Is there a point to removing or editing a question that has been posted for most of the day and has many answers?

I sincerely doubt you will get a logical ‘explanation’. I saw the same thing happen yesterday to a perfectly legit question of which I posted 2 lengthy replies. It was yanked and forced the asker to ask the same question again. The original question was placed back up of which I replied to again to to add more thoughts. It was yanked again permanently it seems so my original thoughts as well as another 2 legitimate replies are now gone. It seems to me some mod yesterday had too much coffee and a happy trigger finger. Not a good combination IMO.

If it’s the question I’m thinking it was, it had descended into a critique and defense of the OP and I suspect that was why it was pulled. This is only speculation, however.

Speaking as the asker of that question, I am rather annoyed it was pulled. I asked that and then logged off for the night, and so I didn’t get to join in. I’m sure it was fun.

@janbb I thought about that. If that were the case, just those posts could have been removed.

Great question. This happens all the time. If it was alright for the many people who have already answered, then why the sudden beef? I love how one member or mod can ruin a question on what many times seems like a whim. 30 jellies approve and one decision blows it out of the water.

Also, as @Sophief has mentioned, as the asker, it’d be nice to know exactly what went down. I have found that the asker of the question gets little info on the specifics of moderation to his/her own post. It’s annoying, if I do say so myself. It’s like being arrested and not being told why. Next thing you know, you’re in a cell with Bertha and your rep is damaged and you don’t know what happened.

@tinyfaery Makes sense.

Yeah – then I don’t get it either.

@ubersiren I was told it was too offensive, but shouldn’t that be up to me to take down? I expected that, if I was going to be upset by the responses I wouldn’t have asked. Surely it should be ‘if you are prepared to take the crap then what is the problem’? I was prepared.

@Sophief So your intention was to stir the pot with that question. Sounds a bit trollish to me. hmmm

@jonsblond No, not at all. I just know what peoples views are, and so I was prepared for the worst. I just thought it should have been up to me whether to remove it or not. I can imagine what was said but EVERYONE is entitled to their own opinion. The question should have stayed.

Whatever happened to freedom of speech?

@Adirondackwannabe I think it comes down to if your face fits.

This has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Please do not derail this thread.

@tinyfaery It doesn’t? Why was it pulled is your question. Am I missing something?

If you read this question that was just asked a few hours ago, @Dog gives a really good explanation about why some questions get pulled, even if they appear to be okay.

In regards to @Sohpief’s specific question (if it’s the one I’m thinking), I think the offensive part they may have been referring to was your question and not the answers. There was maybe 1 or 2 answers that were agreeing with your questions. Just about every other answer was someone complaining about some aspect of the question. Then at the end it was one person defending you against a few others, it looked bad.

Are we going to have questions asking about why a specific question was pulled every time a question is pulled now?

I suppose it might have something to do with overlap and overworked mods. Say the Q went up at Noon. One mod was volunteering and was busy modding fights, dealing with people sending nasty PMs, emails- or they just needed to eat lunch. So when they look at the board again- they miss it and since it hadn’t (possibly) been flagged yet, there was no reason to seek it out.

At 3pm mod A logs off and does some IRL stuff. 3:15pm someone flags the Q. New mod comes on at 4pm and agrees with the flagger.

Just a guess, I really don’t know, but that’s how it plays in my head. Same for you?

They told me they had to moderate nearly every answer and so it was better to get rid of the entire question. I wasn’t allowed to edit it either.

@Sophief They had to moderate nearly every answer? Why? Did they give a reason?

@Sophief It was ugly. A lot of people were offended by what you labeled being as “inactive” and I forget the other terms you used. There was a lot of things that were said and people even mentioned that they will probably get modded.

@Adirondackwannabe Every answer was offensive, or nearly every answer. Wish I had seen it, but we had to eat and stuff! I would have liked to say whether it was to be removed or not though. It is supposed to be a question and answer site.

@Seaofclouds By inactive I meant not having the sexual side of a relationship. My last relationship, we were inactive for the last 18 months, and that made me unhappy. It was sort of the reason I asked the question in the first place. Some people can still be happy if they don’t have a fulfilled sex life. I am not one of those people. But thanks for saying, I appreciate it.

I don’t know when it got moderated, but I thought the answers I read were pretty interesting. Some were a little harsh, but sex brings up strong emotions in a lot of people.

@Adirondackwannabe I am sure they were, shame I never got to see any.

It seems to me that people will be people, and people are arbitrary. I posted two questions the other day, neither of which asked a question. One was a game, the other was the so-called “passive-aggressive” thread. That one got pulled for not being a question, and I had to restate my answer in the form of a question (Alex Trebeck™ ) The other one is still merrily sitting there breaking the same stupid rule.

I think we should be happy with the system as it is. Questions get posted when you ask them. We all know they can be pulled for editing. The only way to make it so that there isn’t a chance for them to get pulled for editing would be for the questions to have to be approved before being posted and that would suck.

I get that you guys are just questioning why things are being pulled, but that really should be between the question asker and the mods, making a big deal out of it could just lead to more changes. And we know how well some people handle changes.

@Seaofclouds I disagree with your statement that it should be between the question asker and the mods. Many times, people have put much time and thought into their answers, writing their hearts out to answer a question and then it gets modded. That is not fair to the person answering.
Sorry for getting off topic @tinyfaery.

@chyna I understand what you are saying, I just don’t think we need to have question after question asking why certain questions were taken down. Perhaps a better statement would have been, it should stay in private. So if an answerer wants to know, they should talk to the mods about it, but it doesn’t need it’s own question (in my opinion).

@Seaofclouds I think in this case it is a very valid question. The post had been up for most of the day, had many, many answers and then was taken down. I think it is a good question.

@chyna But then where do we draw the line. I personally don’t think the mods should have to publicly explain why they pull every question down. If people are really concerned about it, they should ask the mods in private.

Okay, I’m curious, what was the question?

@bob_ Can’t remember word for word, but something like Why are the sexually inactive the ones to complain about others healthy sex life.

@Sophief Mmm… depending on the details, it could be seen as flame bait, so I can’t really say, but if the details were, let’s say, civil, I’d say it’s unfair for a question to be removed only because some the people answering are being mean.

@Sophief If I see one more NSFW from you, I’ll most likely stab my left eyeball with a fork.

Make it stop.

We don’t want to read/know or care about your sex life. I’m sick of seeing it in the headlines.

Please keep it civil.

@bob_ It wasn’t only some people, it was like 98% of the responses.

@bob_ They said there was nothing wrong with the question.

@jjmah That might hurt!

@bob_ The details went a little something like this:

“You know. The people that say “don’t put it there” or won’t do it with the lights on.”

There were a few more but I can’t remember all of them. definitely flame bait

@tiny- Sorry. I’m done here now.

Yes @jonsblond is right, those were some of the details.

I can honestly say “don’t put it there” has never crossed my lips in any sexual situation.

@jonsblond There was something about different positions too. It seemed to imply that those people were jealous of other people getting sex.

@Sophief Not as painful as having to read your NSFW questions.

@jjmah You don’t have to read them, YOU decide to click on it. Try to resist youself.

@chyna If I weren’t getting sex, I would be jealous of others having it.

@Sophief Judging from your many, many, many NSFW posts, you wouldn’t be going two days without.

@chyna Well, I would rather not, but unfortunately I have done.

Dude, what’s with all the @Sophief-picking going on? I mean, sure, she asks more NSFW questions than others, but last I read the guidelines, that was no crime, as long as the questions are clearly labeled. I have to agree with her: don’t like them, don’t read them.

Yep, sorry, @tinyfaery. I’m out of here, as well.

@bob_ I think you just threw gasoline on the bonfire.

@bob_ Thanks. I’m sick of other questions, and those I don’t like or don’t understand I don’t click on. I do ask a lot of questions on sex, but sex is what I like. Just like others ask a lot of computer questions.

@Sophief Your questions would be fine if the undertone in all of them wasn’t one of superiority to those of us who do not share your views.

@Adirondackwannabe I stated my opinion in a civil manner. Others not agreeing doesn’t make it gasoline to the bonfire.

@Facade But I don’t attack others for their opinions, I never have. I just say what I like, I welcome all opinions, good or bad. I don’t personally attack people for not sharing my views.

@Sophief :
”I would have liked to say whether it was to be removed or not though. It is supposed to be a question and answer site.”

Yes. It is a question and answer site. One with guidelines and moderators. There are rules for a reason. If everyone was able to say whether or not their question is allowed to stay up or get pulled there would be a plethora of god knows what kind of crap flooding the site. That’s not something that anyone wants.

@Sophief The fact that you welcome “good and bad” opinions makes my point.

@Sophief That’s not true. @Facade is right. I have seen you make fun of others that disagree with you on questions that aren’t about sex. That is what the problem is. You are everywhere with it. We can’t just ignore your questions.

@chels I think she means that she should be allowed to have a say because she was told there was nothing wrong with the question itself, only with the (apparently) great majority of the answers. I think she has a point (assuming, of course, that I’m correctly understanding how things happened).

@Facade great answer

@chels Yea, I see your point.
@Facade But when someone asks a question, and they want help, they are obviously going to get negative comments, sometimes those comments can be the best.
@jonsblond I haven’t asked that many sex questions in the last few week.
@bob_ Yes, you are correct.

@bob_ Even so, what would that accomplish? It’s not like the question could stay up or be asked again.

@bob_ Didn’t that CIA question stay up even though most of the answers were removed? I know it was a joke but still…

@chels Well, if there are some helpful answers, why shouldn’t it stay? Again, I didn’t see the question or the answers, so I’m kind of going on a limb here.

@bob_ I think there may have been 1 or 2 answer out of probably at least 50 or so responses that would have probably been allowed to stay.

(looks at original question, looks at recent responses) Oh, I see what happened here…

@Seaofclouds 2 helpful answers out of 50? Ok, something doesn’t add up here. If there was nothing wrong with the question, how could there be so many answers that had to be removed? But if the question was indeed fine, and just attracted a lot of trolling, why remove the question? I don’t get it. I feel like I’m not understanding something here.

The problem with some questions is that even if the prompt is good, they sometimes end up completely devolving into arguments about irrelevant things. Like when they get into arguments about whether or not the poster is a good person, or an annoying person, or if they have posted on this topic excessively. They ignore the prompt completely.

In some cases, it’s just a few quips, in which case a mod can come in and censor those and drop a [Mod says:] and move on. But in some cases, mods don’t pay attention to those questions until there are 20+ irrelevant quips.

In some cases, alongside the mod censoring the question, they will send a PM to the user saying they have permission to re-ask in some period of time (when peoples’ hot heads have chilled).

I can’t confirm that this happened for @Sophief‘s question.

Ah yes. I feel I was properly vague and unrevealing. The mod gods shall be pleased with me.

@Sophief It is really too bad that you didn’t see what was directed at you – I think it would have been helpful for you to learn that there is a general dissatisfaction (not for all but for enough) with your parading your sex life, asking dozens of NSFW questions just to talk about your sex life and further instigating those that have gotten tired of it by implying you’ve got a healthy sex life and they’re ‘sexually inactive’ – the gist, my dear, was that you should reconsider and put more thoughts into your questions and that your sex life has gotten enough airing out, thanks very much. My particular answer to your question had to do with the fact that no one gets to decide what’s ‘sexually inactive’ and shake their head at them when I shake my head at some of the things about your relationship. Other answers were along the same lines in that people thought that it was a problem of definition. The OP of this q got over 23 GAs on simply asking you where you get off making assumptions about people’s sex lives and why should we care to hear about yours any old chance you get..the rest of the q was something having to do with a friend of yours defending you and saying you’re a ‘good egg’ and a friend from AB to which the rest of us replied that we’re not calling you a bad egg, just your questions are sometimes tiresome and we all get the point about how much you simply worship your boyfriend. I don’t know what happened after that but I can’t imagine much did and I agree with @tinyfaery that it SHOULD NOT have been pulled.

I saw that question as nothing but people complaining about another user. I’m pretty sure that is not the point of this site. I’m glad to see it go and if I were a moderator, I would’ve removed it too.

@DominicX I disagree – there were plenty of answers (in the beginning and middle) that were appropriate given the q and even some of the other responses (which were not the best, I agree) only reflected/matched the quality of the original question.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Thank you for that. I appreciate your answer.

@Sophief I’m sorry – I don’t want it to sound mean, at all – I just thought it was unfair to you and to us that you didn’t get a chance to read your own question. If you want to talk more, please pm me

@Simone_De_Beauvoir

Well, then they could’ve removed the posts that didn’t answer the question. I know it wasn’t in the general section, but posts complaining about a user shouldn’t be allowed, even if most people agree with the posts.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I don’t think you are sounding mean.

@DominicX They told me that they couldn’t do that, because there was too many bad ones, and it was more worth it to remove the whole thing.

@DominicX Exactly – I agree with you. And you’re agreeing with @tinyfaery because all she wants to know was why the q (in its entirety) was pulled. And I understand (not just for this q) but thoughts and energies go into a q that is allowed to remain past the editing time and to have it disappear a day after is ridiculous because the personal attacks or whatever did not overpower answers that I think would have been useful to the OP and at the very least she should have been able to respond to it instead of now wondering whether there was hateful stuff in there (of which there wasn’t).
@Sophief This is one of those time I disagree with whatever moderator made that decision, for sure – now the issue is bigger than it really was, truly. Were it me, I’d be pissed that I can’t read it!

Nicely done guys. I saw the potential for this to get pretty ugly, but I everyone mostly treated each other with respect, and that was nice to see. How bad did the later answers get?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Taught me to never ask a question and log off!

@Sarcasm When I logged on this morning, it just flashed up that it had gone to editing. In that, they said that it couldn’t be edited because the threat went “out of control”.

@Sophief I am glad you and I are talking via PM because at least some good can be salvaged out of this situation that I think would facilitate a better future for you and fluther.

Wow. This devolved. What’s the point of removing something that so many people already read? We can’t pretend it didn’t exist.

@tinyfaery I never read it, which I believe makes it unfair.

@tinyfaery So that more people don’t read it. And so that it doesn’t devolve even further.
No matter how nasty two people are to each other, they can always get more nasty.

@Adirondackwannabe I know, right? Group hug!

@bob_ Hug

group hug!

XD

@Adirondackwannabe Did you just pull the “freedom of speech” card? You do know that the first amendment is meant to protect us from the government infringing on our rights, not websites, right? The government can’t make laws limiting our speech, but private entities can disallow any language they wish.

How did this get to be the bash @Sophief thread? I don’t find her NSFW questions very compelling, so I remove them as soon as I see them. Anyone who can’t accomplish this task, PM me and I will explain how do do it. Beyond that, get off her back and quit wasting everyone’s time with your bitching. No wonder people are deserting this place in droves.

@Sarcasm I get you. But realistically, once a question has been up for a day or so it is rarely revisited.

Eh. I’m over it. It’s obviously not worthy of a reply from the mods.

@dpworkin surprising answer coming from you when you couldn’t leave davidbetterman alone. What changed?

[mod says] @tinyfaery Just so you know, @Sarcasm is a mod, and he did answer.

For the record: The original question had an underlying tone of flame bait, but was not flagged as such so we didn’t see it. By the time things started being flagged, it had become an “attack @Sophief” thread almost entirely. Some very strong personal attacks were involved, along with some remarks defending her. After much deliberation among the mods, a team decision was made to pull the entire thread. When a question has become so derailed that there is just no saving it, that’s what we do. It’s happened before, it will likely happen again. We’re sorry that it upsets people, but in our opinion there is just no other choice on a moderated site.

@jonsblond . What I objected to with him was not his questions, but his woefully inadequate, indefensible answers which were inevitably wrong. I never like to see persistent misinformation on Fluther. It’s one of my bugaboos, hence my frequent use of Goethe’s term, “aggressive stupidity”.

The only questions I remember actively objecting to in public were from that demented man with all the psychosomatic illnesses who wanted to chase girls, and I was wrong to object to him; he was just a harmless loon, but he rubbed me the wrong way.

It’s not a mod unless it says [mod says]. Otherwise, it’s just another jellie.

Thanks for the answer.

who knew Sarcasm was a mod? lol

I had a question returned to me for a spelling error and it disappeared entirely as well.

I think it bears mentioning that even though Tiny’s question was focused upon this particular Q of Sophie, it also speaks to the much larger issue of why there is such continuous inconsistency in criteria for when and why Qs get removed.

This issue bugs many people including myself. After reading thru this whole thread I understand the reasoning behind this one being pulled but have not a clue for dozens and dozens of others both egregious and minor.

There APPEARS to be little rhyme or reason to it at all and little distinction is made between truly serious infractions and minor flaws. They all get the ax (or not depending upon the mood of whoever is dealing with it)

SOMEthing needs to be done and SOON.

@Buttonstc I’d love to hear a justification for the fact that one of my “non-question” questions was modded, while the other “non-question” question still thrives. I’d also still like to know why the whole “team” decided that my account needed to be suspended for two weeks. Does anyone from the founders on down really think I have a “racist” bone in my body? I doubt it – it just had to do with “appearances”, like most of the rest of the arbitrary crap around here.

Sarcasm is a mod? Really? Mind status= blown.

@dpworkin Now that’s interesting backstory..hmmm

It’s only my take on it. Maybe there was a thoughtful analysis and a unanimous vote for unimpeachable causes, but I am just not allowed to know the explanation for security reasons. That could be it, too.

Sarcasm is a mod?

@FutureMemory oh, who knew katawagrey was a mod? I didn’t even know there was that page, thanks!

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Yeah, I definitely didn’t know those two were moderators. I knew everyone else was… I’m glad I wasn’t alone on this surprise.

Katawagrey is just in the process of becoming one she announced on a thread.

Katawa-mod is only 1 or 2 days old, I think. Sarc-mod has existed since the new sections were created. I think.

@FutureMemory oh good, it’s not old as sun, lol…i thought i missed something

@augustlan “The original question had an underlying tone of flame bait”

I’m glad I’m not the only person that noticed this. I wish I would have flagged the Q. lesson learned

[mod says] To address some of the issues brought up since I last posted:

@all We add mods on a fairly regular basis, as some leave or become less active due to real-life responsibilities… and as the site grows. Sarcasm and KatawaGrey are our newest mods (KG is still in training).

@Buttonstc We try to make it very clear to the asker, but there is just no way to alert the entire community as to why a question has been removed. In addition, I’m not really sure it’s everyone’s business. Would you really want the entire community to receive a notice saying “this question was removed due to too many typos (unintended-but-natural-to-assume-subtext: so-and-so can’t write a decent sentence to save his life)” or “this question was removed because it was too simple (unintended-but-natural-to-assume-subtext: ridiculously stupid)”? How do you think the asker of such questions would feel about that?

I can tell you this: almost exclusively, they are removed for not meeting the guidelines in some way. There are exceptions, of course… like when a thread becomes a train wreck.

@dpworkin Check your PMs… I’ll send you detailed explanations for both issues you mentioned.

@all If your question is removed, and you don’t feel we’ve made it clear as to why, please contact the moderation team. There’s a link to do so right in the editing section. We are more than happy to explain what the issue is and will work with you to fix it, if fixing it is possible. We want your questions to succeed. Really! I swear!

It’s true. @augustlan will help you out.

I have received polite answers to my questions about two or three of my quips that were modded also.

Not one that makes a lot of sense, I guess: Guidelines as straitjackets.

I just want to put in a shameless plug for Augustlan. She is amazing and does a terrific job clarifying and explaining issues. Thanks for everything, Auggie!

^^ditto :)

Thanks for the backup, guys. :)

Plus, she’s cute. She looks like Annette Benning.

I do not! I look like Molly Ringwald. :P

That too.