"Your post does not quite meet our publishing standards..." - probation posts

We recently introduced probation posts.

In the past, if a post did not meet our publishing standards, maybe because it was not nice, or suggested that another member was less than perfect, or called another member's idea bullshit, or attempted to promote pesticides, we would simply remove it.

This occasionally meant that a really good post with just one icky thing in it was lost. So the programming team made a way for a post to be hidden from public view and the member who wrote it given the opportunity to edit out the icky stuff.

When a post is put on probation, a semi-automated PM is sent to the member, from STAFF, which says something along the lines of -

Unfortunately your post in this thread does not quite meet our publishing standards and we needed to temporarily hide it from view. Once you edit your post to fix this, it will automatically be sent to a moderator for approval. The specific problem was:

followed by a brief rundown of the problem, maybe something like -

You can't go around calling people assholes. Please reword this.

or

Just because someone doesn't do things the same way you do doesn't mean they are f-ing liar.

or

Permies is about finding better ways, so we do not allow recommendations to apply toxic gick.

Or sometimes somethign more benign, like -

Please change your username to comply with our real-sounding name policy, as explained in this link - https://permies.com/name.html

or

We removed the post that called you an ignorant fuckwit. Could you edit your response so that it no longer refers to that unfortunate incident.

.

dang it, I love you people!

In other words, there is no way for us to delete our own probation posts ourselves, it can only be done by contacting a moderator?

Yes, that's right. Only staff can delete posts.

Thanks for clarifying that, Burra. Perhaps at this stage I could be so obnoxious as to suggest adding a feature to the edit section along the lines of a button marked "request moderator delete this post". Not sure how often it would be used, or required, though.

If it's absolutely necessary to delete a post, there is a 'report' button above each post which can be used. We'll only delete for a good reason though as removing posts will often destroy a valuable thread.

Can you post the site's policy on posts that discuss global warming please?
I've had a post put on probation and another deleted without message or explanation. Both were replies to posts outside the Cider press where the OP brought up the subject and my responses were polite, reasoned, presented as opinion and contained supporting evidence. I get the impression they were simply removed because they did not agree with the moderator's opinion rather than due to any site policy, but that's just my opinion. I could understand ALL posts on the subject being deleted or removed to cider press, but it seems to be selective in that only posts taking issue with the govt/UN line are removed.

Discussion of global warming is confined to the cider press.

Occasionally it crops up incidentally in other posts, particularly in discussions on carbon farming. But if the post seems to be geared to start a discussion outside of the cider press, we remove it.

Edit to add, even within the cider press, if the discussion seems to be contrary to the aims of the site to make the world a better place, or if it's taking up too much moderator time, it's going to get deleted. I would suggest that if you want to discuss global warming, then permies isn't the place to do it. Permies is about solutions, and I want the discussion to be geared to that end.

I'd like to point out that if you receive a PM about a post of yours that has been put on probation, it's really not appropriate to select a random staff member and PM them a load of abuse.  

If you want to discuss moderation issues, start a thread in the tinkering forum.  

If you just want to be abusive, send the abuse to me and I can lock your account for you without upsetting other staff members.  

A while back, a bunch of people were asking us to be more specific in the probation messages. They wanted to know exactly what they had said that was wrong, so they could easily remove it. I've found that sometimes this works wonderfully...and other times it's a mess. You'd be amazed at the nasty things people say in responce to our "censorship." It seems that giving specifics about what was wrong really sets these people off.

Some days, no matter what we do, it blows up. Just know, we're really trying to help.

Please Note: If you edit your probation post to complain about censorship and moderation and how horrible other people are, your post will be deleted. We tried to give you a chance to keep your mostly-awesome post.

If you want to complain about moderation and censorship and how horrible other posters and/or moderators are, please post about it here in Tinkering. You can make a new thread, or discuss stuff in Censorship: Paul Wheaton Requested or Deleting Stuff or Permies Publishing Standards or Be Nice. That way you can have your say without derailing a lovely thread into discussion of moderation, rather than, say, how to grow peas or build a greenhouse.

I think an important thing is that the probation post stuff has been a huge leap forward in solving problems.   And another important thing is that any day we will get the brand new "kinder and gentler" overhaul.