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I've been an active user for 7 years… and I lived my very first case of moderator abuse last week. A moderator closed a 1.5 year old question[1] with 20 upvote

I've been an active user for 7 years… and I lived my very first case of moderator abuse last week. A moderator closed a 1.5 year old question[1] with 20 upvotes, 25 stars, 9000 views and an answer at 28 upvotes without any vote or consultation, because it was too broad for him. StackOverflow has all the tools to allow the users to moderate the platform by themselves, kinda democratically. From my experience, it works and the decisions are most of the time justified. Then it's mind blowing that someone can skip all the closing process/votes and close a well-rated question with a useful answer in his sole opinion. And there is no way to report/flag/discuss a moderator actions on Stack Overflow. You can at least do that on Wikipedia. [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41250087/how-to-deploy-a-react-nodejs-express-application-to-aws https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41250087/how-to-deploy-a... Edit: the question has received 5 votes to reopen, thanks HN!

m_myers 9y ago
You can either flag for another moderator to take a look, or (better) bring it up publicly on https://meta.stackoverflow.com https://meta.stackoverflow.com. Most times you'll get an answer from the moderator in question. (Also, that's a... very broad definition of "moderator abuse". The question is still there and no one can post an answer to compete with yours if it's closed.)
nanis 9y ago
> And there is no way to report/flag/discuss a moderator actions on Stack Overflow. Yes there is. See Meta. E.g., see https://meta.stackoverflow.com/search?q=why+was+my+question+closed https://meta.stackoverflow.com/search?q=why+was+my+question+... You can also flag your own question/answer.
cpburns2009 9y ago
This will be the downfall of Stack Overflow eventually. The rules for question and answers try to be objective and specific, but they end up being too strict and are making the site less useful over time. What they should do is allow broad, general, subjective questions. That would allow for answers with general guidance instead of directly answering a broad question. It would also allow a clueless person to get some direction. When you're working with an unfamiliar technology, you frequently don't even know what to ask. BTW: You can ask a question about it on meta, but based on your question I think the "too broad" closure is technically correct based upon the rules and how they're enforced.
- Rotareti 9y ago
  > This will be the downfall of Stack Overflow eventually. The rules for question and answers try to be objective and specific, but they end up being too strict and are making the site less useful over time. I never really understood what their issue is with broad questions. There are so many question from the early years of SO which became popular healthy Q&A despite being "broad" and they are now too popular to get closed by some trigger happy mod. Some of these questions wouldn't survive a minute if they were asked today. The typical mod on SO shoots a question dead as soon as s/he has the slightest suspicion. I guess the site would be better off with (a lot) less mods.
  - lightedman 9y ago
    "I never really understood what their issue is with broad questions." The people there are too obtuse to see a broad question as one that is looking for guidance, and not as a 'do my homework for me' question. Some people ask the question in a general manner so that they don't have the answer just given to them. They'd like an explanation with reasoning that they can follow. Good luck ever getting that on SO.
- mr_toad 9y ago
  > What they should do is allow broad, general, subjective questions. But you can’t answer those questions. You have to engage in an extended discussion with the asker to find out what they want, what they know/don’t know. And SO isn’t a discussion forum. Honestly I think those sorts of of questions are better asked in the chat channels, or somewhere like Reddit.
pbowyer 9y ago
> because it was too broad for him Too broad has been the bane of my questions on StackOverflow. [0] As cpburns2009 says in a sibling comment: > When you're working with an unfamiliar technology, you frequently don't even know what to ask. And if they don't, then provide some other place for questions which are exploring a field, or are more complicated than "How do I do X?" 0. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37610341/assigning-people-to-beds-approaches-to-automate https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37610341/assigning-peopl... Note the tone of the comments...
- bmn__ 9y ago
  Two years too late, but here it goes. That's not an question suitable for SO, the closing votes were correct. A suitable question would be if you already had started programming, and encountered a specific problem, and asked how to solve it. There's probably a different stackexchange or forum for broad questions, but SO is out of scope. > provide some other place for questions It's up to you to find these places, the company behind SO and the site users have no obligation to provide you with the other place.
  - pbowyer 9y ago
    I disagree based on Stack Overflow's own description of itself: "Stack Overflow is for professional and enthusiast programmers, people who write code because they love it. We feel the best Stack Overflow questions have a bit of source code in them, but if your question generally covers… a specific programming problem, or a software algorithm, or software tools commonly used by programmers; and is a practical, answerable problem that is unique to software development … then you’re in the right place to ask your question!" My question hits 1, involves 2 and part of 4 (practical and is unique to software development). > A suitable question would be if you already had started programming, and encountered a specific problem, and asked how to solve it. When you're exploring a new problem domain outside your experience (if you're a great programmer think of something outside, like improving at a new sport), and you can't determine the terms enough to find the literature - do you just 'start programming'? Or talk to people, discuss and shape your thinking based on their experience? If you're lucky to live somewhere where you have these discussions face to face that's fantastic. Most of us don't, and those we work with who are programmers don't have the experience either. > It's up to you to find these places, the company behind SO and the site users have no obligation to provide you with the other place. I see. Thanks for the insight.
icc97 9y ago
My first and probably last post to Skeptics SE was a fairly intense affair [0]. I posted an answer that got quite a few votes but then got deleted. As you say - then there doesn't seem to be any clear guidance about what you can do after it's deleted/closed. By luck I came across a friendly moderator in the chat that gave me hope of getting it re-instated. I wrote a Meta post how to get a post re-instated [1] which got some positive feedback from the moderators. [0]: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/39887/37853 https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/39887/37853 [1]: https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4090/so-your-answer-was-deleted-dont-panic https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4090/so-yo...
mr_toad 9y ago
You can report overreach like this on meta. After that it’s up to the community to decide.
pugworthy 9y ago
+1 to this. I'm a high 9000 rated mod on a stack, and I've been berated by other mods for answering the "n00b" questions. "With your rating you should know better!" I LOVE the idea of flagging moderator actions - it doesn't have to be visible to non-mods, and I'm sure it could be abused, but I wish there was such a thing.

m_myers 9y ago

You can either flag for another moderator to take a look, or (better) bring it up publicly on https://meta.stackoverflow.com https://meta.stackoverflow.com. Most times you'll get an answer from the moderator in question. (Also, that's a... very broad definition of "moderator abuse". The question is still there and no one can post an answer to compete with yours if it's closed.)

nanis 9y ago

> And there is no way to report/flag/discuss a moderator actions on Stack Overflow. Yes there is. See Meta. E.g., see https://meta.stackoverflow.com/search?q=why+was+my+question+closed https://meta.stackoverflow.com/search?q=why+was+my+question+... You can also flag your own question/answer.

cpburns2009 9y ago

This will be the downfall of Stack Overflow eventually. The rules for question and answers try to be objective and specific, but they end up being too strict and are making the site less useful over time. What they should do is allow broad, general, subjective questions. That would allow for answers with general guidance instead of directly answering a broad question. It would also allow a clueless person to get some direction. When you're working with an unfamiliar technology, you frequently don't even know what to ask. BTW: You can ask a question about it on meta, but based on your question I think the "too broad" closure is technically correct based upon the rules and how they're enforced.

Rotareti 9y ago
> This will be the downfall of Stack Overflow eventually. The rules for question and answers try to be objective and specific, but they end up being too strict and are making the site less useful over time. I never really understood what their issue is with broad questions. There are so many question from the early years of SO which became popular healthy Q&A despite being "broad" and they are now too popular to get closed by some trigger happy mod. Some of these questions wouldn't survive a minute if they were asked today. The typical mod on SO shoots a question dead as soon as s/he has the slightest suspicion. I guess the site would be better off with (a lot) less mods.
- lightedman 9y ago
  "I never really understood what their issue is with broad questions." The people there are too obtuse to see a broad question as one that is looking for guidance, and not as a 'do my homework for me' question. Some people ask the question in a general manner so that they don't have the answer just given to them. They'd like an explanation with reasoning that they can follow. Good luck ever getting that on SO.
mr_toad 9y ago
> What they should do is allow broad, general, subjective questions. But you can’t answer those questions. You have to engage in an extended discussion with the asker to find out what they want, what they know/don’t know. And SO isn’t a discussion forum. Honestly I think those sorts of of questions are better asked in the chat channels, or somewhere like Reddit.

pbowyer 9y ago

> because it was too broad for him Too broad has been the bane of my questions on StackOverflow. [0] As cpburns2009 says in a sibling comment: > When you're working with an unfamiliar technology, you frequently don't even know what to ask. And if they don't, then provide some other place for questions which are exploring a field, or are more complicated than "How do I do X?" 0. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37610341/assigning-people-to-beds-approaches-to-automate https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37610341/assigning-peopl... Note the tone of the comments...

bmn__ 9y ago
Two years too late, but here it goes. That's not an question suitable for SO, the closing votes were correct. A suitable question would be if you already had started programming, and encountered a specific problem, and asked how to solve it. There's probably a different stackexchange or forum for broad questions, but SO is out of scope. > provide some other place for questions It's up to you to find these places, the company behind SO and the site users have no obligation to provide you with the other place.
- pbowyer 9y ago
  I disagree based on Stack Overflow's own description of itself: "Stack Overflow is for professional and enthusiast programmers, people who write code because they love it. We feel the best Stack Overflow questions have a bit of source code in them, but if your question generally covers… a specific programming problem, or a software algorithm, or software tools commonly used by programmers; and is a practical, answerable problem that is unique to software development … then you’re in the right place to ask your question!" My question hits 1, involves 2 and part of 4 (practical and is unique to software development). > A suitable question would be if you already had started programming, and encountered a specific problem, and asked how to solve it. When you're exploring a new problem domain outside your experience (if you're a great programmer think of something outside, like improving at a new sport), and you can't determine the terms enough to find the literature - do you just 'start programming'? Or talk to people, discuss and shape your thinking based on their experience? If you're lucky to live somewhere where you have these discussions face to face that's fantastic. Most of us don't, and those we work with who are programmers don't have the experience either. > It's up to you to find these places, the company behind SO and the site users have no obligation to provide you with the other place. I see. Thanks for the insight.

icc97 9y ago

My first and probably last post to Skeptics SE was a fairly intense affair [0]. I posted an answer that got quite a few votes but then got deleted. As you say - then there doesn't seem to be any clear guidance about what you can do after it's deleted/closed. By luck I came across a friendly moderator in the chat that gave me hope of getting it re-instated. I wrote a Meta post how to get a post re-instated [1] which got some positive feedback from the moderators. [0]: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/39887/37853 https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/39887/37853 [1]: https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4090/so-your-answer-was-deleted-dont-panic https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4090/so-yo...

mr_toad 9y ago

You can report overreach like this on meta. After that it’s up to the community to decide.

pugworthy 9y ago

+1 to this. I'm a high 9000 rated mod on a stack, and I've been berated by other mods for answering the "n00b" questions. "With your rating you should know better!" I LOVE the idea of flagging moderator actions - it doesn't have to be visible to non-mods, and I'm sure it could be abused, but I wish there was such a thing.