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This ID question, "Movie where a man in a suit and tie disarms three men accosting a waitress," asking about the source of a clip the user had found on YouTube, was posted a few hours ago. About an hour ago, the question was deleted by a moderator. The moderator did not close the question beforehand, nor did they leave a comment explaining why they had deleted it.

The question had received a couple of downvotes, but was perfectly on-topic as far as I can tell. I don't see anything about it that would warrant it being deleted, let alone by a moderator.

Why was the question deleted?

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I debated about what action, if any, to take and I am not above undoing it if the community disagrees.

"No research" is not a close action as such on SE but it is a long standing contributing factor to down and close votes. The question was entirely based on a youtube short where the answer was in the description.

As a result the question has multiple downvotes, close-votes and flags suggesting it was a troll question. Now I don't agree that it was a troll question, but I did agree it showed very low levels of prior research and was likely to attract downvotes and close votes.

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    The comments indicate that the source provided in the YouTube description was wrong, though. Commented Nov 29 at 15:13
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    Alright - my bad. I guess I pulled the trigger too soon on that. Commented Nov 29 at 15:16
  • No worries. Mistakes happen. Commented Nov 29 at 15:25
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    I think even if the YouTube description was correct, the question shouldn't have been closed or deleted. The "Needs details or clarity" close reason definitely does not fit; ID questions with media are actually better than memory-based ones, because they provide clear, descriptive reference of what the user is trying to identify. Commented Nov 30 at 5:41
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    I'm guessing this answer was downvoted because people disagree with the original action taken, but I'm upvoting for the willingness to be open about the reason behind your decision. To downvoters: you're only discouraging mods from frankly explaining their actions on meta. Commented Nov 30 at 19:14
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    @Randal'Thor - I downvoted for the same reasons as GalacticNinja; the Youtube description being inaccurate is beside the point. Commented Nov 30 at 20:24
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    @Randal'Thor I think the downvotes are because it didn't address why the question was deleted, only explaining why it was low quality (and I agree it could have used more prior research). If the part about the deletion being a mistake, as `@iandotkelly mentioned in their comment, were added to the post, I think this answer would get fewer downvotes and even more upvotes. (For what it's worth, I didn't downvote but upvoted it for the same reason you did.) Commented Dec 1 at 0:38
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I'm sorry to say this, but you definitely overstepped here. It might not be a good question (and for the record, it's borderline), and you might feel that it lacks research effort, but neither of those are a valid cause to cast a Delete vote, let alone for a moderator to insta-kill it.

Ordinary Users - If you don't like a question, downvote it. Don't use your delete vote as a super-downvote.

Moderators - This goes double for you since your vote is binding. We literally had a massive row, followed by moderator resignations because our moderator team couldn't accept that the community want to keep ID questions and don't want 'trivia' as a valid reason for removal. Your actions here fly right in the face of those decisions.

Heck, the fact that you were wrong is actually irrelevant. It just underlines why you shouldn't feel free to make those choices when the agreed policy goes against it.

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    Dude, I apologized for the misjudgement and immediately reversed my action. It also had nothing to do with with it being an ID question. I respectfully request you don't make a mountain out of this. Commented Nov 29 at 22:41
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    @iandotkelly - Hmm..would you be quite so conciliatory if the YouTube video hadn't been mislabelled? I'm betting the answer is "no" Commented Nov 30 at 0:05
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    "a massive row, followed by moderator resignations because our moderator team couldn't accept that the community want to keep ID questions and don't want 'trivia' as a valid reason for removal" - really? It seems like you're just stirring up trouble for the sake of it, rather than being gracious about a misjudgement as Ian is being gracious about it. Also, sometimes mod actions can be necessary depending on bigger context that we might miss without the mod perspective, e.g. if the OP has a history of posting troll questions. Commented Nov 30 at 19:20
  • @Randal'Thor - No, I'm trying to highlight that moderators (and other users) shouldn't use their binding votes as super-downvotes. Commented Nov 30 at 20:25
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    Actually I agree with that last point - I do try to avoid casting close votes for that reason and I believe my behavior has typically shown that. Look, I f**ked up on this one based on misguided thoughts about lack of prior research, plus an attempt to avoid the pile-on I was seeing of downvotes and close votes on a question I thought had been carelessly asked. It had nothing to do with it being an ID question and I tire of that being thrown around. Also, thank you @Randal'Thor. Commented Nov 30 at 22:17
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    I think deleting it was fair if it was a troll question. But mistakes happen, and this was fixed. So all's good. Commented Dec 1 at 0:41

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