Moderation Issues (5)

Please use this thread for (and only for) alerting admins to moderation issues and for raising complaints arising from particular decisions. We remind participants that TSZ is a benign dictatorship, the property of Dr. Elizabeth Liddle. All decisions regarding policy and implementation are hers alone.

2,097 thoughts on “Moderation Issues (5)”

  1. Zachriel: Auto-linking for quoted items doesn’t seem to work when posting across thread pages.

    You can obtain the full URL from the original post (the date and time link) and copy and paste that to replace the link that is auto-generated.

    My links always work. 🙂

  2. Mung: You can obtain the full URL from the original post (the date and time link) and copy and paste that to replace the link that is auto-generated.

    Thanks for the tip, Mung.

  3. Zachriel: Thanks for the tip, Mung.

    Stupid mung tricks. 🙂

    You’re welcome. I hate it when I can’t follow the links. I wonder if the auto-generated one works as long as the referenced comment is on the same page. Haven’t really tested that.

  4. Mung,

    Yes it does.
    The annoying thing is when we compose a reply and, once you post it, realize that the page has rolled over ad you then have to go back in and edit the links manually…

  5. DNA_Jock: The annoying thing is when we compose a reply and…

    Thanks. It’s pretty much a reflex action now for me, I just do it as a matter of practice, and have been for some time.

  6. OK, so the error is that, when reply/quoting a comment using the (quote reply) button, the page number in the URL doesn’t correspond except if quoting on the same page. Editing to the right page number corrects it.

    The relevant plugin is “Quote Comments”.

    ETA, it’s the same with (reply). So it is not the plugin.

  13. Dear Admins/Mods:

    I think it would be interesting to see old posts featured at times. For instance, I hope to complete soon a post that “wants” to be juxtaposed with Lizzie’s “The eleP(T|H)ant in the room.”

    We’re constantly re-rehashing what’s been hashed and rehashed before. Occasional reminders of what folks have said previously would be good for all of us.

  14. Tom English: I think it would be interesting to see old posts featured at times.

    I think that’s a great idea and I don’t know of any technical reason it can’t be done.

    But don’t be surprised it it turns out to be old posts of mine!

    😉

  16. I posted an OP without a title, suggested it in a comment. Could someone fix? kindly thanking you in advance.

  18. Post waiting a few days in Moderation. Is there anything holding Moderators back from posting? Do we have to ask each time for a submitted post to be published?

  20. Neil Rickert,

    Thanks. No worries, welcome to see Holloway’s IDism posts go through first.

    Information, the IDist way indeed. Holloway doesn’t seem to suffer from Expelled Syndrome the way many older IDists do, the ghost writer for the IDM feeling the most ‘Expelled’ of the lot. Maybe that’s because Holloway’s been trained as a partisan by the DI & Marks to expect & even welcome isolation because of his strangely & often awkwardly protesting views about information & ‘design/Design’.

  22. Neil Rickert: I have not made it a habit to routinely check for pending posts.

    I make it a habit to check every time I log in. The problem is there’s no clear way to tell, as far as I know, that the article is ready to be published.

    Gregory: Post waiting a few days in Moderation. Is there anything holding Moderators back from posting? Do we have to ask each time for a submitted post to be published?

    Best to post a comment here I think. I saw your article but when I last looked it indicated you were still editing it.

  26. Alan Fox:
    BruceS,
    ‘Cos it’s crap?

    Now I could hardly say that sight unseen without thereby impugning the poster instead of the post, could I?

    Perhaps Mung should make the moderation call on that hypothetical.

  28. Just wanted to point out that November has now passed. And, for about the eighth time, the blessed Lizzie, after one more solemn promise to return, has not.

    Fool me seven times, shame on you, fool me eight times….

  29. walto:
    Just wanted to point out that November has now passed. And, for about the eighth time, the blessed Lizzie, after one more solemn promise to return, has not.

    At least one poster who many would consider disruptive has decided to absent himself until she returns, so perhaps she is doing this on purpose.

  30. BruceS: …so perhaps she is doing this on purpose.

    Don’t think Lizzie is that Machiavellian. Anyway, I’ve just dropped her a reminder.

  31. Alan Fox:

    Stop the copy-and-paste between blogs. First, it’s a violation of international law. Second, my recollection is that it’s a violation of TSZ’s guidelines/rules.

  32. Tom English:
    Alan Fox:

    Stop the copy-and-paste between blogs. First, it’s a violation of international law.

    Presumably, permission can be sought and granted or withheld?

    Second, my recollection is that it’s a violation of TSZ’s guidelines/rules.

    Don’t think so. Lizzie has pârticipated in these “shouting over the fence” events before. She certainly referred to them as unsatisfactory and encouraged folks to come to TSZ as discussion at UD was never likely to be free and unfettered.

  33. Anyway, I’m happy to take advice from you Tom, as well as Joe and fellow admins. Mung?

  34. Alan Fox,

    We can differ on the reading of this rule:

    Do not use turn this site into as a peanut gallery for observing the antics on other boards. (there are plenty of places on the web where you can do that!)

    But there’s not much latitude on this one:

    Don’t advocate illegal activities.

    Personally, I find the regress of comments about comments about comments at the two sites nauseating.

    It is a fact that an open discussion is going to occur here or at Peaceful Science, not at Uncommon Descent. In my mind, you’re promoting, not alleviating, tribalism with this relay game you’ve got going.

  36. Alan Fox:
    Anyway, I’m happy to take advice from you Tom, as well as Joe and fellow admins. Mung?

    Alan, I count you as a friend I’ve never met. The quick/terse responses come off harsher than I intend. Forgive me that.

  37. Alan Fox: Don’t think Lizzie is that Machiavellian. Anyway, I’ve just dropped her a reminder.

    OK, but does she have a sense of humour?

  38. Tom English,
    Fair enough. It was a genuine attempt at dialogue (and gpuccio has declined the offer to participate here previously). Just to clarify, who owns material posted at TSZ? Is it the author of any post or comment or does it pass to the site owner, Dr Liddle, on publishing?

  41. Alan Fox:
    Tom English,
    I’ve moved the comments regarding copyright to guano along with the post I relayed from UD.

    Thanks for that. Now for some details.

    I believe that Barry Arrington (or perhaps his Uncommon Descent nonprofit organization) holds copyrights to all of the posts and comments at UD. You should never screw around with an American attorney on legal matters, no matter how minor they may seem to you. It’s imprudent to test the limits of fair use with Barry. Anyone who wants to copy a large amount of material from UD should first get Barry’s permission.

    That said, I believe that it would be wise to delete gpuccio’s comment from Guano, and not post it in its entirety until you have Barry’s permission.

  42. I don’t find the shouting-over-the-wall conversations productive.
    On the other hand, I find gpuccio’s declaration (@#68) that the function must be reduced to a binary

    That’s why it is important that the function definition be explicit, clear, and that it include a threshold value to define the function as present or absent.

    frigging hilarious.
    Joe F’s post stands on its own. There’s really no need to promulgate gpuccio’s responses, unless someone is willing to defend them in TSZ.

  45. Alan Fox: Just to clarify, who owns material posted at TSZ? Is it the author of any post or comment or does it pass to the site owner, Dr Liddle, on publishing?

    I’d suppose that Lizzie is the owner. There would be legal chaos if everyone posting on a blog could claim copyrights to his or her own material.

  47. Alan Fox: Mung?

    I think of antics as more about what people are doing, e.g. if a post of mine gets hidden over at PS.

    I don’t see any issue with a cross-blog discussion that sticks to arguments and counter-arguments, though I don’t particularly care for them. There were repeated calls for me to bring gpuccio’s comments to the attention of Joe here and I declined to do that.

    One can avoid copy/paste issues by summarizing and linking.

  48. phoodoo says:
    December 2, 2018 at 12:03 pm

    Alan Fox: I’m not a mathematician but it seems that gpuccio’s basic argument is that mathematical manipulation of numbers (something to do with counting similarities in nucleotide sequences) proves that evolution doesn’t work. His argument appears to rely on several assumptions such as strict determinism, uniqueness of function and the need to search all sequence space.

    Fuck off Alan.

    Why was this post moved to guano? Who moved it?

  49. Alan Fox: I know gpuccio has declined to post here in the past but let me assure him that any comment (or opening post) he cares to make here* will remain visible and unaltered. He should also be reassured that at least two of our admins, Mung and vjtorley**, are, or have been, regular contributors to UD and will, I’m sure, ensure that he will be treated fairly.

    *subject to the rules, legal stuff, spam, porn excepted. Comments that step outside “address the post, not the poster” may be moved by admins to “Guano” but nevertheless will remain visible.

    Why is Alan Fox allowed to discuss moderation issues in non-moderation threads?

    Are there special rules for Alan Fox? (Rhetorical question obviously).

    Probably I should have asked, are there special rules for skeptics?(Again, rhetorical).

  50. walto: Fool me seven times, shame on you, fool me eight times….

    Shame on Alan. And Jock.

    But the question is, why isn’t Mung concerned about the UK libel laws? I realize both Jock and Alan experienced severe head trauma, and are in the gripes of extreme selective amnesia, but surely not Mung too?

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