What should I do if my question disappeared just because my question needs "editing"?

What was the reason given for needing editing? If no reason was given, reach out to one of the moderators and ask what needs to be changed.

To contact the mods go to https://www.fluther.com/contact/

Click on the word editing highlighted in red. It will show you the question as you wrote it. It will show the moderator’s comments below that. If you scroll all the way down, you will see ask the moderators highlighted in red. If you click that, you can start a conversation with a moderator where you can ask for help with how to make your question fit guidelines.

Once you get more familiar, the process will get easier.

Let me point out one thing, questions about Fluther should be posted in meta.

Here on Fluther we value quality of questions and answers. Take a look at our guidelines to see how we want our Q and A to be.

The mods always give a reason for editing. Maybe check out what needs to be done before filing a complaint?

@ShevAnderson3 Your questions were moderated for not meeting the site’s writing standards. Specifically, you need to use proper capitalization and punctuation. This means capitalizing proper nouns (such as “I”) and the first word of every sentence. It also means making sure that every sentence ends with the appropriate terminal punctuation (a period, a question mark, an exclamation point).

It happens to all of us, you are not being held to spevial rules. Irritating sometimes but necessary.

Your questions don’t need “editing”.
Your “questions” need editing.

@ShevAnderson3, in case you weren’t aware, @SavoirFaire just above there ^^^ is a moderator.

@ShevAnderson3 I see that you flagged my answer as “unhelpful,” so please allow me to try again. The writing standards require that questions use proper capitalization and punctuation. We’ve left this particular question up in order to get you the answers you need, but we can use it as an example of what needs to be edited in your other questions.

Let’s start with your title:

What should i do if my question disappeared just because my question needs “editing”?

should be:

What should I do if my question disappeared just because my question needs “editing”?

Notice that I capitalized the “I” in “What should I do.”

Now let’s look at your description:

all my questions say it needs editing when it clearly doesn’t.the same thing have been happening on Quora which is why i switched to Fluther.

should be:

All my questions say they need editing when they clearly don’t. The same thing has been happening on Quora, which is why I switched to Fluther.

Notice that I capitalized “All,” “the,” and “I,” made sure that your nouns, pronouns, and verbs were all in grammatical agreement, added a space between the period at the end of your first sentence and the first word of the next sentence (changing “doesn’t.the” to “don’t. The”), and added the missing comma before “which.”

We don’t ask for absolute perfection. Occasional small errors are routinely allowed in both questions and answers. But proper capitalization and punctuation are important. And since questions can be edited, we have higher standards for them than we do for answers.

I understand that this can be frustrating to some people. But these rules are important to the site’s founders, and maintaining their original vision is the condition on which we are allowed to keep Fluther as a place for our little community to convene. If you need help editing your questions, please feel free to contact me or any of the other moderators. We would be happy to assist you however we can.

@SavoirFaire, I hope that answer ^^^ winds up on a permanent list of references for newcomers (right along with frizzers and cakes). It’s one thing to tell people what they should do (use correct English) and another to show them how. You just showed ‘em, and how.

The OP has left the building !!!

^^All the more reason to preserve this Q for future reference.

All that I can understand what gets me boiling is when a questions is pulled because the mod simply doesn’t like the way it’s phrased.
Even when all other guide lines have been met, and it doesn’t matter even if it has had a dozen or more answers to it.

So you do or you don’t understand, @SQUEEKY2?

I had a question pulled because the moderator didn’t like a source I used. didn’t dispute the information in the source, just didn’t like the source. Get over it folks, it’s call censorship.

It is not censorship. Censorship is a scare word often used by dissidents and ideologues solely to alarm and manipulate. Its basis is fear. Responsible editing is not the same as censorship. Selectivity is not the same as censorship. Calling for a standard for content is not censorship.

Censorship is the systematic suppression of material considered by the censor to be morally or ideologically objectionable. No one here is doing anything whatsoever to prevent you from holding and voicing your opinions on anything.

The fact is, though, that as this is a privately owned website, no one can claim a right to express those opinions here. Fluther does not owe anyone an open platform. But Fluther is not going to go out there in the world and stop you from saying anything you want to say. You are not being censored.

Fright wingers pull out “censorship” when it is not . . . Fluther is not the government, under control of the government or anyway involved with the government. Censorship is the governemnt controlling information.

Bad sources include Tucker “Swanson Pie” Carlson; 90% of what he says is outright BS. anyone selling Ivermectin for treatment of COVID-19 and Qanon website! !

I flagged this question as it has too many typos.

Wow, claiming their question is perfect, and flagging a mod’s answer as unhelpful?

How can someone be so confident and so bold?

And are we going to expect a negative review on an anonymous website?

@Jeruba I had a question pulled because of writing standards once. The reason was I had too many typos. I re-read it and could find none. I reached out to the moderators and got no response at all. Meanwhile another (left leaning) jelly posted an almost identical question but DID have typos in it. That was left alone.

With the question I mentioned before that was moderated out because of source, I was told it was not a reliable source…it was not a peer reviewed study that I cited. Also that the source was unreliable across the board and they were trying to stop the spread of misinformation. The source was PSYCHOLOGY TODAY and it was an opinion piece…one I mentioned in the original question was an opinion piece. I re-wrote the question, getting back to the original peer reviewed study, cited that and the question went on. One of the other (left leaning) jellies cited a Pschology Today article in their response, and it was perfectly okay with the moderators. So let me ask…how many times have you seen articles from CNN or MSNBC or some other left leaning source that weren’t peer reviewed studies moderated out for those reasons?

The moderator indicated that the moderators were answerable to the community as a whole. And since most of the jellies on here are left-leaning that is where the censorship comes from.

sad trombone

Really?
You are pulling left and right leaning in this question?

Glad I’m leaning left from the left then.
Unlimited spelling and grammar errors for me, in my questions and answers!

@rebbel Ha!

@SQUEEKY2 “What gets me boiling is when a questions is pulled because the mod simply doesn’t like the way it’s phrased.”

Questions do not get pulled because a mod doesn’t like how they are phrased. They are pulled if the phrasing is ungrammatical to the point of confusion (note: the fact that some people understood something does not mean it is not confusing), and they are pulled if they are phrased in such a way as to be flame-bait. But those are still violations of the site’s guidelines, not just the preferences of any single moderator.

“It doesn’t matter even if it has had a dozen or more answers to it.”

I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. Again, the fact that some people were able to parse a question well enough to answer it does not mean that the question meets the guidelines. And those answers are only lost if the question is never edited and resubmitted. Given that the moderators are willing to help people fix their questions—to the point of just flat out sending them an edited version if they are truly at a loss as to what to do—I don’t think that we are asking too much of anyone.

@seawulf575 “I had a question pulled because of writing standards once. The reason was I had too many typos. I re-read it and could find none. I reached out to the moderators and got no response at all.”

This is false. We sent the question back to you for editing with the standard “too many typos” message. When you resubmitted it with no changes, we sent it back again with an explicit note about what the problem was (an extra word in the title). You then resubmitted it again with no changes, and we sent it back one more time with the same note about the extra word in the title. Furthermore, when you brought the issue up with us again later, you were sent a PM explaining one more time what the typo was. In case you’d like to go looking for it, that PM was dated 10 August 2021.

“Meanwhile another (left leaning) jelly posted an almost identical question but DID have typos in it. That was left alone.”

Did you flag it? Because the moderators are not omniscient. If your complaint rests on the presupposition that we have personally read every question and/or answer on the site and given them either a thumbs up or a thumbs down, then you have started from a false premise. Also, please feel free to flag it now (or send me a PM with a link to the question). I would be happy to take a look at it and fully explain whatever decision we make about it.

“With the question I mentioned before that was moderated out because of source, I was told it was not a reliable source…it was not a peer reviewed study that I cited.”

You cited an online magazine known for spreading misinformation and claimed that the magazine article contained links to scientific studies. But the links in that article did not actually lead to scientific studies. Since the question prompt relied on the existence of such studies, we asked you to link directly to your evidence instead.

“Also that the source was unreliable across the board and they were trying to stop the spread of misinformation. The source was PSYCHOLOGY TODAY and it was an opinion piece.”

The source that was said to be unreliable across the board was the online magazine (your original source), not Psychology Today (one of your replacement sources).

“I re-wrote the question, getting back to the original peer reviewed study, cited that and the question went on.”

There was no peer-reviewed study in your edited question. What you cited was a self-published article that appeared in a fake academic journal that the author created himself and then uploaded to a social networking site. I understand that the proliferation of fakes and frauds can make it difficult to navigate what is and is not legitimate scientific research, and I have no doubt that you were not trying to get away with anything dishonest. Regardless, it is clear that the source itself was no good.

Oh, ffs, @seawulf575, it was simply not left up on this site without correction. No one is preventing you from saying the exact same things all across the internet and the free world.
It’s not censorship if it is taken off of a question on a small private site.
Go stand on a street corner and spout your stuff. Print pamphlets and pass them out.
In fact, you could probably freely spout your opinions on your profile page.

If a newspaper does not choose to print your unsolicited op ed, it’s not censorship.
If your sister doesn’t want you saying certain things in her home it’s not censorship.

This is like claiming that your First Amendment rights are being infringed upon.

Learn a thing.

@SavoirFaire You sent the question back to me repeatedly. What you are failing to disclose to all these wonderful people is that with each time I submitted it I wrote you asking what was wrong and you gave no response at all. You expect me to change something but won’t tell me what is wrong. So yes, you censored it. You can try all the dodging you like, but I do keep records. Do I need to post all my responses and yours? Maybe I should. But let me ask…when I cite an article and state it is an opinion piece and you censor it because I don’t link a peer reviewed study to go with it, does that really make any sense to you? I was asking for viewpoints, not posting facts. If it were facts I would have presented it as such and defended it as such.

Face it…you moderators are censors, plain and simply. If there are opinions you don’t like you censor them under garbage reasons and then stonewall the person asking for clarification.

Fluther mods don’t work for the government YOU KEEP MISSING THAT !

You don’t like the way things are flowing . . . . .

Uh, censorship is not a government only activity.

During the 70s, it was a huge topic in television.
Movies had to shift gears with how a movie should be rated.
Some of it came from government regulations, but some of it was company choices.

YUP government regulations !

Your right to free speech (and really, what “right” do you have?) is not being blocked. At all. Your outrage is just silly.

@seawulf575: The owners of a website have a right to demand and specify what they will allow on their website. If one doesn’t like it, one is free to go to another website or to stand on a street corner and talk about freedoms and how the virus is a hoax or whatever they want.

Government censors – - private websites can toss trolls and malcontents.

You really don’t understand do you ????

@jca2 So did the rednecks in the 50’s and 60’s have a right to keep blacks out of their clubs because they were private clubs? They have the right to demand and specify what they will allow in their club, right? If a black doesn’t like it, they are free to go to another club or stand on the street corner to talk about their rights.

Racism and censorship go hand in hand. Both are pushing a stance against people because of one aspect of them. At least have the gumption to say it is censorship.

@seawulf575: Racism and censorship are two different things. Furthermore it has been explained to you that what’s been done to you here on Fluther is not censorship. I can’t continue to explain basic things to you. If you want to learn the difference between the definition of censorship and the definition of racism, you will have to google it.

@jca2 I gave you the definition of a Censor. It matches exactly with what is going on Fluther with the moderators. The fact you don’t want to admit it doesn’t make it less true. It just makes you guilty of wanting to ignore censorship.

The fact that you think racism and censorship are similar is baffling.
Then again, not totally surprising.

@rebbel Go back up and look at the definition for Censor I posted. How are they really different? Racism is finding one group lesser than another strictly because of their race. It is deciding they are morally less or ethically less or even socially less. It seeks to suppress that race. A censor works on the exact same basis. The only real difference is that censors limit it to writings and videos and things like that.

But Wulfie this isn’t a publicly owned web site open for anyone and everyone, this is a private web site with members,that have to observe the regulations set out for everyone participating on it.
Break those regulations and you will be called upon for it.

@SQUEEKY2: That’s been explained to him above but he’s playing obtuse.

You’re right, but I thought I would at least try.

@SQUEEKY2 Censorship is censorship. And the “regulations” are not set out for everyone. Just ask the moderators. They will tell you that they don’t list all the regulations or standards and that they are the arbiters. It is solely up to them to determine if something is offensive. It is extremely reminiscent of the racist efforts people tried back in the middle of the 20th century. “It’s my business, I can reserve service to anyone I like”.

We have seen many, many examples of “private institutions” that had specified by-laws and rules that were forced to change those laws because they were discriminatory. Boy Scouts had to start accepting girls for instance. And censorship is discriminatory.

@seawulf575 “What you are failing to disclose to all these wonderful people is that with each time I submitted it I wrote you asking what was wrong and you gave no response at all.”

You wrote to us once after the first time we sent it back for editing, and we responded by adding an additional message when we pushed the question back for a second time. We didn’t respond by email or PM because that additional message was our response, and it was an explicit explanation of what needed to be fixed.

Just to make things perfectly clear, let’s illustrate what the process looks like. When you go to edit a question that was sent back to you for typos, this is what you see. Sometimes we add an additional message if we think someone might need help fixing their question, as seen here (the standard message is in the red box, and the additional message is in the blue box). Since the typo in your question was extremely noticeable, we sent it back with just the standard message.

You then sent the question back with no changes and wrote to us via the Contact Form asking what the problem was, so we sent it back again with an additional message. Since this was the second time it had been pushed back to you, this is what you would have seen. Note that the original message is still present, but it is crossed out to draw attention to the additional message. And when you go to the actual editing interface, you would see this (which contains the additional message, and only the additional message, right at the top).

You then sent it back yet again with no changes, and we returned it one more time with the additional message written out for you yet again. So when you say “you expect me to change something but won’t tell me what is wrong,” you are either misremembering the situation or being disingenuous. We told you twice, and then told you a third time via PM when you brought the issue up again later.

“You can try all the dodging you like, but I do keep records.”

As do we. In fact, the site records everything we do. That’s how I know how the whole process went in this case.

“But let me ask…when I cite an article and state it is an opinion piece and you censor it because I don’t link a peer reviewed study to go with it, does that really make any sense to you? I was asking for viewpoints, not posting facts.”

The entire question was premised on the putative fact that there was research to make it worth asking. And while you linked to an opinion piece, you justified your use of it as a source by claiming that it contained links to actual research. But it did not contain any such links, nor were you able to provide replacement sources. Without any references, there wasn’t really a prompt for the question. It just became a baseless accusation (and thus flame-bait). That is why it wasn’t reinstated.

“If there are opinions you don’t like you censor them under garbage reasons and then stonewall the person asking for clarification.”

There are many questions on the site containing opinions one or more moderators disagree with, so this is demonstrably false. And if we really behaved the way you say we do, then there would be no explanation for the many questions in which one or more of us participates by arguing against the OP.

Your first question would have been reinstated if you had simply fixed the typo. Your other question would have been reinstated if you had provided the data you said existed. These rules apply to everyone equally, and it should be noted that at least two prominent jellies with opinions diametrically opposed to yours have left the site because they were unwilling to comply with them. So the notion that this is some sort of targeted enforcement is also demonstrably false.