Why leave locked topics on the forums?

[Dedayog]

For example there is a recent post about having issues with Steam downloads on a school laptop.  Clearly violating the forum rules, it's locked.

 

But it's still there and the OP can get targeted DM's for help with his issue... cuz be honest... we do shit like that.

 

Why not delete the post in its entirety so that the reference and any suggestions are lost as well.

 

This way, you can't just post shit like "How do I get my girlfriends naked pics off her phone so I can sell them?", get locked and then billy bob hackersmith shoots you a DM when he sees it later.

 

Or does not censoring > stance on piracy/hacking, etc?

 

Curious of the reasoning behind.

[TylerD321]

9 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

This way, you can't just post shit like "How do I get my girlfriends naked pics off her phone so I can sell them?", get locked and then billy bob hackersmith shoots you a DM when he sees it later.

I have a feeling that there are some posts (a majority) that get locked that are only not allowed to discuss because it is illegal and therefore not a good idea for a company to help with. Then if someone searches for a topic they can see that the topic existing has already been locked because it is against the rules. I think this would reduce the number of overall topics to moderate.

 

I would not be at all surprised if posts like you mention exist and have been hidden and or deleted. Just because you don't see something happen doesn't mean it doesn't  

[Holmes108]

1 minute ago, TylerD321 said:

I have a feeling that there are some posts (a majority) that get locked that are only not allowed to discuss because it is illegal and therefore not a good idea for a company to help with. Then if someone searches for a topic they can see that the topic existing has already been locked because it is against the rules. I think this would reduce the number of overall topics to moderate.

 

I would not be at all surprised if posts like you mention exist and have been hidden and or deleted. Just because you don't see something happen doesn't mean it does  

 

Yeah, that makes sense. There's varying degrees of banned discussion. Most of what I see get locked is relatively tame. Plus, on the off chance someone searched before posting (hahahahahahahahhaaha), they might see that a topic is taboo.

 

 

[Dedayog]

Like this one... nothing stopping me from advising him how to get around the issue, but it's supposed a forbidden topic yet he posted here and possibly got an answer in his DM's.  

 

So basically censoring the poor lad is worse than potentially having this place be a 1-stop shop for hacking tips.

 

Not a big deal, was just curious why they let it stand and some get deleted.  Maybe they'll delete it after a higher level moderator looks at it.  Tiered moderation!

 

I'm going with that

 

 

And it's not lost on me that since I link it here, it may live longer and he can get even more help!

 

Think he'll name his ingame character after me when he gets to play on his school laptop?

[Spotty]

Generally; If content is violating the rules it is removed. If it is likely to elicit responses that break the rules it is locked. It's up to the moderator's discretion to decide what is best for each case.

 

There can be some benefit in people seeing some posts that get locked as people can see what isn't allowed and learn from it. People are also less likely to repost it after it is locked than after it is deleted because they know everybody can see that they've already posted it and already been told it's not allowed so people won't help. In my experience with dealing with people, people do seem to often consider locking a thread to be a "softer" approach than outright deleting it. If the OP wants a locked thread deleted they can just send a mod a message and we are normally happy to do that (though there are cases where some locked threads are left up for transparency sake).

 

For something like the thread you're talking about the original post itself is not really harmful to the community leaving it up but further discussion (such as posts giving instructions on how to bypass security restrictions/hack systems) would be violating the forum rules. The thread is locked to prevent posts that are likely to violate the forum rules. If the post itself was violating the rules, such as if it was a guide on how to bypass school restrictions, then in that situation that post would be removed instead of locked.

 

35 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

But it's still there and the OP can get targeted DM's for help with his issue... cuz be honest... we do shit like that.

The forum rules apply to messages. If you break the rules via messages you can still be banned. Especially if you do so after a moderator has posted saying that it's against the rules and you try to find ways to break the rules without being caught.

Edited January 23 by Spotty
elicit an illicit response

[Dedayog]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Generally if content is violating the rules it is removed. If it is likely to illicit responses that break the rules it is locked. It's up to the moderator's discretion to decide what is best for each case.

 

There can be some benefit in people seeing some posts that get locked as people can see what isn't allowed and learn from it. People are also less likely to repost it after it is locked than after it is deleted because they know everybody can see that they've already posted it and already been told it's not allowed so people won't help. In my experience with dealing with people, people do seem to often consider locking a thread to be a "softer" approach than outright deleting it.

 

For something like the thread you're talking about the original post itself is not really harmful to the community leaving it up but further discussion (such as posts giving instructions on how to bypass security restrictions/hack systems) would be violating the forum rules. The thread is locked to prevent posts that are likely to violate the forum rules. If the post itself was violating the rules, such as if it was a guide on how to bypass school restrictions, then in that situation that post would be removed instead of locked.

 

The forum rules apply to messages. If you break the rules via messages you can still be banned. Especially if you do so after a moderator has posted saying that it's against the rules and you try to find ways to break the rules without being caught.

Thanks man, appreciate the response from a mod.  if you need to lock or delete this, I understand.

[Stahlmann]

23 minutes ago, Spotty said:

The forum rules apply to messages. If you break the rules via messages you can still be banned. Especially if you do so after a moderator has posted saying that it's against the rules and you try to find ways to break the rules without being caught.

How is that enforced? Can moderators look through messages at any point before one of the participants fills out a report?

[Needfuldoer]

34 minutes ago, htimsenyawed said:

I can't speak for anything else in your post, but I can say that my posts have been censored on multiple occasions. However, the staff does their appending and mention that it was removed by staff.

 

So, I don't think it has anything to do with censorship beliefs.

The instances of that I've seen (not just on your posts) have usually been when a post overall had value to the actual discussion that was happening, but also chimed in on a flamewar. They'll remove the offending parts and leave the productive ones, especially if a different post they removed was quoted. 

 

[Spotty]

3 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

How is that enforced? Can moderators look through messages at any point before one of the participants fills out a report?

"Please be aware staff cannot see private messages unless they are reported, except in exceptional circumstances."

Moderators can only view PMs after they have been reported. It's possible for administrators to access them. As a general rule whenever you are sending messages over a website or service you should assume that whoever controls that website or service can access any messages you send.

 

But don't underestimate somebody being salty about their post being locked reporting somebody who messages them just to say "You remove my post but this person messages me and you don't ban them for doing it!!". It happens more often than you would probably think. Always assume that somebody is willing to take you down with them.

 

 

@htimsenyawed I'm not publicly discussing any content that has been removed or any specific issues. If you would like to discuss it you can send me a message.

• Do not openly discuss the moderation of any content or user. If you have an issue please contact a staff member.

I don't mind answering the OPs question since it's a very broad and general question, but if people start posting asking why their XYZ comment was removed or complaining about being banned or whatever then I'll just have to lock the thread.

[Rocketdog2112]

On 1/23/2024 at 9:29 AM, Stahlmann said:

How is that enforced? Can moderators look through messages at any point before one of the participants fills out a report?

That's why they (the messages) are now known as a DM (directly messages). Can't call 'em PM' s anymore because they are no longer private. 

[DeerDK]

The benevolent, less gory, moderator version of heads on pikes. 

They serve as a reminder and example to all of us. 

 

Joke aside, I do think it works well that the mods get a chance to explain why they lock threads and the rest of us can see them