I understand that certain posts, even at cases where they’re not directly breaking the rules of /sdg/, might need to be removed. What I don’t understand is why you’re not notified. I’ve had to message several moderators just to find out why a post was removed, and the only reason I notice these posts disappearing is the fact that any notifications you might have gotten from that thraed (be it likes or replies) also disappear and create a very obvious gap in my notification history.
This is the most recent one I’ve had, removed the details just in case as I’m not trying to ‘‘out’’ any specific moderator, though I’ve had encounters where I had to bounce between three moderators in an attempt to figure out who deleted a post of mine.
My suggestion is that users at least get a notification or a private message detailing the bare minimum, who removed the post, why it was removed, so on. This would also allow users to appeal any post removal without having to go through several moderators to find out who removed their post and for what reason. There’s no reason for a mod to silently remove posts from any user except the most extreme cases, it would not add any significant workload to the moderators, and I don’t see why a short message detailing the removal shouldn’t be implemented.
No one makes posts just because they want the mods to remove them. They’re moderators, it’s their job to delete anything they deem unfit for the community, but then notify the person afterwards.
spez: Also, mentioning @MoltonMontro because I feel like moderators are purposefully ignoring this.
I honestly never saw this but it would be nice. I tried putting something up on the subreddit at one point and it got taken down within a day or two, don’t think there is any notification there either.
Mentioning @MoltonMontro because I’m definitely sure you guys are intentionally ignoring this thread now. Almost two weeks is long enough to mention again.
Sorry; it was not my intention to ignore responding to the thread.
I work on many different projects as a part of SDG besides just the SDG Forum, and depending on the moment (e.g., a lot of SDG Wiki stuff this year), I may more easily miss certain notifications. Regardless, I apologize.
This has definitely happened with most deleted posts in 2021, and at least the near-end of 2020 following issues with certain larger threads that constituted a more regular moderation upkeep. The main exception in both cases is typically going to be post chains.
Small note: In the case of flagged posts, an automatic message is sent out. If the flag reason is wrong even though a flag was warranted, then it requires the moderator to manually step in and provide a new message.
I briefly looked into the attached image. It doesn’t seem like you ended up reaching out to the relevant moderator (in this case, I believe it was me). Looking back over it, the original post was correctly deleted for quality assurance and was flagged. It doesn’t appear that you received an automated message regarding the flagged-post-deletion, but You should’ve still been notified with an accurate removal reason, and I failed to do so.
I’ve looked over a few other of your posts that were deleted, and it seems that most of the ones you likely weren’t automatically nor manually notified for were a part of reply chains or deleted topics (in which case the original poster was most likely the only one notified). I don’t believe there were any other deleted posts that led you to bouncing between three moderators, and that it may have just been the one post referenced in your attached image.
This year, I feel the moderation system has been already improved with:
better internals for handling flags and flag queue
the priority of certain flags shown in the queue
expanded the limit of “watched words”
and I’ve been drafting up some canned replies to help guide a more consistent moderation response to various common deletion reasons (e.g., removals in accordance to more explicitly-demonstrated policy violations).
I would more-or-less personally support any user’s calls for:
More relevant flagging options given to users when attempting to flag posts.
Messages sent out for users affected by the deletion of a post chain.
And likely many other ideas.
While I think the original suggestion is entirely fair, I feel as though for a vast majority of instances it is already true, as most deleted posts do result in the user being messaged. Although, for flagged posts many of these messages will have been handled by the system automatically.