@Aify You don't have to do all the reviewing. Even if you get fewer tasks done, others can pick up the slack. If it leads to more new users coming back to worldbuilding, I'd say its all for the better.
I disagree @FoxElemental In the time it takes me to explain to one person why their post is bad and how to fix it (which I usually don't think is fixable without drastically changing the question) I could have set into motion 5 close votes on other questions. In this case, better =/= faster. We're on the internet, people should grow thicker skin...
@Aify I disagree. It's better for the question if you take the time. There's a larger ability to save it if everyone contributes. If you don't, then not only do you come across as harsh, but it actually leads to a decrease in overall site quality.
@AndyD273 it's exactly because I know the site doesn't work that way and that the mods are expected to change their voting patterns that I will not run for mod
@AndyD273 You can actually. Just because a lot of mods choose not to for one reason or another doesn't mean there's anything against it and (unless a mod isn't VTC-ing first for reasons of encouraging the community to do it or something) this kind of behaviour is the expected behaviour, just not what most mods choose to do
But . . . you still might consider, just, you know, leaving an explanatory/how-to-fix comment on, like, one post per day, for a new user or for a more salvagable question. Just to start
Might make people appreciate your use of those privileges more
@FoxElemental Disagree - Better for the single question =/= better for the site as a whole. I think the only true way to make the site better as a whole is to almost "train" new users to ask higher quality questions, and to weed out the ones that are lazy and will drag down site quality early and quickly
@FoxElemental This is to be expected of higher rep people - when you don't have the power to VTC, you can just flag and leave it for someone with a higher rep to deal with :P while when you are that person of higher rep, it's kind of up to you to do that
With great power comes great responsibility, so if you had a great power and didn't use it responsibly/for good then what would be the worst super power.
@Mithrandir24601 Actually, that would be pretty mean. Edit someones comment to something that would get them in trouble... Can that be done without leaving a trail?
@AndyD273 You'd leave a trail, yeah. To my knowledge, every action (except voting) leaves a trail for someone, although that someone might need to be a SE dev or something
@HDE226868 Just a question: is there any way to get display-style in LaTeX Mathmode (not the mathjax $$)? or should I check TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange?
@MaskedMan This is true enough - I've never had to deal with this kind of thing (hopefully will never have to), so I've never really had to worry about it before :)
The scariest superpower that I can think of is mind control, like Kilgrave from Jessica Jones or Agent John Smith from the Ex-Heroes books, where they can just tell you to do something and you have no will or power to do anything else
Additionally, an omnipotent being wouldn't even have to be close enough to tell you to do something. They could simply transform you into a mindless slave, or rip you from the universe entirely.
So yeah, I'm going to go with omnipotence for the scariest superpower.
@Mithrandir24601 your two recent declined flags and one disputed flag were all the result of reviews, not mod action. In the case of the disputed one a mod deleted the post (in response to a later flag).
@dot_Sp0T who's been sharing all our secrets with this guy? :-)
Seriously, though, if you're interested, then nominate! If you don't nominate you can't be a mod; if you do then maybe you can, depending on what the voters think.
@Gryphon I'm not sure why that one seems slightly less scary to me. Maybe because all of the fictional examples of omnipotence I've seen haven't abused it, more "Well, I can do anything now, so I'm taking off to see the universe."
@MonicaCellio OK, thanks! Although that's also concerning me slightly - you've obviously got the PSA about using flags but it's really hard to use flags if people are just going to decline them. OK, 3 disputed/declined in a row isn't a lot but it's statistically abnormal, so I'm (informally) bringing this up here, in case it's part of a larger pattern of people not closing questions properly or something
@Gryphon True, but even the biblical examples show a lot of restraint. Even the flood. Anyone could have gotten on the Ark if they had believed Noah during the 200 years he was building it. Just because no one did doesn't mean they weren't given the chance.
@Gryphon we've had an RPG ad on this site in the past; they created and submitted it. If that didn't happen this year, somebody could go find it from last year and bring it forward and/or ping the person who posted it to ask about updates. Usually ads for sites come from people active on those sites, as opposed to the hosting site saying "hmm, which other sites should we have ads for?" (Of course, sometimes people are active on both and that's great.)
@Mithrandir24601 yeah, sounds like the community should be talking about some of these cases. These were cases where reviewers handled flags without mod involvement; we wouldn't have even noticed if you hadn't brought it up. Feel free to start a meta discussion or talk about it in here or whatever.
And, TBH, that's, IMO, God doesn't just show up and tell everyone to obey. Because then we'd just be like the dwarves in LOTR before they were given free will.
@Gryphon fun fact: the Hebrew word translated "fear" there also means "awe". Neither English word fully captures it; think of that overwhelming, stunning feeling you have upon encountering a truly overwhelming power.
@Mithrandir24601 all translation is commentary, in a sense, because languages aren't exactly equal. That means you need to read with commentaries/footnotes/whatever, or read multiple translations and compare what you see.
@Gryphon I've read at least some (I think all) of it, but that would have been a good number of years ago now :/ Maybe time for a reread, once I finish Les Mis
@MonicaCellio I used to be at a Uni where the Dean learned directly from some famous Hebrew scholar, so the stuff she talked about was fascinating and opened my eyes to so much but I'm not there anymore and people with that kind of knowledge are few and far between in the real world :/
@MonicaCellio I'll think about it. I haven't been really active in the whole real-world-questions debate though and that's a topic that's been dominating the site lately.
@dot_Sp0T some of that, but it's not a wholly negative feeling. Have you ever been in close proximity to something like a super-fierce storm? It's scary and dangerous, but isn't a part of your brain going "oh wow" too? Something like that, but multiplied.
As an example, if there's discussion as to whether a question (or set of questions) might be better for, say, Writing, Monica or Michael would probably be the mods most active there, since they're both Writing mods and are quite familiar with the scope.
@HDE226868 Yeah, but currently I can just walk away from some discussions. It's easy to get me into a discussion mood and it's hard for me to to walk away, but I've learned over the time here that it's sometimes better if I walk away. That's more difficult if there's a diamond attached to your name and people expect you to participate if something comes up.
@Gryphon The "real-world questions" debate? Give me some context about what you are building (Book? Game? ...) and why you need help from people with experience in building fictional worlds (Why is Wikipedia not enough?) and I am fine with a lot. But I am not fine with this being used as an excuse to ask anything that comes to your mind just because there could be a fictional world that is exactly like ours and where your character has the exact same problem with programming that you do.
@Secespitus I agree with that. It's basically what @James typed up.
Otherwise all hard-science questions should be closed as off-topic, since they have to be firmly rooted in the real world, with math and current theory to back them up.
it's bad to the point that I've been sitting at a google sheet with a friend, making a role/permission matrix to get an overview for a server with some 25 channels/categories
also I'm off for today - please rant about discord while I am away, this will help you bond as a community
@dot_Sp0T I think so, though I don't know how James would take to being called "the snorter."
On another note, I often don't like writing answers, but I have to admit, they're a good source of rep.
Huh. Scrolling though the Q&A list, I see everyone's proposals except for HDE's and Monica's--those of moderators--have been downvoted at least once. Even Grace, who's a community manager, had her list downvoted--and she stated that two of them were obligatory anyway. I wonder why the downvotes . . .