# Inability to adds notes to some Flags is a problem

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-adds-notes-to-some-flags-is-a-problem/922643>\
**Category:** Site Feedback\
**Created:** [October 10, 2020, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-adds-notes-to-some-flags-is-a-problem/922643 "2020-10-10T16:03:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 54

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**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inability-to-adds-notes-to-some-flags-is-a-problem/922643/54 "2020-10-26T14:06:42Z")

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> [@thorny\_locust](#):
>
> > [@What\_Exit](#):
> >
> > No one needs to be hostile towards him.
> 
> I don’t think most of us were being hostile. And if he’s now going to refuse to talk to us at all, in any thread, on any subject: that strikes me as an extreme reaction.
> 
> @codinghorror, I hope you’re still reading, and will reactivate. In disagreeing with you I certainly didn’t intend to dis you. But we need to be able to disagree, and to say so. That’s also an essential part of these boards.

I’m sorry that he quit, but it may be for the best. I hope he returns eventually, but he may want to wait until we are past the “growing pain” stages, maybe even until we have a real admin, not a retiree pressed into emergency service.

Discourse is his baby. He’s proud of it, and wants us to understand what it does and value that. And instead, posters (and I’ve been at fault here, too) wrote to him as if he were an employee. He had and has absolutely no obligation to help this message board. He gave us a lot of help out of generosity, and we responded by saying, “your baby is ugly”.

I think a lot of the tension (not in this thread, but in general) was due a difference in vision. He wanted to write software that nudges users to post well. This board of old curmudgeons (with an active moderation team) preferred having people, not code, set the tone. We wanted people to be able to make questionable stylistic choices. He wanted to cut that off at the pass.

But mostly, we asked too much of him. I hope he can take a break, let us get used to the software, and get used to getting help in standard ways, and can then return as a poster. And maybe he’ll offer helpful advice, or explain his choices in coding discourse. And maybe he won’t. But i hope that after a suitable separation he can return and enjoy posting here.

Anyway, @codinghorror, I apologize for my part in driving you away.

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