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As a follow up to this question in which there is a discussion of what to do when someone is being insulting or belittling in a way that may not violate the rules. What should one do when it is the moderator doing the belittling?

i fairly regularly find myself at ends with a particular moderator and then magically discover his questionable comments deleted (along with mine) and don't know if this is happening to others. But what is the proper procedure? Should one flag the post to bring a moderators attention to it, when the moderator is the one doing it? That seems a lot like saying "when being assaulted by the police, one should call the police!"

Any suggestions?

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    Want to add--anger is a Torah violation. Anyone having anger and bringing it here should think very carefully about what they are doing. I might add that it seriously does not help any of us improve in our Yiddishkeit, which is supposed to be a purpose of this site.
    – SAH
    Dec 8, 2015 at 6:53
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    Glad you raised this question. It took me about 2-3 months after I started before I learned the ropes, here, but, I can say that during that time, I received my share of harsh nastiness from a moderator or two. Occasionally, I still do, though, perhaps, I've lowered my standards and learned to ignore it, b/c maybe I'm not expecting much, anymore? Maybe that's not the right attitude to take, on this. Now, that there are a few moderator answers, I may try their ideas a few times to see what happens. Offhand, I feel a bit pessimistic that this will drastically change things :-(
    – DanF
    Dec 8, 2015 at 21:12

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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In the title of your question you ask "What do you do when a moderator is saying insulting or belittling things?" and the answer to that is: the same thing you do if anybody else says insulting or belittling things, as addressed in the linked answer. You shouldn't avoid flagging something just because a moderator posted it; everybody errs sometimes, and when somebody does it should be flagged and addressed no matter who it is.

When somebody is being insulting it's best to flag and move on instead of engaging. Don't continue the argument in comments on the main site; that just makes things worse. Flag, or bring it to meta as you did here, or raise it some other way.

All users are expected to abide by the Be Nice policy. Moderators are users too, and we should be held equally accountable. Personally I believe that moderators, as caretakers of the community and holders of extra privileges, should be held to a higher behavior standard, though I believe that officially Stack Exchange does not do so.

In your question you ask what you should do to object to comment deletions. Comments in general are not supposed to stick around forever; they're meant to be temporary Post-It notes to request clarification or provide feedback that can be used to improve the post. They're not for discussion and arguments. Mi Yodeya has one of the highest comment-to-post ratios on the network (data from 2014). Lots of comments get deleted. So long as the deletions are fair -- for example, both sides of an argument are deleted -- this is not a problem. If you think comment-deletion has been overzealous, bring it to moderator attention for another look. You can use a custom flag on the post the comments were on.

If you feel that moderation is not being done fairly, then see this answer -- try flagging (several people see flags and we hope a moderator will avoid handling a flag when there is that much personal involvement), and if all else fails, you can contact Stack Exchange and somebody will take a look.

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Flag for moderator attention. Mods can recuse themselves from handling issues if they deem it appropriate (the system does allow them to handle flags on their own posts). If you feel a mod is abusing his privileges and hiding a problem from other mods by constantly dismissing flags before anyone else notices, you can contact SE to take a second look.

See more in the Stack Exchange FAQ.

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    So Mods can recuse themselves, but there's no policy that says they have to?
    – Aaron
    Dec 7, 2015 at 23:11
  • AFAIK it's an honors system. Sometimes I'll handle a flag on my post, sometimes I won't. It depends on the situation. We're all adults here.
    – Double AA Mod
    Dec 7, 2015 at 23:39
  • 2 downvotes? What is inaccurate here?
    – Double AA Mod
    Dec 15, 2015 at 15:01
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    @DoubleAA not my downvotes, but IIUC voting in meta represents agreement, not acknowledgement of accuracy.
    – Y     e     z
    Dec 16, 2015 at 5:00
  • @yEz I wonder then what the downvoters disagreed with.
    – Double AA Mod
    Dec 16, 2015 at 14:56
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You suck it up like an adult and realize this is the internet. If you feel belittled then log off and CYLOR instead of a Q & A site.

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    That is a very unhelpful answer.
    – Aaron
    Dec 29, 2015 at 22:13
  • That would be correct :)
    – Yossi
    Dec 30, 2015 at 3:14
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    A lot of the time people take things too serious online. Its probably just something lost in translation since this is text and not in person. Plus Double AA is really intelligent and helpful. I rather like him :)
    – Yossi
    Dec 30, 2015 at 3:16
  • if u like him then do u like all authoritarian police?
    – Yaakov5777
    Mar 8, 2022 at 23:14

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