The Reading Room

12:15 AM

@BESW Edited that answer. I think it's better, but could probably still do with more work, especially towards the end.

HDE 226868

12:46 AM

@Randal'Thor I'd normally be against undeleting a post if the user deleted it themselves.

Napoleon Wilson

I'd not.

HDE 226868

It's also not a great question, and only borderline on-topic, at best.

BESW

There's a few things going on with undeleting posts.

A user deleting their own good post is basically removing quality content from the site, and that's not cool.

4

In those cases, undeleting is usually indicated unless there's something else weird going on.

But if the quality of the deleted content is questionable, it ruffles fewer feathers to let the user self-curate.

Benjamin

Could we ever get a Lit.SE Documentaion?

Rand al'Thor

This is a bit borderline, because it's not clear whether the question is on-topic or not. But given that they seemingly deleted it because they didn't like a single user's comments, and it sounds like they might be quitting the site, I'd much rather undelete it and give them some more positivity so they stick around.

HDE 226868

12:54 AM

Valorum's comment likely annoyed the user. So they deleted their post. Now it's undeleted, which is likely not going to do more than aggravate them even more, which has a better chance of making them leave the site than simply letting them do what they want. Furthermore, the comments are still there.

BESW

@Randal'Thor I agree on both counts.

I have a personal guideline of not bending or breaking rules in the name of retaining users, because users who only stay if the rules are customised for them? Not users we really want or need. But within that frame it's important to be as flexible and kind as reasonable.

Benjamin

1:11 AM

Could we ever get a wiki-type thing for lit.se?

Cascabel

1:30 AM

I have been trying to catch up here, and would like to express several things 1) I was not bothered by Valorums comments--I enjoy interacting with V. 2) What pissed me off was the close votes, as stated in my comment. I just went through this kind of political crap on EL&U this week, and it took a while for people to catch up with what I was saying

...and . 3) I do not want anyone bending the rules for me--if something is off-topic, so be it. But if we are still in the process of developing scope, should we not rush to limit it?

I meant...why are we in a rush to limit it

Rand al'Thor

I can't remember who it was, but someone said in here that close votes don't really mean much in private beta.

3

Anyone can vote to close, even 1-rep users. What matters more is meta consensus on scope.

Benjamin

@Randal'Thor I was one of the people to close-vote and I think that type of question should be pseudo-on-topic depending on framing, but I thought we should discuss it on meta first.

@Randal'Thor Could you pin this in the side-bar?

BESW

I haven't participated in the question at all, and was previously mostly just talking abstract theory.

Rand al'Thor

@Benjamin Meh, is it important enough to be pinned? The star-board is already nearly full of pins.

Cascabel

@Randal'Thor I am all for making this a quality site. I would like to stay. But please do not bend any rules for me.

Benjamin

1:35 AM

@Randal'Thor I think that is very important.

BESW

For the question itself, I feel like it's begging the question that Mark Twain can only speak authoritatively on things which he's personally experienced.

Rand al'Thor

@Cascabel I never proposed bending any rules. Personally I haven't voted on your question yet, because I'm not sure what to think of it.

There was some discussion in here (chat) about questions specifically relating to an author without reference to any of their works, a la "did Tolkien have a driving licence?", but I don't think anyone took it to meta.

Cascabel

@BESW The question is focussed on "unrliable narrator", which used to be atag, but someone took it off.

Benjamin

@Cascabel I think it may still be.

BESW

@Cascabel It's asking about Twain's personal experience related to a quote that doesn't have him claiming personal experience.

So I'm confused.

Cascabel

1:39 AM

@BESW Sorry. That quote was not critical. I was trying to relate Twains statement about liars and his own tall tales.

BESW

You're drawing a connection between the quote, his experience, and unreliable narration, which I'm not following--especially since as much as Twain tends to write in first person, he's usually writing as a character rather than as his own true self.

Benjamin

@BESW @Emrakul @Randal'Thor @Riker @NapoleonWilson @HDE226868 How would you all feel about setting up an informal wiki for collecting information that doesn't fit the Q&A style, a la StackOverflow Documentation?

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