Force Moderators To Give A Reason For Deleted Posts

[Welsh]

I believe I was the one to deleted that message yesterday. It was reported as spam, and I agreed with the report that the message was of low quality. Also, the following sentence which you've posted again with more sentences I still consider low quality.

Congratulations on this awesome donation guys! I'm really happy for you since you're one of my few favorite coins
I want to wish you that you put them in good use while having clear goals for the GRIN's future (so as to not waste resources).

It doesn't add anything to the discussion, and almost always congratulation posts are unneeded. I'm not saying you can't congratulate other users, but bring something new to the discussion rather than just saying congratulations, and its one of your favorite coins. Can you imagine how much of a ball ache it would be to read the thread if everyone did that after an update?

Even with your revised comment I believe it should be removed. It doesn't really bring anything with substantial value to the thread, and is just added on to avoid getting deleted. If a reply has been deleted, its probably not the best of ideas to continue posting it. There's also other ways of congratulating users of something, that doesn't end up clogging up the thread. You are not the only user who gets these types of posts deleted, and there are several users who like to congratulate project owners when they reach a certain milestone etc. When they are reported they are usually deleted, unless they are otherwise not low quality.

I consider most congratulations posts to fall under rule number 1 for being low quality. Like I said, you can congratulate a project/user, and at the same time be a substantial post. However, I don't think yours was. As for your posts on the DAPP thread, I have no idea without context.

Is it just me who thinks this would be a good addition? Do you think it's too much trouble for too few users who would actually care to improve themselves?

Its a good idea, and something that I would support. I already try, and message users if I believe its a complex reason why their posts have been deleted, and I also message users with an explanation on why I've marked their post bad if I believe it might be hard to establish.

As for the idea, its definitely something that would be beneficial. As others have stated it is part of newer versions of SMF. However, this forum runs on a highly modified SMF that doesn't have that feature. If it was a feature then I don't see any reason why moderators wouldn't take a couple of seconds more on each report to write a little something. Although, you could probably expect the obvious rule breaking posts that are deleted to not get an explanation.

Anyway, almost everyone on this forum has had a post deleted in their history including myself. It's usually not a big deal, and after a while you start to learn what sort of things you can, and can't post. Certain sections can be stricter than others, and certain moderators can be stricter than others.

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[DooMAD]

I'm not a big believer in forcing people to do stuff to appease people who make mountains out of molehills.  I'm far more likely to suggest people try to be less entitled and maybe consider that random people on the internet don't owe you an explanation for simply doing their job.  What have you done to earn an explanation?  Clearly your post being deleted hasn't had any adverse effect on the forum whatsoever.  But if such posts were not removed and were instead allowed to multiply, that would quickly begin to negatively impact the forum.  A hundred people lining up to say "congratulations" is not a discussion.  This is a discussion forum.  Send them a personal message next time.

[akamit]

I support the idea for an explanation for deleting a post by mods, but only if there is a semi-automated system something like one-click execution. The click will trigger both actions at a time "delete" and "msg the user with an explanation". The explanation is something prebuilt or another way could be that when we report a post or thread, we mention the reason in the comment field, so, that comment can be forwarded to the user as an explanation. And also I want to get notified when a thread gets deleted where I made a post.

Sometimes I wonder how many reports mods get each day in total and in how many types. Such as, low quality, ref spam, likely scam, wrong board, multiple threads, what else?

[Welsh]

Sometimes I wonder how many reports mods get each day in total and in how many types. Such as, low quality, ref spam, likely scam, wrong board, multiple threads, what else?

Varies. Some days can be quieter than others. It was specially crazy in the summer when the report badge proposal was posted. As for the types of reports we receive we don't always have good reports. Its quite common for arguments on the forum to leak into the report function, and users trying to get posts deleted etc. Reports can be made about trademarks, but they are left to theymos, and usually theymos receives a message directly rather than a report.

The main reports we get are spam, trolling, and wrong section. Then there's reports for necro bumping, plagiarism, double posts, bumping before 24 hours, multiple old bumps, quote pyramids, broken BB code, ref links, malicious software, fake announcements, ban evasion, and user who have made mistakes when posting a thread, and want it removed. That's probably not even all of it. Depending on the section that the moderator is handling greatly effects how many reports they're handling too.

[UserU]

...necro bumping...

Will action be taken against necroposts? On the one hand, it reduces the same topics posted over and over while on the other hand, the type of post could just be spammy.

Also, are those campaign-spammy posts acceptable in reports?

[o_e_l_e_o]

Will action be taken against necroposts?

My criteria for reporting necrobumps is pretty much the same as that for reporting general spam posts. Is it worthwhile? Does it add new and relevant information to the discussion?

Often necrobumps in boards like Technical Discussion and Technical Support are fine. Since topics in these boards are usually about a discrete issue or question, then adding and building on what has come before is often better than opening a new topic on the same issue and having to repeat many of the same points and discussion. Necrobumps in boards like Bitcoin Discussion are usually the exact opposite. The vast majority of the time necrobumps in boards like this are just a couple of lines of spam, often repeating almost exactly what has already been said before, and very rarely adding any new information. If I'm reporting necrobumps on spam megathreads in Bitcoin Discussion for example, I'll also go back and report the OP and ask to have the thread locked.

Also, are those campaign-spammy posts acceptable in reports?

Do you mean users reporting their bounty activities? The posts which are lists of Facebook and Twitter links? I see absolutely zero point in reporting those. There are thousands of posts like that every day; it would be a massive waste of yours and moderators' time. As long as they post within the designated bounty section and aren't spilling out to the rest of the forum, then just ignore them.

If you are talking about general spammy posts from users wearing signatures, then yes, you should report them as you would any spam post.

[Theb]

If we are considering the time it will take for mods to give out reasons one by one on each post that is being deleted I think a much better approach is to provide the “comment” of each report the moderator has receive without disclosing the member who has reported the post. With this you will get the chance to see why your post got deleted and why did the mod agree on their reasoning. Not disclosing the name of who reported it would also prevent future altercations happening from members involved with it.

[UserU]

My criteria for reporting necrobumps is pretty much the same as that for reporting general spam posts. Is it worthwhile? Does it add new and relevant information to the discussion?

Often necrobumps in boards like Technical Discussion and Technical Support are fine. Since topics in these boards are usually about a discrete issue or question, then adding and building on what has come before is often better than opening a new topic on the same issue and having to repeat many of the same points and discussion. Necrobumps in boards like Bitcoin Discussion are usually the exact opposite. The vast majority of the time necrobumps in boards like this are just a couple of lines of spam, often repeating almost exactly what has already been said before, and very rarely adding any new information. If I'm reporting necrobumps on spam megathreads in Bitcoin Discussion for example, I'll also go back and report the OP and ask to have the thread locked.

The bolded sentences are what I'm after. Genuine questions are fine, just seeing those dated open-ended or long-solved questions brought up after X years by those sig campaigners get on my nerves.

If you are talking about general spammy posts from users wearing signatures, then yes, you should report them as you would any spam post.

Gotcha, that's what I meant.

[o_e_l_e_o]

just seeing those dated open-ended or long-solved questions brought up after X years by those sig campaigners get on my nerves.

Yeah, the problem with threads on Bitcoin Discussion, Altcoin Discussion, and similar, is that there is rarely anything that could be considered a defined "end-point". Look at some examples from the first page of Bitcoin Discussion, threads such as "Do you think cryptocurrencies will be gone anytime soon?" or "Can bitcoin help countries in economic crisis?". You could go back and forth on these topics forever; everyone could have an opinion, even if it's been said before, and there is no 100% right answer. Even if this thread is dead for months, someone can come along a bump it with their opinion and not be off-topic. Furthermore, the OP very rarely sticks around to read what is being said or discuss it, and therefore very rarely locks the topic once they feel the thread has run its course. Once a thread in these boards hits 5+ pages, you are very unlikely to read anything worthwhile.

[RivAngE]

I consider most congratulations posts to fall under rule number 1 for being low quality. Like I said, you can congratulate a project/user, and at the same time be a substantial post. However, I don't think yours was. As for your posts on the DAPP thread, I have no idea without context.

Hello and thank you for your feedback Welsh. I'm sorry I'm replying late, I was busy the whole weekend!

I understand your point, I almost never post "congratulation" posts but in that case I wanted to tell the developers "Please think where you want the project to go before you start spending these coins". Personally I believe GRIN has a bit divided community under the waters, mostly because of its block distribution model, that's the root of my message.
Reading my post again now though, I suppose my point was not written in a clear and constructive way; I tried to put it in a humble way as to not offend them or appear as a FUDer but I probably watered down my message too much! x)

Well... for this particular example the "magic word" that would help me improve this post was what you said about "It doesn't add anything to the discussion", that helped me and it WILL help me with my future posts!

just seeing those dated open-ended or long-solved questions brought up after X years by those sig campaigners get on my nerves.

Yeah, the problem with threads on Bitcoin Discussion, Altcoin Discussion, and similar, is that there is rarely anything that could be considered a defined "end-point". Look at some examples from the first page of Bitcoin Discussion, threads such as "Do you think cryptocurrencies will be gone anytime soon?" or "Can bitcoin help countries in economic crisis?". You could go back and forth on these topics forever; everyone could have an opinion, even if it's been said before, and there is no 100% right answer. Even if this thread is dead for months, someone can come along a bump it with their opinion and not be off-topic. Furthermore, the OP very rarely sticks around to read what is being said or discuss it, and therefore very rarely locks the topic once they feel the thread has run its course. Once a thread in these boards hits 5+ pages, you are very unlikely to read anything worthwhile.

Have you tried visit the "Patrol" feed? I have a few times tried to read an interesting post and find a new thread to watch in there but it's like a garbage generator!
Probably most of these threads are created so that the signature spammers can post short-nonsense-posts without going off-topic.

There are many threads with a bunch of signatures which are never being seen by other user users, still the campaign runners are paying for those!!!
It's their fault for choosing to go for quantity over quality; they also have the tools if they wanted, like choosing people based on Merit for their signature campaigns and not force them to do like 20+ posts per week.
But if the moderators would delete these threads, the spammers would invest other parts of the forums, so I believe it's best to leave them be.
Just focus on improving those of us who might occasionally break a small rule and have our posts deleted!

[TECSHARE]

While I don't think the OP is approaching this issue the best way, I think he has a point in at least one way. Without some sort of system of feedback how exactly do user know how to improve their behavior to be more in line with forum rules and general social norms for the community? Of course they could read old threads, but the fact that the target subject matter is spread all over hell as previous precedent setting incidents makes that very difficult.

I think some kind of pull down menu for the mod to select a small handful of reasons for a post deletion for example would be useful and be a minimal amount of disruption of the mods time. You could have options like "SPAM" "POOR QUALITY" "OFF TOPIC" "OTHER" and perhaps an optional note field, and just set "OTHER" to default and let the mods use it if they think feedback would be productive.

Specific features aside, I have been pointing out for a long time that the unofficial nature of all these arbitrarily enforced rules around here not just for the forum itself, but the overall community enforced rules, leads to a lot of unnecessary conflict and confusion that could be prevented with some simple standards, disclosure, and feedback mechanisms.

[akamit]

Varies. Some days can be quieter than others. It was specially crazy in the summer when the report badge proposal was posted. As for the types of reports we receive we don't always have good reports. Its quite common for arguments on the forum to leak into the report function, and users trying to get posts deleted etc. Reports can be made about trademarks, but they are left to theymos, and usually theymos receives a message directly rather than a report.

The main reports we get are spam, trolling, and wrong section. Then there's reports for necro bumping, plagiarism, double posts, bumping before 24 hours, multiple old bumps, quote pyramids, broken BB code, ref links, malicious software, fake announcements, ban evasion, and user who have made mistakes when posting a thread, and want it removed. That's probably not even all of it. Depending on the section that the moderator is handling greatly effects how many reports they're handling too.

Indeed, there are many types of reports and you guys handle every day to keep clean the forum... Thanks to all the Staff/Mods for the superb work.

There might be multiple reports for just one thread/post and this may double or triple the work, right?
I mean, if there is one spam post and 2-3 members reported the same post, so does it shows only 1 report to your end or it does show multiple reports for that 1 single post?

What is the highest number of reports do you handled in a day so far? Just curious to know the number...

[Halab]

There might be multiple reports for just one thread/post and this may double or triple the work, right?
I mean, if there is one spam post and 2-3 members reported the same post, so does it shows only 1 report to your end all it does show multiple reports for that 1 single post?

It shows multiple reports.
I have this example where a french user posted in the wrong board and, in the end, the reports arrived in my report list :



But it is better to have reports from several users than not at all.

What is the highest number of reports do you handled in a day so far? Just curious to know the number...

I can't say (my situation is not representative), but in total on the whole forum there are several tens of thousands of reports handled per month.

[Artemis3]

Here is one recent example of incomprehensible moderation. It is too bad they can't bother to type one word stating the reason, i simply stopped caring, but i have a bunch like these that appear to hit at random, almost like cosmic radiation:

A reply of yours, quoted below, was deleted by a Bitcoin Forum moderator. Posts are most frequently deleted because they are off-topic, though they can also be deleted for other reasons. In the future, please avoid posting things that need to be deleted.

Hello,

I know that I've away for a while, but I dont want anyone to burn their miners :-)

I still think that it is a good idea and there are Fans less expensive, ~20€ with the same CFM that solve the noise fan problem forgetting all the boxs and all the others things.

But beware with high CFM... I tried with 400 CFM, and when I turn on the fan with the miner off, the FRONT fan started moving quickly... When I turned on my miner, after some minutes it went off... I still think that is a good idea, but if the REAR FAN (inline 20€) as a big higher CFM, the front Fan will burn or will burn the board ... Dont make the same mistake that I did... if someone buy one of these inline fans, it will solve the noise problem with 20€, but choose one with the CFM closest to miner REAR  FAN CFM as possible :-)

Lol you should have removed the fan. If you force a an electric fan to move, it generates electricity, you are doing the same thing as a wind power turbine... This could damage your control board.

You can use the same emulators people use for immersion, or use a firmware that lets you run without fans like Braiins OS.

This was technical, and ON TOPIC. What reason could possibly the moderator had to delete that one? I have no idea, as is the case of 90% of my deleted posts in all my lifetime here.

Do i welcome a single or couple words stating the reason? YES. I read somewhere they even get paid for this, so it should be part of the job...

[OgNasty]

Maybe the level of explanation by the moderator for a deleted post could be determined by the poster's member level?  Hero Members could deserve a drop down menu response and Legendary Members could get a quick typed note.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Isn't it better if the one reporting is the one to choose from a predefined cases of rule breaking what is suitable for this particular case and the mods only approve/disapprove the report.
In this case the work of the mods is reduced to only reading the post and the subject of the report (which they already do anyway) , and if the subject is correct only to approve it while removing the post. It can even be one single button approve and delete.

[actmyname]

Requiring a reason on ALL posts provides a marginal positive in response to a significant time consumption increase. If any reports are to be contested, it would usually be a somewhat-ambiguous one wherein a thread creation would be the best route of discourse.

Streamline the process.

[Welsh]

A drop down menu would likely help in terms of efficiency compared to sending a personal message. Which, I don't do for anywhere near all of my reports. I only do it for exceptional cases or if a user asks a direct question. I'd be more than willing to spend a few extra seconds on a report if a drop down menu was implemented. I don't think we should require it as we also have to consider system resources, and how many automatic personal messages would be generated from the results of the drop down menu. Although, having a simpler process will likely encourage existing moderators to use it instead of them having to send a personal message.  

[LoyceV]

When I was a chat Mod (on a site I won't mention), I used to say: "Bans are for breaking the rules". The same applies here, both for bans as well as for deleted posts, and reading the "unofficial" rules will be enough to understand most of your deleted posts.

Some data: modlog shows all moderator actions made in the past week. It currently shows 3214 deleted replies and 305 removed topics. On top of that, there are Autobanned and Nuked accounts, for which it has been suggested to give more accurate reasons too.
Even if it only takes 5 seconds to add a reason, that means all Mods together waste 5 hours per week on this, and for the large majority of deleted posts it's very obvious what's wrong with them.

If anything, I would suggest to send a personalized message to "repeat offenders". BPIP's Most Posts/Topics Deleted by Moderators shows a long list of users with hundreds of deleted posts. If they would stop making posts that have to be deleted, Mods can spend their time on other things.

[actmyname]

If anything, I would suggest to send a personalized message to "repeat offenders". BPIP's Most Posts/Topics Deleted by Moderators shows a long list of users with hundreds of deleted posts. If they would stop making posts that have to be deleted, Mods can spend their time on other things.

That would be good. Beyond BPIP I have a list of over 60 users that have had 100+ good reports filed against them and I've already mentioned previously that most of these come from consecutive posts (or pages) worth of posts.

A few users have been able to continue despite having over 300 deleted posts.