Forum moderation policy idea: No overly combative debating

[NotYouAgain]

On Thursday, 2 May 2024 at 12:08:26 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:
> ..
> The biggest problem is that once I delete a post, it's gone. I 
> can't restore it. ....

Yes, that is a real problem...still.. and decades later...it's 
still the biggest problem. As to why, seem my point further below.

> I've been accused of censorship and I've been accused of 
> letting trolls run rampant. I've been accused of bias and I've 
> been accused of allowing overly negative people to ruin our 
> image. I'm never going to make everyone happy. I've adapted my 
> approach over time based on feedback, so I'm always open to 
> that.
>
> ...

If you don't want to be accused of censorship, and bias, then the 
obvious thing to do is keep a record of the actual contents of a 
post that you've decide to delete, the reason you've decided to 
delete it (incuding if someone has asked you to delete it).

Then there is a record, should anyone decide to challenge you as 
to whether it's censoring or moderating, or moderating with 
personal bias.

Without an opportunity for due process, you just open yourself to 
the exact criticism that you don't think is warranted.

One of the real problems with this forum, and any forum really, 
is the extent that people identify with the product that the 
forum is about... it's a kind of tribal thing really. If someone 
outside your tribe criticises something about the product, which 
they should be free to do btw, then certain members of the tribe 
will all go and pound on that person. But if a member of you 
tribe criticises something about the product, then they've 
'earned' the right to do so, being a member of the tribe.

Most people are still so tribal, it seems.

Anyway.. back to my main point.... make moderation a process that 
people can have confidence in, and then people can judge for 
themselves whether you're just censoring, or whether you're own 
biases (or others biases) are coming into play.