h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This Journal thread of mine http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F1663?thread=100426 has been referred for moderation. The Journal no longer appears on my "My Space", nor does it appear on my More Journals list http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/MJ25551?Journal=1663 - though it does appear in my list of "More Posts" http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/MP25551 as "" I would guess this is because the 1st post in the thread is one of those referred for moderation. And is related to the fix for nasty titles in moderated threads being displayed in lists. I think it might be wise to fix this one given the current paranoia about moderation (eg referring to it as censorship):-) ;^)#

Just to clarify, by "The Journal no longer appears on my "My Space"," I meant it no longer appears as a journal.

Also, I'm not sure if I was supposed to receive an email advising that the posts had been referred but I didn't receive one.

If I wasn't supposed to receive an email I think I should have & it should include the text of the posting as well as the URL - the text content because I have no way of finding out what was in the post & it is unlikely I will remember which of the myriad it was. This doesn't apply to Entries obviously as I can access them.

Just to preempt the "you only get an email when the post is deleted after referral" let me say that as I (like many users) am in a different timezone to the site & will often have to wait up to 12 hours for a decision. In the meantime I would like to know that my postings are considered suspect so that I can ammend my behaviour accordingly, or not as the case may be. Otherwise I possibly run the risk of accumulating enough transgressions to get banned whilst waiting.

;^)#

Agreed on!
I have had some posts removed, which doesn't even show up in my More Posts - they have just disappeared totally! I guess they have been referred, not deleted, since I haven't got an email, but how will I know???
(Actually, I'm very shure they'll be back, the reason for removing "just" being that the moderator don't understand Bubblish )

LOL - you could always request the Bubblish translator as a Gadget at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A388000

You even have a working (offsite) copy for Jim to look at.

;^)#

I think it would be an exceedingly kewl gadget.. That way we could say,

"
.ooo..OOO.. ..oOoo..OOO..Oo..OOo.. ..oO..Oo..Ooo.. ..O..oooo..oO..Oo..OoO..ooo.. ..ooOo..OOO..oOo.. ..oO..oOoo..oOoo.. ..O..oooo..o.. ..ooOo..oo..ooo..oooo."

in the proper language.

Arrrgh, the suspense - what did that 'referred for moderation' posting say - was it Bubblish? was it extravagently laced with expletives? did it have an external URL?

Gee, this new system has the potential to add a perception of glamour to even the most mundane posts

;^)#

*sigh* We -really- need to convince these moderators to snip that bubblefish translator code and have it open during moderation excursions.

Well, I guess if the constant removal and reappearance of Bubblish postings is wearing you down, you could always...

Gasp! Horror!

...post in English.

Cat, pigeons, get to know each other.

..oO..oO..oO..oOo..OOo..oooo.!...
..Oo..o..oooO..o..oOo.!!!...

......o..oOo..OO.......

Bruce, you said:

'Just to preempt the "you only get an email when the post is deleted after referral" let me say that as I (like many users) am in a different timezone to the site & will often have to wait up to 12 hours for a decision. In the meantime I would like to know that my postings are considered suspect so that I can ammend my behaviour accordingly, or not as the case may be. Otherwise I possibly run the risk of accumulating enough transgressions to get banned whilst waiting.'

I disagree. If you're a user who spends a lot of time on the site and who would notice that a posting had been pulled for the (on average) few hours that the referral takes to notice, then I can understand your point, but if you're that regular, you'll get the hang of it anyway.

For someone who's a more occasional user of h2g2, say a couple of times a week, the thought of getting an email saying 'your post has been referred' followed by one saying 'it's OK, it's passed' is not good. Better just to keep quiet. And two emails in a row rubbing in the fact that something's been failed is simply insulting.

Most referrals at this stage will be passed, so we definitely don't want to send out emails. And I don't think we want to send out emails on referrals ever, even if this changes... instead we should be concentrating on reducing the average referral time.

One way to do this would be to ban all non-English languages. But I won't go into that one now...

I guess my problem would be not that I would get upset that a post suddenly disappeared, but that if I didn't see the post from my "my space", I would think that I hadn't posted it yet, and would post the thing all over again.

I'm assuming this would probably be too much work/hassle for the server, but having my "my space" page still list the post either with a message saying it's been referred or a link to a page saying the same thing, it would be a lot easier to remember what was going on.

later
mikey

I presume that most of the 'Removed' posts are in bubblish or something like that... I would suggest that the Bubblish speakers form a Fish Forum where they can burble at each other to their heart's content. The moderators can leave that forum alone (maybe deleting any posts that AREN'T in bubblish?) and devote their efforts to the other forums that are in English.

Personally, I like the concept of Bubblish. I'm still not sure how it's supposed to work, and if there's any meaning to be derived from the ooOOooo's.... (and for all I know, I just said a naughty word in Bubblish!)

- Lentilla

Of course, my journals have been deleted - no big deal, they weren't all that hot anyway. However, an approved entry of mine was removed - Bananas - without explanation (other than that it contained commercial info.)

I have two problems with this. First of all, if I hadn't backed up my article, then it would be gone. I devoted my personal, unpaid time to write it, and to have it deleted because of a couple of brand names is a little extreme. Second, I wanted more information on why it wasn't acceptable. I went through the article and removed the brand names, but I'm not sure if that was the problem that the moderators had with it. For all I know, they may remove it again tomorrow!

Maybe something that the moderators can consider in the future (and yes, I know they're very busy!) is to provide the researcher with the removed article, maybe in an e-mail to the researcher. This will solve several problems. The researcher will have the text of the article to work from if they were unlucky enough not to have a back-up. This will give the moderator a chance to point out a couple of examples of violation of BBC standards. "Contains commercial info" is not enough. And, it will let the researcher know WHICH article had been removed - it took me a while to figure out which of my articles was missing.

Just some and for thought...

- Lentilla

Thanks Mark, that sounds fair enough. The moderation/referral cycle seems a little erratic at the moment - probably due to the need to evolve workable practices (plus a number of conflicting priorities) - but once everything settles down as you say it should be OK

It'd still be nice if the Journal showed on your homepage whilst undergoing referral though (& probably save a lot of "where have my journals gone?" type posts)

;^)#

I like your saying Bruce:
Gee, this new system has the potential to add a perception of glamour to even the
most mundane posts

Talk about the glass is half full rather than half empty! Even if it was sarcastic

It still feels like a kick in the stomach when I read "This post has been removed" even though I know lots of people are putting in stuff to see how far they can go. I'm obviously not extreme enough. Ihaven't had an e mail yet

Most of the referred for moderation seem to be Bubblish small talk.

;^)#

Anything that is removed will (from now on) send the original posting/entry to the author via email.

As for entries, they're simply 'deleted' if they fail, so authors can still go in, undelete them, and edit them to be acceptable.

Hmm... it might have been that I wasn't looking in the right place. I wasn't able to find the entry on my page, so I had to pull the text from my hard drive and re-post. I'll go back and look. Will I need to run the entry through the gamut again to have it approved, or can I circumvent a few steps and just have it checked by a moderator?

- Lentilla

Finally found it. "Bananas" doesn't show up in my cancelled list of entries. Rather odd, actually.

(Secret conspiracy against bananas, that's what this is.)



(Dang, no banana smilie either!)

- Lentilla

.Oooo..oO..Oo..oO..Oo..Oo..oO.