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(The below should be seen partially as feedback to the mods concerning
my own opinions, partially as an inquiry into what other posters
think. I stress that I value both the boards in general and the
efforts put in by, above all, gh to keep them a pleasant experience.)
Every so often, someone asks ``Where did thread xxx go?!?'', ``What
happened to my posts?!?'', or similar. Apparently, the way deletion of
unsuitable posts (and, in lesser cases, moves of threads to other
boards) is handled causes a lot of unnecessary confusion. Futher
sometimes threads are deleted entirely, because they took a bad
turn---despite the fact that a large part of the discussion was both
kosher and potentially interesting, and despite the possibility of
references from other threads. (This is apparently what happened to
the recent AOY thread, which was a personal favourite of mine, and
which was referenced from at least two other threads. Cf.
http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... 145#500154.)
Based on what I have seen as positive on other forum sites, I would
make the following suggestions for improved handling:
1. Do not delete in the conventional way. Instead, replace the
offending text with a semi-generic message indicating that the post
was considered unsuitable, preferably citing the reason with a
reference to the board guide-lines. (Multiple posts can, of course, be
covered by one message.)
2. Take care to only delete the posts that are actually offending, not
surrounding innocent posts, and not the entire thread.
3. If a thread gets out of hand, keep the kosher parts and put a lock
against new posts on the thread.
4. If a thread is moved to another board after a longer time, consider
leaving a dummy thread stating where the original thread can now be
found. If the original poster was new, then consider sending him an
email with notification. (It is obvious from some of the queries that
not all posters have been here long enough to recognize the
possibility of a moved thread.)
On a related note: If we wish to prevent offending posters from
re-offending, it is benefitial to not just silently delete their
posts, but to actually educate them on why their posts were unsuitable
(and that any repetition will suffer the same fate).
Of course, I fully respect the fact that our mods only have a limited
amount of time to spend on clean-up tasks, and that the owners of a
free-of-charge, public-service forum has the right to run it as they
see fit. However, the above suggestions would, IMO, improve the boards
without causing undue overhead. Notably, if there are limitations in
the administrative UI, these should be comparatively easy to
circumvent by small external scripts; notably, the texts used can
usually be written once, and then copy-and-past'ed as appropriate.
my own opinions, partially as an inquiry into what other posters
think. I stress that I value both the boards in general and the
efforts put in by, above all, gh to keep them a pleasant experience.)
Every so often, someone asks ``Where did thread xxx go?!?'', ``What
happened to my posts?!?'', or similar. Apparently, the way deletion of
unsuitable posts (and, in lesser cases, moves of threads to other
boards) is handled causes a lot of unnecessary confusion. Futher
sometimes threads are deleted entirely, because they took a bad
turn---despite the fact that a large part of the discussion was both
kosher and potentially interesting, and despite the possibility of
references from other threads. (This is apparently what happened to
the recent AOY thread, which was a personal favourite of mine, and
which was referenced from at least two other threads. Cf.
http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... 145#500154.)
Based on what I have seen as positive on other forum sites, I would
make the following suggestions for improved handling:
1. Do not delete in the conventional way. Instead, replace the
offending text with a semi-generic message indicating that the post
was considered unsuitable, preferably citing the reason with a
reference to the board guide-lines. (Multiple posts can, of course, be
covered by one message.)
2. Take care to only delete the posts that are actually offending, not
surrounding innocent posts, and not the entire thread.
3. If a thread gets out of hand, keep the kosher parts and put a lock
against new posts on the thread.
4. If a thread is moved to another board after a longer time, consider
leaving a dummy thread stating where the original thread can now be
found. If the original poster was new, then consider sending him an
email with notification. (It is obvious from some of the queries that
not all posters have been here long enough to recognize the
possibility of a moved thread.)
On a related note: If we wish to prevent offending posters from
re-offending, it is benefitial to not just silently delete their
posts, but to actually educate them on why their posts were unsuitable
(and that any repetition will suffer the same fate).
Of course, I fully respect the fact that our mods only have a limited
amount of time to spend on clean-up tasks, and that the owners of a
free-of-charge, public-service forum has the right to run it as they
see fit. However, the above suggestions would, IMO, improve the boards
without causing undue overhead. Notably, if there are limitations in
the administrative UI, these should be comparatively easy to
circumvent by small external scripts; notably, the texts used can
usually be written once, and then copy-and-past'ed as appropriate.
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