Pro-Tem Mod Q&A

12:46 AM

@Susan, @JohnP, @michaelpri, @JoeW, @NateBarbettini, @Tim - I know this is controversial, but here goes: How will you handle wrong answers, for example, what if someone posts an answer to to a question that wasn't asked?

Joe W

@anongoodnurse what do you mean by wrong answers?

anongoodnurse

Um, one question asked about the common cold, and the answer was only about Influenza. It was an excellent answer; I admit freely that I admired the effort the user put into the answer. But it wasn't about the common cold. That is one example.

Joe W

@anongoodnurse for something like that I would generally let the community handle it with voting and possibly the low quality post queue. While in that case it may be easy to see that the post is not answering the question it won't always be the case. I shouldn't use my personal knowledge/opinions to get rid of a post like that but use the knowledge and judgement of the community.

In doing that I also think it will help the person who posted the answer to learn from their mistakes rather then just having a moderator take unilateral action.

anongoodnurse

Thanks!

Joe W

@anongoodnurse does that answer your question?

anongoodnurse

12:54 AM

Yes, it does. :-)

Joe W

@anongoodnurse personally I think when someone becomes a moderator on a SE site they need to set aside their personal opinions and work based on how the community is deciding on what is acceptable and isn't on the site. As it can vary a lot from site to site.

anongoodnurse

@JoeW - I thought this was a good question because it has been discussed in meta, and a surprising answer was given.

Joe W

@anongoodnurse I think it is a great question

anongoodnurse

It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I totally don't balme the mods if they want to stick to the status quo. Health is only a little different in that a good-looking answer can still be wrong.

Joe W

I think where it will get tricky is when you have to draw the line between a wrong answer (doesn't answer the question asked) and a dangerous answer that could cause people harm (such as saying you don't need to see a doctor/seek immediate help for a problem)

and a chat room where questions and answers could be brought in front of people with the expertise to make the correct call is a good idea

anongoodnurse

1:04 AM

@JoeW Good idea. I like that.

Joe W

I was just stealing the idea from your meta post :)

michaelpri

@anongoodnurse I agree with @JoeW Letting the community decide seems to be the best course of action. I would probably comment, trying to allow the answerer to edit before downvoting.

Joe W

Commenting and downvoting is always best but there is no way to enforce it

anongoodnurse

@michaelpri - But does the community always know a correct answer from an incorrect one? For example, I was the only person who recognized the eczema/URI_Influenza/other questions were actually answering a different question.

michaelpri

THe chat room is also a good idea

anongoodnurse

1:08 AM

Again, the mods can handle it as mods usually do; it's up to me to adjust. But does the fact that this site gives advice about people, not pets, matter?

@michaelpri I do think this is a good idea, too.

michaelpri

@anongoodnurse I do think that mods should comment if they see a wrong answer though.

Joe W

After the site leaves private beta and gets further into public beta there should be more users to catch errors like that

anongoodnurse

@JoeW That would be great!

Joe W

On the other hand it could be that one person sees a correct answer when others see it as wrong

anongoodnurse

@JoeW Hmm, I hadn't thought of that possibility.

Joe W

1:14 AM

Always scary how often "common" knowledge turns out to be wrong

off topic question, I am writting a paper for an online course I am taking, should I use the latest APA format for my references?

anongoodnurse

@JoeW Depends on the format that organization wants it's students to use. They usually inform the student of this before they start writing.

Joe W

@anongoodnurse I don't remember what was expected when I was there and I see no mention of format for them, just mentions 5 different sources and a reference page

think I used APA for most classes but it wasn't the only style I used

anongoodnurse

Right, some places want other style guides. Yale and Harvard have their own style guides, for example; the New York Times has one that's different than the Chicago Manual, etc.

If it's not an academic paper, and you can't reach the instructor, use whichever style guide you think best, but follow it for your entire paper. That's my best advice.

Joe W

<-- slacker so not enough time for a reply but will go with APA 6th ed

thanks for the advice though

that should be safe enough

anongoodnurse

1:39 AM

:-)

JohnP

As I pointed out to michael a bit ago in comments, moderators jobs are not to vet content for accuracy in answers. Generally the community takes care of that with downvotes and flagging, and moderators respond to those flags.

However, as a personal thing if the answer is obviously wrong and dangerous, I can see that being deleted.

michaelpri

@JohnP I still think it is okay for a moderator to act like a regular community member. They can comment if they think the answer is inaccurate

JohnP

Such as the quackery surrounding bathing and drinking H202 (Hydrogen peroxide).

Yes, I agreed. That's what I had said to you in the meta thread. When it comes to answers, we can comment to improve and downvote, just like any other community member. That doesn't change just because there is a little diamond.

Sigh...I will be happy when the boy learns to control at least some of his gross motor movements.

michaelpri

I do think moderators would have to be a bit more careful, because I have seen people blindly follow a moderator. From what you've said though, you've had a different experience

anongoodnurse

@michaelpri Yes, I see this too. But sometimes (if an answer is wrong, for example) this is good.

JohnP

1:56 AM

sigh...I will also be glad when he learns that sticking stuff in the back of your throat causes you to gag. :/

Joe W

2:13 AM

Wait till you can introduce him to lemons and other tastes like that

Susan

5:59 AM

@anongoodnurse Answers to a different question than was asked seem to me just like the same situation on other SE sites. Not hurting anybody, but what you describe appears to fall into the orange-where-an-apple-was-requested category (—>NAA—>delete).

The harder question I think is what to do about answers proffering bad medical advice. The more I think about this, the more I think that health.SE isn’t really different from other SE sites in this respect either. I’m not sure I buy that health advice occupies a "sacred space" and, if dispensed incorrectly, has consequences that are qualitatively different from bad advice on other topics.

Ah, I’m realizing why I think about it this way. I came to SE by way of the religion sites - I’m a mod on hermeneutics.SE and interact regularly with the mods on the rest of them, although I’m really only familiar with Judaism.SE and Christianity.SE.

Christianity.SE has its own unique way of dodging questions of Truth altogether, but both on hermeneutics and on the Judaism site, people peddle their version of Truth all the time. And although SE sites are (obviously) secular, many who participate there firmly believe that bad halachic advice (on Judaism.SE) or bad hermeneutics (on hermeneutics.SE) are even more problematic than the suggestion to eat capsaicin for pain.

(I realize most people here aren’t going to agree with that conviction, but I’m trying to explain how I’ve arrived at my attitude about moderating content that at least some people think holds some sort of special status that may warrant special protections. I’m also arguing that the SE platform has seen this before.)

The folks at Judaism.SE have been particularly vocal about how seriously they take the problem of bad advice and have advocated for disclaimers to mitigate that.

I’m all for disclaimers. I’m also all for calling people out when they're wrong (although I don’t think that’s a mod-specific role). And I agree with you, @anongoodnurse, that health.SE has a problem out of the gate in that there aren’t a lot of people around with sufficient background to do a good job answering many of the questions that we get.

But none of this is new to SE.

anongoodnurse

6:48 AM

@Susan - Very interesting! I have to think about this, in that I'd like to understand my own attitude towards bad advice better. IRL, I know there are some bad doctors giving bad advice to good people, but I don't crusade against them or picket their offices. I don't feel *responsible* for their quality of care. So why I take it so seriously here is a good question worth considering.

I think disclaimers might be an important answer here. I wonder if TPTB will go along with site-specific disclaimers...

Thank you for your thoughtful and thought-provoking answer.

JohnP

3:56 PM

@anongoodnurse I think that you take it more serious here because of permanence and reach. In your case of the doctor giving bad advice, it affects one person at a time, and is not permanent. By that I mean that joe blow down the street can't look it up and see what treatment Mr. Smith got.

Here, it is a different case, in that bad advice is there for the world to see, and given search engines can easily be brought up by anyone using the right keywords. It's a much more far reaching impact, with a longer timespan.

And, like many medical myths, even when confronted with scientific refutation, people want to believe whatever will seemingly cure their situation. I mean, how many times in your career have you heard "Well, yeah, but that's not relevant in my case because unicorns..."?

Susan

4:52 PM

@JohnP Its permanence and reach (and presence on the SE platform) also mean that the community has the ability to scrutinize and give feedback publicly (voting, comments, chat, etc). Don't get me wrong - I agree that bad medical advice is serious stuff - but in a way, here it's less dangerous than bad advice given behind closed doors. (And yes, @anongoodnurse, I realize the vetting has been inconsistent so far, but it's at least possible.)

JohnP

5:09 PM

@Susan - That would provoke a very interesting discussion on perceptions, and what people choose to believe. It also presupposes that all bad answers get downvoted and commented upon, which just isn;t the case.

I agree with the sentiment, I think that in practice it won't be as effective as we might like it to be.

Especially as sites get busier, low attention questions tend to fall off the front page (out of sight out of mind) very quickly. Stack Overflow is an extreme example of this.

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