Suggestions on moderators' conduct

[Mountain Lion]

I suggest to stop deleting people's posts arbitrarily. Not only the criteria of "purposefulness" of the posts is subjective (just because someone can or can't see the connection, it doesn't mean there is or there is not one), but it also leads to a discriminatory practice. It's quite peculiar to see how some posts are deemed to be "useless" and deleted while others just as "meaningless" or "offensive" remain. Moreover, people use this forum to interact, to express themselves and their feelings. Treating them like some algorithms which must have a role and a function specific to the context is not a very humane practice. I would say that unless posts are filled with profanity or vulgarism, they should remain... no matter how "off topic" they are.

I also think moderators should become more accountable for their actions. If s/he has to explain and argue for each posts s/he deletes, that will reduce their motivation to deal with anything but the actual breaches of civil communication.

Oh, and locking threads before people have the opportunity to respond or actually recovering one after a request to delete it is an overly-controlling behaviour.

[Jezebel]

I suggest to stop deleting people's posts arbitrarily. Not only the criteria of "purposefulness" of the posts is subjective (just because someone can or can't see the connection, it doesn't mean there is or there is not one)Sure, if you try hard enough you can relate any subject to another subject. However, determining whether or not a post contributes to the thread in a substantial, on topic manner is not that difficult. If we have to try really hard to figure out how it is related, it's most likely not related enough.

but it also leads to a discriminatory practice.Discrimination against what? People that continuously post off topic content and/or unsubstantial fluff in threads? It's true. We discriminate against these members rather severely, while members who make a habit of posting substantial on topic posts never get a single post deleted.

It's quite peculiar to see how some posts are deemed to be "useless" and deleted while others just as "meaningless" or "offensive" remain.With the volume of posts made on this forum each day, it is unrealistic to expect moderators to catch every single post. However, removing posts that violate the rules as they are noticed reduces the overall volume of these types of posts. Just because we can't catch everything is not a valid reason to do nothing.

Moreover, people use this forum to interact, to express themselves and their feelings. Treating them like some algorithms which must have a role and a function specific to the context is not a very humane practice.Moderating a forum is inhumane? This forum is moderated for the convenience of members. When a member clicks on a thread, the content should follow with what was brought up in the subject line and original post instead of being about something completely different. Likening keeping a thread on topic to an act of cruelty is just silly. It's in the rules and members are making the posts of their own free will.

I would say that unless posts are filled with profanity or vulgarism, they should remain... no matter how "off topic" they are.There are plenty of crappy forums on the internet that do just this. I'd rather not own one of them.

By the way, we don't even delete posts for profanity or vulgarism.

I also think moderators should become more accountable for their actions. If s/he has to explain and argue for each posts s/he deletes, that will reduce their motivation to deal with anything but the actual breaches of civil communication.So your suggestion is to make our process so inefficient that we don't want to bother. No.

Oh, and locking threads before people have the opportunity to respond. . . This is not a democracy where we base our decisions on consensus. We are open to suggestions, but we are not going to debate with members over how we run the forum.

or actually recovering one after a request to delete it is an overly-controlling behaviour.An administrator already took the time to respond to your post before you edited it.