Should questions be lockable?

It used to be here that you could pm a mod and ask that the discussion be closed. I think they still do that if you ask but I don’t know how often people think of doing that.

In my opinion, when someone gets nasty on here, which does happen on occasion, it’s not always a bad thing to leave the comment up so that other people can see what a jerk that person is. That said, when comments get very mean or personal, they should be deleted. When a thread gets derailed, it can be interesting to see what people have to say about it, even if it’s off-topic. That’s just my opinion. That’s why I usually post things in Social, because it’s interesting (to me) to see what path a post will take.

We almost never delete threads (spam excluded). What we do instead is send the question back to the asker, if it needs to be reworded in any way. The OP then might choose to abandon the question – this means it is, for all intents and purposes, deleted. Otherwise, it’s just being edited and will re-appear eventually.

When we’re just removing comments, we don’t close the thread. It stays accessible the entire time. We do sometimes archive threads, meaning that you can’t post, but you can see the entire thread. That’s usually done when a discussion is getting out of hand, but @jca2 is right that we would also close an OP’s thread on request in most cases.

A songwriter once said…When you write a song, you know the meaning of the song to you & it can be deeply personal. Once you gift it to the world, it becomes theirs to interpret as they see fit & often becomes a completely different critter!!! Many songs become better after the fans change their meaning & I try to not take it personal.

What I don’t understand is WHY some people ask a Q & expect to keep it one dimensional. The BEST Qs are those that take on a life of their own!!! In my time here, I don’t think that I’ve ever asked a Q that stayed on a straight line. They all twisted, turned, & jumped over the moon & people had ideas that I had NEVER considered!!! WHY ask a Q if you only want an echo chamber??? Even the answers that irritate the hell out of me can give me an insight that I had NEVER considered!!!

Also, I’ve noticed some people use their flagging ability as a way to bully others. I simply do NOT take it personal & see it as THEIR loss if they can’t have an open mind. I can’t make them learn a new idea…I can only offer MY way of looking at it. They want to delete it, I hope it gives them FALSE sense of power as I don’t really care whether it stays or goes…I know what I think!!!

Personally, I’m NOT a fan of locking a discussion for the same reason I’m NOT a fan of flagging. Cancelling my ideas for others to see will NOT change my thought process & I will continue to express it!!!

@longgone The question that was asked about how long we’ve been married is gone. Just gone. My answers aren’t in my profile, the question isn’t in the OP’s profile, it doesn’t say it’s out for editing (which it wouldn’t be anyway because it had a lot of answers and as far as I know it wouldn’t be edited at that point). When you “close” a thread due to a request, is that the same as deleting it?

@smudges If I understood correctly, it’s that the thread is “pending revision from the asker” which means it is effectively deleted if he does not choose to reword and reinstate it, which seems likely. What I was not clear on was who requested this revision.

And on a personal note @longgone – don’t think you aren’t appreciated for doing the thankless job you do, seemingly just to keep us old weirdos happy.

@Smashley I don’t know the answer to the question you’re probably talking about but I can share what recently happened with me. I noticed I had a typo in my air quality question after it had been up for a day or so. I flagged it and asked the mods if they could either correct the typo or send it back to me for editing. They sent it back and I got the standard message that a question you posted needs editing. I could either edit it at that point or had the chance to abandon it. I edited it and sent it back, a day or so later it was reposted with the former comments included.

To answer more broadly, a question edit can either be requested by the mods or the OP. Another jelly might flag a question but the decision would always rest with the mods as to what to do with it. Same with flagging a response to a Q.

@Smashley Yes, but the OP had to have requested it. It sounds like any of us, at any time, can decide we don’t want a Q of ours ‘out there’, so we can just ask that it be removed.

I don’t think, but could be wrong, that a question with 20+ (for example) responses would be taken out for rewording, so what I’m wondering comes down to where that Q went and why. It’s not that I care so much about that particular question, but that I have concerns about entire questions and their answers disappearing and us not having a clue that they’re gone because no one notices. I know…paranoid much? a little.

I’d still appreciate a response from @longgone because I’m just not understanding this. and yes, I’m an old weirdo who appreciates her, too

@smudges

The question that was asked about how long we’ve been married is gone. Just gone. My answers aren’t in my profile, the question isn’t in the OP’s profile [...]

Yup, that’s what it looks like when questions are pushed back for editing. All traces of that question disappear (except lurve). If you still had the link to the question, you’d see “This question is currently being edited”, but none of the details or responses. Only the OP can see those.

[It] doesn’t say it’s out for editing (which it wouldn’t be anyway because it had a lot of answers and as far as I know it wouldn’t be edited at that point).

To the OP, it does say that right now. Questions are still sent back if they’re not in accordance with the guidelines, no matter how many answers they have. It’s just that older questions are less likely to be seen by a mod.

When you “close” a thread due to a request, is that the same as deleting it?

Let’s use the Fluther lingo. Here’s what we can do with a thread:

Push to editing – when your thread is in violation of the guidelines, you’ll get a note saying it’s been pushed. Threads that go to editing “vanish“ and appear deleted to everyone but the OP.

Delete – this is when a thread is in violation of the guidelines and we’re about to ban the OP or have already done so. It will only happen to new users who are spamming or trolling Fluther. Threads that are deleted “vanish“ and appear deleted to everyone.

Archive/close – rarely, we archive a discussion that’s gotten out of hand. This means it’s frozen. Nobody can add new posts. Mods leave a note on threads like these, and everyone following the thread would be notified. If you’ve never seen this, that’s because it’s pretty rare. I believe we archived just one or two threads over the last year. Threads that are archived remain visible to everyone.

@Smashley That’s exactly right, and @janbb is right about edit requests.

#WeirdosWhoAppreciateEachOther

You can’t ask for a question to be deleted, I tried as have others. If the OP edits it will all pop back up.

@longgone Thank you so much for taking the time to write that thoughtful explanation! You answered several of my ‘wonderings’.

#WeirdosWhoAppreciateEachOther

PS That user is gone so the question about marriage will not be back, presumably.