"Moderation" and Editing Privileges on This Site...

When you gain karma here, you'll gain the ability to edit posts, close them, and more. I am seeing FAR too many instances of this being abused.

Please do NOT abuse your "powers" by editing things as you see fit. If something has foul language, yes... edit away. If something is a duplicate post, close it and mark it as such. Don't just run around the site editing every post you feel you could write better. They are NOT your posts, and this is NOT your playground.

If the rampant abuse continues, I will remove karma from those who do it.

lg-faq abuse site-abuse edit-post close-post karma

asked Jun 11 '10 at 05:03

chris ♦♦
11.2k●166●246●265

closed Jun 13 '10 at 13:30

jakek090
3.7k●38●93●123

One guy turned 'god' into 'God' and 'him' into 'Him' in one question. What if the writer has no respect for god, and WANTS it to be just 'god'?

(Aug 16 '10 at 12:38) BrunoMCP

@Bruno: That's about accuracy. Gods in general are merely gods (lowercase); but the Judeo-Christian god is a proper noun whose name is God in most contexts. Whether he/she/it/they exist(s) is irrelevant to the accuracy of the statement or question.

I'm not saying it was right or wrong to change it; just that it's not a matter of respect as you've explained it.

(Aug 23 '10 at 22:15) tsilb

good on you chris ;)

(Sep 25 '10 at 13:13) Danish

14 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

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12	Thank u Chris for trying to control those abusers !!!! some people do lot of editing in my posts just because i put in some of my questions that english is not my first language :(, not to mention the useless vote downs i get :s answered Jun 11 '10 at 06:35 Patxi 12.6k●206●272●386

You all DO realize that every time you vote down a question, the person loses five karma points. However - YOU lose five karma points every time you vote down a question, as well. You're only hurting yourselves in the process of trying to hurt others. :)

answered Jun 11 '10 at 06:01

chris ♦♦
11.2k●166●246●265

If that feature only existed to hurt others, what sort of person would implement it? Why is it enabled?

The only conclusion I can come to is that it's not just there to hurt others. Not all answers are good or neutral answers, and those who post bad answers should be given the opportunity to accept positive criticism and better themselves. I've voted people down dozens of times, and if they ask why I will happily oblige some constructive criticism (providing I notice, which could take a long time).

I've noticed in the past that some users have been upset by this, and preferred that I edit their post "because I can". It's not my method, but that's ok. They can feel free to deny themselves the opportunity to redeem the points and correct their errors.

Editing and downvoting posts both serve purposes, slightly different as they may be.

(Aug 16 '10 at 13:06) Seb

6	Those who are abusing karma are already removing karma from those who do the right thing, Chris. answered Jun 11 '10 at 05:06 5e6 201●2●11

6	Any one caught having more than one account should be immediately KICKED OUT! It undermines the whole community. answered Jun 12 '10 at 02:33 PeckerHead 226●1●3●8

I point out on which occasions I edit the posts:

I edit those posts where the person has no clue about capitalized letters/punctuation marks, like this: "i got this question" blahblahblah "i think it's cool what do you think"
I edit those posts which have grammar/spelling mistakes in it.
I edit those posts, where the person can't put the words in the right order.
Once I edited a post where the person typed only in capitalized letters. I made it a normal question.

Please say if there's wrong with any of these because I'm not that kind of person who abuses my own so said "powers", I don't want to lose all my karma.

BTW I don't edit the posts if there's abusive language or any other kind of that stuff, I just flag it.

answered Jun 11 '10 at 05:40

Mihkel
4.6k●41●58●114

edited Jun 11 '10 at 05:42

This sounds reasonable to me. Have you ever downvoted anyone?

(Aug 16 '10 at 13:10) Seb

Why are "poorly-phrased questions edited"? To go in and edit the way someone is saying something according to the way YOU think it should be said is VERY presumptuous. Why does it matter how people are saying things. This gives the power of editing peoples thoughts to people who you have no way of knowing whether they are knowledgeable about English.

answered Jun 12 '10 at 02:28

HoraceHardBottom
255●1●3●10

Well, the people put people in the position. We don't just rise up by ourselves (unless we cheat, after which we're hopefully caught). Usually when a question is modified there is something seriously wrong with the grammar or spelling. Many of us do put serious consideration into analysing the requirements of the question and editing appropriately. We're not editing your thoughts. That wouldn't be possible. Your thoughts are in your head. Your comments are on lockergnome and they explain your thoughts. If you're going to write illegible comments then they're likely to be edited or misunderstood completely.

(Aug 16 '10 at 13:18) Seb

This is not an information site. It's people's thoughts on things. It should not EVER be edited. Especially without their consent. unless it breaks a rule of the site. Abusive or in some way inappropriate.

answered Jun 12 '10 at 02:40

PeckerHead
226●1●3●8

what if the person's right like these

(Aug 16 '10 at 12:41) BrunoMCP

And that's the point behind editing. And the problem behind it is that people are abusing it.

(Sep 27 '10 at 16:48) HHBones

3	Chris, I believe that Michael has been abusing his powers. Look at his moderation history. Edited one of mine that didn't even require it. answered Jun 12 '10 at 08:56 refrwfrwgrfd (suspended)

3	If a question is posted as community wiki, than it is okay to add, edit, elaborate, expand, improve, or otherwise modify the question. If it's not part of the community wiki, than it should be left as is, warts and all. answered Jun 12 '10 at 09:40 jhagedon 2.7k●153●178●215

Moderators should not close questions just because the question has been answered. If you close a question it is more likely that someone who is looking for information from that question will not find it and if someone gets a better answer than the current answer they can add their answer.

answered Aug 12 '10 at 20:13

Feras
5.5k●90●122●179

It's the way the software works, bud. You can always un-select the answer you chose as the "right answer". Selecting a "right" answer when only two people have replied has a chilling effect on further discussion. If you want further discussion, don't select a right answer unless you're just karma farming.

By your logic, if you should select the best answer at any given moment, every single post with one answer could ostensibly be marked as having a right answer. That happens sometimes, but the people selecting the right answers don't whine about the closure of the thread for Closed - Right answer was selected.

(Aug 12 '10 at 20:24) ageekmom ♦

You select the right answer for that point in time then when a better answer arrives you can change the correct answer.

(Aug 12 '10 at 20:26) Feras

Completely agree. I have seen cases where a user will ask a question and someone will close it and refer to a similar or same question that has already been answered. While this is OK if someone is asking a question in which there is only 1 answer. but if there is a question where there are many answers, then 1 persons answer may not be right for everyone else. (This problem becomes worst when the thread that the person is being referred to is a locked thread so the user cant even add to that one to look get more information or a answer that will fit them)

(Aug 12 '10 at 20:27) Razor512

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