know, I've read them - but the instances I am referring to do not fall foul of the rules in any large way, to the point where it takes a level of abstraction to understand where exactly the infraction has taken place.

I get that you guys want to run a tight ship and all, and I appreciate the atmosphere that stringent moderation provides, but I think the first and foremost aim of moderation should be to improve the behaviour of forum members, not just censor out the bits that you don't want to see, and this particular style of moderation isn't really helpful to that end.

[VegettoEX]

Unfortunately I have absolutely no clue what you're referring to, so if you either want to go into more detail or privately PM me, go for it.

As a standard practice, we tend not to actually delete any posts at all unless they're nonsensical "lulz i literally said nothing". Depending on the severity of their nothingness, they'll typically get a PM from us alongside it with a link to the rules and a request to shape up. In that case, no, you personally wouldn't be aware of - nor would you have any need to be - what is going on behind the scenes with someone else's moderation.

Are you talking about a post of your own? Someone else's? Did they perhaps delete it themselves?

[Li'l Lemmy]

Speaking as someone who has been here for many years, I have very rarely ever seen posts gone missing. The administration seems to have an active dislike of it (which I always assume to be an effort to maintain the integrity of the inevitable "time capsule" effect as much as possible, but who knows), and in all honesty my viewpoint on it if I were staff would be that actually deleting posts is the last resort that needs a hard reason.

Those reasons tend to be 1) meaningless gibberish, 2) inappropriate back-and-forth and/or 3) classic e-penis measuring contests that disrupt the intended idea of a thread. In the last case especially, it's more like trimming the fat off steak. In my opinion, anyway.

If posts do go missing, and they aren't yours, it's probably not necessary for you to know why. I can see why you'd want to, but it's easier just to pick up where the thread leads off and get it back on track than to ponder over why X user had Y comment removed. Honestly, if it was removed, then it really wasn't worth your attention to begin with. Who the fuck cares.

Just saiyan.


~Da Lemmy

[Blade]

Unfortunately I have absolutely no clue what you're referring to, so if you either want to go into more detail or privately PM me, go for it.

As a standard practice, we tend not to actually delete any posts at all unless they're nonsensical "lulz i literally said nothing". Depending on the severity of their nothingness, they'll typically get a PM from us alongside it with a link to the rules and a request to shape up. In that case, no, you personally wouldn't be aware of - nor would you have any need to be - what is going on behind the scenes with someone else's moderation.

Are you talking about a post of your own? Someone else's? Did they perhaps delete it themselves?

I'm referring to my own experiences specifically, there having been a couple over the past few months. The last one to spring to mind was back in December when I created a comical image of Birus in response to a thread about a bootlegged version of Battle of Gods, which carried the tagline 'A sizzling entertainer'. I've never received a Private Message on this forum about one of my posts.

I was actually motivated to create this thread because I was unable to find a post I'd made yesterday in the General Franchise Discussion forum. Although I suspect that in this instance it was probably a case of a submission failure, it reminded me of the fact that my posts had been silently removed in the past, and that therefore I really had no way of knowing for certain where my post had gone - and to re-post would potentially have been to be reprimanded. I hope you can understand why under the circumstances I found this situation to be difficult to circumvent.

[Codarik]

The last one to spring to mind was back in December when I created a comical image of Birus in response to a thread about a bootlegged version of Battle of Gods, which carried the tagline 'A sizzling entertainer'.

I can vouch for that. I remember seeing that hilarious image when it first got posted and when I went back to the thread to get a good laugh, the pic along with Blades general post was deleted.

[Kaboom]

I've deleted a few simple quote-a-long-post-and-say-two-words posts recently, and I didn't think that really warranted any direct feedback at the time. But that doesn't seem to be what you're talking about...

[Blade]

I've deleted a few simple quote-a-long-post-and-say-two-words posts recently, and I didn't think that really warranted any direct feedback at the time. But that doesn't seem to be what you're talking about...

Not specifically - but again, feedback, even if just a brief notification of moderation action, would be nice - as like I said, there's no reason as to why the person who made the short post couldn't end up innocently assuming that their post was lost to a posting error, and post the same thing again.

I'm not trying to tell anyone how to do their job, I just don't understand the point in moderation if not to provide a future guideline for acceptable behavior, as silently deleting posts is just censorship. Sure, it makes the place look nicer - but does it do anything to prevent repeat offending? I'm not convinced of its merits.

[Li'l Lemmy]

The guidelines for behavior are already outlined in the Forum Rules that we all agreed to upon registration. If something more needs to be said about a member's behavior, I imagine that it will be said to that member directly. Just because it isn't addressed publicly doesn't mean that it isn't being addressed, just that you aren't necessarily privy to other folks' business.

I'm not staff, but at the same time I'm not exactly sure what more there is to say. Disappearing posts are a rarity. When it happens, there's a reason. If it's not your post, then not knowing the reason has zero impact on your ability to keep making your own awesome contributions. O_o

On the other hand, if what you're saying is that your OWN posts routinely disappear without explanation, well... that's something else entirely, and I've got no clue. I'd think that a moderator would explain the action to you in most (if not all) instances.


~Da Lemmy

[Blade]

The guidelines for behavior are already outlined in the Forum Rules that we all agreed to upon registration.

I've already addressed that here:

And before someone goes and replies with a link to the Forum Rules - I know, I've read them - but the instances I am referring to do not fall foul of the rules in any large way, to the point where it takes a level of abstraction to understand where exactly the infraction has taken place.

If something more needs to be said about a member's behavior, I imagine that it will be said to that member directly. Just because it isn't addressed publicly doesn't mean that it isn't being addressed, just that you aren't necessarily privy to other folks' business

I'm not staff, but at the same time I'm not exactly sure what more there is to say. Disappearing posts are a rarity. When it happens, there's a reason. If it's not your post, then not knowing the reason has zero impact on your ability to keep making your own awesome contributions. O_o

Again, I've already covered that:

I'm referring to my own experiences specifically, there having been a couple over the past few months. The last one to spring to mind was back in December when I created a comical image of Birus in response to a thread about a bootlegged version of Battle of Gods, which carried the tagline 'A sizzling entertainer'. I've never received a Private Message on this forum about one of my posts.

On the other hand, if what you're saying is that your OWN posts routinely disappear without explanation, well... that's something else entirely, and I've got no clue. I'd think that a moderator would explain the action to you in most (if not all) instances.

That's kind of the point of me making this topic to begin with. I've never received any form of message or notification for the reasons why my posts were removed, and in the instances that I refer to there was never any obvious rule infraction.

Did you actually read anything I've said in this thread?

[Li'l Lemmy]

I have, but like other people in the thread before me, I wasn't initially certain whose posts you were referring to. The first post in particular doesn't specify it very well (to me, anyway), and it wasn't until your later replies that I've finally understood the intent.

If anything, it just means that I need to be more observant.