First thing I’d like to say is you’ll get a HELL of a lot farther on this site if you bring issues like this directly to the moderators rather than posting a list of grievances in a question. Though it’s valuable to “tap the collective” for feedback if you don’t understand something, the mods have traditionally been very open to working with people to figure out whatever it is that they are having trouble with. Going out and criticizing them publicly is just kind of a dick move, because they do what they do for the love of the site, to make it match the vision they have for this place…they don’t make a ton of money doing this and they provide this great forum for you free of charge, so it’s kind of like kicking your hosts in the teeth. But they have not censored your question, so that should give you a good idea that they are understanding of your quest for greater understanding. So if we all give you the benefit of the doubt here and say your intentions are good and you just want to understand why you feel you’re being modded so much, then we can work on answering that.
Now, you say that no matter how much you change a question, it still doesn’t seem good enough, but you don’t provide any concrete examples, so it’s hard for any of us long timers to say, OK, the problem with the first go round was this and the problem with the second go round was that. All we can go by is your list of questions, and let’s break that down as to why I believe each of these was probably originally modded:
Should be spell as we talk?
Am I to assume the word “be” should be the word “we”? Poor spelling, that’s quality control, and even if you did use “we” instead of “be” it’s a grammatically clunky question. Further, what were the question details, was your intent clear for what you were looking for? Perhaps if in your details you were to give some examples, espouse your point of view and explain why you believe spelling rules should be changed to be completely phonetic, and give people something to openly discuss and debate, the question might be of high enough quality. But as it sits, even if the spelling and grammar were good, it’s basically a poll question, something that can be answered with a yes or a no without any real thought or consideration. This question could be presented in a way that would make it a good question, but we have no way of knowing what (if anything) you tried to do to make the question better.
Is opposting gay marriage or evolution unChristian?
Again, the word is opposing, not opposting, that’s the first problem. Second problem is that “unChristian” is not really a word, you could say “inconsistent with Christian values” for example, assuming that’s what you mean, but again, the meaning is not 100% clear. And again, what did you put in the support for the question. Another problem could be if someone had recently posted a question on that same thought…people here don’t want to see the same question rephrased, that’s why we have a search…I don’t know if this had anything to do with it, but for future reference, that’s one thing you should be aware of, if there’s a very similar question that’s been posted recently, it’s redundant for you to ask it as well and your question will be removed.
Is pedophilia a choice?
This could be a really good question, and it is spelled properly, phrased properly, etc. The only things I can see as possible reasons this could have been removed would be primarily that it seems not flushed out well enough…again, a very simple question that could just be answered with a yes or no. If you were to perhaps give another option or two, or espouse a point of view in the details, that question would likely have flown. Another possibility is of course if you said something in the details that was clearly flame bait, or if you took too strong of a position as to make your question more a rant than a question. Overall, they simply want the question to look like a question that you asked because you want to create a discussion. And as I said, if the question was asked too recently, that could have been another problem. Point I’m driving at is, you don’t give us enough info to say, which relates to my first point, go directly to the mods, they will tell you EXACTLY what they didn’t like about the question and even give you pointers on how to fix it.
Are the general pubic hypocrites in relations to how money is spread around?
First, pubic should be public, in relations should be in relation, and the question is worded very awkwardly. One of many possible variations would be “Does the general public behave hypocritically in relation to the distribution of wealth?” And this is the kind of question that also could be interpreted in a number of ways, if you didn’t do a good job of describing what you were getting at in the details, it would be too ambiguous.
When did you lose your virginity?
Very much a “poll” type question, not conducive to a discussion. A better question would be, “Tell me about losing your virginity?” Then ask a couple of clarification questions to get at more than just “what age”, like even if all you really want at the end of the day is the age, maybe this isn’t the place to ask that question…now if you’re interested in how a person feels about that decision, did they wish they’d waited? Did they wish they’d done it sooner? Or something to encourage some discussion about the details, that’s a thought provoking question, not something you could just fill out on a questionnaire.
Do you find golliwogs racist?
I don’t know wtf a golliwog is, give an explanation of what a golliwog is, and why you ask, and this could be a passable question.
Do you think handing out with geekier people hinders my odds of attracting a partner?
I’m assuming handing should be hanging. And as with everything else, the devil is in the details. Say why you think it might be, inspire a thoughtful discourse.
Bottom line is, I can see, just off the top of my head reasons why every single one of those questions would have been modded at least the first time, and it has ZERO to do with censorship. Censorship is about trying to keep certain thoughts and ideas out of the public discourse, indeed if you look at what the mods do here, it’s exactly the opposite, they WANT there to be more and deeper and more thoughtful discourse. In a way, if they were to allow anyone to post any question they wanted, it would in effect drown out the quality questions and would have the effect of indirectly censoring potential discussion simply because the person who might have something of value to add might never find the question in the first place.
Moderation rules here are actually quite simple, and I have yet to see an example of anyone’s “freedom of speech” being limited in any way shape or form. It’s very simple, don’t attack people, don’t advertise, don’t use questions to engage in simple mindless chit chat and polling, learn to spell and use proper grammar and have something to fucking say.
