Request that mods sign off on who deleted posts

June 13, 2006 4:44 PM

When posts are deleted and mentioned in MeTa we see something like: "This post was deleted for the following reason: This is way too open-ended. Try again next week with something specific and more focused."

Sometimes it's obviously Matt doing the deleting and sometimes obviously Jess, but as in this example I can't tell and it drives me nuts! Could you guys initial off on these things or something? (It doesn't matter but drives me nuts filter.)
posted by snsranch to Feature Requests at 4:44 PM (26 comments total)

Why?
posted by edgeways at 4:51 PM on June 13, 2006

I have a message for you from Matt and/or Jess (I'm not really at liberty to say):


posted by Doohickie at 4:58 PM on June 13, 2006 [1 favorite]

It's the inset that really makes that graphic what it is.
posted by Zozo at 5:08 PM on June 13, 2006

I wrote it. I could add attribution for who removed it, but why is that important? Seriously, I'll do it if you can give me a good reason. The only reasons I can imagine seem kind of silly.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:14 PM on June 13, 2006

We talked about doing this once. Usually in AskMe, it's me doing the deleting and in MeFi it's usually mathowie unless it's a double post in MeFi (more cut and dried) in which case it might be me. That one wasn't mine.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:15 PM on June 13, 2006

Oh yeah. This is a great idea.
Then we can have more meticulously footnoted callouts of individual admins.
posted by atrazine at 5:19 PM on June 13, 2006

And each admin should provide a home phone number with each deletion so the aggrieved party can call and argue, whine, or threaten (as the case may be).
posted by languagehat at 5:23 PM on June 13, 2006

Because the psychos whose stupid posts get deleted need to know whose houses to bomb.
posted by crunchland at 5:24 PM on June 13, 2006

The only reasons I can imagine seem kind of silly

Some of us only masturbate to one or the other of your deletion-reasons. If you think it's silly to want to navigate betwixt them, then I can't imagine what you'd call serious.
posted by scarabic at 5:24 PM on June 13, 2006

I can think of a couple silly reasons of which I'd be supportive. Mainly for the humor/analysis potential of tracking deleting type, time, and message tone by admin.
posted by cortex at 5:53 PM on June 13, 2006

scarabic hits the money shot!
posted by brain_drain at 5:53 PM on June 13, 2006

Thanks Matt and Jess. Being that the "reasons" read like unattributed "comments" they really make me curious as to who authored them.

Jess has explained the who and the above comments have explained the why. So thanks folks!
posted by snsranch at 6:02 PM on June 13, 2006

I feel that you should post a link or two in your "deletion explanation" backing up your reasoning.
posted by graventy at 6:31 PM on June 13, 2006

and of course, people should be able to respond to the deletion reasons.
posted by quonsar at 6:33 PM on June 13, 2006

The deletion reason should have flags.
posted by smackfu at 6:56 PM on June 13, 2006

and there should be a favorite deletions page.
posted by quonsar at 7:14 PM on June 13, 2006

I can't find the rss feed for the deletions reasons.
posted by cortex at 7:19 PM on June 13, 2006

Well, if you guys initialed the deletions, we could email you guys instead of crying to metatalk.
posted by delmoi at 7:26 PM on June 13, 2006

a good cop/bad cop thing could be fun, no? ; >
posted by amberglow at 8:29 PM on June 13, 2006

Tags for deletion reasons, please
posted by cellphone at 8:55 PM on June 13, 2006

Well, if you guys initialed the deletions, we could email you guys instead of crying to metatalk.

Of course, you could just email 'em both...
posted by cortex at 9:08 PM on June 13, 2006

scarabic , you just made eating cereal quite difficult.
posted by catachresoid at 4:22 AM on June 14, 2006

Maybe we could get three people to click the delete button all at the same time, and the computer would randomly accept one of the commands to actually delete the post. That way no one would ever know who deleted a post.

Or we could make it more like a commitee:
User1: I move that this post be deleted!
User2: I second that motion!
User3: I third it!
Admin1: Motion carried!
Admin2: Deleted!
posted by blue_beetle at 7:43 AM on June 14, 2006

Does anyone have a stylesheet that I can apply to the commitee?
posted by sad_otter at 11:13 AM on June 14, 2006

Am I the only one who would totally sign-up for the rss feed of deleted threads? My greasemonkey 'see deleted threads' thingy stopped working, and that makes me sad.
posted by haqspan at 12:27 PM on June 14, 2006

haqspan: this deleted-threads bookmarklet still works.
posted by cortex at 1:03 PM on June 14, 2006