50
votes
Update on the Manish situation
Oh, wow, I hadn't realized this was going on :)
I first just wish to apologise to the community, both Chem.SE and Physics.SE, for my lack of activity. I'll shortly explain what happened, but I also ...
- 18.4k
21
votes
Should a rude comment be deleted if the addressed user doesn't mind?
Absolutely
My take on the Code of Conduct (AKA the Be Nice policy) is that it is not just a matter of what the two people directly involved in the conversation think about the language used.
It also ...
- 14.8k
17
votes
Accepted
Should comments trying to answer a question be deleted?
One problem with answer-comments you seem to not have considered is that they can be wrong. Answers can be downvoted, but comments can only be upvoted, so there is no proper mechanism to show that an ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 106k
15
votes
Accepted
Was this plagiarism flag correctly handled?
The fault here is mine. I didn't take enough care in checking the match between the post and the proposed source.
I can only offer by apologies and delete the accusatory comment on the post.
15
votes
Open justice v secret police
I volunteer at the county jail on Saturday mornings. In the jurisdiction I live in, trials are generally open to the public, there are detailed records of the proceedings and, critically, it's easy to ...
- 231
15
votes
Data collection: When should (or shouldn't) we exclude questions from the Hot Network Questions list?
Questions about perpetual-motion machines should meet a stricter-than-usual bar in terms of clarity and prior research to get on HNQ.
Questions about perpetual-motion seem to have a particularly easy ...
- 123k
13
votes
Open justice v secret police
I wonder whether I've been a moderator here for long enough
(four months now)
that I can
talk about our decision-making process in aggregate, without
revealing anything untoward about any particular ...
robMod
- 70.2k
12
votes
Why was this meta answer deleted?
Such hyperbolic language, i.e. "censorship, political correctness, and moderator brutality", isn't appropriate on this site. If someone used that type of language directed at a non-moderator, it'd ...
- 73.7k
10
votes
Problem of unnecessary censorship in Physics stack exchange
Your rant about your personal experiences here and on PhysicsOverflow is in no way an objective answer what the differences and similarities between Physics.SE and PhysicsOverflow are.
Comparing your ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 106k
10
votes
Update on the Manish situation
I'll post this as an answer since it seems there's disagreements and it's important to get a feeling for folks' responses to this.
For one, I find that a particularly useful tool for gauging ...
- 123k
10
votes
Should a rude comment be deleted if the addressed user doesn't mind?
I saw that comment. Even if it didn't bother you, we don't want stuff like that hanging around. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory
- 9,675
9
votes
When should moderators close questions?
I would say that moderators get it right most of the times. But sometimes they err, in which case I can think of four routes you can take:
Vote to reopen. If the question is very clearly on-topic, it ...
9
votes
Update on the Manish situation
Just a quick note about the moderator perspective on this: as far as the duties of moderation are concerned, it doesn't really matter to us. After all, if someone is not regularly acting as a ...
- 73.7k
8
votes
Chat and the moderation thereof
My view is that the h bar should be a place where the users of Physics SE can hang out and discuss any topic under the sun with other users of Physics SE while maintain respect for one another.
...
- 5,412
8
votes
Why was this meta answer deleted?
This is really a comment, but it got a bit long for the comment box.
The going in point that everyone needs to understand is that the chat rooms are not a bastion of free speech and you have ...
- 330k
8
votes
Update on the Manish situation
Said moderator logs in from time to time, so we cannot say for sure whether he's actually doing any actual moderation or not. The two options are
He does not moderate at all, or
He does perform some ...
8
votes
Data collection: When should (or shouldn't) we exclude questions from the Hot Network Questions list?
OK, I'll start.
Questions about physics in works of fiction shouldn't be on HNQ.
This has been a point of contention for quite some time, and it has a strong track record of leaving people confused ...
- 123k
7
votes
Guru's are always right? Censorship in place of scientific arguments
Write it in a post.
The reliable way to insure that what you have to say is not removed as a noise comment is to write an answer to the question.
The only official use-case for comments is to work ...
7
votes
When should moderators close questions?
The fundamental rule of moderation is:
Moderators can never win¹
If they don't close egregious homework questions the moment they are posted we moan and if they're over zealous about closing ...
- 330k
7
votes
Why might providing contact information be considered spam?
I am trying to say precisely what I wrote there.
I am referring, among others, to this policy about salutations, taglines and links to your own stuff not directly related to the question, which you ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 106k
7
votes
Why did I get chat suspended for a year?
Disclaimer: I'm not a moderator so I can't say exactly what happened in this particular case even if I wanted to. For example I can't see the deleted messages. However as a room owner I've been party ...
- 330k
7
votes
Accepted
An Issue with Detecting Identical Titles
If two questions are not duplicates of each other and yet their titles only differ in capitalization, then the title is bad and should be changed (preferably on both questions) to a title that is more ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 106k
6
votes
Open justice v secret police
Note that the current 6 Phys.SE moderators are democratically elected. All moderators have (electronically) signed a moderator agreement, which de facto implies that moderators cannot discuss specific ...
QmechanicMod
- 167k
6
votes
Chat and the moderation thereof
To your first list, I'd like to add another point:
Chat is a third place: When it comes to effort, the primary focus should be on keeping the main site looking its best. The secondary focus is meta, ...
- 231
6
votes
This question shouldn't violate the homework policy
Let me expand upon the argument that I first put forth in the comments on that question.
Why the homework policy applies
The first sentence of the homework policy specifies what sorts of questions it ...
- 73.7k
6
votes
Suggestion: an idea to audit the question close/delete mechanism without any moderation privilege
I would be very annoyed to be presented with test questions. I put a lot of effort into answering people's questions because I would have loved someone to do that when I was a spotty kid interested in ...
- 330k
6
votes
2019: a year in moderation
Thanks Shog9!
From my perspective I think these numbers look pretty reasonable: the community is handling a majority, though not an overwhelming majority, of moderation tasks in nearly all categories ...
- 73.7k
6
votes
2021: a year in moderation
I find this worth highlighting:
Action
Moderators
Community¹
Questions unprotected
2
2
Questions protected
31
73
There's a significant imbalance here, and I suspect that at least some of those ~...
- 123k
5
votes
Accepted
Can one moderator cancel or reduce the suspension given out by another?
This has already been answered here. Yes, it can be done, as explained in the post I just linked. Of course, such a measure must be possible since the moderators themselves are not infallible. One ...
- 15.7k
5
votes
Should moderators manually delete closed questions? Under what circumstances?
In terms of keeping the site clean, I think the current situation does just fine.
In terms of solicited deletions, then I think the example you give is pretty much the only contentious issue - ...
- 123k
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