@Rickross @Pandya @Tezz @SreeCharan @SwiftPushkar @iammilind @KeshavSrinivasan I want all of your views on deleted answers of Immilind. First we can discuss about hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/5378/… ...

@TheDestroyer - yes , i will go through all and will give my views :)

@TheDestroyer Haha ur first choice is such a long answer?

@TheDestroyer But I am here to discuss about answers deleted yesterday.

@SreeCharan No. All answers actually.

To this question. There are only 3 answers left. ONe of them is highly upvoted althuogh it quoted some site.

Other did not quote anything.

Answer of ram is not wrong. Why is it deleted?

@SreeCharan It doesn't have sources. So, Mod deleted it.

What sources does answer with 8 votes have?

@iammilind @Pandya @TheDestroyer - I and we all will try to find and add ref.to all the answers in this way the problem will get solved. :)

@SwiftPushkar Most of the answers of milind are not related to sources. It's about nature of answers.

@TheDestroyer The answer with 1 upvote quoted another answer from site by nithin sridhar. That answer says "That is, Upanayanam is not compulsory for women. It depends on their individual temperaments." But the answer to this particular question says it is still allowed against the source. So this answer is also unsourced.

@SreeCharan Webpage he cites has this sentence: ". Bhagawan has said that the Gayatri Mantra can be chanted by men and women of all climes and creeds. "

People are not happy with the sources from scriptures too. What to do then?

@TheDestroyer Bhagawan means Satya sai baba. There is a dispute whether shird sai is god. We will discuss about Satya sai later.

@SreeCharan Mods can't do anything with correctness of answers. We can only check whether it answers or it has some source. We are also users who have our own views.

@SreeCharan You can downvote it if you disagree and leave comment how it is wrong. As Sai baba is Hindu personality , we have to allow his words. We also allow words of Osho.

@TheDestroyer - yes i have gone through 2 of them and without taking anyone's side or without any prejudice think that the class hierarchy answer is not that appropriate , since this site is more related to religion than philosophy , so that answer needs a whole new revision IMHO. @iammilind

@TheDestroyer Then there rises the question what is authentic source on this site?

@SreeCharan That's obviously complex to decide. Advaitins believe Yoga Vasista is genuine but other schools don't have same opinion. For a ardent sai devotee, his words are final authority. We can't do anything here as Sai is considered as Hindu deity in contemporary Hinduism. There will no consensus among all philosophies on Authentic scriptures. Agama people don't consider Brahma Sutras, for them Brahma Sutras are not authentic. All we can do is to allow views of all schools.

I will try to add ref. to Krishnas stealing of butter and milk question , i am sure we will find some scriptures / discourse related to that .

@TheDestroyer Then there should be revision to this answer. Then deletion of an answer to gayatri mantra question should be undeleted(if everyone's words are valid). OP quoted their guru's words. Guru is equal to god.

@TheDestroyer There should be a standard policy on which sources are considered authentic, no problem with scriptures like agama, nigama, smriti, purana etc., But the words of a saint or a scholar should be backed up by scripture too. Because no scholar speaks against scripture while quoting their personal gurus.

Renting and buying house answer also needs exact scriptural source @iammilind

There has been a huge discussion on rrenting and buying answer. THe answer should be from vastu shastra perspective. IF the answer is answered through astrology and vastu shastra, then there comes another comment or answer "X didn't consider this to be authentic. This is a superstion. So this is a wrong answer". Ironically, that answer gets upvotes. Why should one person's views should be considered authentic when it conflicts with majority of people's views? Because he is popular worldwide?

@SwiftPushkar Thanks for considering adding sources to unsourced answers.

@SreeCharan As per SE policy, Mods don't involve into views of answers. Mods won't decide who is authentic or not.

@Pandya - yeah , that is the speciality \uniqueness of SE sites anyone can edit Q/ANS. and add sources . can make corrections , So i think that is part of job. :)

@SreeCharan if X didn't believe in Vastu Sastra, it's the problem of X not with Vastu Sastra. Similarly, if a person doesn't believe in a philosophy, it is problem of person not with Philosophy.

Also I have a question to mods and all people here : What is the user guideline for superstitions? Why is this tag added even this is not a superstition? Many questions related to beliefs and rituals are being tagged superstition. Why is this allowed? @Keshav @TheDestroyer @Pandya @Tezz @iammilind @SwiftPushkar @moonstar2001

This tag is not originally added by OP but added later by high rep users. Reply from them: 1. This is nowhere mentioned in scriptures 2. It makes questions easily searchable.

@SreeCharan Bro! now we will discuss Milind answers and we will discuss other issues later.

@TheDestroyer HaHa.. It is partially related to renting vs buying.

@TheDestroyer As per SE policy, questions which are actually wrong and low quality should be downvoted and deleted. Now there should be a discussion which is low quality here.

@SreeCharan - I think that tag is necessary to separate Misbeliefs and proper hindu beliefs among people. So that tag can be used to clearout misbeliefs / misconceptions / wrong interpretation of scriptures etc. on this site.

@SreeCharan IMO, problem with "renting vs Buying" is he also mentions economic perspective. In one paragraph, he says Gita doesn't say anything. It could have been better if he stopped there but he suggested to buy if we have money or we can take loan. As per me, 2nd part is redundant. His answer deletion has nothing to with sources.

@SreeCharan No. Wrong answers are not deleted. They are downvoted only.

@TheDestroyer you said about shiva fulfilling wishes to evil people. Actually there is no need of sources to prove that. Simple common sense will be easy citing some examples from scriptures.

@TheDestroyer Add respectively to that sentence. Can't edit now.

@SreeCharan Obviously not. "Why" part is not found easily in scriptures. IMO, tt should be found from Tatva or philosophy.

@TheDestroyer So you say sources are compulsary for that answer? What sources can we cite?

Where are these questions? Question1, question2, queston3 in @iammilind's answer? Did OP ask it?

Question 1. For fulfillment of the permutations/combination (योग/Yoga) for so many souls' so many desires would require (nearly) infinite time duration. Isn't it impractical?

Question-2. If every desire is going to be fulfilled, then it doesn't seem like an achievement. Then why should I desire for something?

Question-3. How to get rid of having desires and liberated from birth & death cycle?

Question-4. "Not associated" leads to actually "not doing anything". So should we not do any deed (Karma) or go to some lonely place or be idle or suicide?

@SreeCharan exactly my point.

@SreeCharan I'm still undecided on philosophical answers. It is not yet decided or finalized.

@SreeCharan As per me, Shiva is Satvic inside and Tamasic outside (Shiva purana, Rudra Samhita). So, i think Shiva is Bholenath.

@SreeCharan Yes, it purely looks unnecessary/redundant.

Answer to that question is already given by @moonstar2001. Look below. It has 5 upvotes too. Sometimes practical examples should be considered sources.

BRB

@TheDestroyer - after how much downvotes answer get automatically deleted ?

@SreeCharan - yes , i also agree with you on this :)

@SwiftPushkar No. It won't.

@TheDestroyer - ok , so answers wont get deleted themselves . ok :)

@SwiftPushkar The reason behind retaining wrong answers is users learn from mistakes of others.

@TheDestroyer - hmm , got it :)

@SwiftPushkar Answers aren't automatically deleted based on downvotes, they are deleted by delete votes or automatically in case of more flags.

@Pandya - ok , so more flags leads to automatic deletion , i didn't knew that , thanks to both @TheDestroyer :)

@SwiftPushkar Particularly spam/abusive flags delete answers automatically.

@SwiftPushkar but comments are deleted after reaching a score.

If enough users flag a comment, the comment will be automatically removed once it reaches 3 + (score/3) flags.

@SreeCharan - ok :)

@TheDestroyer - ok :)

@SreeCharan, @TheDestroyer, thanks for discussing my answered in Shiva & Housing.

@TheDestroyer Not sure about the Shiva answer but as i have said before too that you should un-delete the renting answer. Its definitely an answer. Good or Bad different question altogether.

@SreeCharan, in Shiva answer I my self have spawned Q1 to Q4 for understanding why Shiva's fulfilling of everyone's wish is practical. We should note that, when a Qn asks "Why", it will mostly generate speculative answers. Where people would differ in their opinions. But from "meta" perspective, we should Not see the correctness or goodness of it. We should only see if it's a spam, plagiarism, comment, off topic or not. If yes delete, else retain it.

Same is true for Housing answer, Class Heirarchy answer, Pornography answer, Butter answer & Octagenerarian answer.

The last 2 are deleted under no-source policy. But IMO they should be deleted only if the community has decided & agreed on grandfathering policy in writing. As of now we don't have such. So better to wait rather than deletion.

@TheDestroyer I think many answers of iammilind where he has cited sources (like Gita verses) deserves undeletion... if some think that those answers are wrong then they can downvote...

@Rickross, @Tezz, all -- thanks for coming forward. I am anyways inactive since 2017. The deleted answers are quite old. But our goal should be that when a user goes to inactive, their work should be protected. It can't be deleted by someone else merely for difference of thinking.

Appreciated! Have a good day.

@Tezz Can you explain in detail for every answer?

@iammilind As i said earlier, i'm unclear on handling your housing answer as it answers the question with Gita. But at same time you are explaining from different perspective which took precedence over Gita point of view. Since this is religious site, i'm unclear whether to allow other subjects perspectives in answers besides Hinduism. But looks like majority of users here have no problem with your renting answer.

@Tezz what are your views on renting and Shiva answer?

@Tezz I've mentioned it need small correction.

@iammilind Hi! (it's nice to find you here as we can discuss here constructively). I've made some edit in your deleted answer. (thinking to undelete...)

@TheDestroyer, "renting & buying" itself is an economic activity. A small part of answer discusses that & thats too in context of Swadharma. It hasn't taken precedence. If that's the case, then it's debatable, but such things are subjective.

@Pandya those edits were not needed. Gita says not to be too concerned about housing etc at all, while your edits suggest that Hinduism doesn't recommend. Your edits are addressing the correctness of answer, but we are discussing validity of answer.

@iammilind anyway, I just undeleted your answer. (I think that (edits) makes clear the things.)

Thanks @Pandya, I will mark that meta post as resolved. But I will reedit those edits. I would recommend you to post that as a separate answer.

Done.

If either of mods want to post an answer then I will accept it.

@iammilind We are also discussing whether to continue or stop deleting unsourced answers till all policies are finalized.

@TheDestroyer Regarding the Shiva answer one should also consider the genuineness of the attempt to answer. Otherwise why would he write such a long answer? One should think many times before deleting such answers and more so if its coming from a senior member. If it was something that was posted now then you could have deleted it. Not an answer kind of answers are usually short and don't show that much effort.

Will join you later.

@TheDestroyer ok

@iammilind I advise you to avoid scientific explanation in answers. Also one should avoid posting his own/personal philosophy which deviates the point of question.