Nicer to see a response than an automated deletion

[emwalker]

Surely as forum moderator you can offer an explanation as to why certain

topics in this forum are taboo, rather than just summarily dismissing them.

As members here, we are interested in the site and wouldn't bother to write a

thread if we weren't. Suddenly certain topics are just not up for discussion

at all and I find it rather disconcerting. What gives? Is there a 'bot that

picks out certain words from a thread and deletes them now? Are our questions

even being heard, or not? It is rather insulting to simply be dismissed like

this, and I think it shows rather a lack of character on the part of the

moderator. Much more reasonable would be to state some broad policy, or at

least to say that no decision has been made at this time, or that you don't

have the liberty to discuss a certain topic. While I am certain that this

thread will be deleted posthaste, I simply wanted to voice my concern

here.<BR>-e-

[namurray]

I agree. An hour or so ago there was a thread about nudes and blocking to which I posted a response. For whatever reason the thread has disappeared. It was an important and legitamite feedback by the initiator; incomprehensible how it could be expunged. Unless it is some glitch in the system I think it represents a concerning trend by the new administration.

[bobatkins]

All deletions are done by human moderators.

If a thread is not thought worth saving or covers ground that has been gone over time and time again in past threads, it will be deleted. It may last a minute and hour or a day depending on circumstances. It's a moderator decision and moderators typically do not get involved in discussions of their actions - and especially NOT in the forums themselves. They simply do not have time, nor, in most cases, is it appropriate to do so. This may appear to be rude, but it's a matter of practicality.

 

Moderators can send email to the OP when a thread is deleted, but that requires that the user actually reads email sent to the registration address. The moderator is not required to do so however.

 

This thread falls pretty much into the "we've heard it before" category, but I'll leave it up to the new forum moderator to decide when to remove it or not.

 

All forums have a set of rules and guidelines which you can read in the column on the right on the forum index page.

[kelly_flanigan1]

My pet peave is when somebody cluster-bombs and posts the same exact question in multiple camera groups. Another is that the same exact question get re-asked and a new thread started, when an older one already has addressed the matter, and the thread is still quite active.

[todd frederick]

Kelly, maybe the question really hasn't been answered!

[bobatkins]

I think the current policy is to make the forums more attractive by cutting out as much of the crap as possible. Explaining each deletion just isn't practical, and only the OP would get the notification anyway.

 

If other forums are more attractive, why isn't everyone there? Something about the photo.net forums seems to attract an aweful lot of users. Some of them regularly threaten to take their toys and play elsewhere, but for some reason they never actually do...or after a few days they come back for more punishment.

 

Ironically I think this thread is a good example of what photo.net doesn't need and I'm just making it worse by participating in it.

[rayfraser]

I expect this thread to degenerate as did the one which contained some valid concerns and suggestions on nude control buttons. At a certain point it becomes more practical to delete the whole thread than edit out comments that are not clear concise and constructive. I doubt this one will last through the night.

[jnicholson]

I've never moderated a forum and God knows I wouldn't want to. So, with that in mind, here's a suggestion:

 

Why not give every thread started an automatic one day life. Those threads you deem more useful can then be extended to whatever you see as appropriate. That way participants know that a thread will be around for at least 24 hours from the original post. It's pretty easy to figure out what threads won't be extended but at least then opinions get some air time and the archives don't fill with useless chatter.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Todd and the group, Here I have tried to restart the dialog in old thread, instead of restarting one:<BR><BR> <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=005sOC"><b>Canon EOS Forum: Canon EOS digitals and Manual focus lenses</b></a><BR><BR>My question is still valid, but I wonder how the newer Canon dslr's manually focus.

[lisa_b4]

I agree that post deletion by moderators without any warning/notice leaves a bad taste in most people's mouths. It is, after all, our posts and images that make Pnet what it is and when our efforts are promptly deleted it's pretty annoying.

 

Wouldn't it be easier and "nicer" to just have the default deletion period for forum posts be 24 hours (or so) and only those posts deemed "extra special" by the moderators be kept longer than that? No hard feelings, a LOT less work for the mods, less clutter in the archives--heck even Phil said about 80% of the forum posts weren't worthy of the archives......isn't it easier to "preserve" the worthy 20% and auto-delete the remaining 80%?

[root]

Both members and staff have legitimate concerns in this debate. Brian used to defend his positions, only to have to restate them again in a week when people who hadn't read the previous thread repeated the same question. What seems to have changed is that no one is now going to explain, for example, why the site does not consider it practical to offer a nudes filter.

 

Answers to predictable questions could be posted in an obvious place (FAQ?) or referred to an earlier thread (except that there are far too many, and most are littered with useless comments that would now be removed.)

 

The next few weeks should be interesting.

[david_henderson]

I don't see how anyone can expect a moderator to explain their actions on each deletion or modification decision. It isn't like the debate is going to end right there, now is it?

 

I do recall that not so long ago there were fewer forums and a fundemental division into archived and non-archived, with that decision ratified by a moderator before a thread could appear in the archived list. Deletion from the non-archived list followed automatically in a couple of days or so, so fewer moderator decisions were needed. Even if a non archived thread got reasonably messy, it wouldn't necessarily require intervention since everyone knew it would be gone tomorrow(or whenever) Photo.net seemed to work as well under that regime as it does now and indeed the smaller forum range made it a lot easier to follow up on cross-brand issues (eg camera metering systems) than it is now.

[brambor]

<i>

If a thread is not thought worth saving or covers ground that has been gone over time and time again in past threads, it will be deleted.</i>

<p>

If a thread covers a topic that has been covered before I would say that a NEWER thread should be considered for keeps and the older thread to be deleted. It would at least make the readers who google the thread think that the site is active with current information.

<p>

Also if I wanted to contact some of the members who answered the question it is far more likely that the members in the NEWER thread are still active for response as opposed to contacting someone from a 3 year old thread who might not be available anymore.

[emwalker]

I think you may have wandered through the wrong door by mistake....

[LindaM]

I can understand the need to delete old threads, and I often do see the same theme

repeated through-out forum threads. However, newer members, myself included may not

have had the opportunity to read or participate in some of these threads. If PN is going to

delete old threads, then they must remain open to the same topic coming up again, and

again, and again.

[emre]

I doubt it keeping old threads would make significant difference. There is a wealth of information in the archives, but that does not prevent people from rehashing the same questions.

[emwalker]

My question is not about nude images, or about archiving threads. My question here is about the refusal of the site feedback folk(s) to respond to questions and feedback, and the immediate deletion of threads posted by concerned members. i may have misunderstood the function of the site feedback forum. The answer I seek will not come from members who are not part of the site's administration, or at least closely tied to it. I feel it inappropriate to automatically delete threads because they deal with nudes or the administration. As a member and a click-generator here, I have contributed and done my part to keep the site going, and i feel it is disrespectful of me and every other member of this site to simply summarily delete inquiries submitted to the feedback forum.

[emwalker]

FWIW, I do not limit my category to nudes and administration- I feel it is disrespectful to ignore any question posed here without some explanation, prior or post. It's a slap in the face and quite insulting.

[rayfraser]

I will risk taking an exception by trying to explain why I would delete the above two comments. It does not make since to continually explain by sending a separate email for each violation. I will not do this very often. I believe they violate the bolded lines in policy below (from right side of feedback forum index):<P>

 

<b>This forum is for bug reports and constructive criticism regarding the software and content of photo.net.</b> A useful posting will contain the URL of the page being discussed, e.g., "There is a typo at http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/" or "I get a server error when I try to upload an image from http://..". <b>A posting will not be accepted if it is about a person rather than a Web page. In other words, a complaint about the moderator of some other forum on the site would not be on-topic here.</b> Nor would praise for a specific author. You can say "I love the new Nikon D578 review", but not "I think Johnny Writer is a genius."<p>

 

In responding to a posting, make sure that you respond only to the content of the thread and not the individual. In particular, we don't want to see the discussion of anyone's motives. They aren't knowable and aren't relevant.