57 votes

No more active ♦ moderators. How should we keep the site in order?

This site was never too much in disorder, except for what was stirred up by SE themselves. As the saying goes, they made their bed, now they can lie in it. Their actions created this, they can ...
Old_Lamplighter's user avatar
52 votes

No more active ♦ moderators. How should we keep the site in order?

Not our problem, carry on as usual.
Kilisi's user avatar
  • 218k
44 votes

Silent Moderation

Mods are highly trusted users selected by the Stack Overflow staff and/or the community. Often, their selection has something to do with their ability to contribute high quality content (and therefore ...
jpmc26's user avatar
  • 1,723
38 votes
Accepted

Why was this question about handling the fallout of a crass joke deleted?

I left a comment on the question when I deleted it, but I'll elaborate here... The moderators caught wind of a group of sockpuppets operating on the site, and asked me to investigate. It quickly ...
Shog9's user avatar
  • 401
34 votes

Silent Moderation

It is possible to answer a question about how to handle something you disagree with without attacking the OP or questioning their beliefs. Possible, yes. Easy? no. Why is this happening? Just a ...
enderland's user avatar
  • 111k
22 votes

Is it acceptable to make invidious comparisons and innuendoes?

I don't see any problems with Kate's use of hyperbole in this situation. The point of that paragraph, as I interpret it, is to preempt the argument of As long as the content is PG-13, any news source ...
David K's user avatar
  • 30.1k
19 votes

Silent Moderation

The comments on that question were not relevant. Most of them were just name-calling the OP. There was even a comment about vegan pastries not tasting as good as non-vegan ones. These "high quality" ...
C_Z_'s user avatar
  • 421
19 votes

Bad behavior on StackExchange - the Workplace

First, Stack Exchange is NOT a forum. It's a question/answer site. Not a "here's my thoughts!!!" site. Not a "try X, might work!" site. A question/answer site. Questions receive answers. I gave ...
enderland's user avatar
  • 111k
18 votes
Accepted

Snarky Members, how are they moderated

The normal escalation process looks like: Users get a bunch of flags on their posts Moderators discuss if needed and delete flagged comments as appropriate User gets sent a warning message by ...
enderland's user avatar
  • 111k
17 votes

Silent Moderation

Enderland and jpmc26 have already given good, thorough answers. I'm here to address "silent". Yesterday I left the following comment on the question: People who want to discuss the pros and cons ...
Monica Cellio's user avatar
16 votes

Should we adopt the Academia SE rule banning allegations about named individuals or organisations?

Should we adopt the same rule on this SE site, since many (if not all) of the same reasons for it apply here as well? Definitely. There's nothing to be gained by naming names. Glassdoor is for ...
Joe Strazzere's user avatar
13 votes

Recent string of trolling questions

Some thoughts: By far and away the best way is to close questions which should be closed. Whether or not people are trolling or naive or dealing with really unfortunate and highly unlikely situations ...
enderland's user avatar
  • 111k
13 votes

Here we go again... certain biases are OK... others not?

I usually refrain from participating in sexism questions on Workplace for exactly this reason. It seems to me that the more concerned that some folks are with systematic injustice and promoting ...
ColleenV's user avatar
  • 10k
13 votes
Accepted

What is with the (Done) in titles here?

The status-completed tag can only be added by moderators, and we get a lot of questions here asking for specific actions on questions (close, reopen, delete, fix...). Asking for the tag creates ...
Monica Cellio's user avatar
13 votes

Inconsistent comment moderation appears capricious

I cannot speak for the other moderators, but I don't go looking for comments to prune. I am only really interested in comments flagged by the community. See more details here on a similar question: ...
Neo's user avatar
  • 84.8k
13 votes

No more active ♦ moderators. How should we keep the site in order?

We could all simply suspend all activity until SO comes to their senses and makes this right. The community, not just mods, is providing loads of free labor to these sites that SO benefits from. You ...
mxyzplk's user avatar
  • 35.5k
12 votes

Silent Moderation

Comments on StackExchange sites are like drawings in the sand - and subject to deletion or moving to chat at the whim of any mod. Comments should help clarify, then get out of the way of the answers....
Aaron Hall's user avatar
  • 4,263
12 votes

Here we go again... certain biases are OK... others not?

I wasn't originally going to answer this because of the fact that I'm a moderator and a woman, my answer will probably be automatically assumed to be invalid. However, there are some points that I ...
Jane S's user avatar
  • 46.7k
12 votes

Some mod is completely out of control on this board

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 ...
Magisch's user avatar
  • 23.4k
12 votes

Some mod is completely out of control on this board

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? ...
Monica Cellio's user avatar
12 votes

2019: a year in moderation

I think this summary would be incomplete without mentioning the fact that in 2019 our site lost three out of five elected moderators. Further reading for those interested in more details: Update: an ...
gnat's user avatar
  • 3,073
12 votes
Accepted

How to flag inappropriate Edits

Flag the post in question which needs Mod attention (the one with the Suggested Edit), so we can check on the Edit History and other info.
DarkCygnus's user avatar
  • 82.2k
10 votes
Accepted

What is and how does it work to be "suspended for low-quality contributions"?

Usually if you see that suspension reason, there's a lot of deleted content too. Sometimes users struggle with asking questions. The community tries to help but new questions show the same problems. ...
Monica Cellio's user avatar
9 votes
Accepted

What's the process for moving comments into chat?

Is this something that moderators do? We often move discussions to chat here. Any post which receives 20+ comments generates an automatic flag, which we normally will act on as it suggests exactly ...
enderland's user avatar
  • 111k
9 votes

Inconsistent comment moderation appears capricious

Speaking generally: when I see comment flags I almost always click through to see what else on the post might need attention, but if the comment is really egregious (like, name-calling) and I don't ...
Monica Cellio's user avatar
9 votes

When comments start okay and then diverge, can we just move the latter ones into discussion, while keeping the appropriate ones above?

For my part, I don't spend much time trying to determine the legitimacy of any comment. Comments are for the sole purpose of improving the question or answer, period. I would even go so far as to say ...
Neo's user avatar
  • 84.8k
9 votes

When comments start okay and then diverge, can we just move the latter ones into discussion, while keeping the appropriate ones above?

Comments are not supposed to be permanent or even sorted into categories. If there is useful comments they can be incorporated into the answer, or another answer. Anyone particularly interested can ...
Kilisi's user avatar
  • 218k
9 votes
Accepted

Additional optional moderator election question

Location specific. In general that statement sounds reasonable and I could in no way see it as worthy of disciplinary action. But by the standards of my local schools, no one would understand the ...
Kilisi's user avatar
  • 218k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible