Thinking about mod votes being of a hammer's weight, I recently thought they should have two kinds of close votes. Then I thought, surely that's come up before. It has, indeed. In 2010!
I don't see any good reasoning why they do not have that implemented.
Some UX considerations, like should their name still have a diamond next to it if they regular voted?
Whatever, anyway. It's impossible to get anything done through MSE if it's been there that long already. The SE staff are masters of "let is die on the table."
From Jeff Atwood:
> The purpose of moderators is to moderate.
If they are afraid to do so, they should not be moderators in the first place.
As for educating the community, leaving instructive, explanatory comments is far more useful than casting a weak regular user vote in these circumstances.
So in summary: leave extensive comments, and learn to wield the big vote stick responsibly.
Top voted comment on that:
I strongly disagree with this. Moderators are also participants in the site. When I have people lightly misbehaving on my questions/answers, then either I can do nothing, or I can wield my super-mod-hammer and then have to deal with them getting hurt feelings and acting out in other Q's and on meta. Adding this feature could help people not get their fur ruffled as much and thus make all us mods' job easier and users happier. — mxyzplkFeb 17 '11 at 14:33
Considering the date, it's all focused on SO. Another thing I hate about posting on MSE. You can't seem to get an answer that considered the entire SE network. Just SO is about all that's on their mind.
Some how I missed Shog's answer. I don't think he was SE staff yet.
Yeah, he was hired on a year later.
> Like it or not, when a moderator expresses his opinion on SO, it is going to carry additional weight. Even if that opinion is expressed in a comment, even without an explicit threat attached, there's always an implication of potential consequences.
That makes some sense. I still don't agree with it though.
> They aren't normal users, and can't pretend to be.
Well, yes they can, if the system was designed for it. That's kind of the point of the question.
A proper answer to that question should tell why that is not a good idea, or why the current way it is designed is better.
@fredsbendtheGrinch The problem is, I really, really hate the attitude that voting has given folks about closing. I understand why it was necessary, but I still hate it.
A bit of history, since I've recently been reminded that a lot of folks don't know this anymore...
In spite of all the downvotes on his answer, nicael is absolutely correct - the notion that privileged users would have to vote to close was a somewhat late addition to the Stack Overflow system:
As an active Stack Overflow user, one of the abilities you’ll gain at 3,000 reputation is the abi...
Agreed with all that. It makes no sense for a moderator to cast regular votes, there's a community for that. Becoming a moderator means acting differently, in terms of site moderation. It's not a matter of "democratic vote" anymore. Moderators are supposedly above that, and should act only when there is a dysfunction, something requiring instant action, or when the community doesn't manage to deal with it itself (like on SU, when there are not enough 3k users to close a question). — GnoupiJul 25 '10 at 14:35
@Shog9 Were your ears burning or did @El rat me out?
@fredsbendtheGrinch when you hold the power to close or reopen a question, you tend to take that somewhat seriously. If you don't feel strongly that it should be closed, then you don't close it.
But... when it's "just a vote"... Well, some folks don't think of it as a matter of much importance anymore.
To use a metaphor perhaps fitting this room: you're not condemning the question anymore, you're just throwing one stone. Or, in the case of flaggers, holding the coats of those who throw.
So folks will vote when they wouldn't feel strongly enough to close. Questions get closed - and sometimes reopened - by groups among whom none feel strongly about the matter. Among whom none can be found to defend the action.
I don't like that. At all. But, that's the system we have to work with... mostly.
Mods are excempt from that, however. They can choose to leave a question open, or close it instantly. To go back to my metaphor, they're the judges - they offer condemnation or reprieve. What can you do with a judge who won't judge?
We're keeping this intentionally minimalistic starting out: let's face it, this the biggest change we've made to the actual criteria for closing in a good long while, so it's worth taking some time to see how it's actually used.
At minimum, we'll be adding a note to the documentation noting the...
fixing to call it a day though. Made sort of a new year's resolution to make more of an effort to know when to quit. 3/4 through the first beer seems like a reasonable quitting time ;-)
From my friend @BeatMe in chat asked "So a question that is easily googleable (top 5 links for the exact question give a huge selection of answers) shouldn't be answered?"
Right after commenting on my question Who are the two witnesses in the book of Revelation?
My question is the same, where d...
@Mr.Bultitude most likely, but it's important to be careful about what "too basic" is
but something like "what verse is "for God so loved the world" in?" would probably be too basic as it is non-interesting and easily googlable
in general, the goal of SE (not speaking for Christianity specifically) is to be the #1 google result for any interesting questions and have the best answers for them
so it comes down to what is an interesting question
@rfusca hey, how was it you knew that guy? I'm kind of thinking about backing away slowly after finding out who he was with. I'm not 100% comfortable with that particular group.
I haven't decided for sure yet, but I'm at least a little uncomfortable with the idea
From my friend @BeatMe in chat asked "So a question that is easily googleable (top 5 links for the exact question give a huge selection of answers) shouldn't be answered?"
Right after commenting on my question Who are the two witnesses in the book of Revelation?
My question is the same, where d...
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