@Scimonster I don't know how you see that. Where has a singer encouraged people to listen to their music as background on a treadmill? In any event, Jewish Chazanim have a long tradition of doing what they want and ignoring Halacha (eg. repeating words, extra piyutim, missing zmanim).
@Scimonster You get a +1 for the edited version of number 2.
His points in 3 and 4 shouldn't convince anyone it's permitted even if they convince you that we shouldn't complain because it's necessary right now for many people to stay otherwise religious. מוטב שיהיו שוגגין ואל יהיו מזידין and עת לעשות לה הפרו תורתך are indeed very important traditional values.
@Shokhet heh, I was thinking of dropping clothing, but family-members is probably better. (It's not really family-specific so much as "dealing with people who know me", so social-convention would cover it.)
There's a Rabbi Rakeffet mp3 on this on yutorah.org (sorry no, I can't tell you which one).
It's widely circulated that the Rambam wrote that anyone killed simply because they were Jewish is considered to have died "al kiddush Hashem."
However ... we don't seem to actually have such a written s...
Did someone over-agressively delete the comments there? I thought my comment was still pertinent, but before I remake it, I was just checking.
@Shokhet ok, I had been assuming that somebody more qualified would answer, but I just offered a little something there for your consideration. I relied in part on an answer elsewhere from @DoubleAA.
@YeZ no to the first; if you have the rep to vote to close you should vote to close instead of flagging. (Yes, that means flags are a little harder to come by after 3k, but with luck that's not your primary motivation. :-) ) I'm not sure about flags; aside from the custom "write a note to the mods" one (which we have to manually resolve), what question flags are available to you? I guess spam/offensive; if the post gets deleted by flags you get credit for that.
@MonicaCellio Even if you try to flag, it takes you to the vote box. I voted to close a q, just was curious if doing it through the "flag" link would work.
@DoubleAA I see you have it taken care of onsite, with your "although see discussions" - it just looks funny in the publication. You have one answer followed by a second which provides a source contradicting the first, then a third answer referring back to the two answers which contradict each other.
@DoubleAA the ways of voters are unpredictable. Sometimes I put a lot of effort into something I think is a good, solid answer and get a vote or two; other times I toss off something quick and get a Nice Answer badge.
@YeZ Ah. Well, it could very well be there are two different kinds of mitzva objects. I'm also comfortable saying we don't paskin like the Avnei Nezer. But I see how that looks odd in the book.
@MonicaCellio et al. I have answers that I spent a few days on which get 1 vote, and answers which just relate an anecdote or translate something and get enlightened badges.
@Yishai The first comment (not yours) was "Interesting. I'm not sure how often this would have come up pre-Holocaust. AFAIK that was the first time Jews were targeted for execution without, say, the chance to convert to Christianity. Anyone Jew who did not practice Judaism was pretty much safe until the holocaust." All your comments and most of the others were about that not about the post. Even that first comment isn't "constructive criticism that guides the author in improving the post".
Oh! I'm sorry! One of your comments wasn't about that. I missed it. I apologize. I'll undelete it.
@YeZ I actually haven't answered a lot of questions lately. Becoming a mod there took a chunk out of my answering time. (Which is exactly what I publicly predicted would happen when they pushed me to stand for election.)
Rep flows more freely there than here (more users), which is why I asked for this on the new profile. I mean, not just there and here, but cross-site voting imbalances in general.
There's a vote to close as a request for p'sak....this one is on the fence (I think), but is OK even though there is a back-story in the first person. — Shokhet11 secs ago
@Scimonster I didn't get it from the queue....I spotted it as a HNQ on Mi Yodeya's frontpage, and noticed the close vote from the close link under the question.
@Scimonster 'cuz you told me you reviewed it, I was able to get the link to the review....it appears that msh210 also hit "leave open," FWIW
@Scimonster ah, I wondered if that came from this room. :-)
"How can I tell if this is kosher" isn't p'sak; "is this thing with ambiguous circumstances kosher" might be (depending on the rest of the question). I think this is fine. — Monica Cellio ♦32 secs ago
@Shokhet oh, so mod votes from that review queue don't become binding? I've been avoiding that queue all this time because I don't want to override the community!
@Shokhet it was for the room in addition to being for you. :-)
@MonicaCellio I don't know if it's binding, but I checked the review page a few times; it appears that it doesn't cancel the votes, but appears to remove a question from the queue
@MonicaCellio Also, on a question that you want community input on, you can always do what I do when I'm not sure what action to take: skip ;-)
@Shokhet ok, I don't have time to look into this right now, but if somebody else does and can determine whether a mod "leave open" ends the review or is just another vote, I'd appreciate hearing about it.
@Shokhet true. What I'd really like is one page with links to all the questions currently in that queue, so I can easily skim it to see what's going on without stepping through them all.
If mod clicks "leave open", this review is marked completed and question is removed from the review queue.
A moderator action always completes review, no matter what the action is. — animuson20 secs ago
@MonicaCellio So yes, avoid the close votes, reopen votes, suggested edits, and low quality queues. Otherwise, how are us mere mortals supposed to get badges? ;)
@Scimonster thanks! That's what I assumed, but it's good to have confirmation. (I take Anna's editing of that answer to be confirmation.)
@Scimonster there are plenty of badges to go around. You can share with the mods, can't you? :-) (Just kidding; I do not feel incomplete without review badges. Or flag badges, for that matter; mods don't qualify for Deputy and Marshal. Eh, whatever.)
@Scimonster yes, SO has several badge requirements for candidates that other sites don't have. They're huge, the mod job is huge (even with 17 mods), and they've got plenty of people who could step up, so it makes sense to filter the candidate pool. I seem to recall hearing that a mod on SO should be prepared to handle 100 flags a day; on Mi Yodeya 100/month is more likely. If flag-handling is a big part of the job, demonstrating that you have clues about flags seems like a good idea.
Over on Stack Overflow, there are badge requirements for nomination to be moderator including Civic Duty, Strunk & White, Deputy and Convention (source). These requirements are designed to ensure that nominees have a correct understanding for the policies and style of the site.
Obviously imposin...