One of my posts is lost

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@ C.A.M. Gerlach
Hi Mr. Gerlach: My post “Can’t display the contents between 3 sets of inverted commas” is lost. Can you kindly check it out and tell me what happened? Thanks

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@CAM-Gerlach (I ping you explicitly myself because it seems to have been OP’s intention but there was a mishap maybe).

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Thanks (there was an extra space between the @ and the name, and the user attempted to ping the display name rather than the username); the user also DMed me about it, and to note, I didn’t have anything to do with the removal, but I’m always happy to help. I already replied to them over DM, having seen it first before noticing that they’d made a public post, but since they also asked publicly, I’ve adapted the relevant, non-private parts of the DM I sent here:

Thanks for reaching out. I see that your post, Can’t display the contents between 3 sets of inverted commas when learning class, was removed by another mod, in response to a user report (by someone not involved with this particular thread) claiming that your repeated personal queries were off topic and potentially not appropriate for the forum.

I re-reviewed the thread, and while it did wander a bit off topic, I didn’t see where it violated the CoC or any basic guidelines (we, perhaps unfortunately given the assertive moderation lately, don’t really have much in the way of explicit rules beyond that) and the other member involved ( @Rosuav ) seemed to mostly welcome the interaction up until the end. Therefore, I went ahead and restored it.

Some suggestions for the future, to avoid further issues:

  • I would avoid asking members here to be your “friend” on other social media, especially publicly—it can be seen as a little strange and potentially even suspicious, and can make people uncomfortable. We already have this forum to communicate on, and if for whatever reason they are interested in that they will reach out to you, privately, and offer.
  • Generally speaking, unless they’ve specifically asked you to or you have a good reason, you should probably avoid pinging other people in thread OPs who haven’t already participated, or for reasons other than a direct reply (and simply quoting the text will do so automatically, so there is usually no need for it). It can be seen as impolite and overly demanding, since we have a large community of experts who can help. And if you’re doing so, make sure you’re actually pinging the right username (e.g. 2 out of 3 were not correct).
  • You might also want to reconsider avoiding asking personal questions that aren’t directly related to the topic of the thread or take them elsewhere (e.g. DMs), as it can also be seen as both off topic and potentially even inappropriate. Instead, if you really want to chat and the person seems up for it, maybe DM that person privately and ask them if they have the time and inclination to chat further, and if they seem anything other than happy about it or gives only very brief, to the point responses (which, just to be clear, Chris did seem reasonably happy to chat with you, up until the end), leave them be.

I’m happy to provide further clarification on this if you have followup questions. Thanks!

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For what it’s worth, I had no objection to the conversation (although it was a bit off-topic and more personal chat, so not really suited to the thread). I gave a firm “no” to Facebook but that’s because I don’t do Facebook. (The last two posts, I don’t recall seeing, so maybe they were moderated out before I saw them.)

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Thanks for your detailed guidance which I will strictly follow。 Much obliged。