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Recently useful comments on questions are being moved to chat because they were marked as "extend conversation" More information here, even comments that contain open questions, are still useful to the post, or are important to understand a post.

A quote by the Moderator moving these comments to chatrooms:

Third, I stuffed up. I should have just deleted these instead of moving them to chat. Notwithstanding, the chat room will wither and die as it is not big enough to be permanently archived.

Comments that are important to posts are being removed and hidden in chatrooms that aren't "big enough to be permanently archived"

Even worse this Moderator moves comments that are critical of their own posts to chatrooms, even ones that hadn't been addressed, or had positive upvotes from other users.

List of comments removed on Moderator own answers

answer: Can airlines refuse boarding.... (removed comments)

answer: Is creating and selling “cheats” or “hacks”... (removed comments)

answer: How does a lawyer help when...(removed comments)

answer: Emails from clients and GDPR (removed comments)

answer: Deleting incriminatory emails (removed comments)

answer: Is the worst version of the accusations... (removed comments)

answer: Is it legal to have unpaid volunteer moderators... (removed comments)

answer: What remedies would be possible/likely... (removed comments)

answer: Online service disruptions. Can we claim...

Quotes by community members

David Siegel: "I cannot see three comments as being an "extended discussion", and I strongly object to comments being effectively hidden by being moved to chat"

bdb484: "I'm now even more confused by the aggressive removal of comments since the moderator election. The suggestion that four comments could be considered "extended discussion" is totally foreign to me."

bdb484: "Was that an "extended discussion"? I see three separate users asking three separate questions."

This Moderator hasn't just sent useful comments from his own posts to the chatrooms but also unanswered comments on posts of other users.

Although it is within the Moderator's power to remove unneeded comments from the site, should Moderators be able to use these powers for self-promotion?

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    "It seems as though DaleM uses chatrooms to get rid of comments instead of outright deleting them this is because small chatrooms "not big enough to be archived" meaning no one can review if the actions taken were correct." - What makes you think other moderators can't see and review a move to chat the same way they can see outright deletion? I see zero support for this assertion, and your aggressive tone is completely unwarranted if this lack of oversight doesn't actually exist.
    – Chris Hayes
    Sep 24, 2019 at 22:21
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    I am more than happy to explain my actions and my reasons for them. I have no inclination to engage with unfounded accusations that ascribe motivations to me that a) you have no way of knowing and b) aren't true.
    – Dale M Mod
    Sep 24, 2019 at 23:35
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    @DaleM I can't upvote my own question or answers, but you can remove comments from your posts. That totally seems like you're not using moderator privileges to benefit your own posts.
    – User37849012643
    Sep 25, 2019 at 2:03
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    @StephanS Do your research - I've done this 9 times, 6 of them on other people's posts.
    – Dale M Mod
    Sep 25, 2019 at 3:19
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    @DaleM that's a 33% batting average, 66% if you count the chatroom moving deputed by question/answer owners.
    – User37849012643
    Sep 25, 2019 at 4:07
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    But we are a Law site lets look if the other moderators remove comments from their posts, cnst 0 for others, 0 for self; Pat W. 0 for others, 0 for self; feetwet 82 for others, 1 for self (he didn't remove the whole thread, he just continued the topic in the chat room )
    – User37849012643
    Sep 25, 2019 at 4:10
  • Would appreciate your input here: law.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/900/…
    – Dale M Mod
    Sep 26, 2019 at 4:58

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I dislike the way this question is titled and framed. I don't see an attempt to insulate answers from criticism. I do disagree with some recent actions in moving comments, and perhaps in deleting them, but I don't think there is any basis to assume bad faith.

I do dislike the chat interface, to the point that I will not participate in discussions using it. I do think it has the effect of hiding comments, because most readers won't follow the link, and won't see the comments in relation to the question or answer which they were intended to relate to. I would change the comment policy to some extent, but discussion of that is separate from how actions under that policy have changed recently (if they have), and that is again separate from any accusations of improper motives. I disapprove of that last, and urge that the issues of recent actions on comments could better be discussed under this question without personal accusations of bad faith.

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    David this is a two-part post the practice of hiding comments with chatrooms and the practice of using chatrooms to hide comments on his own posts, the former is a questionable practice, but the ladder is an abuse of the position he's in.
    – User37849012643
    Sep 25, 2019 at 2:11
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Commentary that does not directly raise or address issues in the original post are discussion, and should not be preserved in the comments area. Comments that have been addressed by edits shouldn't even be sent to chat, just outright deleted, because they are no longer necessary; there is even a specific flag for noting such comments for deletion!

The idea that moving comments to chat can somehow hide them from other moderators or from the community is totally illogical.

  • Moderators can still see both the deleted comments and the deleted chatrooms. There is no way for a moderator to hide things from other moderators.

  • Regular users can still click the links to the chatrooms and read them, so they haven't even been hidden from the community.

We elect moderators to enforce community standards and Stack Exchange policy. This is exactly what Dale M has done. Complaining that we're not allowed to be slack any more is ludicrous, and doing it publicly with an accusation that this is an abuse of the moderator position verges on a personal attack with absolutely no reasonable basis.

While I oppose some of Dale's actions as a user and did not vote for him at all, in this case he has done exactly his job as a moderator. If you have evidence of an actual abuse, your first step is to contact Stack Exchange community managers with it, not set up a misleading witch-hunt.

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    Click the chatroom link on this post and tell me where it takes you
    – User37849012643
    Sep 24, 2019 at 7:13
  • it's his own post, and I guess the chatroom is only viewable if you have highness reputation
    – User37849012643
    Sep 24, 2019 at 7:21
  • Direct evidence of inappropriate user actions clarified in terms of general policy is a very different thing from inferring and implying a new moderator is abusing their position by doing the job it involves. Further, while the situation you linked to was generalised away from the specific user, you have done the opposite here.
    – user4657
    Sep 24, 2019 at 7:57
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    I'm actually only interested in solving this problem, I felt some of your comment were quite rude, and I don't think you can sling mud then play the martyr. Look I agree with you that comment threads like this one should end up in a chatroom, but with the quote, I provide by DaleM and the action he has taken it seems like he uses chatrooms to get rid of unwanted comments on his own posts.
    – User37849012643
    Sep 24, 2019 at 8:22
  • The very question itself here is mudslinging. You've already made a number of statements that are flat out incorrect, and which could have been checked by going through Meta SE to make sure, and what it "seems like" is that Dale is doing exactly what he should.
    – user4657
    Sep 24, 2019 at 8:34
  • @StephanS. My rep is significantly lower than yours, and yet I can see that chatroom. (I cannot post therein, though.)
    – TRiG
    Sep 25, 2019 at 10:34
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    @TRiG your overall rep is higher than mine. Only users with over 10k rep can see the transcripts of these rooms, I've changed my post to reflect this.
    – User37849012643
    Sep 25, 2019 at 13:53
  • Oh, yeah. Chat uses aggregate rep from most SE sites (excluding SO and MetaSE, which each have their own separate chat). I'd forgotten that, @StephanS.
    – TRiG
    Sep 25, 2019 at 14:03

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