Closing questions

Question

I'm seeing a lot of posts closed today. It seems unnecessarily heavy handed. If it's a question the person could have looked up, or needing help with homework, you can suggest they give it a try and come back with an effort for corrections.

• Totally agreed!! - ciscocaja Feb 14, 2012
• Aprecio que están tratando de mantener el foro limpiok, pero estoy muy de acuerdo, tal vez un poco de pacencia con nuestros nuevos sería bueno. - Pinolero Feb 14, 2012
• I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. - Pablo-Peligr Feb 14, 2012
• Maybe it is cause we have the (Closed) next to them now? - Martha-SD Feb 14, 2012
• I do like closed in the title. That's something I asked for before. - Leatha Feb 14, 2012

Answer 1

A person might feel unduly unwelcome here if his or her first few posts gets closed with a template reply asking him to look elsewhere when all he wants to do is just participate. Besides, some suggestions for 'where to look' don't really answer the poster's questions anyway!

Another question might look similar but is intrisically different, and who knows? Maybe the poster has already looked and decided he needed a different response so he posts?

• True. - Spenco Feb 14, 2012
• Amazing!!!! because these are exactly the complaints that the sd management saw were made against Heidita, for which they blamed Heidita. Hypocracy. - pesta Feb 15, 2012

Answer 2

Most likely you are going to be deleted too!

Don't worry, be happy.

• Chileno, Me alegro (de?) que estás todavía aquí para nosotros, los principiantes. - xocoyote Feb 14, 2012
• aquí estoy... :) - chileno Feb 14, 2012

Answer 3

There was a post closed last night which " I was not on" and yet I got flagged

and lost 10 points , now that is lateral ripping off for you , I don't know how it was done

but it is a neat trick. " Is there s moderator in the house ???

• No lo sabia. How can one lose points, Ray? - xocoyote Feb 14, 2012
• I voted you up Ray. Maybe that will help if only slightly. - Spenco Feb 14, 2012
• no my score has been frozen on 190 and I have not had a point added for over 10 hours , these three points accrued 0. - ray76 Feb 14, 2012
• Hi Ray, looking at your profile it looks like you were receiving points normally as of 20 minutes ago. Let us know if you have any more problems through the Feedback tab. - StuartSD Feb 15, 2012
• Hi Ray, you can loose points by flagging. - 00434ec3 Feb 15, 2012

Answer 4

100% agree, Leatha, I'm glad it wasn't just me noticing that.

Answer 5

Yes, I agree about the homework questions. Let the person try to answer and then check their response. If you close the post, how do we follow up with the their answer. I guess it's a different way now.

• Sure is different. Less like an interactive classroom and more like a web robot. - pesta Feb 15, 2012

Answer 6

My purpose in posting this question was to give feedback not to slam anyone.

Yes Leatha and rightly put , but i think you misinterpret the genuine concerns that

most people feel , and are saying , " please we have problems here and no one

is listening let alone addressing them " .I feel that I have been slam dunked

over the past 30 hours , please tell me what should I do , maybe go sit in the

corner and sob, it never helped me in the past , so I am voicing my concerns

here in the hope that someone, anyone will listen to me and help

• I don't have a problem with you bring up a problem. If we don't let the mods know how can they fix anything. It's been crazy upsetting for me too. - Leatha Feb 14, 2012
• But Leatha, we *have* let the moderators know how they can fix things, over and over and over.... - pesta Feb 15, 2012
• And so has Heidita. She gave up and left. She wasn't 'kicked out' as some people keep repeating. - pesta Feb 15, 2012
• She was kicked out of the moderator position. - Guimmys Feb 15, 2012

Answer 7

I noticed it as well.

Answer 8

Closing posts might make it appear as if some real work had actually been done. Items from the "in" box are put into the "out" box as if they had been truly addressed. If it was not so pathetic and sad one could almost laugh.

• Indeed. Well and succinctly put! - territurtle Feb 14, 2012
• The posts that were closed were because of homework and repetitive topics. - Martha-SD Feb 14, 2012
• Patience is still a virtue. - Spenco Feb 14, 2012
• It's only repetative to the overworked administrators, not to the new members trying to learn. - pesta Feb 15, 2012

Answer 9

My purpose in posting this question was to give feedback not to slam anyone.

• Not like me to fail to tell the emperor I can explain the cool draft he's feeling. - Spenco Feb 14, 2012
• Feedback may or may not involve revealing thuths that imply blame. We didn't choose the circumstances that define this. - pesta Feb 15, 2012

Answer 10

Newbie moderators.

Answer 11

I just returned to SD after some weeks absence. What is happening here? Where's Heidita and Marriane? Is this the same SD? What have I missed?

• There has been a change in format and a change in moderators. Staff at Curiosity Media are now doing the moderation.All old moderators were demoted back to regular users. so many backed off or left. - xocoyote Feb 15, 2012
• Here's the address of the site owners' explaination. http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/223082/update-on-the-spanishdict-forum. There are other posts where members have expressed their opinions. It is pretty sucky. - Leatha Feb 15, 2012
• Yeah! you really don't want to know :( !!! - Jraider Feb 15, 2012
• Thanks xocoyote. I read the thread. Sad isnt it. Just wont be the same. - croberts Feb 15, 2012
• Thanks too Leatha - croberts Feb 15, 2012

Answer 12

I moderate on a forum, OK it is different to this one as it is about ferrets but some things are the same.

We get the same questions constantly, how do I teach them not to bite, what is the best thing to feed them on, what are the best cages etc etc???

We do have a FAQ section and one of the mods will usually post a link to the appropriate FAQ, but we also leave the questions open as new members have their own ideas and want to contribute too. Sometimes a newbie may answer and someone with more experience will pick up that they are taking the wrong approach so it becomes a learning experience for the person who answered as well as the original poster. Sometimes really good points are raised and we can add something to our FAQs.

If we simply post a link to the FAQ and close the thread then we have all lost the opportunity to learn from our new members and they will feel less appreciated and will probably not hang around.

• Less appreciation. That's what is behind this whole mess. - pesta Feb 15, 2012

Answer 13

last night I woke up.......in my dreams I just kept on reading. .....post closed, post closed, post closed....... It's a gold bar but not bare gold.....if you know what I mean.

Answer 14

Hello all. We are currently closing all homework questions that the question asker has not attempted answering themselves, so that our members do not inadvertently give that person the answer. Before closing the post, we will point the poster to the forum rules, encourage them to try answering their question first, and encourage them to re-open a thread once they've tried to answer it themselves. Homework questions where people have tried and are asking for specific help and any requests for translations/edits that are not related to homework will not be closed. Thanks to everyone for the feedback!

• What is or means the word "asker"? and who moderates the moderators? - faliron Feb 16, 2012