What is up with moderators deleting posts?

Why is this happening all of a sudden? Did you get some sort of new moderator who's on a power trip?

It's impossible to address your guestion without specifics; can you give an example? I'm not aware of anyone deleting posts; I certainly haven't done so.

In general, something has to be pretty egregious before the moderators will even consider deleting it.

JL

Well I noticed Yarp complaining about being "mod stalked". Which, could be expected, some of what he says is fairly fringe.

Then a post of mine was deleted in the "Loss to the climbing community" dog thread. It was a response to the bit about dead children.

nicholas bujak wrote:Perspective? My perspective is that a bus accident full of dead school children would not affect me as much as my dogs death. Do I really have to explain?

I wrote something along the lines of "people in AZ really are weird, and dogs aren't ever part of the climbing community because dogs don't climb. how's that for perspective". Maybe harsh, but agreeable and definitely less controversial than a bus full of dead children.

I think that if this is going to be going on, maybe the mods could have the decency to email the user and let them know, or maybe ban people that are repeatedly writing things that deserve deletion. Or just leave it be (like supertopo) and let it get worked out on it's own. Let the people speak freely.

It just seems to be an all of a sudden thing that didn't used to happen. Maybe this is just the first time I crossed the line and "be'd a jerk". Even though I know it is not.

I can understand how you might have missed the half dozen or so posts of mine that I've pointed out as having been deleted in the last couple weeks.

Yesterday I posted in response to a rant about Owl Creek. Post deleted and when I commented on it that too was deleted without any explanation. I did however get two PMs from the OP stating that he didn't complain to anyone about my comments and he was curious as to why they were deleted.

Is that specific enough for you?

I did post it that way, I edited it so that this could acctually be discussed and not deleted cause the kiddies aren't suppose to read swear words.

Is this something that has just started recently, or can anyone say that they have had a post deleted in past years? I've been on these boards since 2008 can recall some pretty nasty stuff not getting deleted. If MP is moving in this direction, maybe accounce it so that those of us who appreciate free speech (I undertsand, even on a privately owned website) can move along or maybe censor ourselves if we see fit.

Ooh I wish I could see that Forum Decorum thread... then I might know how to tiptoe through the tulips of mountain project

Well, it looks like you got their attention.

Perhaps a mod just got "up to here with it". A note would be nice, but having to write one for every obnoxious post that should be deleted could turn into a ridiculous amount of work. Plus, the antisocial types who write much of them are also the ones who are likely going to get into some kind of ridiculous email vendetta.

As far as your post, I have no idea what happened to it, but I thought it was pretty obnoxious when I read it. I would imagine that pretty much everybody here values free speech, but that has to be balanced by some civility or things will go down the tubes. It is not like some important concept that may be controversial is being deleted, it is just plain extreme rudeness with no redeeming value. It is like asking somebody to leave who is screaming obscenities and littering at your privately owned crag.

As far as what to do to avoid mods having to censor, just think before you post and don't be a jerk. It is simple.

I think it has to be more directed at someone...

something like...

if you're dog is like your child, maybe you shouldn't let it play in traffic.

M Sprague wrote:It is not like some important concept that may be controversial is being deleted, it is just plain extreme rudeness with no redeeming value. It is like asking somebody to leave who is screaming obscenities and littering at your privately owned crag. As far as what to do to avoid mods having to censor, just think before you post and don't be a jerk. It is simple.

Seriously.

It seems like there are just a lot more users on here than ever before, period. When I look at threads from 2007 and earlier, it seems like there were a few awesome members with loads of experience, but even fewer noobs, trolls, etc. Nowadays, the ratio seems inverted.

And this isn't to trash on nQQbs. I am one. But the fact is that getting your forum legs under you is an awkward process. Typically people start out reserved, get sucked in, progress from rambling monologues to flaming rants to hateful one-liners and eventually back to being reserved, like a state of forum Zen.

What we are seeing, I think, is a whole lot of people going through that awkward, ugly process, and filling up the forums with their impatient, imprudent slop. Myself included.

I'm sure the MP lords have spent a lot of time (like mods everywhere) talking about how much responsibility they want to take on. As a site grows, so does this burden, and I suspect it is pressures like these, along with the spam pressure, that drove sites like tradgirl.com and drpiton.com out of existence.

Other sites use a post/thread limit. Yahoo Answers has something similar - depending on your member level, you can only ask or answer so many questions a day. It gives moderators an intermediary tool to use against users bad enough for a warning but not bad enough to block and frustrates the trolls/flamers/wasters looking to plow hours into hundreds of flames. MP already has the points/ranking system in place, so implementing a post limit would be easy. As abhorently draconian as it is, I think it's something the mods here should consider.

Another idea - permit links to outside pics, but block them in the threads. That might impose a kind of self-selection on links, and locking out the pictures of drooling trolls/Killis' maidens/old scarface clips might while leaving seriously interested folks the ability to link/click out to worthwhile content would at least keep threads more compact.

I say all this as a noob myself. I know that expecially the first thing I mentioned would cut back on how much I can post. Maybe that's a good thing. I certainly don't need to spend MORE time on here. And, I guess most of all, I know firsthand that it's hard as a wanker nooby to keep your mouth shut until you learn the hard way. But by the time you learn, you're not a newby wanker anymore. And maybe a little hardship is what all the trolls on here need.

S Denny wrote:those of us who appreciate free speech

It's always amusing to see terms like "free speech" or "mod stalk" used in defense of offensive posts. It seems like a lot of people regard the internet (and therefore Mountain Project) as Deadwood in the wild west days, where anything goes, and if someone pisses you off or even looks at you wrong, just shoot it out on main street.

For those who subscribe to this misconception, think instead of Mountain Project as your local pub, which is open to the public but privately owned, and where if you engage in shouting matches or otherwise abuse your fellow patrons, you'll be introduced to the bouncer who will quietly but firmly escort you out the door. (Of course, this metaphor is slightly flawed, since MP lets people get away with far more than your local pub owner would.)

JL

M Sprague wrote:Perhaps a mod just got "up to here with it". A note would be nice, but having to write one for every obnoxious post that should be deleted could turn into a ridiculous amount of work. Plus, the antisocial types who write much of them are also the ones who are likely going to get into some kind of ridiculous email vendetta. As far as your post, I have no idea what happened to it, but I thought it was pretty obnoxious when I read it. I would imagine that pretty much everybody here values free speech, but that has to be balanced by some civility or things will go down the tubes. It is not like some important concept that may be controversial is being deleted, it is just plain extreme rudeness with no redeeming value. It is like asking somebody to leave who is screaming obscenities and littering at your privately owned crag. As far as what to do to avoid mods having to censor, just think before you post and don't be a jerk. It is simple.

+1

As far as I am concerned the admins can delete any posts they want to. People who have a problem with this can take a look at their own behavior and fix it.

Yarp is consistently insulting, rude, and demeaning to other posters. I've got no prob getting guys (assuming it's a dude) like him out of the discussions here...

I like to have fun, be silly, call a spade a spade when needed. . . and I've never been deleted. (I think it's my good looks.)

I have been called pretty-near every insult known - mostly due to lost logic resorting to "attack mode".
I think it's funny. . . .

Gotta admit, there've been a few times when I've literally cringed while reading some stuff - but honestly, I most often agree.

I say, post away. . . social evolution will deal with it best.

I'm much less likely to say anything,getting into a pissing contest with someone I may or may not know stresses me out with hostility.It stopped being fun pretty fast,and as a junior hippy,I disapprove of bad vibes.Just yesterday,I was shaking my head about this guy standing in a busy store, having a phone conversation all replete with "fuckin'" this, and"bullshit' that.Is a little civil behavior so distasteful that we want to discourage its' use?

I wanted to express my thanks to whatever mod has deleted posts. I think it will help clean up MP.

Certainly there remains a lot more crap on here that could be deleted as well, but I'll take what I can get to make this place what it used to be.

Thanks again.

s.price wrote:My question would be why are people allowed to troll with threads that are designed to get a rise out of everyone but we are not allowed to respond how we see fit? Quite a few threads have been laid down lately with the intent to generate a response that is sure to be negative (for lack of a better word) yet the admins feel it is wrong to respond in that fashion. My example would be the whole cheating with a stomp posted by ellonor. She was asked (by me) to explain a stomp but never did. Why not delete the thread instead of our responses? It is obviously a troll designed to excite the masses and garner a negative (or in my case an honest response) but it is allowed to stay. Why is that allowed but we cannot respond with the way we feel? I find it MUCH more insulting than the responses such actions bring. As I have said before, YOU GET WHAT YOU TROLL FOR. It's called freedom of speech. To quote the Beatles, the love you take is equal to the love you make. I have never been censored on this site but the fact that it happens is not right. I treat these forums as though I was sitting around a campfire with a bunch of others. You may not like what I say but I have the right to say what I feel. A open forum like this is no place for selective censorship. Smacks of Orwell.

Were any posts in the 'Stomp' thread deleted?

Your campfire analogy is fine, as long as you understand the campfire is located on private property, and the landowner is sitting at the campfire. His wife is there too, and his friends, and maybe some of their children. He has the right to tell someone to STFU or get off his land if he finds their insane ranting objectionable.

"Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This isn't a First Amendment thing...

youtube.com/watch?v=pn-kxUE…

s.price wrote:...You may not like what I say but I have the right to say what I feel. A open forum like this is no place for selective censorship. Smacks of Orwell.

Do you really not understand that you're a guest here? That you have no say in what the "rules" are and that you actually have to obey them, no matter how arbitrary they may seem to you?
The campfire analogy above is completely correct, so sit down and behave yourself or get up and go start your own campfire. Those are your only two options.

Geir wrote:As far as I am concerned the admins can delete any posts they want to. People who have a problem with this can take a look at their own behavior and fix it.

+1