MetaTalk posts tagged with moderation and etiquette

Pre-emptive moderation considered bad?

lupus_yonderboy — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:29:16 -0800

Pre-emptive moderation considered bad? It seems to me I see more and more pre-emptive moderation before anything overtly bad has happened. Today's example is this, where someone who mentioned without editorial comment that Citibank had sponsored this Peter Gabriel concert was slapped down. I understand that some topics inevitably do not end well - but this doesn't seem to be one of them. More important, in 2011 surely a responsible consumer needs to know what corporate figure is behind events? Of course personal insults and derails should be discouraged; but when a prominent figure like Peter Gabriel, someone has been active in the past in liberal and humanitarian causes, has a show sponsored by Citibank, any posting about this show is IMHO incomplete if this fact isn't mentioned.

What are the limits of acceptable dialogue here?

jaduncan — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 09:03:21 -0800

Stating that Mefites deserve to die: not OK, IMHO. I think this comment is probably going to get deleted, so I wanted to ask about it on metatalk. I don't think saying other mefites deserve to die is acceptable behaviour, but I'm aware that that might differ from the opinions of others so I wanted to check out what people thought. I'm not sure exactly what the rules are on this in general. I'd like to say here that I think PG is an interesting guy, and I'd prefer that he be around. Metafilter is somewhere I love precisely because it's free, but I just want to know what the boundaries actually are. PG: If you're reading this, an apology would be both welcome and accepted. Exchange: An even more relevant model would probably be a list of all revolutions, violent and non-violent and their total death tolls and likelihood that they immediately revert back to a dictatorship. So in the end you're back to dictatorship but a lot of dictatorship supporters are dead? That's a net gain. Anything that results in people who think dictatorships are acceptable being killed is A-OK by me. posted by Pope Guilty at 4:32 PM on February 13 [+] [!] "Anything that results in people who think dictatorships are acceptable being killed is A-OK by me." Destroy the village in order to save it, eh? posted by jaduncan at 4:36 PM on February 13 [+] [!] Destroy the village in order to save it, eh? You are a Mubarak supporter and deserve nothing less. (all pacifists are supporters of dictatorship) posted by Pope Guilty at 4:39 PM on February 13 [+] [!]

Seeking clarity on mod communication

stinkycheese — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:49:46 -0800

In this thread, languagehat has spouted several lies concerning myself, communications by email, and the mods' involvement therein. I know that languagehat is a favourite of many here, and I am not seeking to discuss him here or disparage him in any way. Yes, I have disparaged him (and he me) in the blue and the gray, but that is not what this call-out is about. I did not initially start a Meta thread yesterday when he began suggesting I'd sent him "obscene, threatening, borderline psychotic e-mails" in-thread; I quoted my sole email to him in the thread and hoped that would be the end of it. His repetition of this falsehood, along his lies that the mods have contacted me concerning this matter, is well out of order, and I think it warrants a challenge and some hopefully decisive clarity. I'd just like the mods to acknowledge here that no such communication was ever sent, and perhaps that'll go some way towards exonerating me from this outrageous charge.

No snark here.

Neiltupper — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:50:37 -0800

This post was flagged and the system worked as it usually does with cortex quite rightly deleting it. Before that occurred however, there were a few comments effectively ridiculing the question as LOLnOOb (these were deleted before the thread came down). Flags are generally effective on AskMe. Some snark is tolerated on MeFi and of course it's a free for all on MeTa, as the snark that will undoubtedly rain down on me for this post will show, but this triage of snarkery has worked quite well for the mods and by extension for us. The net effect of this incident is that Smilla who was making his/her first post on MetaFilter, member for only a few weeks, appears to have quit Who knows? Perhaps Smilla had some small treasure that might have been shared with the community had she or he not received the point-and-snort treatment on the first question. Perhaps not, but I see no gain in this. As many of us have been admonished before, flag it and move on.

People being assholes in post about African rapes

WCityMike — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 11:18:54 -0800

After I posted this horrific story, the infighting threads in there blew up to atrocious levels. I know it's not on the front page anymore, but mathowie or jess, it'd be nice if you could take a machete to all the crap infighting threads that people chose to dump in there, 'cause it's still going on. (And, on that issue, the fact that idiots would choose to infight in a thread about such a horrific topic is truly one of the worst moments I've seen on MeFi.)

AskMe posts deleted, not discussed

evil holiday magic — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:32:14 -0800

Some posts to AskMe about tailgating and driving etiquette were deleted from this thread. Discuss amongst yourselves...

Moderation of Morality Talk in Science Thread

brownpau — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:35:27 -0800

Space exploration topics in just about any online community are inevitably derailed by "why isn't that money being used for worldpeace/hungrychildren/education" bleeding hearts, so that the original subject is lost in repetitive defense of space programs. May I request that if you have a bone to pick with money being spent on space exploration, that you post your own link with discussion on the issue, rather than interrupting a good science discussion with never-ending arguments about the antiphilanthropism of government-funded space flight?

Can we get some moderation or is this just a free-for-all?

dios — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 14:14:22 -0800

Too much of this discussion is noise and pathetic behavior. It is really difficult to have a discussion when several people seem more interested in directly insulting the poster. Can we get some moderation or is this just a free-for-all? (There is more inside).

I/P: look, we are behaving

bingo — Sun, 17 Feb 2002 10:44:18 -0800

I think it would be nice if today's Palestine/Israel thread didn't vanish (as per mathowie's recent MeTa post, stating that he is going to delete them all until further notice), at least not before the name-calling starts. The post itself is a bit of a bait, but so far the responses have been well-thought-out, even-handed, and intelligent.

It was a double? That hurts my feelings

crunchland — Tue, 15 Jan 2002 23:30:25 -0800

Though it may make someone more hesitant to participate in the future, unless we are given a way to delete our own messages (or an easy way to alert someone who can), telling us that we've posted a duplicate link is nothing but a condescending tactic of metafilter bullies.