It’s “discussion regarding administration of the SDMB”. In this thread, Admiral Crunch asked why a thread in Cafe Society about the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album disappeared. You said that “we do prefer members ask these questions via email or PM”. Coupla things I don’t understand about that:
You (y’all, the board) provide the ATMB forum for us to ask questions and express concerns of a technical nature, such as questions and concerns about disappearing posts and threads. There’ve been plenty such threads, especially with the sometimes squirrely sofware just dropping things. I don’t recall people being told, until now, that it was inappropriate to ask about it there.
The thread you (y’all, someone) removed had actual content from members in good standing who did not know, and had no way to know, that the OP was a sock. There were enlightening facts shared about the history of the album and the band, and its ties to the Beach Boys. Some of the posts had citations with links to interesting research material. It seems to me that the baby was thrown out with the bathwater.
If a thread is removed, there’s no way for us to know which mod/admin to contact by email, or for that matter, which ones are on semi-haitus like Fluiddruid. I guess we could email all of you, but that’s not very good customer service to make us jump through unnecessary hoops when there is a much easier way for us, and no more difficult for you (y’all, the lot of you). Everybody, including mods, should check ATMB every day anyway.
Besides, why would you want a flood of emails when you can address the entire membership in one place? We pay to post. Deleting our posts because of something someone else did is, in my opinion, a capricious denial of the service you (y’all, the CR) agreed to provide in exchange for dollars. I’m not a sock. Other posters weren’t socks. But their posts (damn good ones) have vanished.
And no, I don’t think you can count this as a pitting in the Mod Pit Race. I’m only discussing your (y’all’s, all-y’all’s) policy. If you want it counted, email me at a time when I’ll be available.
Lib – wtf, you’ve been around for a while. If a thread disappears like that, it’s almost always because the OP was a sock or a troll. Once a month, there’s a question of that sort, and once a month the mods say “it was a sock or a troll, we don’t want to discuss socks and trolls publicly, if you have a question about a particular person, email or PM a mod.”
What part of this is confusing you?
If you want part of a thread to be retrieved, for the reasons you state in #2, you can email all the mods of that forum (two or three people, not exactly widescale spamming on your part), tell them that there was good info in that thread and ask them to restore part of it.
That way you don’t exhaust your high horse by getting up on it all the frigging time.
Well, it’s true that you guys can’t see the calendar we organize for Administrator/Moderator absences, though, such hiatuses are usually brief. (Mine is over.) Extended absences are generally announced in that forum and other moderators swoop in to cover that. If it’s a critical matter that takes more than a few days, it’s fair to CC all the moderators of that particular forum. PMing is relatively quick anyway if you want to check in after not receiving a response.
We like to keep discussion of socks/trolls offboard, as, attention is what encourages these types and increases their activity.
We do not remove many threads. We hate to remove whole threads once they have gotten a lot of activity, unless they largely revolve around said sock or troll. It’s a judgement call, but, we try to keep continuity whenever possible. It’s just that posting a “This thread was removed” notice in ATMB kind of defeats the point of removing the thread anyway.
Sometimes we can surgically alter threads, and we do, merging and pruning and whatnot. It’s just not always possible for the end result to make sense.
In the end, we get a relatively high influx of repeat guests and we do not want to encourage them to post.
I don’t know what could have been more “high horse” than your moralistic and pointless post.
Sure, and I understand that. But his question wasn’t about socks or trolls, it was about a thread — one that disappeared. It so happened that it was a sock rather than a software glitch in this case. Why should so many people who have posted so thoughtfully have to chase you down to find out why you blew away their posts without so much as a hint left behind, other than the thread can’t be found?
There are threads, and there are threads. I spelled out why this thread was worth saving. Could you explain why you think it was not?
I have to back **Liberal ** up on this one as far as the thread. I understand about the emailing part and I already apologized to Frank for my part in the ATMB thread.
It was a good thread despite the source. It is not terribly important, but it was a good thread with good information about a pivotal album in rock history. I would hope a thread like this could be brought back. It did not revolve around the Sock in this case. It revolved about the album itself.
I can understand removing sock threads that are also trolling threads or ranting threads. But if a sock happens to slip through the net and a good discussion results, why not just delete the sock (which was going to happen anyway) and leave the thread?
Frank, I hope Liberal and the other fellows here will also keep in mind that you and the other moderators are unpaid and while I know you do an excellent job in your moderation here lets all be honest with each other. Don’t expect Frank or the other moderators to provide the sort of service that ony really money can buy. That’s just foolish , now , don’t you think ?
I have. I don’t have time to dig up the cites, but it certainly has happened.
Well, yes. Sometimes that happens. It’s unfortunate. Nevertheless, we believe that leaving threads by a sock rewards them, and while it is a drag for those who have participated in good faith, we’re going to continue to wish them into the cornfield.
Email the mods for the forum the thread was in. Or if you don’t remember, email any mod/admin or a couple/three of us. Someone will get back to you. I assure you, we are not going to start providing a list of socks and threads disappeared in ATMB. Kind of defeats the purpose.
Same answer as nos.2 & 3.
I’m sure you’ll get another chance.
Honestly, I am among those who wonder if the thread could have been salvaged. On review, the OP had three posts, and there were five quoting the OP, whether to argue or agree. I decided that removing eight of 26 posts made the thread unsalvageable. Believe me, that disappoints me too.
I have to say that I hate disappearing threads. I hated it when I was a user but it just comes down to the fact that we want to remove the postings of socks/returned guests. Otherwise there’s no real disincentive from them doing the same thing over and over. If their work is removed, it is self-defeating. From a user standpoint, I agree that it’s frustrating, but seeing behind the scenes as a moderator, I understand it even though I wish we didn’t have to do it.
Unless it’s spam, Frank’s correct, the odds are extremely high that that’s the reason why.
I’m the one who spotted the sock and did all the dirty work.
The thread in question was removed because it was started by the sock. His multiple posts to other threads were “pruned” and the threads left open. Except for a few posters quoting him, you’d never know that his posts were missing from those threads.
It’s very, very hard(if not impossible) to prune a thread started by a sock. That’s why we disappear them.
Maybe it would be best simply never to post in a thread started by a guest. There was a separate Sgt Pepper thread, but it had a very different aspect. Would it be okay if a regular member were to open his own thread that a guest has already started? That would solve the problem of pruning sock OPs.
Except, probably 90+% of Guest OPs are by legit people. The minute you start a duplicate thread, a mod will probably close it as one already exists.
I’ll try to explore a bit more tomorrow on whether I can find a way to accomodate your reasonable request about bringing back the hidded thread. Give me 24 hours. No promises, just willing to see if and how it can be done.
I’m still working on it. Hopefully will get it solved before the 50th Anniversary.
Part of the problem is the OP(returning poster) who initiated that thread had posts that were more intwined than usual. I’m not very confident that there is a hopeful solution to this.
At this point, I really wouldn’t bother. It’s clear that you’re sympathetic to those of us who posted and wished the reference material had stayed, but it’s way too much trouble. And it’s unfortunate that, in the end, a troll or sock can actually have that much power over the membership. It would be nice if you could block guests from starting threads. That could be another perk for members.
I’m sure you’ll get another chance. 
