paul wheaton wrote:I have been managing online forums for over 20 years. And, on top of that, I have a lot of other things I do throughout the day.
Frankly, I prefer to delete posts silently. Sometimes I will comment on a thread and say "I've deleted stuff here. I would like to remind folks ..."
I encourage you to set up forums and manage them the way that you think is best. In the meantime, I've gotten kinda set in my ways and appear to have certain crowd that is comfortable with this. There are lots of other forums that are managed in a lot of other ways.
From my perspective, this way is the best way to manage forums. I think we have the richest and most respectful discussions. Oh sure, there are lots of alternative theories in how to manage forums, but most of those theories are put forth by people that have no experience in actually managing forums. And this might be a good time to point out that 99% of all installed forums fail.
I've decided to write somewhere my comments and at the same time slowly try to learn (by reading) why people / admins would delete another persons posts (as it wasn't mentioned to me why). While I can imagine and accept the many reason, I can see improvements to respect the TIME is takes for both sides in managing things but importantly keeping the wheels going and intact in terms of how solid it feels here instead of things being 'deleted' / hidden. Participation and progress I feel ties in with doing things a bit different and this is what this post is about instead of creating a whole new thread.
So I trust somewhat your experience (Paul) and those that delete my comment (R Ranson), and I think respect can be upheld for all of us (so Paul and his ways, the admin(s) for theirs AND for the time I or people have spent to chip in something) even if it's unwanted at the time in question. I feel it's also a chance to positively get a bit closer to people and principles and train understandings and expression towards what you guys believe in and why.... This level of solid respect and management is an opportunity to level up my writing too I feel - and any mistakes you identify is plugged by this feedback. This is so much softer / progressive and simpler and encourages more people to move on I think and even re-think their own posts for the future using your moral or principle sub-sets. All of this becomes beneficial to the poster, the content removed and the forum. Recommendation are below.
RECOMMENDATIONS (for posts about to be removed / hidden)
- I recommend a copy of the post in question to be sent to the person via personal message so at least they have a permanent copy of what they took time to write and focus is kept between them inside the purple moosage / personal message system. This could be automatically / not needing additional human work.
- the messages recommending people to check the 'tinkering' part of the forum should not self-destruct in two days and rather again be sent by personal message to the user immediately when a post is taken off the thread so it can stay in user inbox permanently. I was told in the thread to go to the tinkering section - but also that in 2 days that message would self-destruct - which I feel 2 days is far too easily passed for those working or not on-line often. I feel better off without a time limit and simply having that send via PM because we knowing this community is made from hard workers and such 'self-destruct' can be missed or wanted to be seen again later. So after my work outside (repairing my cob oven or shelter) there opportunity to miss this message and that's too easy knowing life away from computer (AFK) or this forum can easily take more than two days.
- I only got a message to give me a hint about what happened AFTER I asked something like "hey what happened to my post" on the same thread (
https://permies.com/t/59753/video-pricing-work-time#510078 ). This is unneeded. Just give notice as soon as you do such actions.
I even wrote a personal message directly to R Ranson asking for a copy and he didn't even respond to that part of my fairly short message, replying only that I come here. So here I am! I feel on the most basic level that I'm duplicating text and I think that's hard to refute and good to try and solve.
In short, I'd find it additionally progressive to get a copy of my originally posted text so I can review it myself and perhaps even feel it is respected by this process. My post not being public is not the main point here - simply a minor point. Not getting a reply when I ask is more of a point for me. Language without response make language harder / a burden. It can lead to increased doubt or hard feelings about the ability by those doing those things and a reflection on the forum processes, perhaps it's leaders, even if I'm still trying to stay positive and constructive how to improve on this forum overall, by writing more, and possibly encouraging more time debt. Cutting edge manners can still be ok with a tweak.
The asking of going to the tinkering section happened only when I made another post asking where my post went. This is duplication. More time, change of focus and even make more opportunity to feel bad / misunderstood rather than being told straight way why, More care / respect is shown / attempted when shown why or acknowledged from actions by moderators. Perhaps it's the more honest / direct way managing someone else genuine contribution and what they believe in and a sort of help to say "this was a copy of your text which we could accept at this time" and perhaps "here are some tips why" instead of what feels like elimination of it and now then chasing using more effort to constructively encourage following ups by you / groups of people on that side.
- You probably can use copy and paste to send these copies of text and even send reasons in the same way or script the forum to automatically send a copy when deleted / hidden / moderated. That seems clever and a useful use of technology.
P.S - I have copied my own text at this time because I'm not totally helpless in avoiding similar mistakes of losing 'my work' so I can backup what I write here knowing it's happened before on this site but I would rather I don't have to fear or expect it to happen a lot or unexpectedly happened after a long time from this experience, and being reminded. In any case I'll be genuinely writing to this on-line forum and would appreciate a copy sent to my inbox of what I wrote before (it was a fairly lengthy post and I'd love to re-evaluate it). I wrote about money and how banks multiply the debt by lending to people and asking more % back and then re-lending the percentage more and more times). I feel people don't get such simplicity and hits life across the board HARD. Never being able to repay and using the future children to pay these forever incrementing % not only gives banks more power but undermines / sells everything when the collateral used to take these loans (land, businesses, houses) ultimately collapse / fold as the debt finally comes around again.
Since I don't have the text I am persisting, even in consumption of more time, towards improving the handling of such posts (I don't mind the reason but more the way of handling) and imagine more being deleted so I'd rather work on that than contribute or post more, purely as this has taken about an hour already... and looking at other parts of the site naturally takes a back step. It's not the end of the world, just showing how it encourages less motivation and grace in such cases, because even if it was unwanted side from the forum perspective, it still can help the user to be handled differently. My recommendations above I hope have helped and I am more than happy to receive the text I wrote on the thread (
https://permies.com/t/59753/video-pricing-work-time#510078 ) and see what you think, instead thinking about this being possibly deleted or being ignored.
It's kinda relaxing... It was a good idea to put this through the email digest.
