Why do we have the General Section?

The few mods we have do work, when they see it in General, it just takes longer sometimes.

@canidmajor Thank you for that. I forget the mods are overworked.

Mods, my apologies.

But seriously, we should be self-monitoring. We should recognize on our own when we’re off-topic.

@Hawaii_Jake True.

If I were a Mod, and volunteering my time a blank response would not garner much attention from me, as it should have no affect on the thread in any way. Maybe it wasn’t given priority.

They wouldn’t be overworked if we all call each other out, when we’re wrong.

Oh, we call each other out all the time. That’s not the problem @flo!

@MrGrimm888 what do you mean a “blank response?” Those only happen when we mod ourselves. Why would the mods be interested in that?

Hawaii…a blank post comes in when someone posts an answer then thinks better of it.
We don’t have a delete option but you tap on the edit option during the 10 minute edit window, wipe out all the text then then hit the space bar one time. Normally Fluther won’t let a person post a blank response but hitting the space bar tricks the server into thing there is text there. It posts a blank post.
Auggie told me that secret.

@Dutchess_lll I can see that might be useful on rare occasions. It would be far better not to have to use a trick by not derailing a thread in the first place.

A blank space could look like hostile response too. If a poster thinks better off it there is the “Please ignore that, I changed my view.”..

That’s not the only reason it’s used, Jake.

You just said we should be able to mod ourselves, now you’re complaining about one of the ways we do moderate ourselves.

Correct. It’s best to recognize before typing an answer instead of having to backtrack.

That’s true. I wish I was that wise in every moment of the day, in every discussion I have. And sometimes I am.
But realizing it in time is second best.

I used to complain that the mods were too rigid with their enforcement. Others would defend them Now people are complaining that the mods are too relaxed? I was always told the mods are volunteers and are doing the best they can with the staff they have. So I’ll say it here – the mods are volunteers and are doing the best they can with the staff they have.

You could always make me a mod. I would be ruthless.

^^ Off with their head and all their tentacles!

@Dutchess_lll You are correct. Catching it in time is good.

@ragingloli Only humans are allowed to be mods.

From what I have observed, blanks happen extremely rarely. I cannot understand why this upsets you so. Someone wrote something, and then I guess thought better of it, and SELF MODERATED. Seems you should be glad about it. I find this Q surprising. What’s the big difference between a blank and a mod deleting?

Answers off topic are a much bigger problem than blanks. 20 moderated responses on one Q is ridiculous, but happens more often than we all like to see. Reasons vary, in my opinion, from people straying too far off topic, to mods being over zealous.

I admit to almost never noticing if something is general or social. It just doesn’t catch my eye, and I don’t make an effort to check it 90% of the time. If I do notice who wrote the Q, then I try to not wander. I know some jellies get especially bothered.

Some jellies write in the original post when their Q is in general, and so then it’s very clear they want answers to stay on topic.

Some of “us” care rather too much, that is way more damaging.

For the main question “Why do we have the General section?” – and maybe this isn’t a satisfying answer! – is because that’s how Ben designed it. When the mod team approached him about to continue moderating the site, he was also pretty firm about maintaining the separate sections the way they were designed to be split up.

Regarding the enforcement of the General Guidelines: We would love more community flagging. We aren’t always able to catch things ourselves and rely on flags to assist us in locating questions/responses that might need moderation.

@jleslie That’s like asking “why do you care”? Obviously the OP does care or he wouldn’t have asked. Now you seem to be invalidating his feelings.
I honestly never knew what a blank comment was meant to be. I actually thought it was meant to be silence to show displeasure, but wasn’t sure.
Reddeerguy always writes “redacted by me” so I figured he had second thoughts on his answer. Not a hard thing to do.

I see at least 2 OPs in Gneral, that look like they would generate more answers in Social.

I asked this question in a moment of frustration. I will avoid that in the future. I apologize for my part in ruffled feathers to anyone who feels ruffled.

@muppetish when we Wis.dmrs got here in 2009 there were no sections. Everything was treated like the General section – no fun!! Well we were so undisciplined, like teenagers in an old fogeys home, but I think Bendrew wanted to keep the new blood, so a few weeks later they created the Social section, and threw in Meta for good measure.

Oh, I think there was wit and rowdiness long before you arrived Dutch!

I guess we had the wrong kind of wit and rowdiness. We got modded and clocked constantly, to the point that most of them left. Only a handful are still here. Caravan fan is one of them. I think Ragingloli was a wisdmer?

I thought the opposite. I thought the creators wanted a section where people would have stricter rules and stay on topic, so they created a General section. When I got here plenty of Q’s wandered around before the General and Social split.

That’s what I thought, I’m not saying it was correct. I really don’t know what the founders had in mind specifically when they did the change.

@JLeslies Yes. They thought we old timers were getting too social and straying from the Q and A firmat.