A question for the mods....

[American_Mommy]

Sounds like I have missed a lot tonight....

But yes, I know what you mean. A place holder of sorts to let us know that we are not crazy when we suddenly can not find a topic anymore. Example:
"The Hopscotch Hill thread has been deleted" or something like that.

[Molly-Felicity]

It rather reminds of me snow days around here. Since we live in a large metro area there are quite a few different school districts here. When others are closed due to bad weather in the winter, we are often open since we are a rather small and urban (no country roads) district. When I watched for closings on TV (we do now have an inclement weather line or the option of checking the district's website) I always wished they would have posted "Opening on time" rather than just not including our school district. I would sit there watching continuously thinking I had somehow missed ours.

That's my analogy for the missing thread issue.

[ponydreamer]

I'm just wondering...when a thread is removed, could one of the mods just post that it has been removed?

I'm not questioning your judgment,( in removing threads), just asking that a small statement be made, letting us know that a thread has been removed. Of course, I would expect it would be locked.

It's sooooo frustrating to come to the board, and find things missing. It would be eaiser to take if the missing thread were at least acknowledged.

This is a suggestion, and not a criticism.

Thanks....

[Miss_Nellie_OMalley]

I agree, just maybe deleting the original person's message and adding why this post will be removed, locking it and then moving on (unless its a pointless profane post) But something to the extent:

Closed due to conterversal topic.. .etc.

[ponydreamer]

That's not what I mean. The mods always explain when they lock a thread.

But sometimes they remove threads, and that is what is frustrating. Maybe it's just me, but I would really appreciate a note from the mods explaining that they removed the thread. They wouldn't even have to explain why....

Or...I just realized...perhaps we, as posters, remove our own threads, and I've been thinking it's the mods? Perhaps my blonde highlights are getting too blonde? [img]confused.gif[/img]

[moderator]

I understand 100% what you're asking for and agree that sometimes it would be nice to know the "whys" about things.

However, with the way Hostboard is set up, it's much easier to remove the whole thread, which can be done by deleting the top (first) post (the member who posted the first post can do this as well). If moderators had to edit the first post to explain the reason it was deleted, and then delete the rest (in order to keep the thread at the same location on the board), they would have to go through manually and delete each of the posts that come after the first one.

So it might just be a way to make it a little easier on the moderators. (It's the same thing I've done on my board for the past six years, too.)

I hope this helps! [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ December 18, 2005 02:40 PM: Message edited by: Melissa ]</font>

[JuliaAM]

Mods aren't the only ones who remove threads. The original poster of a thread is able to delete the entire thread simply by deleting her first post.

When a thread suddenly disappears we mods ask each other if a mod deleted it and why. We rarely delete threads without a lot of discussion and also contacting the original poster about it for further discussion and often well before a thread is deleted. We prefer to lock threads before deleting, leaving deleting as a last resort.

The final decision is whether or not a thread is an asset to the board and in keeping with our rules. Sometimes even locked threads are informative so that's why we prefer to lock a thread rather than delete it. Outright slanderous, contentious and argumentative or beligerant posts are most likely to get deleted.

So we can't offer explanations for deleted threads because some threads disappear and we ourselves don't know why the originator of the thread chose to delete.

Julia

[GreyMyst]

Originally posted by JuliaAM:

So we can't offer explanations for deleted threads because some threads disappear and we ourselves don't know why the originator of the thread chose to delete.

Julia

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I think they are just asking that when the MODS do delete threads to leave an explanation. Obviously if you didn't delete it, you can't explain why, LOL

Something like a "deleted thread" sticky would be good. That way whenever a mod deletes an entire thread, they can post whatever reason to that sticky. People will know where to look to see IF mods deleted it, and if so, why.

[ponydreamer]

Julia...I understand that sometiems poster's remove threads, and of course the mods can't explain why.

To be honest...I don't even want to know "why" when the mods delete a thread. I just would find it helpful if the mods would say..."thread deleted by the mods". Or something like that....

I'm not complaining, either...just asking if something like this can be done.

[rachie421]

I agree. I understand that somethings may get so out of hand that locking the thread down is not enough. But I dont see how hard it would be to set up another thread-locked obviously-simply stating why the other was closed. Its a pain to search for something continously to find out its just not there anymore. I understand that if the original poster does it there is very little you can do and that is probably done for more personal reasons and I dont see the need for it to be shared. But if the mods would explain when, why and which threads have been deleted, there would probably be less need for it to occur as people will figure out what can and cant be done.

Just a thought.