Force Moderators To Give A Reason For Deleted Posts

[RivAngE]

Let me start by stating that I'm going to ignore replies which are rushing to judge me as a shitposter, let us stick with the suggestion itself.

Right now when a post is deleted, we're just being informed about which of our posts have been deleted, there's absolutely no reason provided.
Ofcourse there is an unofficial official list of rules available (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.0), but I have some good personal examples where the deletion had no clear reason and even after contacting the moderator team, the ones who didn't delete my posts couldn't understand why they were deleted.

For that reason, I believe a mandatory list-field should be available to the moderators when they delete a post in order to select the reason of the deletion (for example "Off-topic", "trolling" etc).

Once I had 5 of my posts in a thread of a DAPP game I'm managing deleted, posts which were many days apart from each other and relevant.
That's one of the deleted posts for example,

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.

Reposting the  Development Update  here

• The server for our mobile application is completed.
  
• Our engineers are currently working on adding the battle logic to the new server.
  
• Our token economists are finalizing LUNA’s base mechanisms & getting a legal letter of approval — this is important because we want LUNA to be fleshed out and interesting as an incentive mechanism for Season 0 of the Axie ladder.
  
• We’re working on the art &  mechanics for PVE (Player Vs. Chimera).
  
• The team is currently deciding internally on the scope and timing of the open beta for the application.
  
• We’re scaling up the team, especially on the engineering & art side. Our team size has gone from 11-15 so far, and will soon reach 18!
  
• We will be making some exciting business-related announcements in August!
  

Yesterday I had a simple post in which I congratulated the GRIN team for their recent donation and shared a wish with them deleted (and I was the 3rd person who posted about it, it's not like I was parroting).


When I see a post of mine is deleted, I'm wondering what I've done wrong, I would just like the forums to provide the feedback regarding what I've done wrong so that I can fix it.
I understand that the moderators can't waste time explaining all their actions to every troll and spammer, but just having one extra button wouldn't hurt them I believe.


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?

[o_e_l_e_o]

Moderators' time is limited, and the mountain of spam and other rule breaking posts they have to deal with endless. Even a couple of extra seconds spent on each report to either select a reason from a drop down menu or enter one in a free text box would massively slow down how many reports they could get through, and the users who would actually pay attention to the reasons and change their behavior are few and far between.

The vast majority of posts are deleted because they are either off-topic or do not add any new or useful information to the discussion. I think it's probably safe to assume this applies in 99% of cases.

[UserU]

I agree, sometimes I just wonder what's going through their minds each time they press the "Delete" button.

Just recently, a post of mine got removed and it's not even off-topic.

You want them to pay you for 3 posts/WEEK!?

I wouldn't see why not, maybe if the rates reduce to double digits satoshi as a tradeoff

[cabalism13]

Different mods can handle the reports at any time, they also have different ways and reasons on why they delete some messages. It's not always that we can determine whether a post is acceptable or not, we might see that those deleted posts were good but others wont.

So simply, I don't agree with forcing the mods to give their reasons on why they deleted your posts. Just consider everyday there are hundreds or thousands of reports that they should look at, and you're suggesting them to do a task that could make them slow into their works. Then what? Somebody will posts again that the reports isn't being handled thoroughly? If you were a mod and someone asks you to do what you want now, would you do it? Would you give reasons for that hundreds of reports everyday? Also consider that being a mod here doesn't have any salary, the amount of BTCs they received was just a compensation for their good works.

To be honest, we participants on some sigs have much more BTCs to receive than they are.

Just accept the fact that not all of our posts can be seen by everybody the way we're seeing it right now. If you think that your posts was/has enough valid points then you could have post it again don't you? Then if its deleted again then you already have your answer. It is not necessary. Thats all.

[hosseinimr93]

I agree, sometimes I just wonder what's going through their minds each time they press the "Delete" button.

Just recently, a post of mine got removed and it's not even off-topic.

You want them to pay you for 3 posts/WEEK!?

I wouldn't see why not, maybe if the rates reduce to double digits satoshi as a tradeoff

Posts are deleted usually because they are off-topic or considered as spam. But there are some other reasons too. I checked the thread you posted in. The post you have replied to has been deleted by moderators. So your post should be deleted too.

When a post is deleted, you receive this message. "Please avoid posting things that need to be deleted."

I suggest avoiding reply to the posts that need to be deleted too.

[eaLiTy]

For that reason, I believe a mandatory list-field should be available to the moderators when they delete a post in order to select the reason of the deletion (for example "Off-topic", "trolling" etc).

In default the moderator can view the reason if someone reported and the moderator dealing the report has the option to write something in Moderator Comments on why he is taking action so that every other moderator or admin can view, and they have the option to see the detailed report and i am not sure about the permission moderators have in this forum but i am talking about the general SMF forum layout.
So in short it is possible by default to comment on the report why they are taking action but it does not mean that they will let every user know why your posts are deleted.

[TMAN]

Yesterday I had a simple post in which I congratulated the GRIN team for their recent donation and shared a wish with them deleted (and I was the 3rd person who posted about it, it's not like I was parroting).

can you post the above mentioned deleted post here man? you need to realise that mods handle thousands of requests and are human, they ain't moony or loyce and they don't get paid enough to start writing war and peace, a simple delete should generally be enough to question yourself.

not saying every mod is right with every delete, but give the fuckers a break and work harder on your posts

[RivAngE]

Yesterday I had a simple post in which I congratulated the GRIN team for their recent donation and shared a wish with them deleted (and I was the 3rd person who posted about it, it's not like I was parroting).

can you post the above mentioned deleted post here man? you need to realise that mods handle thousands of requests and are human, they ain't moony or loyce and they don't get paid enough to start writing war and peace, a simple delete should generally be enough to question yourself.

not saying every mod is right with every delete, but give the fuckers a break and work harder on your posts

Sure, I have since re-posted the same comment by just adding one more sentence (the last sentence you see below) in order to reduce the likelihood of my post being considered spam and to also make it clear I'm not trolling GRIN but I'm being an honest supporter.

Today the Dev fund received 50BTC from an unspent mined block in december 2010 !

<snipped image>

How amazing is it to see that a whale, early adopter of BTC is that fond of GRIN.

TX ID :

https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/transaction/0810b1644cea890aad01564de5e4518ebcddb4c84df0c93223f050d580edee45

... snip ...

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).

@eaLiTy thank you for enlightening us on this, I wasn't aware they already had a similar option. I guess they're just too busy to fill this field and also since most users don't care to improve... yea I can would probably be doing the same! Unless I was forced to choose a reason.

In default the moderator can view the reason if someone reported and the moderator dealing the report has the option to write something in Moderator Comments on why he is taking action so that every other moderator or admin can view, and they have the option to see the detailed report and i am not sure about the permission moderators have in this forum but i am talking about the general SMF forum layout.
So in short it is possible by default to comment on the report why they are taking action but it does not mean that they will let every user know why your posts are deleted.

[TMAN]

Congratulations on this awesome donation guys! I'm really happy for you since you're one of my few favorite coins

see this is a shitpost pal, don't take it personally but the forum saw 10's of thousands of these posts in the ICO boom and mods come down on these hard. Can you imagine being a mod and having to justify all of those "great project" type posts?

not being a prick here, but you really need to think about what value something like the above brings

[Halab]

So in short it is possible by default to comment on the report why they are taking action but it does not mean that they will let every user know why your posts are deleted.

On recent versions of SMF maybe, but here on this (old) version, mods do not have this possibility. Good, bad, ignore, these are the only options we have. And I think (not sure) that the mods' report list is a page created by Theymos, so nothing standard.
On Epochtalk, mods will be able to leave comments on a user's profile and on a report.

[hilariousetc]

I think it would be helpful and is something I've suggested in the past. A lot of times people actually have no idea what their post was removed for so at least this will help people learn to not make the same mistake again. Giving mods a drop down menu with the most common infractions would be helpful (of topic, ref spam, undeleted bumps etc), but maybe also an additional comment box to expand further if needed (but not required).

The vast majority of posts are deleted because they are either off-topic or do not add any new or useful information to the discussion. I think it's probably safe to assume this applies in 99% of cases.

But a lot of times it's not because they're off topic. In fact, most times it's probably something else, but I can't tell you the amount of reported messages I've had from people reporting their deleted post notification screaming that their post wasn't off topic because that's what they assumed it was removed for because it states it likely was in the message.

[o_e_l_e_o]

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).

TMAN is right, and I would report that post if I came across it in a thread. It is little more than "Great project", just padded out in to a couple of lines. Don't fall in to the trap of thinking that a longer post automatically means it is more useful or less likely to be deleted.

The post doesn't add any new information to the thread. There is nothing in that post which will stimulate a discussion, and there is nothing for another user to reply to other than to simply agree. Why are they your favorite coin? What goals specifically do you want to see? What resources are you worried they are going to waste, what will they waste them on and why?

Imagine reading your post as someone else. Would reading that post give you some new knowledge or something to think about? No.

[BITCOIN4X]

There are thousands of shitposting on alternatif cryptocurrency board that are made by many users every day. If we need a moderator to check all shitposting and consider it, how much time should they spend?

Your post may have been identified by a reporter for removal by a moderator. Although the moderator has his own considerations before pressing the delete button, in many cases there may not be much time for that.

[mk4]

Just get over it mate. Though you might still get a few posts deleted here and there even if you're not a shit poster, it shouldn't be a big deal. You wouldn't constantly be getting deleted posts on the daily if you don't post crap in the first place(not accusing you). Asking for reasons is just going to cost them A LOT more unnecessary manpower.

Heck, I also have a few posts in the past that got deleted that some of those posts I still don't know up to this day why they get deleted; but does it really matter that much? Not in my opinion. I simply just move on from it. It's not like they're censoring me or something, it's just that chances are, in their opinion, your reply simply isn't constructive enough or simply just doesn't contribute to the conversation.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Moderators' time is limited, and the mountain of spam and other rule breaking posts they have to deal with endless.

This is the only reason why I wouldn't support OP's idea--you're absolutely correct that just a few seconds per handled report would add up to way too much time being spent in order to explain why a post is being deleted.  Most of the time, we pretty much know why anyway and there are only a couple of reasons why any posts are ever deleted, e.g., being of low value or being off-topic.  And sometimes a post gets deleted because a thread is trashed entirely, though you don't get a PM for that anyway.

It would be nice if mods could tell members why their posts are being nuked, but it isn't necessary and it would take far too much time.  This isn't a forum with a couple thousand members actively posting, nor is it one with a hundred moderators.  There are millions of members registered here, and even though a lot of those accounts are inactive, there are still a lot of active members here and a lot of reports being made and tons of posts being deleted. 

Members shouldn't start threads when they end up having posts deleted, either.  Mods generally don't respond to those, and it's easy enough for the member to just take a guess.  I'm sure most of us have had this happen to us, and you just have to suck it up and move on.

[suchmoon]

Once I had 5 of my posts in a thread of a DAPP game I'm managing deleted, posts which were many days apart from each other and relevant.

You're supposed to delete or merge old bumps even if they're days apart. Here is one still there that should be removed:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5128617.msg52302951#msg52302951

Just take care of that and make it less work for moderators. You can also take your deleted posts from your PMs and edit them back into the thread.

[RivAngE]

Once I had 5 of my posts in a thread of a DAPP game I'm managing deleted, posts which were many days apart from each other and relevant.

You're supposed to delete or merge old bumps even if they're days apart. Here is one still there that should be removed:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5128617.msg52302951#msg52302951

Just take care of that and make it less work for moderators. You can also take your deleted posts from your PMs and edit them back into the thread.

Are you sure about the merging? I don't see what this would offer.

I understand that bumping a thread without having anything important to write is against the rules and it makes sense, it's an action that makes your thread overshadow other threads which might be more relevant to the other users.
But people have threads in their watchlists in order to be notified when something new is posted, I myself also WANT to be notified when an altcoin team I have money in puts a new announcement... I wouldn't want to them to silently edit their last post if no one has posted in the middle.

With hundred of posts being written every hour, I believe 1 post per week shouldn't be considered "bumping"... and debates like those are why I wished there was a reason-field when a post is deleted.

By the way, is there an official rule regarding merging new and old posts together or is this your personal suggestion as a good practice to behold?

[TMAN]

~

Have you taken the time to read the forum rules out of interest?

[hd49728]

With hundred of posts being written every hour, I believe 1 post per week shouldn't be considered "bumping"... and debates like those are why I wished there was a reason-field when a post is deleted.

Updates considered as bumps. Posts without questions, discusssion, replies from others considered as updates as I understand.

By the way, is there an official rule regarding merging new and old posts together or is this your personal suggestion as a good practice to behold?

If your posts merged by moderators, I am sure that merged ones look very messy. Once again, moderators don't have time to merge your posts with full details (they have to add details manually), ie. days of posts/updates. I have my posts merged, so I know it. My decision is delete merged posts after all.

In fact, I am OP and I even don't feel reasons to spend my time to add details into merged posts. After my update posts deleted and merged, I read rules again. Then I felt moderators did right things that is another reason forced me to delete my merged posts.
The forum, admins, and moderators must not handle all things in the forum. Admins have their right to shut down the forum anytime they want or disable signature anytime too. It is a painful and undeniable fact that signature is one of the root causes of shitposts. I don't say OP made shitposts and deleted by moderators but I want to emphasize that most of deleted posts are shitposts.

Each admin or moderator has different ways to interpret the forum rules (unofficial) so there are some inconsistencies between moderators but most of times they are right with their interpretations and judgments.

23. When deciding if a user has broken the rules, the staff have the right to follow their interpretation of the rules.[e]

Sometimes moderators leave a note with PMs to posters with reasons why posts delete or merged (I got some) but it is not a must-do thing for moderators when they handle reports.

In April or May, when thousands of accounts banned, people created topics and asked links to posts that cause their bans. Moderators (hilariousandco, I remembered) replied that they don't have time to do this. I think the answer to OP is nearly the same.

[suchmoon]

Are you sure about the merging? I don't see what this would offer.

Yes, I'm sure. It offers less clutter. The rest of your rant doesn't make sense. Edit the old stuff into the new post, you'll have your bump and no information will be lost.

By the way, is there an official rule regarding merging new and old posts together or is this your personal suggestion as a good practice to behold?

21. Old bumps should be deleted.