suggestion for flagging messages that need adjusting.

I just got purple moosaged that a post of mine needed adjustment.  I'm fine with that.  I have no problem with the standards, but sometimes I have a relatively long post and I just can't figure out what it is that anyone would object to.  I suggest that when something gets flagged, the offensive part gets copied into the purple moosage so I know where to look.  I can't be the only person with this problem.  Usually I just delete the message but sometimes I think I said something worth reading.

Part of this is the probation post programing that we have, which gives us a TINY little place to type in...like the little boxes one types one's address into when ordering a package. So, we can only see a few words at a time as we type. It's kind of hard to put big quote in there. It also doesn't have spellcheck. Hopefully we'll get this feature improved, but our programmers are volunteers and rather busy!

Our "Training Wheels" is a bit better, and we have more room to type... But some people get mad at us when we tell the an exact quote that's the problem, because then they yell "Censorship!!!" because we gave them details as to what they need to fix.

In other words, we can't win!

(Though, I thought when I put your last post on training wheels, that I was pretty clear, as there was only one portion of your post that was in parentheses )

Nicole Alderman wrote:Part of this is the probation post programing that we have, which gives us a TINY little place to type in...like the little boxes one types one's address into when ordering a package. So, we can only see a few words at a time as we type. It's kind of hard to put big quote in there. It also doesn't have spellcheck. Hopefully we'll get this feature improved, but our programmers are volunteers and rather busy!

Might try using a blank text field here (a new window with blank "reply" text opened or a new post opened) to type/format/quote/spellcheck and even preview the message then just cut/paste the raw text (right click "select all" then "copy") into the little text box.

Oh, I've done that in the past. But, some days we come onto the forum and find a thread (or threads) have gone crazy and we have to do a LOT of probation posts quickly before things spiral downhill even more. Or there's tons of new spammers to deal with or dailyishes to write or, people who are asking us for help, and, well, you get the picture. There's lots to do behind the scenes and sometimes typing a long message and copying and pasting it into the tiny field is a bit much. Also, many moderators are working on their phones, and I can only imagine that makes it even more difficult to do the whole copying and pasting thing!

Yeah, sorry about that, Nicole. Sometimes, I just can't help myself.

Kidding, kidding. But you guys are pretty good at heading off flame wars. It's getting so the trolls have nothing to eat.

I have issues with the probation posts sometimes, though with me it's usually a word or specific phrasing that's got me flagged, so I don't need a paragraph.

I think the best advice for self-screening is that if you think it's a good zinger, if you have a doubt as to whether it's appropriate, or if you're anticipating an angry or less-than-positive passionate response while you rub your hands together and salivate, there's probably a nicer, less trigger-baity way to convey your message.

Even those of us who have mostly gotten around how to communicate effectively here without a lot of editing get hit with this occasionally; it's virtually impossible, in my view, to keep completely dispassionate and unbiased about ideas that mean so much to us all.

Anyway, thanks, and keep up the good work. We all appreciate it, even if we don't realise how much.

-CK

EDIT: I don't mean to imply that anyone on this site could exhibit trollish behaviour, but that the trolls from outside won't have a reason to come in, or stay long.

I want to reiterate something.  Posts are RARELY put on probation.  

It has to be a pretty amazing post with only one or two tiny things wrong with it to be worth the effort of putting on probation.

95- 99% of posts that don't meet publishing standards simply disappear.