There are a significant amount of questions here that do not follow the criteria in the sidebar, especially “1. Open-ended question” and “5. An actual topic of discussion”. It seems some folks want others to do research for them, or to troubleshoot some random issue.
This bugs me. Of course, I can ignore and/or downvote those posts, and I do. However, I’m wondering if anyone else feels the same way. I’m don’t want to stifle content and discussion on such a burgeoning platform, but could we do something about this?
Perhaps we could “tag” posts in some way (I know tags aren’t officially supported yet) or maybe we could redirect folks to a sister community for non-discussion questions. Or something else?
Just throwin’ it out there. If I’m alone in this, I’ll take my lumps and quietly sit back down.
EDIT: Already seeing good points in the replies! makes sense- probably a bit too early to be sticklers about topics.
EDIT 2: Really appreciate the responses and discussion! I appreciate the discourse and also not being downvoted to oblivion 😄
FINAL EDIT: Thanks to all who commented. It’s nice to know I’m not alone, but I do accept what most (including mods) have said- cracking down on the types of questions is not a priority when the community is still growing.
You must log in or register to comment.
Yes, someone does care.
You do.
Next question.
I like it how it is. I dislike active moderation and arbitrary rules. The community makes the rules, good mods enforce what the community pushes through, and not just one or two vocal people. If the community engages, and it hurts no one, why interfere. At best you discourage participation.
I don’t mind questions being somewhat focused or topical. But the ones I don’t like are “Here is my long-winded opinion on x, what do you think?” or “Here’s a random article or other thing I found on the internet, thoughts?”
If it’s a post asking opinions on a recent event, that’s one thing. But I think the soapboxing should be limited. There’s more that a post should need to actually qualify as a discussion-fueling question than just the fact they ended a sentence with a question mark somewhere in their post.
Thoughts?
I agree regarding soapboxing. I think the posts that barely hide the fact they’re looking for reactions or agreement rather than discussion are probably the most grating and least constructive use of this community.
However, I think it remains to be seen if the community believes it’s something that needs to be addressed, and if so, if the mods are even conducive to changes. I do see the sidebar states “loosely moderated”. I am open to the possibility that I’m just being uptight and may just need to move on 😆
Personally I think it’s fine-ish given the actual number of topics being created - it seems to be easily low enough to not cause questions adhereing to the rules to be pushed down the list and buried with easier or more sensational questions. I think the danger of being a stickler to the rules is that you just drive people away or make them too intimidated to ask. Yeah it is annoying but I think it is fine to just downvote and move on as you say. Splitting the community I think would potentially do even more damage.
Now if there were significantly more topics being created per day then my answer would be different and I would absolutely encourage more active moderation and adherence to the rules.
The issue with a lot of subs on Lemmy is too little content, not too much. There isn’t enough traffic to warrant high moderation and said moderation may scare off those who want to participate.
s/scare/piss
I feel the same way. Most of the conversations here are pointless and don’t prompt any interesting discussion. They are just an opportunity for the OP to air their dumb questions and opinions. Particularly any question that begins “Does Anyone Else” should just be banned from this muni. If people want such dumb questions in their feeds, they should join a separate muni for that.
could we do something about this?
Downvote posts that don’t generate good discussion.
Report posts that are flagrant rule breakers. (I report posts here that aren’t actually questions, or bad faith statements that are only barely questions)
But more importantly…
UPVOTE the good posts!
And even more importantly…
POST the kind of content you want to see! Be the change you want to see. If you’re just a commenter, you can’t complain that there’s no posts! Haha
Good question; it’s not my place to answer. @ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone, @tmpod@lemmy.pt, @Cloak@lemmy.ml?
All questions are multiple choice to an extent. There’s no such thing as truly infinite answers to a question.
Removed by mod
deleted by creator
Lemmy needs the ability for mods to move posts between communities. There’s plenty of posts that would make for great discussions but that are not where they should be. Moving them would make more sense than shutting them down altogether.
Cross posting will do that. Mods can cross-post
With notifications going to the OP?
people having a stick up their ass about the letter of the rules as opposed to the spirit of a community was one of the worst things about reddit. if you want mods who act like cops, stay with reddit
