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Sorry if the title sounds lil off, but what I meant is that users should stop flagging questions/answers as low quality if users question/answer date/time is less than 2-3 days.

The reason I suggest this to our community is that we have lot of people joining Hinduism.SE lately but very few of them know how things work here. Instead of down voting or flagging questions/answers as low quality, help them out by editing yourself leaving a comment which explains them that what was the lacking factor in their post.

This will not only help them to understand the site and correct their mistakes but will also help our site generate more quality content with more number of active users. Because if we keep on flagging and deleting/closing their posts, they might end up writing another low quality post.

If you keep flagging such posts instead of using your reputation to edit posts, voting and so on, some day these users might leave our site as we, as moderators, either move these answers to comment, delete such posts or we end up commenting on their posts, marking the flag as helpful(where, in literal terms, it isn't)

Also, I hardly see any posts in edit review queue which shows that users are not actively using their special privileges which they gain as their reputation increases.

Support new users by commenting on their posts, encourage them to ask their doubts related to the site on meta, and edit the posts and make them better.

If you are not aware of what privilege you get after earning x amount of reputation, here's a link which will help you will all the info you need regarding Hinduism.SE privileges.

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  • I thought one liners were automatically marked as low quality by site..
    – The Destroyer Mod
    Oct 8, 2016 at 5:10
  • Could we please be a bit nicer to new users? may help.
    – Pandya Mod
    Oct 9, 2016 at 5:42
  • @TheDestroyer Some, not all
    – Mr. Alien
    Oct 9, 2016 at 5:47
  • 4
    Your intention is good to encourage users. But the policy in this site has to be aligned. One moderator asks not to flag supposedly low quality answers quickly! While the other moderator deletes manageable quality answers quickly. See this, this and this. There has to be balance and uniformity.
    – iammilind
    Oct 10, 2016 at 6:35
  • 1
    Btw, Do we (our community) require more moderators?
    – Pandya Mod
    Oct 18, 2016 at 4:03
  • @Pandya No, three are more than enough
    – Mr. Alien
    Oct 18, 2016 at 6:27
  • @Pandya I think we need more moderators who are willing to spend more time on the main site, asking questions, answering some, doing edits, clearing flags, deleting answers without relying on other users having to raise flags etc. No offense, but only one moderator fits the job description. Also, most of the time you see one moderator defending other mods' actions or staying neutral instead of speaking out.
    – Say No To Censorship
    Nov 3, 2016 at 17:01
  • @sv. I am worried here as your definition is completely wrong :)
    – Mr. Alien
    Nov 3, 2016 at 19:37
  • 1
    @Mr.Alien I hope you read this: hinduism.stackexchange.com/help/site-moderators. One of the bullets is: lead by example -- that is exactly what I was referring to. Also suggest you and other mods to read: A Theory of Moderation and make a mental note of "As a moderator, your actions now represent the community, so you will be held to a higher standard of behavior."
    – Say No To Censorship
    Nov 3, 2016 at 20:02
  • As a moderator, you should also properly address @iammilind 's above concern/comment instead of just staying neutral.
    – Say No To Censorship
    Nov 3, 2016 at 20:06
  • @s.v honestly I don't want to debate much.. but what I meant was that I think we need more moderators who are willing to spend more time on the main site, asking questions, answering some, doing edits, clearing flags, deleting answers without relying on other users having to raise flags etc I don't agree with this. Why would moderator ask questions? Why would he answer questions? Where does it state that mods should do that? We do edit posts, handle flags..
    – Mr. Alien
    Nov 4, 2016 at 2:54
  • 1
    Also to add to this.. when you say without relying on other users than I would say that three moderators cannot visit each and every post everyday. User's do earn privileges for a reason, so that they can help moderators and the site. Why you cannot edit posts as a user rather than relying upon a mod to do it? I think you are lacking basics here od what mods are suppose to do. I would love to see you as one of the moderator if you are willing to become one and do the above duties everyday.
    – Mr. Alien
    Nov 4, 2016 at 2:56
  • IMO, moderators who "lead by example" are better than others. If you don't agree, that's fine. But "lead by example" are not my words, this is from coming from SE community guidelines whether you agree or not. I interpret 'lead by example' to mean all user actions I stated above. Also, moderators should be extremely careful before deleting answers and others' comments. Which is not the case here on Hinduism.SE (see 'other issues' here).
    – Say No To Censorship
    Nov 4, 2016 at 3:18
  • 2
    Not just me, there are several high rep users who are regular visitors to the site and equally qualified to become moderators. Whether I'm a moderator or not, I will continue to do all the above actions.
    – Say No To Censorship
    Nov 4, 2016 at 3:20
  • 1
    @sv. mods are humans and humans do make mistakes, that's all I can say, don't want to debate further over this.
    – Mr. Alien
    Nov 4, 2016 at 4:19

1 Answer 1

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Although the intent of your post is good, practically it's not feasible to edit or improve one-line answers.

Most one-liners are written by unregistered users who may or may not return to the site even if you leave a comment asking them to improve the answer by citing sources, provide English translation (if entirely written in another language) etc. You are better off writing your own answer than trying to improve someone else's answer from scratch.

Also, first-time users who don't have enough privilege to comment on the question or an answer will resort to posting the same as an answer. This is a well-known problem across the SE platform.

If one spends enough time on this site, it is easy to identify such "answers" and flag or downvote them instead of trying to salvage them.

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  • As I said, some times, its fine, I understand, but honestly if we see this way, if users answer and we flag it instantly, as a mod, should I move it as a comment? Delete it? wait for the user to edit his answer? As he posted just few mins back or a day back.
    – Mr. Alien
    Oct 9, 2016 at 5:48
  • The mods should probably wait 2-3 days and then take action on the flags? Revisiting old answers is never going to happen. There are ton of answers out there already with such comments urging user to improve the answer but very few users actually stick around and fix their answers.
    – Say No To Censorship
    Oct 9, 2016 at 15:25
  • My real reason behind this post is to motivate users to do activities on the site and make posts better. Flagging a post as low quality and leaving it on mods to take action won't help. We should edit the posts, share links if you have sources, better grammar edits and so on.. It's not just about user/mod relation am focusing here.. also, I completely agree with your answer as well as your comment, but think about this. You flag, I review, I wait, I take action after 2 days, ends up either in delete, or converting it to a comment, instead of that ....
    – Mr. Alien
    Oct 9, 2016 at 15:43
  • if you would've commented on the post, that would prove more useful
    – Mr. Alien
    Oct 9, 2016 at 15:43
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    @Mr.Alien, though I am not regular visitor in this site, but this part in this answer is quite agreeable: "... You are better off writing your own answer than trying to improve someone else's answer from scratch." I see that you yourself are high rep user in main SO and you would notice that, in technical answering one may edit other user's answer (e.g. jquery, java, php, c). But how is that possible in philosophical sites like this? Suppose, there is a fact based answer written by a new user, but without sources. Now if I go and find that source, then why shouldn't I write it myself?
    – iammilind
    Oct 10, 2016 at 6:18

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