I would like to understand the appeal process for a moderators decision. How does one start that procedure when a moderator has edited your post and thereby losing its thrust.
23
-
1Care to add a link to the post?– user000001Sep 21, 2013 at 18:14
-
1Certainty - stackoverflow.com/questions/18935572/…– Ed HealSep 21, 2013 at 18:15
-
18Your answer was very.. condescending.– Martijn PietersSep 21, 2013 at 18:16
-
5I happen to agree with the edit. All the mod did was remove the unnecessary fluff (which was somewhat insulting - almost as bad as a LMGTFY link)– psubsee2003Sep 21, 2013 at 18:16
-
2@psubsee2003 - What's left, however, is a link only answer. Which should be deleted.– OdedSep 21, 2013 at 18:17
-
2I was trying to point out that the poster would get a quicker answer by using Google.– Ed HealSep 21, 2013 at 18:18
-
2Also I would like to point out that the moderators should only edit posts if it is absolutely necessary. Not on a whim– Ed HealSep 21, 2013 at 18:20
-
6@EdHeal Your attempt at humour (as you indicate in the comments) comes across as sarcasm though. It should perhaps even have been just a comment, and then still not in that form.– BartSep 21, 2013 at 18:20
-
6Someone flagged the "answer". The moderator acted on the flag. So, not a whim.– OdedSep 21, 2013 at 18:21
-
6Either way that edit was absolutely necessary.– BoltClock's a UnicornSep 21, 2013 at 18:26
-
24I don’t think you can brush off the edit as something that shouldn’t be done “on a whim”. It was condescending (and not particularly funny, in my opinion) — there’s a reason LMGTFY is blocked. I’d understand if you’d minded if I had deleted it without a flag, but locking is pretty appropriate if you’re actually going to decide to roll that back twice.– Ry-Sep 21, 2013 at 18:29
-
8Looking at the google search results for your question title here, verbatim, is... amusing in light of your question– enderlandSep 21, 2013 at 18:49
-
3Why does everyone take exception with the answer - is it not the entire question that should be destroyed with a giant flamethrower here?– PekkaSep 21, 2013 at 19:00
-
4I have observed that people who actually have a dry sense of humor never mention it. That would be letting the punters in on the joke, after all.– dmckee --- ex-moderator kittenSep 21, 2013 at 22:03
-
2@EdHeal Even if not condescending, & by definition is "dry English humour", it certainly isn't fit for Stack. Go to a forum, or joke site. People should make the effort to Google for themselves, & Stack isn't a hold by the hand site, but people do struggle & even if it's annoying they're new and asking "noob" things, it costs nothing to be polite. Hell, if the question annoys you why bother answering in the first place?– JamesSep 21, 2013 at 23:38
|
Show 8 more comments
2 Answers
The problem with your statement that a moderator should only edit if absolutely necessary is that it was necessary. If I had come across this post, I too would have edited it, but in the end a moderator would have had to get involved. I would have had to flag it since I couldn't lock the post like the moderator did. Instead of trying to build on the edit and make the post better, you simply rolled it back to its original state.
Keep in mind that everyone is new at one point in time, and that includes both you and me. The people we learned the most things from were those who were patient and guiding, not those who were mean, shallow, and who feel superior by pointing out others' flaws.
Sometimes it's not obvious what keywords to use or that a search should have even been done, especially if you're new and don't know all the terminology. In fact, knowing how to use a search engine is a skill that takes time to master. Instead of making the user feel stupid, you could have explained what keywords you used to locate the content on Google, but without the snark.
With that said, your post here on meta is sort of an appeal to that moderator action, but I don't see anyone reversing your edit. If you look around at most of the other Stack Overflow answers, you can see that type of material just isn't what we want this site to represent as a community. This just encourages more of this same behavior and would turn Stack Overflow into just another place where random snapshots of the Internet are allowed to thrive, and that interferes with the goal of making the Internet a better place.
-
1
Not going into the details of the actual post that drove you to ask this question, as the question itself is good and fair.
If you have issue with an edit, you can always comment with an @ comment to the last editor (who will be notified), moderator or otherwise.
If you feel that a moderator overstepped the mark, you can use the contact us link in the footer to contact the community team with your grievance.
-
1This is not a good system. Moderators should not have this much power, as many of them are mean spirited and are gradually destroying the community.– A XFeb 7, 2021 at 20:52