0

Presently there is no way to question a moderator decision to delete a post. Not even a comment is possible.

I think this puts too much power in moderators and brings frustration to the post author.

Also depending on time of day, mood, recent events any human can react hastily or without enough consideration. So it makes a lot of sense to create an appeal process.

As example my answer was deleted: https://superuser.com/a/1773355/111432

While it I see why any windows fans might be irritated by it and thus I'm not surprised by downvotes, I believe it provides a very valid reason (licensing) as an answer to the original question. This is how answer starts:

Because many of these tools are GPL licensed and can't be shipped together with ...

No other answers mention licensing issue which are a significant consideration in enterprise software field.

But moderator just closed with "This is really a comment and not an answer ..."

I can't make any sense out of such explanation and there is no mechanism to appeal or receive clarification.

Because of this, such action doesn't serve an educational purpose, undermines the (down)voting mechanism and creates a feeling of privileged and non-privileged members of the community.

So my proposal is:

  • That there should be a guidance that unless answer is clearly in violation of rules or off-topic, to let (down)voting to take care of it.
  • At least allow contacting the moderator that performed the action for clarification before resorting to writing on meta. e.g. still allow comments from post author and moderators as a non-intrusive way of allowing such communication.
3
  • 2
    "Presently there is no way to question a moderator decision to delete a post. Not even a comment is possible." - Yes; This is by design. Submitting a comment is never a method to "question" a moderator's action. You should flag the question or answer that was deleted for review.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 17:48
  • @Ramhound, I didn't realize that. I flagged it. Thank you! Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 17:52
  • The guidance exists. Your post should have a link to the help article about why post might be deleted and that article a link to the meta post with the details including what Ramhound mentioned in the previous comment.
    – user152004
    Commented Mar 13, 2023 at 19:35

1 Answer 1

3

From CW answer to How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion?

If your post was deleted by a moderator, you can flag that post, writing a note in the "in need of moderator intervention" section explaining the situation and requesting undeletion. Be sure to clearly indicate in your flag why the post does not meet the criteria for deletion outlined above. If your request is declined, or as an alternative, you can make a request on the per-site meta per the above paragraph.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .