Some mod is completely out of control on this board

Question

Dangerous workplace travelling

This question had multiple comments which identified the area the OP was talking about, and had discussions about the relative safety of the US vs. other nations of the world.

Not only were those comments summarily deleted, but there's not even an acknowledgement that they were deleted, leaving a lot of people baffled at, for instance, how others know where the OP is travelling to.

This is beyond the pale.

I get that mods feel the need to delete excessive comments. (I completely disagree with it, but I understand it.)

But it's totally inappropriate to delete them without even an acknowledgement of the fact. It justifiably leaves people wondering what other types of participation on the site are going to be abruptly vanished with no notice or record.

Whichever mod did this is abusing his/her powers and needs to have them, at a minimum, temporarily removed.

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I'm not the mod who deleted the comments, I'm not any of the users who could have flagged the comments and caused them to be deleted. I'm not a mod of this site, and have no way of seeing the deleted comments or who deleted them. So take this answer for what it is: The opinion of an outsider to the situation.

Comments are in general ethereal and subject to deletion at any time. They're not meant to be permanent, and as a result can be deleted by moderators or even just enough flags without serious oversight by the community. Indeed, some comments can be deleted by a single flag of a normal user.

Directly from a CM:

Comments are not intended for long-term storage of important information.

source

What happened in this case seems to have been unfortunate since information important to the post was lost.

This question had multiple comments which identified the area the OP was talking about

This information is partially what comments are for, and should have been edited into the question. The comments containing it would afterwards be subject for deletion as "no longer needed".

and had discussions about the relative safety of the US vs. other nations of the world.

This is not what comments are supposed to be. Miscellaneous discussion is not what comments (or answers for that matter) are for. Again quoting a CM directly:

But that transiency doesn't mean you can use comments for random, parenthetical asides. If your comment isn't likely to change the content of the post, please do not post it for someone else to clean up.

source

Not only were those comments summarily deleted, but there's not even an acknowledgement that they were deleted, leaving a lot of people baffled at, for instance, how others know where the OP is travelling to.

The correct method to preserve this (admittedly pertinent) information is to edit it into the question as context, which any user can do. Edits adding such context should be approved readily in review, if necessary, but any user with more then 2000 reputation is able to submit them without going through review. I've done that for the question mentioned above.

But it's totally inappropriate to delete them without even an acknowledgement of the fact.

This has been the source of quite a bit of consternation over the years, the usual reasoning given is that between questions and answers comments are decidedly second class citizens. They're supposed to be used exclusively for improving posts, or encouraging authors to improve their posts, for instance by asking for clarification. As such, they're treated as lesser by the software in many ways: You don't get reputation for upvotes on them, they take less flagging to be deleted, moderators have mass delete options to clean up posts, and you can't even downvote them or edit after a 5 minute grace period.

It justifiably leaves people wondering what other types of participation on the site are going to be abruptly vanished with no notice or record.

While that might be a legitimate worry, it's not well founded in this case. Question and answer deletions can be audited by high reputation community members at any time under the 10k Tools. Users exceeding 10.000 reputation can even straight up see deleted posts.

Whichever mod did this is abusing his/her powers and needs to have them, at a minimum, temporarily removed.

I would argue that no, the mod in question did not misuse their powers and does not need any sanctions (without knowing which particular mod that is). Perhaps they could have edited the clarification from the comments into the question, but the community had that opportunity for a while before they got deleted.

Answer 2

You mean the comments speculating about the location and how dangerous it is? Or the ones about the efficacy of guns or karate for self-defense? Or the anecdotes about traveling in another country? Or the many about guns, gun laws, and US culture?

Yeah, none of that's relevant. And any of those participants could have edited the one salient point from the OP, "Michigan", into the question at any time. But the specific location isn't important. The OP did not ask "is it safe to travel to $city?" (which probably isn't an on-topic question here). The OP asked how to respond to being asked to travel to a place that is rumored to be dangerous (and/or the OP is being pranked). That's what answers need to focus on, and comment discussions about specific neighborhoods in a specific city (not necessarily even the right city) do not advance that goal. And armchair lawyers talking about gun laws in those locations definitely don't advance that goal.

Further, I endorse this answer.

Answer 3

Deleting comments is a normal practice here. It’s something you just have to get used to. Remember you are not a paying customer, so we have no responsibility to obey your request. My comments are all but removed by the mods but I never complained.

There is no abuse here. Mods are given administration power. They have the rights to remove anything for whatever reason. It’s part of user agreement you signed for this site. They are doing a great job.

Answer 4

The important thing is that the comments survived long enough to make some interesting side-points. Whether they're actually relevant to the question or answers is matter of opinion or one's point of view.

I happen to think that the most salient aspect of the question was neither that it was Michigan NOR that it was a "rumored" dangerous place, but rather that it was a place that the OP was unfamiliar with as someone from another country.

Whatever the case, it's just words on the internet. No need to actually get bent out of shape about anything that happens here.

Moderation "privileges", regardless of what online forum you're talking about, attracts folks who have propensity to enforce rules, rigidly, and with little regard to the possibility that there are other interpretations. That's just the reality of this environment. It has plusses and minuses.