How about posting reasons for closing a thread.

[ShokWaveRider]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo History has proven otherwise.

Historical Performance in No guarantee of Future Activity.....

[imoldernu]

oops.. just posted NYT article link to the ACA discussion.

[jazz4cash]

I think the moderators do a great job, but I agree that it would be helpful to have an explanation of the rationale. I think it must be confusing to new members when a topic is closed before anything controversial is posted. Actually, I find it confusing as well. It's like the time in high school I got detention because "you looked like you were about to cause trouble".

[cbo111]

I want to be a moderator when I grow up.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbo111 I want to be a moderator when I grow up.

You want to grow up? Why?

[braumeister]

I have no actual knowledge of how moderation is done, but I think I can make a good guess based on what I’ve seen over the years. Many times a post is made that would wreak havoc on the otherwise well-ordered E-R world. A mod sees it, and (probably after a quick discussion with others) the offending post is deleted and the thread (if it’s not very long yet) is also deleted. If it’s a longer thread it’s just closed.

At least that’s my impression. Seems like a very good system to me. Move on and change the scenery.

[Senator]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Which is what MichaelB said in his closing statement.

If he would have prefaced his comment with 'This thread is being closed because...", maybe this thread would have never happened.

Sometimes, you have to draw a conclusion when the author leave certain pieces of the puzzle for you to piece together.

[Aerides]

#1 rule of forum/post modding is you do not talk about forum/post modding.

(anywhere)

Carry on.

[Fermion]

I just think it is most excellent that we CAN talk about Fight Club

[bada bing]

Oscar Wilde: Everything in moderation, including moderation.

[donheff]

I very much appreciate the moderators. They have a tough job. I saw MichaelBs post as a comment, not a closure statement. Looking back I can see my mistake but I think I have seen other similar cautionary posts that are not followed by a closure. Had the post simply added something like “therefore we are closing this topic until definitive changes are implemented,” I would not have been confused.

[Major Tom]

I can only remember one thread that, at the time, confused me as to why it was closed. Once you've hung here around a bit, you can usually figure it out. If you can't figure it out, I don't think it takes that much mental discipline to think about something else and move on, does it?

I imagine that if you were doing something fairly egregious, someone would tell you.

[ownyourfuture]

I belong to another forum that has nothing to do with retirement.
They have a special section specifically for 'Religion & Politics'

This is the 1st thing you see when clicking on these:

"Please be aware that the Politics & Religion section of ********** contains topics, debates and viewpoints that may offend or cause controversy, and which are often debated fiercely and aggressively between members.

Please report or PM a staff member in any cases of comments that display blatant racism, trolling or an unjustified personal attack on another member. Otherwise, this section is not moderated as heavily as other areas of the site, and they will not be moderated or checked for accuracy and political/religious bias"

Would something similar be possible here ?

[REWahoo]

Ownyourfuture, E-R.org tried something like that a few years ago. See the details here: http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...org-53657.html

Scroll down to "The Soapbox Experiment"

[Calico]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownyourfuture I belong to another forum that has nothing to do with retirement. They have a special section specifically for 'Religion & Politics' This is the 1st thing you see when clicking on these: "Please be aware that the Politics & Religion section of ********** contains topics, debates and viewpoints that may offend or cause controversy, and which are often debated fiercely and aggressively between members. Please report or PM a staff member in any cases of comments that display blatant racism, trolling or an unjustified personal attack on another member. Otherwise, this section is not moderated as heavily as other areas of the site, and they will not be moderated or checked for accuracy and political/religious bias" Would something similar be possible here ?

No. Please. No.

[MichaelB]

REWahoo, thanks for your posts in this thread pointing out the reasons the healthcare discussion was closed.

In future posts, when closing threads, I will try to be more clear.

That closing post has been edited, this was added

Quote:

When this topic was first introduced no details were available, we assumed there would be additional announcements or instructions. This is not the case. So, we can proceed with forum discussion in this new thread http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ml#post1949834

The complaint that inspired this thread has been addressed, the topic is now again open for discussion, so this thread is no longer needed, and it will now be closed.