Do you really think your post (and 'whattt' for that matter) contributed greatly to the discussion?
I don't believe my post contributed "greatly" to the discussion. Never said that it was a poignant comment that I made, however, it was a opinion I expressed over a situation that could really disrupt the landscape of current patents. Perhaps, in retrospect I should have stated that vs. what I posted.
Interestingly enough, I went back to the thread where my post was deleted (
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1503872/), and this is the second post:
"Now this is something Steve Jobs really wouldn't have allowed." While this post doesn't contribute to the thread discussion, it has 24 likes, and it adds humor to an otherwise bland thread - removing it in my opinion would be a tragedy, but if macrumors policy is to be followed then it must go the way of the waste basket. "Great" contribution is a area of grey, i'm sure at sometime a patent attorney has read through the thread and believes not one person has contributed "greatly" to the discussion. Perspective. Its a PITA.
Report the post you see if you think it breaks one of the rules.
Just an FYI the post number 2 you mention above is now gone. I forget to press delete last night before I went out.
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I can tell you from personal experience that we don't moderate members opinions, unless what was said breaks the rules.
In the past I have reported posts, and I will continue to do so in the future. And I don't believe that mods try to moderate opinions.
Thank you.
We do strive for consistency but its possible in a long thread that we don't see each post that was similar and thus miss the violation. If its reported then that's another issue.
Sometimes mistakes happen, we're human and stuff happens.
I realize that things happen, I appreciate the candid response. I wonder if greater transparency in the process would make things appear more consistent or fair. My post wasn't on the first page, it was on the second, so one of two things occurred - either the mod read through all the posts from the beginning and felt that the all previous posts were not in violation of macrumors policies, or my post was reported and subsequently removed. I don't have the answer for a more thorough even distributed moderation, but discourse is often the soil of fruitful solutions.
I doubt the mods have something personal against you. Mistakes happen, even on a well moderated site like this. Use the report post button if you have concerns over someone else's post.
Never said they did have anything personal against me. I actually find that their actions are inline with policy - my concern however is that their application could more consistent and thorough. For instance, removing a reported comment should trigger an immediate investigation of an entire thread - and all posts within that thread should be removed. That's just an example - but it would lead to more transparent and equitable moderation.
When we deal with a report, we do try to take the time to look at more of the thread than that one post. Context is important. We won't however necessarily have time to look far enough to see absolutely all posts, or even posts that are nearby. So if you have a post deleted and you see other posts with the same sort of problem in the thread, you can be sure we just didn't see them. Report them and we'll deal with them.
If you were to see all the reported posts that moderators did deal with, you would see moderation as consistent as the human condition allows.
Finally, remember you're responsible for your own posts. "Member X got away with it" isn't a defense, and a lack of action on our part doesn't mean we're singling you out - we just didn't see the other, similar posts.
Sometimes members will post things like "I don't want to be that member who reports other members", or "I don't want to bother the mods with a lot of reports". Nothing could be further from the truth. We are very grateful for reports. Mods enforce the rules the site owner has signed off on, but we also cooperate with members. The rules are there to make your experience of the site as pleasurable as possible, NOT to give us something to do!
Thank you for your insight. So there is no confusion, and for clarification purposes, I accept my posts, and I acknowledge responsibility for them. The purpose of my original post was not to say "hey - look at what member x got away with", rather, it's to provide evidence to support my personal opinion of moderation consistency.
When I was a medical student, my attending told me, whenever you see a problem, never report the problem without also recommending a solution. While I have not sat and thought about this at length I do believe that discourse and transparency may be helpful in this domain. I understand that moderators do their best, and I actually do appreciate their strong work ethic, however at the same time, there has to be a better way to moderate posts and applying policy in an equitable yet efficient manner. If my post was flagged in a thread, the whole thread should be scrubbed for posts that violate policy preferably by the same mod who responded to the initial flagged post - for homogenous policy application. Or if a post is flagged, maybe 2 or 3 mods are needed to vote before the post is removed - ensuring concordance/agreement between different mods (inter-rater reliability).
I hope that everyone understands that while I can accept that my post did not "greatly" enhance thread discussion - 99% of posts don't "greatly" enhance discussion. They are mostly expression of opinions mixed with whit and humor, and the odd sprinkle of facts and figures.
Thank you all for your contribution to this discussion.
