It’s not strange in itself, it’s the contrast between this general policy (with which I agree) and the specific action taken in this case (with which I disagree) that is strange to me. I just took a (quick) look at some recent controversial threads, and in those cases the action had always been to hide controversial and/or offensive individual replies and possibly lock the thread, not kill it. So what’s the difference here? I think there was useful information in the thread, that now got lost. (Btw it’s a rethorical question, I’m not asking you to justify your actions, you certainly have the right to act as a mod without explanation – I just found this surprising, that’s all)
Moderation is a difficult and strenous task - my take is that in doubt the moderator is always right (as in a rugby referee, not as in a soccer referee). Thanks everyone on the mod team for your work!
Personally in situations like this one, when moderating a support forum I handle it slightly differently, mostly to prevent follow-up discussions like this and also because when in doubt I favor transparency: I usually delete the offending posts (because plainly insulting posts have no place where I moderate) and add a post of my own saying what I did. If I feel like it I add a very brief justification, but generally just factual “I deleted posts because not constructive and not according to forum standards” - period. Depending on who was involved I make a judgement call if I trust the people involved to not continue the bad behaviour (and if there’s even a chance of useful continuation), and depending on that close the topic or not.
I was a bit disappointed to see the thread disappear, but I’m fundamentally good with what you did. Me, I’m a fan of the ‘process’, that is, how things are done, how they’re governed. This forum has a well-defined set of rules and considerations for that, and a governance structure to implement them. @paperdigits, you as a duly-appointed moderator did your job, and that’s what counts. You’re also constructively taking feedback, thanks for that.
It’s not like we won’t take up the relevant conversations again; indeed, seems to be happening. Gee, I love this place…
I do not think it was a mistake - after all, to me it seemed like your question was meant to provoke a discussion and it is not your fault that some answers were pretty rough in tone - some quite painful to read even as a bystander, to be honest (take that as “surprising but understandable” @paperdigits).
With the rise of vkdt, I was wondering about dt’s future, too - though more in a “Yay! A clean rewrite (roughly) of a software I love” - way.
And through this thread I learned about R&Darktable, which is interesting in itself and definitely worth a look - so there was some positive information I could gather from it.
After all, people seem to be very passionate about (digital) image manipulation, which in itself is a cool thing - and in general I like the discussion culture here
I don’t think you should be deciding what’s “useful” - a very subjective decision anyway. I think you’re American - what about the 1st Amendment?!
Having said that, I didn’t see what was posted during the UK-overnight. Sounds like it was quite bad. So I think you should have said you deleted it due to highly abusive language or whatever it was. Saying it “spiralled out of control” is vague, and saying “I do not think it’s [dt’s] future should be questioned” is censorship.
Yes, most of the moderation is subjective. That is what makes it difficult. I’ve said it several.different ways, so useful = constructive = civil and the discussion was none of those things.
I am American, that’s why I know that the 1st amendment is about what the American government can and can’t do to it’s citizens, not about what a privately run entity can do to its users. Similarly, the american paradigm of free speech does not exist on other social media platforms either, because they’re not.goverent run. Alluding to “free speech” on private platforms means you have no idea what the American concept of free speech is.
Further, pixls has never been a “free speech” zone and it never will be.
I didn’t say that, please quote me properly instead of twisting my words to fit your argument.
Since this seems to become a controversy in its own right, perhaps a suggestion. As the famous saying goes “With great power, comes great responsibility”. If a moderator believes it is in the best interest of the forum to execute great power, it may be wise to consult a fellow moderator to share the responsibility.
Perfect example of this crap as we are trying to discuss it. Be better… You really needed the grammar comment?? What did that contribute and why did you feel compelled to stick it in there??
What’s going on here?! Are we looking at the same posts? Pls look at the second item, posted by yourself, in this thread. On my system it says “I do not think it’s future should be questioned.”
Your system is broken. Those two statements are quite different – the difference between an expression of confidence in darktable’s future and an one stating that you’re not allowed to talk about something. If you read the former and assumed the latter, that explains a lot.
Edit: Updated the first quotation to provide context.
There are three sentences in that second post which were the justification for what seemed like a heavy-handed action. The last, taken with the deletion of the thread, is saying “don’t go there” in my opinion. You can finesse the meaning with expression of confidence etc but there is also the suggestion of a moderator with a finger hovering over the delete button saying something is off limits.
