Do you explain why a post was deleted or edited?

[Beverly]

On your forum, you do send a private message to a forum member if their post or discussion has been deleted or edited? Or, do you just delete/edit the post and then move on? What is your policy or rule about this situation?

 

[kfander]

That depends. I seldom edit posts because the few things that I don't want people to say are covered by my censor replacement.

People do, of course, say things that I'd rather they hadn't said but I don't usually want to pretend they hadn't said it. Rather, I might just try to steer the conversation back on track again.

I suppose that if someone were to post an entire article, in violation of copyright laws, I would delete most of it, leave a link to the original article, and let the member know that posting entire articles is against the law. I don't remember that ever happening in any forum that I've run though.

Otherwise, if someone posts something in the wrong place, I'll just move it if it hasn't had any replies; otherwise, I might leave a referral in the original location. Or, as sometimes occurs, someone posts two short posts in a row in the same thread, I'll just merge them. Not everyone knows that they can quote and reply to two different posts within the same post.

 

[Sukiartestudio]

I typically leave a [Mod Edit] on their post and explain why it was edited. If it's a newer member, I'll leave a little PM along with it to notify them and assist them as necessary.

 

[Cosmic]

I sometimes edit a post to soften it up without contacting the user. At the stage my forum is in, I can use all the traffic I can get. Any kind of drama puts that at risk, whether it's from the rude tone of a post, or my response to that rude tone. I take the most conservative route possible and, instead of contacting the user, I just edit the post to make it more polite. 🙂 They may notice and get angry, but odds are they won't, especially since I make my edits with subtlety.

Anyway, if it did get bad, I'd contact the user via PM. If a thread has to be locked, I'd rather just move it to the trash forum. If you can do it quick enough, then for all most people know, the drama never even existed to begin with.

 

[int0x10]

I've found you get a lot of drama, especially on smaller forums, if you don't explain (at least in a PM or something) why a forum's been locked (unless it's obvious). I take the view that if you don't explain why you've taken a moderator action, the user won't know what they did wrong or how to avoid it next time 😉

 

[fantanoice]

I will leave a message if I deem it necessary. If someone wants clarification they're welcome to ask me (I usually keep an image of the un-edited/un-deleted version of the post just in case the situation comes up).

 

[Atrox]

I typically leave a [Mod Edit] on their post and explain why it was edited. If it's a newer member, I'll leave a little PM along with it to notify them and assist them as necessary.

I'd do exactly the same, although I'd put "-Edited by USERNAME" instead.

 

[Lord Saru]

While moderating, on my discretion, I do give a message on what type of offence is reported, unless its too grave to discuss in public or if its too obvious to the readers.

 

[Geoffrey]

Not unless I'm asked, and even then it's likely to be a very short answer.

Only exception is if the post(s) deleted was a part of a big issue/fight and then I would post something saying posts were deleted, take a chill pill. lol.

 

[Forces of Steel]

Unless an offensive post or block of text was removed, I wouldn't say anything. It'd just feel condescending for personally telling someone that they got the formatting wrong.