The Water Cooler

12:48 AM

While I agree with the jist, the rest is garbage. I am a software engineer by trade, and frankly, I can make a great program to generate value for a company while knowing next to jack squat about the domain I'm working in. It doesn't matter if I'm working with widgets, genomes, t-shirts or marketing data the code and the engineering principles don't change... just the variable names. — Telastyn Jan 14 at 20:30

^^^ @Telastyn: Do you honestly believe this? Or was it a total exaggeration?

Jim G.

3:26 AM

2

Q: Why so many +1 comments?

EDIT [4/21/14]: I'm bumping this to the top for our new moderators. Possible duplicate of this question, but I see the problem persists, so let this be a friendly reminder. Although the comment box clearly states avoid comments like "thanks", "+1", "me too", I see these comments are much more c...

^^^ @jmac @MonicaCellio: Not sure if you guys have seen this.

@jmac @MonicaCellio: I've flagged a few violators of this rule, and one of y'all has been rejecting 'em. Please respond to this Meta post if you disagree or if you have a clarification.

5

A: How aggressively should we flag comments?

I personally don't see a lot of comment flags (or a lot of flags in general; the flag queue is usually pretty empty). I can't say for sure if this is because people don't flag a lot of comments or because the flagged comments get auto-deleted. As far as support: comments are not meant to be perm...

^^^ @jmac @MonicaCellio: Also, please see this Meta post by @Jim. I bolded some key points.

@jmac @MonicaCellio: Again, if you disagree, please let the community know, so that we don't waste your time with inapplicable flags.

21

A: Should we flag comments that only praise an answer?

I would not flag them unless there becomes a lot of them and they start to overshadow other more important comments In most cases, they aren't doing any harm by being there Upvotes can have multiple meanings, and as Oded said, they're an additional indication that the answer was helpful, and n...

^^^ @jmac @MonicaCellio: OTOH, if we're adopting @Rachel's standard (which is very reasonable), then that's fine too. I guess, I'd just like to know where you want to draw the line.

4

A: How aggressively should we flag comments?

In my opinion, here are the following comments that should be nuked: Spam/offensive stuff: duh +1 great question/answer: Yes, we can see the votes. These are only okay if the comment otherwise has substance. If it's useless without the +1 it's still useless with it (same for -1) Fix X! Okay, I ...

+1 great question/answer: Yes, we can see the votes. These are only okay if the comment otherwise has substance. If it's useless without the +1 it's still useless with it (same for -1)

: Rarity makes a good point here, IMO.

Jim G.

3:55 AM

@JimG. its not a militant stance, its standards to maintain the high quality and usefulness of the site in a way that provides the closest ratio of words / useful words which solve the problem or add clarification. Comments just saying "+1 good answer" add nothing to the site, as pointed out by NickC But as Jmort points out comments which say "+1, 'Quoted Text', really highlights points X, Y and Z" are ok comments to have — RhysW May 17 '13 at 8:32

^^^ @RhysW: You've weighed in in the past. I thought we collectively agreed that we want the community to flag these comments, right?

jmort253

4:28 AM

@JimG. In this case, many of those comment flag dismissals were from me.

Without going into too much detail, many of those comments were positive and encouraging, something that is really nice to see on our site.

As I've mentioned before, I try not to interfere with answer comments when there are just a few, and as long as the comments aren't rude, disruptive, or otherwise degrade the quality of our site.

I appreciate that you're going through older questions and flagging them for comment cleanup, and those flags have resulted in some much needed pruning. Hope this helps.

Jim G.

4:43 AM

@jmort253: OK. I respect your authority, but the standard is quite confusing to me. OTOH, every now and then, I've felt compelled to leave an "+1: Atta boy!" comment, so if these are indeed permissible, then I'll start leaving them as well.

Thanks @jmort253!

RhysW

7:56 AM

@JimG. that was my view yeah, whether or not the community agreed to it as a whole is not something i know of

CMW

9:37 AM

hey guise!

Quick question, isn't this something an HR manager should know?

0

Q: If I take a 2-week paternity leave in the UK, do I get a 2-week extension to my work contract?

If I take a 2-week paternity leave in the UK, do I get a 2-week extension to my work contract, in which I would receive my normal salary? In Norway, I did get an extension, but I am not sure if the same applies in the UK. I am an employee, not a contractor. Note: I asked the same question in Ex...

united-kingdom contract-extension

Jim G.

11:20 AM

@RhysW 1. Initially, I had some reservations, but even if I did, I eventually respected the will of the community. 2. Now that I know that the moderators are not deleting comments according to this rule, I may leave "Hi! Great post! And welcome to TWP!" feelgood comments wherever appropriate.

Monica Cellio

2:34 PM

@JimG. thanks for bringing this up. I dismissed one or two such flags last night (we don't see who comment flags are from, but I assume these were some of yours), then saw that there was a larger pattern and I'd better check with the other mods before handling any more.

0

A: Why so many +1 comments?

I agree that leaving comments that consist entirely of "+1 (padding to get to 15 characters)" on lots of posts is noise. If a comment starts out "+1" and then elaborates or refines some particular point, I see that comment as valuable even though it started out with "+1". Ditto "-1". There is ...

^^^ This is my personal opinion, not a mod position, and I'll obviously act in accord with what the community wants.

Chad

@MonicaCellio We want mods using their best judgment. If it seems like noise take action.

Monica Cellio

@Chad oh, I clean up plenty of noise, no worries. I was specifically referring to my last category, where I'm more inclined to leave a comment alone. Are comments encouraging new users noise like other +1 comments, or are they special? (Or maybe they're special for a certain period of time?)

Chad

@jcmeloni Wonder if we could get that text blocked and if someone attempts to post a comment or answer with that link suspend them

@MonicaCellio My opinion is the first +1 and welcome to the work place is fine, after that its noise... they can upvote that +1

Monica Cellio

@Chad sounds like we're on the same page there. Thanks.

CMW

3:05 PM

@MonicaCellio I agree with that approach, too.

Chad

@MonicaCellio You were elected because we trust your judgment. If you do something bad it can be reversed no harm no foul. If you do not take action needed then the harm from the bad post continues. I would rather that if you see something you think maybe you should take action on, you take that action then ask about if it was right. If not agreed then reverse it and go on. I think that if you take that track no one is going to fault when you make mistakes. And if they do we will back you up.

Monica Cellio

4:18 PM

I'm about to dismiss a comment flag here and want to explain why (since I can't send a response via the flag interface). The comment was flagged as obsolete, which is true; however, it explains why the OP doesn't want to add certain info to the question and the question has close votes, so for now that seems relevant to the close discussion. [cont]

This can be cleaned up when the question is resolved one way or the other.

Chad

@MonicaCellio The OP accepted the changed question though

@Chad -- thank you for the edit. — EMS 23 hours ago

Both of the close votes came before the edit when the question was still a rant

Monica Cellio

@Chad oh! I missed the relative timing of the comments and the edit. Ok, sorry for that flag dismissal, but I'll delete the comment now.

Chad

Thats the important thinkg

Thanks for bringing it up

Chad

4:38 PM

2

Q: How should I approach job search in a country where racism/discrimination is accepted and/or not actively tackled?

I am planning, within the next 12 months, to move in with my wife in her country (Central-Eastern Europe), and thus I would need to start looking for a role there. I am aware that in their end of the world, there are no precise policies about discrimination like in the West. I am also aware that ...

job-search international

this question is probably going to get closed but I dont think it should be. Its on topic and while not easy to answer(which is why i suspect it is getting close votes) it is answerable and should be something that is good to have on the site.

Monica Cellio

I don't think this is a personal-dilemma question either, any more than questions about workspace accommodations for disabilities are (and we have some of those). Racism is a significant issue in some places and I think it's valuable to have a question that addresses it. Of course, answers need to back up what they say, not just offer discussion. — Monica Cellio ♦ 15 secs ago

Stack Exchange

5:02 PM

0

Q: What questions are off-topic here?

This is the first post stemming from Improving the Help Center (take two). It is listed as faq-proposed so that the community can add to and comment on the contents. We can clean up additional answers and comments later on, so don't hesitate to point out if you think something should be added,...

discussion feature-request on-topic-definition faq-proposed

Chad

5:46 PM

@StackExchange I think we should add Is this fair/ethical/right questions to this list as well

And How should I run my business questions

jmac

6:04 PM

@Chad I don't think Stack Exchange is listening, but I am. Feel free to toss in a sample answer with a brief explanation of how you think it should be addressed in the help center, or create a separate meta post to discuss adding it (whichever works better for you)

Chad

6:52 PM

@jmac I updated it and added 3 questions that had a legal component that are on topic. I think its important to include that

Chad

7:33 PM

Wow pets has become a wasteland of Opinion driven content and claims of fact that are referenced and often wrong or at least misinformed.

Chad

8:05 PM

0

Q: Random enforcing of company policy

We have a company policy that specifically states that immediate family members, while not forbidden to work together, cannot work in a manager/employee relationship. However, my supervisor and her daughter (my co-worker) have exactly that. Unfortunately, it seems as though the policies are enf...

management

Needs closed before it attracts bad answers that will make it really hard to salvage

Chad

8:54 PM

Too late :( we have a bad answer

Chad

9:41 PM

1

Q: Should I accept tasks for another company?

I work as a programmer and my usual tasks are HTML5 games. Since those are not that common, sometimes I do other things, including some web development, even though I hate it (I'm the only one here that knows how to build a website.) This is just some background, my problem is the following: Th...

professionalism

We had this question before.

Transcript for