Some deleted posts by moderators seem to be unnecessary actions

[JollyGood]

Between 2nd May and 9th May 2025, I had 45 posts deleted from my Premier League thread. I think nearly all were merged. I was not too concerned however the fact it was happening in a condensed period did seem strange. There were a total of around 49 removed if a adding an extra few days either side.

I intended to create a thread earlier but it was delayed. Have any of you encountered the same phenomena where your posts have been either merged or deleted when there was no reason to take action in the first place and it happened within a short period?

[Charles-Tim]

If your posts are merged, that means they were consecutive posts. There is nothing wrong about it at all.

I have experienced it before, especially when our local thread was about to be pinned, moderators focused on the long local thread and start merging and deleting some posts.

[Ivystar5]

I have experience such is only when you make a post that is in a row without another users post between your posts, mods seems to always merge them, more like since it's your own posts, you could just put them together through edit than post another comment.

The

Code:

[HR]

line is used for differentiation if you think those post are pointing to separate things and you need to make it obvious hence mods encourage the usage than make two post in row without another users post interference.

[JeromeTash]

Maybe someone reported your account/consecutive posts and the moderator handling the deletion forcused on your account post history?

[LoyceV]

Between 2nd May and 9th May 2025

There was a topic about this last May. This is what caused it:

I have an automated bot that detects potentially mergeable posts and I've recently started going through its backlog and merging posts that violate rules 21 and / or 32.

My bot doesn't delete anything - it gives me a list of links and I manually go through and decide which posts should be merged.

And this is what should make this less of a problem now:

While the main reason for merging posts is to reduce the overall size of content posted by the same user whenever possible while maintaining general consistency of the rules, I now see that perhaps I was too overzealous in doing so for old posts. In the future, I'll generally refrain from merging old (as per what would be considered old when reporting a post) posts.

(read the topic for the full context)

[JollyGood]

Maybe someone reported your account/consecutive posts and the moderator handling the deletion forcused on your account post history?

That was a possibility I had considered. I had a feeling that a moderator went through posts from several accounts and not just mine and maybe did the same in other threads but without any member reporting the matter, it is a theory. (That was before reading LoyceV below).

There was a topic about this last May. This is what caused it:

While the main reason for merging posts is to reduce the overall size of content posted by the same user whenever possible while maintaining general consistency of the rules, I now see that perhaps I was too overzealous in doing so for old posts. In the future, I'll generally refrain from merging old (as per what would be considered old when reporting a post) posts.

(read the topic for the full context)

That makes sense now. I thought something such as this could have happened, I was not sure if I had read about it or whether I assumed it had happened. The bot concept is good, if used correctly it could be a useful tool to make moderators become aware of posts that require their attention.

[DPHOR]

Most of my post then at my earliest stage where deleted though I can't actually say the reasons but it mostly happens to me on our local board where it think is either seen as off topic is or entirely being deleted as an irrelevant post.

Most times I often sees it as low quality post but since I have started improving on my post quality I rarely see my post being deleted, then sometimes I do avoid those merger thread because I think the spam over there is much and moderators mostly focused on such threads.

[Vod]

Every now and then I get a rash of "deleted posts" PMs from posts I may have made months or even years ago.   I'm not saying they were unnecessary. but they are deleting entire conversations.

[hilariousandco]

Maybe someone reported your account/consecutive posts and the moderator handling the deletion forcused on your account post history?

That was a possibility I had considered. I had a feeling that a moderator went through posts from several accounts and not just mine and maybe did the same in other threads but without any member reporting the matter, it is a theory. (That was before reading LoyceV below).

Very unlikely. A mod probably isn't going to go out of their way to find more work to do. It's usually just down to whatever reports come in. Sometimes people use bots to report posts and sometimes users just go on reporting sprees. Sometimes I think users do this maliciously IE they don't like a particular person so they go out of their way to report infringing posts etc.

[JollyGood]

Every now and then I get a rash of "deleted posts" PMs from posts I may have made months or even years ago.   I'm not saying they were unnecessary. but they are deleting entire conversations.

For me, it never got to the stage of entire conversations being deleted but it is odd to see some more deleted posts in the Premier League thread today (that were made last season).

Very unlikely. A mod probably isn't going to go out of their way to find more work to do. It's usually just down to whatever reports come in. Sometimes people use bots to report posts and sometimes users just go on reporting sprees. Sometimes I think users do this maliciously IE they don't like a particular person so they go out of their way to report infringing posts etc.

It is safe to assume malicious reporting is definitely happening, even if on s small scale. Keeping that aside, regarding the reports coming in, I think the post from mprep explains about the bot. It is still not an automated system, it notifies him (or maybe other moderators) of the post that might need looking at. In the end, the decision to delete or merge would be carried out manually.

[KingsDen]

Between 2nd May and 9th May 2025, I had 45 posts deleted from my Premier League thread. I think nearly all were merged. I was not too concerned however the fact it was happening in a condensed period did seem strange. There were a total of around 49 removed if a adding an extra few days either side.

The last time I checked, your premier league thread is self moderated.
Do moderators still pay much attention to a self moderated thread.
I thought that the greater responsibility of moderating lies on the Op of a self moderated thread.

[joker_josue]

This seems to happen occasionally. But, as they say in my country: "There's no rule without an exception."
Sometimes it seems that here, the exception is hard to observe.

Anyway, I just think that it's not enough to put two posts together, you must understand the entire context of the topic and its dynamics.

Furthermore, I just believe that an OP should never be limited in posting in their topic (that is, if they are not spamming or using abusive bump techniques).

[Plaguedeath]

Quite hard to find your merged post because it happen on your older post.

But, I've found one of them.

The time difference is just 6 hours, that's why the moderator merge your post, if you post after 24 hours, your post wouldn't be merged.

13. Bumps, "updates" are limited to once per 24 hours per thread. Bumping multiple threads at the same time is allowed if it's not annoying. [2][e]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5275303.msg65065325#msg65065325

[JollyGood]

The last time I checked, your premier league thread is self moderated.
Do moderators still pay much attention to a self moderated thread.
I thought that the greater responsibility of moderating lies on the Op of a self moderated thread.

If there is a bot that automatically scans and then reports posts for the attention of a moderator, it should be (and probably is) applied equally in all fairness regardless of whether the thread is self-moderated and/or member rank. I assume this is what is taking place. For example, Vod stated it has happens to him from time to time too.

The time difference is just 6 hours, that's why the moderator merge your post, if you post after 24 hours, your post wouldn't be merged.

I think there have been several that could have been merged because I deleted low quality posts and those from spammers. As you stated, many were from a long time ago hence the question if others had experienced similar patterns.

After reading about the bot from mprep, it became clear why it happened therefore locking the thread.

[JollyGood]

Decided to unlock the thread because another group of posts from a long time ago were deleted in the Premier League thread. Some of the posts were probably consecutive because the thread is self-moderated and I deleted low quality posts (or those from farmed accounts and signature spammers).

Regardless of the member in question, is it necessary for moderators to be that eager to delete 16 posts at a time? In my opinion, this seems to be an excessive action.

[KingsDen]

Decided to unlock the thread because another group of posts from a long time ago were deleted in the Premier League thread. Some of the posts were probably consecutive because the thread is self-moderated and I deleted low quality posts (or those from farmed accounts and signature spammers).

I think this is where the problem lies.
Mr A (a quality poster) posted;
Mr B ( a low quality poster) post immediately after Mr A;
Mr A posted again;

You deleted Mr B's post because it's low quality. Then a moderator came and saw  Mr A's consecutive posts, merged and deleted one.
The moderator wouldn't know that the posts were not consecutive initially. This is the effect of double moderation.

[joker_josue]

Honestly... there's something here that's not adding up. I'm getting confused myself...

Today I received this message:

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.

Now my question is, have you learned so much from a post, a reply, or were you well so impressed with the user that you weren't just satisfied with meriting the post. That you actually went ahead to click to their profile, copied their bitcoin address, and then sent them some bitcoins? Or would you ever do this?

You are curious about merits, or the donations that users make to each other?

I've always seen the forum as a place where there's some level of generosity within the community. Some forum users have received donations for their contributions to the community, more than others. Others have likely received donations, but this hasn't been made public.

There was a rule on the forum: no asking for money. Therefore, these acts are often anonymous and unknown to the general public.

It's also worth noting that in the early days of the forum, it was easier to be generous with large amounts of BTC because it was worth almost nothing in fiat. So things were quite different. Furthermore, there weren't subscription campaigns like there are today. A lot has changed, yet it's still a place where you can earn some extra sats.

I don't want to get into a moderation criticism frenzy, I just want to understand what was wrong with my post that caused it to be deleted.

With +10 years of forum, we are always learning... I want to learn a little more, if anyone can help me.


EDIT: Maybe my words were misinterpreted? Did they give the impression that one can ask for money anonymously? Well, if that's what got the message deleted, that clearly wasn't the idea! I think one should never ask for money, publicly or anonymously. If someone feels they have to give, they should be free and willing to do so.

Clearly, these generic messages, with no explanation for the deletion, make no sense. Things could be a little more transparent. Otherwise, things won't change because people are left wondering what they did wrong.

[Zoomic]

@joker_josue, you aren't alone on this. My post was also deleted which was so much on point

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.

Op, the title of your thread is quiet different from the body.
About your question of if people receive tips for good contributions. I think it happened in the early days of bitcoin and not anymore. People are now very meticulous of their bitcoin.

Also people that put their BTC addy on their profile didn't do it for begging, but also for account security.

I scrolled up and discovered that that post was from 2022. Maybe it was bumped and the moderator decided to delete all the posts after it was bumped. That shouldn't be the best approach because the post is still open and anyone could just bump it still.

If the post has served it purpose, it should kindly be locked by the mod instead of deleting on topic contributions.

[joker_josue]

I scrolled up and discovered that that post was from 2022. Maybe it was bumped and the moderator decided to delete all the posts after it was bumped. That shouldn't be the best approach because the post is still open and anyone could just bump it still.

If the post has served it purpose, it should kindly be locked by the mod instead of deleting on topic contributions.

I really hadn't noticed that detail. Someone bumped the topic, I didn't notice the dates and made a post. The moderator chose to delete all new posts, to push the topic down again.

In a way, I understand the attitude. But the fact that the message about the elimination is generic leaves people wondering what actually happened.

Again, I don't mean to criticize the moderators' work—which is extensive and not easy. I'm just criticizing the way the information is presented, but that's not their fault.

[JollyGood]

I think this is where the problem lies.
Mr A (a quality poster) posted;
Mr B ( a low quality poster) post immediately after Mr A;
Mr A posted again;

You deleted Mr B's post because it's low quality. Then a moderator came and saw  Mr A's consecutive posts, merged and deleted one.
The moderator wouldn't know that the posts were not consecutive initially. This is the effect of double moderation.

I think that is part of the problem but not all of it. I checked some of the deleted posts, they were deleted instead of being merged. In a Premier League thread it is normal to post a fixture list and the results, that is what the thread is about (as well as to discuss anything related to Premier League football). Some, if not most of the posts were unnecessarily deleted.

I find it somewhat strange when I try to understand the logic behind it when the bot notifies a moderator and that moderator unnecessarily deletes the post.

Honestly... there's something here that's not adding up. I'm getting confused myself...

~

Clearly, these generic messages, with no explanation for the deletion, make no sense. Things could be a little more transparent. Otherwise, things won't change because people are left wondering what they did wrong.

The generic messages not explaining why the posts were deleted is the frustrating part.

I scrolled up and discovered that that post was from 2022. Maybe it was bumped and the moderator decided to delete all the posts after it was bumped. That shouldn't be the best approach because the post is still open and anyone could just bump it still.

As no explanation (apart from the generic delete message) was given, you are left wondering what was actually wrong with the post to the degree a moderator deleted it. Certainly not the best approach.