Does slightly rewording a question make it a better question?

Some of us do answer quickly, sometimes to point out the problem, sometimes to waste some time when we know something is gonna get pulled…sometimes just to dick around for a few minutes because we found a place that we know will be removed.

Style of writing doesn’t have much to do with it, my questions are silly sometimes and serious other times. It has to do with asking a actual question, not riddles, not thinly veiled statements with a link to a news story and then a Whatcha think? tacked on. You have to want to know something.

And the moderators are people too. Each one of them unique and separate from the others, with moods, lives, and criteria all their own. Perhaps, it was a mistake that day. I’m sure it’s happened before but this is the first time I’ve heard of that particular set of events.

Point is, they make mistakes, but they’re in charge of keeping the site the way bendrew intended it to be.

All in all, I see improvements with the newly edited questions that I agree with.
I’m sure there’s more to it…but bleh, I’m done.

Sometimes it does, but what I hate is when they change the question after I have answered it, making my answer sound stupid. That shouldn’t be allowed, or at least show “edit” so people can tell it was changed.

@asmonet I am not trying to bitch about the moderation on the site because I can deal with that, it is 1) the inconsistency and 2) The moderating over simple semantics or differences in style when it comes to asking questions.
I don’t know, I just think if it is going to be monitored it needs to be more consistent and less about wording and more about weeding out the really bad questions.

@Kelly27 Can you give examples?

@andrew Examples to what?
It is an overall observation that there is definitely an inconsistency on what is and isn’t moderated, depending on time of day, who is moderating at the moment, etc.

Maybe with examples, he could show the team what the users are unhappy with and get it changed. Otherwise, he doesn’t have anything to go on.

Ok, one example would be that some questions are pulled because they are too much like getting to know people type of questions, yet I see plenty of those every time I log on and they didn’t get pulled so to me that just screams inconsistency.

Do you flag the questions you think are inappropriate?
Does it bother you to get to know the other people, or have you had questions pulled that were similar to those you dislike?

@fireside I think you are misunderstanding my question and intent. I do not have a problem with most questions and if there happens to be one I don’t like I just skip it, so no I don’t flag questions. It doesn’t bother me at all to get to know other people, I was making the point that there is some inconsistency when it comes to these types of questions. Some get modded because they are like that while others stay. It is the inconsistency in the moderation I was referring to.
I was also trying to address the issue of modding a question simply because of wording.

I am not sure what I said that made you think I dislike any question.

There are about ten people that do the moderation. Obviously they each have different standards. Allie is always drunk and doesn’t really do anything unless a bunch of people complain. Richardhenry is a total dick and decides to remove shit by a simple roll of the dice.

And, yeah.. Sometimes rewording the question helps focus the answers.

@johnpowell huh…..ok.

@Kelly27 – It’s hard to discuss specifics with specific examples, so I was trying to see if there was a recent question that you were thinking of when you wrote this question.

Without specifics, all I can say is that some questions are are made better by rewording, yes.

johnpowell is just asking for a dick punch.

Kelly, sometimes there aren’t any mods on the site at all, so a question that should have been pulled can get missed.

Also, the mods depend on us flagging questions. So if no one flags it, it might not get pulled.

There have recently been two kinds of problems I’ve noticed. One is the question where is asks, “what do you think about this?” Then you have to look at the details to see what the question is about.

I find this to be very rude. I have a slow computer, and it can be very onerous to check details. And the details might be so detailed that you can’t really figure out what the questioner really wants. I want people to tell me the subject of the question, and the substance of the question in the title line.

The other thing I’ve been seeing lately are these enigmatic sentences that aren’t really questions. There may be supporting detail, but it is really unclear what the questioner wants. Some people say they want to start a discussion. I have no problem with that. That’s what I’m here for. I just want to know what the discussion should be about.

I also think the mods have been too tough on some questions. There is a subtle line here, but I think there are some ambiguous questions that should be left alone. These questions are left deliberately vague, because they want to leave the interpretation of the question up to answerers, or they want answerers to have fun with their answers.

I think the difference between these questions, and the accidentally vague questions should be obvious, but some of the mods don’t see it the same way. It’s fine. We’re all different people. However, I do think intent can be difficult to determine, and we ought to have a way to explain to mods why we have asked the way we did, instead of only having the option to change the question.

[mod says] A new feature has recently been implemented. Now when a question gets pushed to editing, the asker gets a PM about it – along with the option to contact the mod team – in addition to the ‘edit’ option. This makes it easier to give and get feedback about your question.

@YARNLADY: agreed, we can’t delete the comments we leave when they no longer make any sense.

@augustlan , I experienced the new feature and it’s very good.

The moderators on this site really IMPROVE the site. If you want to see what happens to a site when there are no moderators, go to Askville.

I do think moderator “consistency” needs to be improved, however, and I agree, it’s a hard thing to do.

But, most importantly, I feel the the moderators should make sure the moderating is left to the moderators. If we feel something is against the guidelines, we should FLAG it and leave it for the mods to deal with it. Some of these mod “wanna be’s” REALLY should look closer at their OWN postings instead of interfering when others ask a question.

What’s a “mod wanna be”?
Someone who offers suggestions when they see vague or repetitive questions?

No. Someone who tries to do the job of a moderator but who, in fact, is wrong in their critique, rude and should look at some of their OWN entries.

Ah, rudeness.
Now I see.

Do you think the moderators or Ben and Andrew should have to get involved every single time someone decides to use the question feature to point out their opinion on how the company can be better run?

Seems tiring.

Actually, you DON’T see. Oh well.

Yes, I agree. Rudeness is hard to gauge in print. Some people don’t realize how offensive their comments can seem. Even when the intent is pure.

You got THAT right!

LMAO! Thanks @johnpowell. <3