I had a message deleted yesterday for being off-topic. I have no idea what the message said because it's deleted. But one of the things that attracted me to this site was that the moderation seemed to not be heavy handed. Now I've had several posts deleted in the past couple months and I don't really know what's wrong with any of them. If I drift from a topic, it's never so far that it should be offensive. If I drift, it's almost always in response to something someone else posted so it seems that the post I responded to must have been off-topic, too.
I'm disappointed that the moderation seems to me to be excessive and, perhaps, arbitrary. I have no way to know what was deleted, by whom, or why so I can't say that it's done by certain moderators who get challenged frequently for their views.
Yep, for sure it is.. But our COMMITMENT to free speech and opinion is still TOTALLY intact.. We don't censor much content other than 4 or 8 things called out in the SITE WIDE section of the rules.. We don't moderate by content -- the rules and our actions are to maintain TOPIC CONTROL...
Because we want discussion and UNIQUE discussions for each thread topic.. So the main targets are:
1) Posts that dont' have "specific topical content because they are largely personal or flame.
2) Or posts that lack "specific topical content" because they are too far off that PARTICULAR title/OPost..
That's 90% of the moderation actions that we do.. And it's stone simple to AVOID USMB moderation completely -- if every time you hit reply you ASK yourself -- does the post address the topic... Whatever lesser content is flaming or distraction is probably OK if you're CONTRIBUTING to that topic..
Doesn't matter if someone else brought up the thread diversion.. Either ignore and/or report them. If you continue a diversion from the ACTUAL topic for more than post -- you'll probably get warned.
Doesn't matter if you were "flamed first".. You WILL get flamed here. But what we want is that flaming to be directed at the TOPICAL assertions, or misconceptions of the member you're flaming back.. If it at any point -- becomes 100% personal, you will be warned.
It's becoming to ugly and dark to read thru the content for hours a day TRYING TO FIND "specific topical content"
They'll be announcements probably soon to follow up on this...
Discussions drift. I could sit with any of you and talk about Linux. If we talk about Linux it will probably drift off-topic to Windows. And the weather. But that's not a thing to delete a post for.
That would be fine in "the Lounge" or a chat room if we still had it.. But in Politics/Current Events/Race and all the other VOLATILE forums that are melting down right now --- If you let that HAPPEN -- every thread will be the same lowest level rehash of rabid partisan Bullcrap from yearsm decades, centuries past...
And nobody wants to wade thru that.. Not members, not POTENTIAL members, and not moderation staff... Members have EVERY opportunity to start or FIND existing threads to discuss almost anything they want to discuss..
Even 3 Taunting Forums for members who just CANT ABIDE by "topic control" or flame reduction..