I've followed the rules, I've even edited but still put on hold - what gives?

Question

So, I followed the rules, I even edited. But still the 'powers that be', even one of them stated clearly that they have 'special powers', have, in their wisdom put me on hold! They don't like my subject, or don't they like me? It is all very confusing for a puppy dog (google dougal). Is this site run by the community for the community, or by the mods? The editing is superfluous, and there is no continuity, but hey, I suppose they are the gods... Anyone else have these sorts of problems?

Answer 1

I'm sorry you're having trouble dealing with our site and community. We'd really like to make it work for you, and are very happy to explain anything you're having trouble with. However, that does require you coming to us with an open mind, and acknowledge that you have a couple things to learn, and it's not just an issue of mods being overbearing.

If you're serious about this, I would strongly recommend reading rumtscho's writeup:

Why are people here messing with my posts?

Notably it's okay if you don't realize something and have to get corrected. It's totally fine, it happens. As long as you say "oh, okay" or "really? can you explain that?" rather than "hey that's no fair" it'll all be good.

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I've followed the rules, I've even edited but still put on hold - what gives? ... even one of them stated clearly that they have 'special powers', have, in their wisdom put me on hold! They don't like my subject, or don't they like me?

No, the question itself is still falling afoul of some policies about what is off topic on our site (which are extensions of general stackexchange policies), and so rumtscho's decision to put it on hold has stood. That is, that particular question, as interesting as it may be, does not follow all our rules about what to ask here. I left a comment on it about this.

It is all very confusing for a puppy dog

Yeah, the structure here is a bit surprising to people who are expecting open discussion forums. But it's fundamentally how the site works, so we expect users to learn to work that way, and not to tell us that we're doing it wrong.

Is this site run by the community for the community, or by the mods?

Both. The community has decided a ton of things over the years, including the specific policy about "what to make with X" questions, and the community does a lot of the implementation of the policy. But mods also help with this, especially when the decisions are pretty obvious, and when the community is having trouble dealing with things quickly (accumulating close votes is pretty slow sometimes).

And when it comes to telling people they need to learn to deal with the site's policies and structure, mods take a pretty active role in order to save other users from having to get confrontational.

The editing is superfluous

No, it's not. Off-topic questions can either stay closed, or get edited to be on topic, which is hardly superfluous. And we also encourage edits that fix errors, improve clarity of writing, and so on. The goal is to produce things that are useful for future readers, not just to talk to one person.

there is no continuity

As far as we can tell, yes, there is. Your question was put on hold for specific reasons, and those reasons don't apply to most questions. I'm sure we as a community are not perfect, and for example not everything that could use editing actually gets edited, but we do our best. If you see something that you think should be edited and wasn't, suggest an edit! If you see something that you think should be closed, flag it.

I suppose they are the gods... Anyone else have these sorts of problems?

Some people have, but they're the minority. Most people either learn to deal with the way the site works, or decide it's not for them and don't fight with us about it. Unfortunately, you've run up against policies several times and responded with hostility rather than listening to feedback, and you've also been unreceptive to voting and routine edits, also a core part of how the site works. (And that's kind of an understatement - you've accused mods of simply closing questions they don't like, you've accused editors of being derogatory, and you've asked to recall mods!) That tends to lead to people (especially mods) making some rather sharp statements.

We don't want to fight with anyone. Our job is to make sure the site runs the way it's meant to, and so we step in when that's not happening. We would definitely prefer to just help explain things to people, and get on the same page. So we start out just explaining how things work. But if people argue with that, we have to get increasingly stern; we can't just let people do whatever they like.