# Moderator red text

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 17, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595 "2020-07-17T16:47:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/1 "2020-07-17T16:47:09Z")

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I just saw a warning in a post in politics. I am not opening this post to discuss the moderation. But I noticed two things.

First, the text wasn’t in red (or otherwise sticking out from the rest of the thread). At the time, the post was the newest post in the thread. I recognized the moderator. IMO, that sort of text should be in red, or something like that.

Second, I think the post should have quoted the person being warned (that person would then get an email). Unless I’m wrong; perhaps people being warned get a PM.

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/2 "2020-07-17T16:50:51Z")

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Colored text isn’t possible. I did see a post where someone discovered how to highlight text but I don’t remember the tags or the thread.

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/3 "2020-07-17T16:58:05Z")

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Tracked it down.  
green and ~~pink~~  
\< ins \> \< /ins \> for green  
\< del \> \</ del \> for pink  
(close the spaces)

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**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/4 "2020-07-17T17:09:58Z")

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just testing:

[ins]this is green [/ins]

this is green

Hmmm…tried several variations and I still haven’t got it. Are other colors possible as well, or just pink and green?

oops, got it now.

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/5 "2020-07-17T17:14:27Z")

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The topic I found only mentioned pink and green.

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/6 "2020-07-17T17:18:17Z")

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There’s an admin function to add a “staff color” to a post. I don’t know if it’s the same color across different themes or not. Might not be.

We should probably all be using that for posts involving moderation.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/7 "2020-07-17T21:14:35Z")

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> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> Tracked it down.  
> green and ~~pink~~  
> \< ins \> \< /ins \> for green  
> \< del \> \</ del \> for pink  
> (close the spaces)

FYI you can demonstrate formatting without injecting spaces by preceding the tag brackets [,], \<, & \> you want to inactivate with a backslash \ which is the escaping character. Once escaped they just display as their plain characters without doing their formatting magic.

So entering  
\<ins\>green\</ins\> and \<del\>pink\</del\>  
displays as  
green and ~~pink~~

All I did was inject a single \ backslash ahead of each of the 8 square or angle brackets on the first line. Displaying things so they look exactly as they must be typed makes it easier for our more tech-challenged members to cut/paste your examples or just type them verbatim.

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/8 "2020-07-17T21:16:02Z")

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Thanks!

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**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/9 "2020-07-17T21:20:33Z")

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Did this work?

ETA: Nope

How about this?

also nope

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/10 "2020-07-18T00:42:41Z")

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I don’t disagree.

And yes, the poster involved got a PM. As I understand it, in discourse to issue a warning a PM is automatically sent.

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**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/11 "2020-07-18T00:49:30Z")

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> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> There’s an admin function to add a “staff color” to a post. I don’t know if it’s the same color across different themes or not. Might not be.
> 
> We should probably all be using that for posts involving moderation.

All the moderation posts I’ve seen have a yellow background, which I think is more attention-getting and less eye-straining than red text. I’m using the Straight Dope Light theme – I’m not sure either whether the appearance is the same across all themes.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/12 "2020-07-18T01:12:28Z")

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> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> All the moderation posts I’ve seen have a yellow background, which I think is more attention-getting and less eye-straining than red text. I’m using the Straight Dope Light theme – I’m not sure either whether the appearance is the same across all themes.

Maybe yellow is better, but I didn’t see that. I’m using one of the dark themes. Maybe that’s the reason?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/13 "2020-07-18T02:53:15Z")

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This is a post with Staff Color added. It shows up yellow for me.

If you are using a different theme than the default, if it’s not yellow, please let me know what color it shows up as and what theme you are using.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/14 "2020-07-18T03:00:20Z")

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> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> This is a post with Staff Color added. It shows up yellow for me.
> 
> If you are using a different theme than the default, if it’s not yellow, please let me know what color it shows up as and what theme you are using.

I am seeing the yellow background in this post.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/15 "2020-07-18T03:05:40Z")

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> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> This is a post with Staff Color added. It shows up yellow for me.
> 
> If you are using a different theme than the default, if it’s not yellow, please let me know what color it shows up as and what theme you are using.

Dark-brown  
Disco Classic-yellow  
graceful-extremely pale green/ almost not visible  
Material Design- pale yellow  
Minima-yellow  
Sam’s Simple-yellow  
SD Dark- green yellow  
SD Light-yellow  
Vincent-darkish grey

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/16 "2020-07-18T03:08:59Z")

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> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> This is a post with Staff Color added. It shows up yellow for me.
> 
> If you are using a different theme than the default, if it’s not yellow, please let me know what color it shows up as and what theme you are using.

Dark theme - no color.

Then again, those of us with red-green colorblindness are forgotten by too many web developers.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/17 "2020-07-18T18:38:17Z")

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As to the pink and green highlight tints …

The purpose, as alluded to by the tag names “ins” and “del”, it to show inserts and deletions between two versions of the same primary text. It’s change tracking. Tinting may be the visual _result_, but it’s not the semantic _intent_.

So …

When I look go my Activity page and look at my earlier post that uses ins & del to achieve pink & green I see something totally different.

Instead of the highlight tints I see here, the inserted stuff is shown as underlined and the deleted stuff is shown as ~~strikethrough~~.

Something we all need to bear in mind much more than we did with vBulletin is that each theme on each class of device (phone, tablet, laptop/desktop) may be displaying very differently. With 9 themes times 3 classes of devices times however many brands of browser, there’s a lot of room for your post-it-and-look-at-the-results testing to be valid across only a small slice of the total audience.

And now I’ve/we’ve discovered that different pages in the UI may well display the same formatting differently even on the very same device / browser / theme.

Such fun.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/18 "2020-07-19T03:04:03Z")

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This post has been greened by the GreenBeanist

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/19 "2020-07-19T06:17:16Z")

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> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> FYI you can demonstrate formatting without injecting spaces by preceding the tag brackets [,], \<, & \> you want to inactivate with a backslash \ which is the escaping character.

Or highlight the text and use the \</\> symbol from the dialogue box, which puts an invisible backwards apostrophe ` before and after the text (or just type the character manually) and has the same result. But your way is easier.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2020, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moderator-red-text/915595/20 "2020-07-19T11:55:11Z")

</div>

> [@needscoffee](#):
>
> Or highlight the text and use the \</\> symbol from the dialogue box, which puts an invisible backwards apostrophe ` before and after the text (or just type the character manually) and has the same result.

Good find. But FYI …

The backwards apostrophe (or backtick in IT-speak) is the signal for preformatted text which mostly means things like examples of computer commands which I suppose these markup commands really are. It does have the effect of escaping the 4 special brackets, but it also changes the font of all the text to a non-proportional = monospaced font that looks “videoterminal- or teletype -like”. For example:  
`this is an example of text inside backticks.` This is after the last backtick.

Here’s how to list the contents of a folder in old-fashioned DOS:  
`C:\SomeFolder\>dir *.*`

Within the single-backtick region you can’t make the text your end-user should type look like their normal text. That’s the biggest downside IMO of using the backtick method. Compare:  
backslashes: To make something underlined type [u]your text here[/u].  
versus  
backticks: To make something underlined type `[u]your text here[/u]`.

Further FYI for anyone still listening …

The big brother of backtick is the triple backtick on a line by itself. When you put those on separate lines as bookends, that treats all lines between them as a block quote of programming code with all the embedded spacing preserved, certain terms automatically highlighted, colored, etc, etc. Like so:

```auto
bool SomeFunction(int a, string b) { // This is a nonsense function
    var c = a== 0 ? b : "other" ;
    if (b== null) {
        var d= " it's null" ; 
    } else
        var e = " I've got spaces in me" ;
    }
    return a == (int)42.0;
}

```

I did not do any of that coloring or bolding; Discourse did all that. I did do all the varying indents and the gratuitous extra spaces between some words.

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