What exactly is the moderator policy for deleting threads/posts?

[NeilyBoy]

The reason I ask is because I had 2 harmless posts deleted from this thread.

I fully realise they were hardly productive and I'm not going to lose any sleep over the issue, but it would have been nice to get a quick pm from whoever did the deleting to let me know the reason.

There were a couple of other posts deleted from that thread and they too seemed perfectly harmless so the conclusion I'm drawing right now is that one of the people involved requested their removal for some reason or other. Or that the mod in question felt they were surplus to the thread. (I doubt this though judging by some of the stuff that stays on here!) If either of those are the case then fair play to the mod for upholding the person's wishes or for doing a bit of cleaning but, like I say, a quick pm to say as much would have been appreciated.

Confusedly yours,

Boy, Neil Y

Ps. On the off chance I sound like I feel victimised or insulted - I'm not at all. Just curious.

[AoWW]

I don't think it was me falling asleep on the delete button this time, although it has been known.

[Guest]

Rule1 - If you're RyanB89 you're never getting anything deleted no matter how much you 'command' someone to do it

[speedwayson]

Rule1 - If you're RyanB89 you're never getting anything deleted no matter how much you 'command' someone to do it

change your name to ryanb89 wheres he gone life been dull with out him

[davieG]

The reason I ask is because I had 2 harmless posts deleted from this thread.

I fully realise they were hardly productive and I'm not going to lose any sleep over the issue, but it would have been nice to get a quick pm from whoever did the deleting to let me know the reason.

There were a couple of other posts deleted from that thread and they too seemed perfectly harmless so the conclusion I'm drawing right now is that one of the people involved requested their removal for some reason or other. Or that the mod in question felt they were surplus to the thread. (I doubt this though judging by some of the stuff that stays on here!) If either of those are the case then fair play to the mod for upholding the person's wishes or for doing a bit of cleaning but, like I say, a quick pm to say as much would have been appreciated.

Confusedly yours,

Boy, Neil Y

Ps. On the off chance I sound like I feel victimised or insulted - I'm not at all. Just curious.

Can't comment on the actual deletions as I never saw them but what I can say if anyone seriously expects us to pm them every time we merge or delete something then they'll be waiting a long time.

We've had this debate many times and the answer's always the same - we don't have the time or the inclination to do so. I have actually tried to do it in the long distant past but it invariable led to a multi-pm debate/argument with the person over the rights or wrongs of a merge or deletion and often resolved nothing.

I'm afraid you're just going to have to take it on the chin, we've all had stuff deleted, yes even the mods and admin.

Just to add apart from abuse and slander there's no particular policy, we're all individuals with our own tastes and levels of what is acceptable so there's never going to be a consistency in the decisions to merge or delete.

[speedwayson]

why as daggers gone my little pony

[AoWW]

why as daggers gone my little pony

Pardon?

[The Doctor]

Pardon?

"why as daggers gone my little pony"

Time for a hearing-aid check I think

[AoWW]

"why as daggers gone my little pony"

Time for a hearing-aid check I think

Shouldn't you be thinking up more hilarious student antics to entertain us with?

[The Doctor]

Shouldn't you be thinking up more hilarious student antics to entertain us with?

no.

I've decided to chill out and do precisely **** all.

[NeilyBoy]

Can't comment on the actual deletions as I never saw them but what I can say if anyone seriously expects us to pm them every time we merge or delete something then they'll be waiting a long time.

We've had this debate many times and the answer's always the same - we don't have the time or the inclination to do so. I have actually tried to do it in the long distant past but it invariable led to a multi-pm debate/argument with the person over the rights or wrongs of a merge or deletion and often resolved nothing.

I'm afraid you're just going to have to take it on the chin, we've all had stuff deleted, yes even the mods and admin.

Just to add apart from abuse and slander there's no particular policy, we're all individuals with our own tastes and levels of what is acceptable so there's never going to be a consistency in the decisions to merge or delete.

Fair play, I didn't look at it like that.

[Zingari]

I don't think it was me falling asleep on the delete button this time, although it has been known.

It happens more and more as you get older i'm afraid .

I quite often fall asleep with my finger on the scroll button.

[Captain...]

Can't comment on the actual deletions as I never saw them but what I can say if anyone seriously expects us to pm them every time we merge or delete something then they'll be waiting a long time.

We've had this debate many times and the answer's always the same - we don't have the time or the inclination to do so. I have actually tried to do it in the long distant past but it invariable led to a multi-pm debate/argument with the person over the rights or wrongs of a merge or deletion and often resolved nothing.

I'm afraid you're just going to have to take it on the chin, we've all had stuff deleted, yes even the mods and admin.

Just to add apart from abuse and slander there's no particular policy, we're all individuals with our own tastes and levels of what is acceptable so there's never going to be a consistency in the decisions to merge or delete.

I understand why you don't PM people everytime, but if people aren't sure why they have been deleted, and if they have crossed the line and didn't know about it, then they will probably do so again.

What happens on another forum I visit is that a post will be "mod edited" anything offensive removed, and replaced with "mod edit:- bad language" or "mod edit:- Not Safe For Work" at least this way people know why it has been removed, I often use fvck instead of the censored version, partly because I am bad like that, but mainly because I have seen many others do the same or even use tags to write a swear word, to get round the censorship, I am not sure if this is actually frowned upon or banned, but if all you do is delete a post after someone has done it, then we will never know. I know this may seem like harder work than just pressing delete, but it will save arguments and hopefully result in less posts that break the rules.

[davieG]

I understand why you don't PM people everytime, but if people aren't sure why they have been deleted, and if they have crossed the line and didn't know about it, then they will probably do so again.

What happens on another forum I visit is that a post will be "mod edited" anything offensive removed, and replaced with "mod edit:- bad language" or "mod edit:- Not Safe For Work" at least this way people know why it has been removed, I often use fvck instead of the censored version, partly because I am bad like that, but mainly because I have seen many others do the same or even use tags to write a swear word, to get round the censorship, I am not sure if this is actually frowned upon or banned, but if all you do is delete a post after someone has done it, then we will never know. I know this may seem like harder work than just pressing delete, but it will save arguments and hopefully result in less posts that break the rules.

As I said above it doesn't save arguments all it does is provoke and prolong arguments, if people know they're not going to be given a reason they'll get use to it, giving reasons provides an opportunity to disagree, responding to some and not others will create additional arguments (e.g they got an explanation why didn't I?) because not every mod/admin will act in the same way, there will be an inherent level of inconsistency. (somewhat like lcfc )

[Captain...]

As I said above it doesn't save arguments all it does is provoke and prolong arguments, if people know they're not going to be given a reason they'll get use to it, giving reasons provides an opportunity to disagree, responding to some and not others will create additional arguments (e.g they got an explanation why didn't I?) because not every mod/admin will act in the same way, there will be an inherent level of inconsistency. (somewhat like lcfc )

I understand that, but you must know that nobody every reads the forum rules and etiquette, so without some form of explanation for others to see and not just the poster, then it would keep more people in line with the forum rules, obviously to bring it in now would be difficult as there are a number of established posters, but if I joined a forum and saw people's posts being edited for bad language I would keep my language to within those guidelines, but as it is I read fvck sh1t cnut on a daily basis on here so I see it as being acceptable, as will everyone else, and maybe it is, but I am guessing not as **** gets censored.

I understand that there may be a difference in opinion as to what is acceptable and what isn't between mods, but that is your perogative, and I am not asking you to justify why it's deleted but just explain which rule it broke,

If broken down into say 5 categories:

1. Offensive language

2. Abusive post

3. NSFW content

4. Spam

5. Off topic

Then posts or parts of posts could just be replaced with that tag (you could set them as hotkeys to save time) all of which are clearly explained as being at the moderator's discretion and will not be discussed.

I understand how it could show up inconsistencies, and reading wherethefoxhat's posts in the frustration thread, whilst amusing, does remind how petty it can get on forums, and it is something that is normally kept to a minimum on here, so maybe you are right. I guess it depends if you want to stop people posting something they shouldn't or find it easier to just clean it up each and every time they post something they shouldn't.

[davieG]

I understand that, but you must know that nobody every reads the forum rules and etiquette, so without some form of explanation for others to see and not just the poster, then it would keep more people in line with the forum rules, obviously to bring it in now would be difficult as there are a number of established posters, but if I joined a forum and saw people's posts being edited for bad language I would keep my language to within those guidelines, but as it is I read fvck sh1t cnut on a daily basis on here so I see it as being acceptable, as will everyone else, and maybe it is, but I am guessing not as **** gets censored.

I understand that there may be a difference in opinion as to what is acceptable and what isn't between mods, but that is your perogative, and I am not asking you to justify why it's deleted but just explain which rule it broke,

If broken down into say 5 categories:

1. Offensive language

2. Abusive post

3. NSFW content

4. Spam

5. Off topic

Then posts or parts of posts could just be replaced with that tag (you could set them as hotkeys to save time) all of which are clearly explained as being at the moderator's discretion and will not be discussed.

I understand how it could show up inconsistencies, and reading wherethefoxhat's posts in the frustration thread, whilst amusing, does remind how petty it can get on forums, and it is something that is normally kept to a minimum on here, so maybe you are right. I guess it depends if you want to stop people posting something they shouldn't or find it easier to just clean it up each and every time they post something they shouldn't.

I repeat I've tried in the past explaining to people and in most cases it led to a long winded exchange of pm's (rather like this exchange )because people will not accept the reasons.

[AoWW]

To be honest, the forum rules aren't exactly complicated. With a little common sense the vast majority really should be able to figure out why their post has been deleted. I know in the past when I've had stuff deleted I've always understood why and recognised that I was sailing pretty close to the wind in the first place.

I really don't have the time or inclination to justify why I've deleted something and, if someone's that upset about it, perhaps they need to learn to not be quite such a sensitive little flower if they're going to find internet forums that traumatic. In fairness, if someone PMs me and asks politely and sensibly (just the once, and waits for me to have time to reply before sending increasingly arsey PMs... take note wherethefoxhat) why something's been deleted they'll ususally find they receive an equally polite reply (unless it's a certain time of the month or I've run out of coffee/alcohol, but that's another story altogether....!!)

[FoxyPV]

It's based purely on their whims (as it should be), and if they tell you otherwise, they are lying.

[Daggers]

If I don't like it, it goes.

I have powers and work Webbo like a puppet.

[Captain...]

Another one bites the dust, what happened to the THAI'S OUT!!! thread? was it because it was being satirical and was confused as wumming, or an april fools joke? The first thread for a while that had made me laugh and it gets deleted. Instead we have 20 threads about Pearson, could it not have just been closed, whilst not the longest post ever the person who started it had spent more than 10 seconds mashing the keyboard to make his views known, and then puff, it is gone. I honestly think it is much better to close the thread and then let it slide off the page than just destroy what people have writted.

Edit: It is back now and locked, I am happy with that.

[jimmer]

Seems to be a bit of deleting going on for no aparent reason at the mo.......someone got out of bed the wrong side today me thinks and took a joke personally! although it was directed at the kids posting crap, nothing more.

[HEGGSY]

To be honest, the forum rules aren't exactly complicated. With a little common sense the vast majority really should be able to figure out why their post has been deleted. I know in the past when I've had stuff deleted I've always understood why and recognised that I was sailing pretty close to the wind in the first place.

I really don't have the time or inclination to justify why I've deleted something and, if someone's that upset about it, perhaps they need to learn to not be quite such a sensitive little flower if they're going to find internet forums that traumatic. In fairness, if someone PMs me and asks politely and sensibly (just the once, and waits for me to have time to reply before sending increasingly arsey PMs... take note wherethefoxhat) why something's been deleted they'll ususally find they receive an equally polite reply (unless it's a certain time of the month or I've run out of coffee/alcohol, but that's another story altogether....!!)

Common sense...on Foxestalk.

[jimmer]

Common sense...on Foxestalk.

Carefull......you're treading very close to the line there

[AoWW]

You can tell the kids are on holiday.

[HEGGSY]

You can tell the kids are on holiday.

Was that aimed at me?