@terdon Hi. Thanks.

room topic changed to Room for terdon and Eliah Kagan: (no tags)

room parent site changed to askubuntu.com

Hey. What's up?

I was in chat and since I'm at 10k user I saw a spam/offensive flag for a message in chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/66233/2017/9/27 that was deleted and the user automatically suspended for a short time, before I could handle the flag. The one flagged message I saw, before it was deleted, did not seem to me to violate the "be nice" policy, nor to get particularly close to doing so (though it did express a political opinion that I vehemently disagree with).

I figured it might be good for a mod to take a quick look. My understanding is that the whole chat system is modded by all the mods so it's fine I'm asking a mod who doesn't moderate the linked site itself. I don't need feedback or anything--I'll listen if you tell me about what was going on there, but that is not something I am requesting.

@EliahKagan Sigh. Not much I can do, actually. I can't see who flagged it and it is either impossible or really complicated to see who validated. it was quite likely validated by >10k users and not mods.

Hang on a sec

Well I'm not really worried about the who... I'm guessing from your turn of phrase that the message wasn't flag worthy after all. I figured if it could be part of a bigger problem it should be looked at just in case. I don't mean that to take sides either -- like, if that one message is fine but there were others by the user that were a problem, that would maybe be something to look at too.

k I'll hold on.

@EliahKagan Yes, I agree that shouldn't have been flagged. Mind you, I also think the position taken by that user is absurd, but that's no reason to flag.

Well, I just wanted another look to be taken at it. If there's nothing to be done, I understand. (If there is something to be done but not told about to me, I super understand. :) )

UNfortunately, the system is such that there really isn't much I can do about it. I think some chat mod probably thought it worth deleting (some of us are, in my opinion, way over sensitive), but I can't see who or why. As for a general trend, believe me, the seecreet mod room is full of discussions about chat flags and whether they should have been cast etc etc.

In other words, we try—although we often fail—to keep an eye on them and we often discuss them.

I understand. Thanks!

You're welcome

Sometimes I feel I should be less careful when handling 10k chat flags. About 3/4 of the time it's handled before I actually cast my agreement or disagreement. When I saw the message I thought, "Huh, was this flagged because of something in the context around it?" So I went to the transcript, checked it, then came back and tried to counterflag it, but the message was already gone and the user was temporarily suspended.

@terdon Oh, I suggest deleting my message chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/40235711#40235711 (if it's considered appropriate to do so) since it's not germane to the conversation there but was only a convenient way for me to get your attention. I understand if you prefer to leave it though.

@EliahKagan GOOD! I wish more people did so.

Oh, and yes I deleted your message.

Thanks!

Though technically ambiguous, I feel like I should interpret your "GOOD!" as saying that I should continue to take time, rather than that it is good I sometimes feel I shouldn't. :)

@EliahKagan Precisely, you little pedant you :P

Too many people are trigger happy with chat flags. We should indeed keep things civil and nice, but some of us really take it to extremes and don't bother to check the context something was said in.

And in my pedantic sentence, I see I used a dangling participle. The, uh, irony!

heh. Typical. And don't worry about the pedantry, it takes one to know one. That's virtually a compliment as far as I'm concerned :)

For me it goes the other way, too -- I see something that looks like I should not flag it, as in this case, but check before counterflagging in case the context indicates a different situation from what I would have guessed based on the one message.

As it should.