This is a 20+ character message because that is the minimum required.
I have ‘2 flagged comments’ but no way tell which / what since this * ends at 84.
This * being the original thread.
Same with me!
Moved these to Forum Feedback.
I flagged some of the comments as being off topic, resolved them, to keep a record.
It is a bit odd how quickly threads get closed here. If they’re going to automatically close after inactivity, it would be nice if there some way to request that a thread be re-opened. (If I start a new thread, it’s liable to be merged into the old thread, which just seems like more work for everyone.) If this exists and I just haven’t figured it out, please tell me how!
Just so people are aware, I did not choose to start a silly, pointless thread. But I think you can assume it as validation of my point.
I also think that, in the future, if a moderator decides to cut comments from one thread and start another, that the moderator should be listed as the author of the thread. I had no desire to be singled out on this and think it is inappropriate. Please don’t do this again.
Does ‘resolved’ mean we are no longer expected to edit our comments to conform to guidelines ? I still don’t know if or what I did wrong.
You can – ask any moderator to reopen an old thread.
How? Send them a private message with a link to the thread? Ideally it should be as easy to request a thread be reopened as it is to close it.
I was hoping you wouldn’t ask. I haven’t had reason to do so. You can see who the moderators active on a particular thread are, since Moderator is helpfully written next to their name.
But @astra_the_dragon is helpful. And tiwane is staff, but I am loath to call him in when any moderator can do it.
Thanks!
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-do-closed-threads-get-reopened/19509
it mystifies us too
Anyone can send a message to @forum_moderators and it notifies that whole team: https://forum.inaturalist.org/g/forum_moderators
If we could have a box to click – next to this thread has been closed – it would save moderators the extra work of … reopening … and then moving the new posts across.
the default behaviour is after 60 days of inactivity. if you feel that’s not enough time, you can always open a new thread in Forum Feedback requesting that the default limit be altered.
as it stands, I don’t have a strong opinion on how long a delay is correct.
I’ve been exhausted this week, and still am; and I can’t speak for Tony; but a resolved flag doesn’t usually require any further action on anyone’s part - and it can be on something neutral, such as a reply to a hidden post. Flags alone are not an indicator of blame, they’re a tool for streamlining moderation. Generally they’re not deleted because having the full history (who flagged whom, when, why etc.) may always come into use later.
like she said.
in any case, the original topic of the thread is the statement,
so we may want to return to that topic… if the original poster wants to elaborate.
Basically I flagged some posts about moderation as off-topic, to keep a record of them, then resolved them once I moved them to this topic, which is about moderation. If someone has a pattern of off-topic posts, we can see that and let them know it’s a pattern we’re seeing and encourage them to start new topics rather and take an existing topic off-topic.
I’ll note that conversations do totally veer off-topic organically, which is OK. But then it makes it hard for anyone going to a topic to follow it. So, we have tool that allow us to take a set of posts and move them to a new topic or existing topic just to make things more clean in both the original topic and the new one. IMO it helps to keep conversations more legible. To be clear, I’m not blaming anyone, as I said it can happen naturally, but it’s something to be aware of when replying to a post that’s already off topic. You may want to start a new topic, or let moderators know and we can split something into a new topic.
Facilitating an event with real humans, or its online version — moderation — is a balancing act.
On some subreddits, I’ll see a cool organism, and I’ll have a simple question: What is it? So I’ll start to read the comments. Lots of other people probably have the same question.
If the moderation is too weak, then the thread inevitably devolves into jokes, and then commentaries about the jokes . . . it becomes a bunch of humans trying to make each other laugh, which has value for community building, but it makes the comment section useless and frustrating when it comes to answering the original question: What is it?
Conversely, if the correct answer is given, pinned to the top, and then the thread is locked, it makes the thread more useful, but it kills any sense of community, or even the possibility of community. It can feel too rigid, and it might feel like you’re being punished for chatting about a shared interest. One of the reasons that people come to a forum is to connect with each other! The don’t just want to absorb data.
Somewhere in between those two extremes, there is a balance, where you can have accuracy and human connection. I think that on the iNat Forum, they try to find that balance. Do they always achieve it? No. Sometimes the pendulum swings too far in one direction. But they do their best.
Since I get flagged for off topic answers to off topic questions – I will lean to pre-emptively flagging when the topic veers off. And adding people to my ignored list, then I don’t need to push back pointlessly.
I don’t see a problem with branches getting snipped out into new topics, which makes them findable from their headline, particularly if the thread is large, people are chatty and what starts as one thing can flow into another.
What I would think would be helpful would be if the users themselves could snip topics off in this way (post authors anywhere, comment authors on their own comment ±2, possibly requiring seconding), with the jump indicating in the original thread, this would lessen the burden on moderators and also the users would probably have the best idea what to call the new thread.
I also have a ‘silly and pointless’ thread like this lurking on the forum. What was an integral part of a longer conversation loses its meaning as a stand alone.
This would serve the archive better with bouteloa’s answer to – How to reopen a closed thread (as a title)