What's up with the lack of questions lately, is it due to the lack of interest, or the Mods being too strict with their perfect question agenda?

The reason I brought this up I have seen questions pulled,that were not bad questions, but full of typo’s, and knowing full well when the Mods pulled it, for correcting we would never see it again.
If the perfect question agenda is so important, why don’t the mods just correct them and throw them back out?
Also any mods reading this feel free to move this to Meta, if you think it would do better there.

I believe that several old-timers have left, who used to ask occasionally clever questions.

We are also sinking into the morass of crap questions that Askville died from—“am I sick?”, “does he like me?” “am I pregnant” and other silliness.

Well, am I pregnant, @elbanditoroso?

Does my husband like me?

OH GOD,NOT the am I preggo question!
They are almost as bad as the Marlboro ones.

@Dutchess_III I hope your husband loves you, and you might be if you haven’t played safe.

I thought this was obvious, but let me repeat it once more:

Sending a question back for editing only dooms it to oblivion if the asker opts to abandon the question rather than make the edits. Otherwise, they simply make the changes and the Q goes back up, better than before. There’s no reason that this should result in any fewer Qs.

It might surprise you to learn that some members flag their own Qs because they’ve spotted an error and want a chance to change it (this happened this morning). You’d also be surprised how many errors we’ve let slide in your own Qs

Q?‘s sitting in my “need editing” bin…

Is there anyone in current power or influence that you believe could fulfill the traditional biblical depiction of the Antichrist?

Aborted fetal tissue in my Pepsi?

Can I please invent a new word here?

Who wins this hoola-hoop contest?

If Ron Paul competes well in Iowa, will the press brush the victory off as a fluke?

Do you like wildlife photography?

The internet goes down for one month. How do you spend your time?

You’re not going to update your Dell Streak to todays release of 2.2.2… are you?

Oh Dear! Did Wiki Leaks just usher in the Second Coming of Christ?

Are you angry? Well then, why am i angry?

Ladies, have you ever done the Tiger Dance?

Will you say a prayer to the Pool Gods for me?

NSFW… Were Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna ever sexually stimulated?
________

The reasons the mods give for removing them are more vague than the vagueness they accuse my questions of.

BTW… this thread will probably be moved to “meta”, or removed because it’s not in “meta”.

BTW… many of my removed questions had already gotten many answers.

@thorninmud well thank you, and other than the mods I can’t remember to many people, complaining about a run on sentence in my questions or that I failed to space a comma correctly.
I have never flagged one of my own questions because of a typo, or have I ever flagged any one else’s.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies They pulled one about my dad’s house for a run on sentence even after it had +40 answers.

This Q was just moved to “meta”.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies That is OK I said they could if they felt it would do better there, I don’t have a problem with that.

I would like to know why don’t the Mods make the correction themselves?
I mean if it’s just a space after a comma type thing, or a spelling error?

@SQUEEKY2 That’s a possibility that we revisit occasionally (and we have done it under certain circumstances), but it’s a touchy subject. You know how ticked off you are about our sending Qs back for editing? Well, that’s nothing compared to how some people react if the mods just up and change their text. Frankly, I understand that reaction: people’s identities are wrapped up in their words, and if changes are to be made, I can see why they’d want to be the ones to change them.

There’s also the matter of “moral hazard”: if people feel they can submit any old text any way they please and the mods will just make it work, then why would they try to get it right in the first place?

I’m going to ignore the mod reference because it’s fucking boring, nothing against you personally @SQUEEKY2, it just is.

I can speak only for myself, as someone who asked a grand worth of questions, I don’t ask anymore due to the departure of most of the playful minded among us.
Just don’t get that buzz that I used to, too bogged down in dreary, nit picking dullards.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I don’t think those were bad questions.

I think the mods might be playing a little stricter, especially in social, which I thought was supposed to be the place for fun. But ucme nailed it. We’ve lost a lot of good long time jellies and the new jellies don’t tend to stay around long. For whatever reason.

It has nothing to do with mods, unless the dropoff in interest in Fluther is related to moderation (which, though it might have contributed, I don’t think is the main reason). It’s not that people’s questions are being removed or delayed, it’s that people aren’t asking them in the first place.

Anyway, my observation is that the moderation has been pretty stellar lately, after that bizarre period of over-zealousness.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies What are the original dates on those questions? Even just the range would be interesting.

@thorninmud I’m not saying change any text, just a comma space or a spelling error to keep the question in play, and your right about the wording that is why I get going when one is pulled for wording even after it has lot’s of answers.

@SQUEEKY2 Yeah, I hear you. I’ve done the occasional minor correction like that. On one hand, that’s sometimes actually easier for the mods than going through the process of sending a Q back, but (aside from the touchiness I mentioned before) we sometimes hope that if people get shown what they’re doing wrong and go through the process of changing it themselves, some learning will happen and there’ll be fewer of the same mistakes in the future. ‘Cause we’re crazy optimists like that.

So, @SQUEEKY2, are you deliberately filling your posts with typos to make a point? Just curious.

It is hard to edit a question with my smartphone.

@SQUEEKY2 do you have spell check activated on your browser? Also, I’ve found that in the question section you have to right click and physically choose “check spelling.” Same with the topics section.

@thorninmud I have learned things like the comma spaced thing, we never touched on that when I went to school.
Being on Fluther has made me a bit of a better speller.
@Dutchess_III I have a mac and it has a built in spell checker.
I wish people that go over board on perfect wording and punctuation, would pay that kind of attention to their driving , sure would be a lot less accidents

Agenda? No one has an agenda. This isn’t the CIA redacted

@tinyfaery Are you sure?

I have seen typo’s in peoples questions, and they bother me not at all, so why do others get so upset?
I say that rather quickly, as long as I can get the jist of what they are saying it doesn’t bother me.
Others LOVE to point it out,saying to confusing and other reasons, a comma makes a question confusing or not?
People with heavy accents must drive you really crazy then.

@SQUEEKY2 – Out of curiosity, why are you so opposed to editing a question?

Sure, we all are all guilty of typo’s typos. But I can’t see any downside to being forced to edit a question. It’s an opportunity to improve your writing, and it allows the rest of us to be able to understand what you’re saying. Language is a tool for communicating. We want to understand what you are asking. I’d rather have you edit it than a mod. The meaning of a sentence can be altered by incorrectly placing a comma where it was not intended.

I’m opposed to the worded questions being sent back, I have learned a thing or two about punctuation and spelling.
The run on sentence thing got my blood boiling , but I guess it really confuses the real smart people, without the exact proper punctuation they can’t understand what you are trying to say, yet these same people will use text spelling on their cell phones and have no problem with it, how come?
Like someone pointed out to me I should have worded the question, lack of interest, or (are) the mods being to strict.
The lack of that (are) made it confusing for some, REALLY?

@SQUEEKY2 It’s not so much that people get upset about sloppy language; it’s more that things like this affect the overall tone of the site. It’s a little like how people dress to go to a restaurant: some restaurants let you dress any way you want, some require a certain standard of dress. Why should that matter? Well, because the way people are dressed affects the mindset of everyone in the dining room. If the people are nicely dressed, it puts everyone in a more respectful frame of mind, and that inspires people to be their better selves. This is the same reason cities insist that residents keep their houses and yards looking nice.

Now, that doesn’t mean that people who format their text and spell properly can’t be assholes, or that sloppy language reflects character flaws. But generally, if people have to mind their Ps and Qs in how they write, they’re more likely to mind them in what they write.

@thorninmud Nice answer, thanks.

It’s a lack of questions + a lack of people answering them. I just posted a question that I thought was guaranteed to get people talking. It’s been 20 minutes and not one response.

@dappled_leaves “What are the original dates on those questions? Even just the range would be interesting.”

I can’t find a date on them. But it’s been over the past few years.
______

OK an example of why some were modded… The Q? about the Antichrist, I ended it by saying… “Aside from @ragingloli, or @blondesjohn, I can’t really think of anyone who could satisfy such a prophesy. Can you?”… Mods said that was flame bait. Well just a joke between long time members, prompted by my respect for them, and some of their past joking answers on similar topics. No flame bait intended. Mods said they’d republish if I removed that part. I understand.

But on others, like the Hoolah-Hoop question… Mods said, “Your question doesn’t meet Fluther quality standards. This seems more like, “Hey, look at these hot girls” than an actual question.” Wha? Here’s the Vid. Sure the ladies are hot… But they are amazingly talented too. This is a dance art form as far as I’m concerned. I don’t understand the mod.

Another question, about the internet going down, I specifically said in the details… “This Q is in the “General” section. Any answer akin to “I freak out”, or “I lose my mind”, will be flagged as unproductive.” I wanted serious answers, no joking. But mods didn’t accept that and said _“Your question is more appropriate for the Social Section, which has more relaxed guidelines. When you edit your question you can choose to repost it there immediately.”. WELL? I didn’t WANT_ “relaxed” answers. That would be some pretty serious shit if the internet went down for a month.

The funniest mod for the question “Do you like wildlife photography?”… The mod said “There’s not really a question in your question. See if you can reword it so that you’re asking something.” Huh? LOL…

I hear ya, @RealEyesRealizeRealLies. Except I didn’t think the ladies were “amazingly talented”, tho.

I can’t do it.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Ok, but in fairness, twelve questions sent back for editing over a few years is not that bad. At the very least, they can’t be used to comment on the current state of moderation, since the entire mod team has probably turned over a couple of times over that period.

I would be willing to bet that a few of the ones you’ve described in detail above would either have passed if a different mod were on duty, or that at least the comments to you would have been more specific or helpful to you in improving the question.

In “fairness”, regardless of the mod on duty, I don’t understand some of the reasoning offered. In “fairness”, I said I understood why one was modded, as I understand why some of the others were too, even though I disagree with their decision.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Yeah, you’ve said this already.

Just can’t find the motivation to answer

In fairness @dappled_leaves, I only said half of what you say I said already. And the other half was said in a different way.

I also don’t understand how time (“a few years not that bad”) and moderation are related, and how your judgement upon that came to be. What is the reference point?

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies The reference point is your responding to a question about “moderation lately” with a list of questions that were sent back for editing over the past few years.

It’s not that bad compared to how it would have been if that list of questions was sent back “lately”. Like, say, the past month.

Sure, thanks for clarifying.

No problem. :)

The only way there can be more questions, is for us to ask more questions. Editing or not. Sometimes questions don’t spark a good debate, sometimes people are worried about asking NSFW questions, in fear of being judged. Example: I asked ‘Where would be a great place to have sex outdoors without running into trouble (with the police etc,). Some one answered ‘What???......’. This can really put people off from asking interesting questions. I feel if you do not like the question or can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ then you kind of put the person off asking questions. I have been reluctant to ask many questions of late.

Twould be easy to vilify the mods. I suspect if errors in grammar, punctuation, etc. are brought to their attention, their hands are then forced. Sooooooooo any fastidious grump can probably torpedo the average question at will. To a surprisingly large extent this place is very dependent on a relatively few members to ask consistently interesting question, and I frankly am amazed at their ability to sustain the momentum. To my mind, the deletion of an interesting question merely for matters of form borders on criminal. But hey. It’s what we all signed up for. The gods must be appeased if we are to frolic in their playground..

Super great answer @stanleybmanly ,thanks.

I feel like @thorninmud is tiring of the the question.

Death nell?

@ibstubro This question wasn’t really aimed at blasting the mods, more that maybe if they corrected the small stuff, comma spacing, spelling that sort of thing that maybe more would participate.
I can bitch till I am blue,but it is their playground, and I guess if I don’t like the rules I can stop playing in it, hence less participating,that will do the site wonders huh?
BUT @thorninmud had a very valid point that maybe if they pointed out what they didn’t like the users might learn a thing or two,and that is a very valid point, I have learned some stuff that we never touched in school.

Everyone is out picking apples and buying pumpkin lattes. They’ll be back.

YOU promise @jonsblond , or you just hope?

pinky swear

@ibstubro “Death nell?”

If you must insist on giving the horse another pointless flog, please at least spell “knell” properly.

Actually, I appreciate it when a question of mine is pulled for bad grammar or spelling. Sometimes I am too tired or whatever to get it right in the evening and they bump it back and I correct it when I am in a better frame of mind. No prob. If you choose not to correct it, hey, that is fine too, just don’t bitch or get it right the first time.

Maybe I’m pregnant with @Dutchess_III and @RealEyesRealizeRealLies’ baby.

@osoraro How will we ever know if you don’t ask the question?

@dappled_leaves Never mind. My mistake. I was just constipated. It’s all better now.

Well…..crap.

I have not yet read the previous responses.

It seems that lately (within the past year), General questions are held to a very strict standard about being “on topic.” I think that this may be a turnoff to some. Even comments in Social are modded when Social traditionally was full of jokes and other “asides.”

I think (and this is just my opinion) that with so few users now, the moderation should be a bit more forgiving. I also know that the moderation is overseen by the owners of the site, and the mods may not be their own bosses.

You’ve been here longer than I have @jca, so I know you remember what Fluther was like before the General, Social and Meta sections were implemented. The moderation was more stringent then but the site continued to grow.

Well, Ben and Andrew leaving is when it slowly started petering out.

Things are certainly pokey here lately. I don’t think it has anything to do with the moderation.

All the cool kids left. It’s just us dumpy rejects now.

Anybody want a twizzler?

I don’t believe I’ve ever had a question pulled on Fluther, so I couldn’t say if mods have anything to do with it. Now, I’d had plenty of answers deleted, but that’s because I can be quite the bitch at times. I haven’t posted a question in awhile because I have nothing to ask. I believe I’m gradually losing interest in Fluther.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies is right. People have called me many things, but “cool” was never one of them. (BTW, C, working on some new astrophotos. I’ll email you when I have them processed.)

Nothing to ask?
You don’t wonder why something costs what it does?
You don’t wonder why someone acts like they act?
You never ask your partner a question that they don’t have an answer for?
You never hear a news story that makes you say, “Whaaaaaa…?”

We’re nowhere near the end of human understanding. Fluther’s others just need to put it in type.

Same email St..rt… Good to see you back!

@ibstubro I meant I don’t have anything to ask here. If I have a fact question, I use Google. If I have a fitness/nutrition question, I use a forum where people are knowledgeable about that. Quite frankly, I prefer to only ask questions on Fluther when I’m genuinely interested in the opinions of the people here. In most cases, I know what the general consensus will be without even asking. Tis quite predictable ‘round these parts.

I think it’s because there are only about a dozen or so who are still active, and most of us know it all already. Well, except for the answer to your question, that is…

The time and energy wasted on wondering about Fluther’s future would probably do a lot for its health – if channelled into crafting interesting questions and smart answers. I appreciate the irony of this post.

Honestly, it just aint fun anymore. Miss Auggie and a lot of the oldtimers. Dont feel like asking or answering. This is not sour grapes mind you, just how i feel.

The best way to get yourself out of that funk, @zenzen? Think up and ask a couple of really hot-button questions.

The fire is still there, but the embers are getting low. Add some fuel.