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A large number of Stack Exchange mods resigning over new policies

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Re: A large number of Stack Exchange mods resigning over new policies

#241

Post by yongjik »

ratww wrote: post #203
mark-r wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you'd be in favor of the question "What's the best regular expression for parsing HTML?"

Why not? Like it or not, regexes are able to parse a limited subset of HTML. By explaining why they only can parse this small subset is a great teaching opportunity on Chomsky Hierarchies. And the people searching for it might learn that XML parsers exist. By actually giving an answer to the question (after saying the above of course) you might be helping thousands of people parse very simple HTML when they're in a h…

That's one of my all-time favorite answers on stackoverflow, and it doesn't exactly look low effort. It would probably take more time to write something like that than write about Chomsky Hierarchies.

Besides, I concede that "helping thousands of people parse very simple HTML when they're in a hurry" has its merit, but IMHO that's also how you end up debugging a production bug at 3am while losing faith in your fellow developers and humanity, so I'm not sure if it's a net plus. YMMV.

Re: A large number of Stack Exchange mods resigning over new policies

#242

Post by [deleted] »

Jun8 wrote: post #88
ForHackernews wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> esp. true for SE due to the ongoing changes there For the benefit of those of us who don't closely follow Stack Overflow meta-drama, can you explain what this is alluding to?

Recent change in management discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21062191 was widely interpreted as getting ready for SE to be sold. At this point any sort of bad publicity would be shunned, especially. of the “it’s not a welcoming community” kind.

[deleted]

Re: A large number of Stack Exchange mods resigning over new policies

#243

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

csande17 wrote: post #211

This resignation notice from a moderator on the Christianity Stack Exchange appears to provide the most detail about what's going on: https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6718/b...

The whole pronoun drama that is inherently American is tearing down international communities left and right despite it not being even an issue.

Re: A large number of Stack Exchange mods resigning over new policies

#245

Post by 9HZZRfNlpR »

Dobbs wrote: post #174
latk wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a perpetual tension between those who want SE to be helping everyone, and those who want to curate a helpful resource. People involved with community moderation aspects tend to fall into the latter group. For the last half decade or so SE has progressively abandoned this latter group, leading to a lot of pent-up frustration. Some changes SE has made are sensible (e.g. striving to be more welcoming and more i…

I really wish more details about this was available. > it seems that SE is unwilling to protect trans moderators from vitriol by other mods. Reading Monica's post made me pretty sure this was trans related. I'm sad that I was right. > [From Monica's Post] unlike the rest of the CoC, this rule mandates specific, positive actions. This is something I've heard many times from anti-trans activists in order to justify the…

Well in this case biology doesn't give the question a consideration, even though the issue is not anyone, even the moderator in question, attacking anyone for being transsexual. No one even knows one gender on stackoverflow, you just assume it from name or write neutrally.

Re: A large number of Stack Exchange mods resigning over new policies

#247

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

charlesism wrote: post #105
bane wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You see this phenomenon here on HN all the time. Find anybody asking a question or help to figure something out and the first couple answers will likely be "why are you doing it that way?", followed by almost completely useless advice to do something else entirely a completely different way.

Well, it is often useful to ask why a user wants to do something a particular way, and commendable to inform them if it’s bad practice. The trouble is, if you’re going to reply that way, you should strive to first answer the question, as asked . If the answer is bad practice, of course, you should mention that. That’s the respectful way to handle a misguided question, in my opinion. Give the reader both solutions, ex…

The one case where I think it makes sense to say "Don't do that" unequivocally is with security issues. Cryptography SE gets a decent number of people asking some variant of "how do I implement " to which the only correct answer is "Don't do that. It's unsafe."

Re: A large number of Stack Exchange mods resigning over new policies

#248

Post by ratww »

yongjik wrote: post #241
ratww wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? Like it or not, regexes are able to parse a limited subset of HTML. By explaining why they only can parse this small subset is a great teaching opportunity on Chomsky Hierarchies. And the people searching for it might learn that XML parsers exist. By actually giving an answer to the question (after saying the above of course) you might be helping thousands of people parse very simple HTML when they're in a h…

That's one of my all-time favorite answers on stackoverflow, and it doesn't exactly look low effort. It would probably take more time to write something like that than write about Chomsky Hierarchies. Besides, I concede that "helping thousands of people parse very simple HTML when they're in a hurry" has its merit, but IMHO that's also how you end up debugging a production bug at 3am while losing faith in your fellow…

> It would probably take more time to write something like that than write about Chomsky Hierarchies.

And yet it is not only wrong, but the answers below do a much better job at explaining Chomsky Hierarchies and other things correctly.

Why is it wrong? "Have you tried using an XML parser instead?" is wrong because HTML is not necessarily XML/XHTML. The first working draft of HTML5 was published a year before that answer, and non-XML websites existed since the 90s, so there's no excuses.

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> but IMHO that's also how you end up debugging a production bug at 3am while losing faith in your fellow developers and humanity, so I'm not sure if it's a net plus

And that's why you treat people like adults: you tell them the limitations of each method, instead of making a meme.

And btw, you can get bugs at 3am with a XML (or HTML) parser too.

Re: A large number of Stack Exchange mods resigning over new policies

#249

Post by 345218435 »

MrStonedOne wrote: post #29

This is natural selection at work. Stack Exchange has become a frustrating site to use. "Closed as duplicate: different and unrelated question" reopen further explaining the question and how its not related "Closed as duplicate: the first question that was immediately closed with no replies" OR! Google around, find SE link on issue, everybody is arguing about why the user wants to do it that why, convinces them to do…

how do you get yelled at by text?

milennials, do yourselves a favor and grow some skin. just stop to care to much!

it‘s the bloody internet and you and everybody else are free on there.

not everybody will appreciate your help. you did your best. get over it.

i cannot stand the flodding with people and their constant complaining „ugh, this community is not inclusive!!1!eleven!“.

the hell, just leave! cyberspace is big and wide and there‘s more in life!

good lord.

Re: A large number of Stack Exchange mods resigning over new policies

#250

Post by scollet »

cies wrote: post #100
ianai wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that acceptable? People need to be paid for working.

There is a lot of "work" that goes unpaid. House work. Internships. And many artist work for free in order to get exposure.

You listed two jobs here.
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