Hello!

we safely survived our road-trip :)

@TorbenGundtofteBruun There is one answer to that question already that appears to be a bit too close to a sales pitch, from a new user.

I think this is one of the reasons "shopping questions" are generally frowned upon: even though responses from our users may be helpful, it can become difficult to discern users from advertisers.

@Beofett welcome back! I'm sure you had a great time!

@Beofett I don't see the affiliation in that answer. It's a lot shorter than another answer, but essentially they both say "here's something to check out." Did I miss something obvious?

@TorbenGundtofteBruun I didn't see anything that clearly indicated an affiliation, either, although it was flagged by another user, and it was worded in a rather biased fashion. Still, nothing to indicate it wasn't just a very satisfied shopper, which is why I was leaving the flag until we could discuss it further

@Beofett nevertheless, the answer is deleted. I'm not arguing against (yet), I am only trying to understand. The flag is gone, so it's hard to tell. Of course, users are free to delete their own answers if they so choose. I'd just hate to chase away a new user over a misunderstanding.

@TorbenGundtofteBruun I believe Cabbey responded to that flag, as he is the one who deleted it. You can still view the flag by going to the mod link and viewing the flag history, if you are interested.

I tend to agree with you about not scaring new users away, but I was on the fence on this one, so I can't say I disagree with @Cabbey's decision

The flag was simply "smells like spam"

@Beofett I wasn't aware of the flag history, thanks. I really don't see any "proof" of spam or affiliation, and I think that one uncertain flag is too little basis for a moderator deletion. Would you be opposed to undeleting the answer?

@TorbenGundtofteBruun No, I'm not opposed to undeleting it.

(I am deliberately having this conversation in the public chat room. Not because of the specific case discussed, but out of a principle to be accountable and act openly.)

@Beofett Thanks, then I will do that.

@TorbenGundtofteBruun Absolutely. I debated moving (at least part of this) to TL, as we were discussing the specifics of the flags, but my understanding has been there was an agreement since early on that all policy decisions would be discussed in here in the spirit of open communication :)

Yes, sensitive stuff should never be discussed openly. If it's not sensitive (either to users or to StackExchange, the company), then I feel okay discussing it publicly. After all, if users challenge the moderation, we should be able to explain ourselves (even without revealing sensitive info), and that's exactly what we're doing now.

We do so little moderation work anyway ( to fellow users: not because we're lazy mods, but because you're awesome users! ), so it doesn't hurt to chat a little about it when it happens.

On an unrelated note, aren't you active on askubuntu.com? I just saw this:

seems like it's more about Parenting than anything else :P

@Beofett True, I am was active on Ask Ubuntu. I switched back to Windows last week, after nearly a year of Linux. That asker has a smart kid! :-)

@TorbenGundtofteBruun I'm contemplating the reverse change. I need to get away from Microsux :P

@Beofett I thought so too, and I was very pleased with Ubuntu. The new "Unity" desktop is dead simple, which is actually more of a win than it sounds like. I only turned back because I couldn't get the pictures and videos off the iPhone and our camera without great inconvenience. I have a simple setup on Windows, but I couldn't find a good-enough alternative on Linux. So with sadness, I returned to Windows, and had to fight license activation woes of course :-/

I did learn a lot about Linux though, and would recommend it to anyone who's interested.

@Beofett No, not on-topic here, though also not there. Security.SE was suggested, or why not right to superuser.com? That's where I'd put it.

I'm hoping to make the migration once I'm ready to build a new machine. that way i can leave my legacy pc on windows as a media/gaming pc, while running linux as the server

@TorbenGundtofteBruun not on topic as worded, but the crux of the issue is more parenting than IT (i.e. "how do I stop my child from trying to bypass my rules" versus "how do I foil this particular individual attempt to bypass my rules") :)

@Beofett yes that belongs here!

anyway, gotta go back to RealLife(tm). Talk to you later!