2017–08–29

Quit, deleting account:

I’ve deleted my Quora account.

I no longer permit the “nice and respectful people” who run that website to profit from my content. In 14 days it will be gone. I encourage others to do the same, because honestly, I’ve never known a site’s moderators to treat its volunteer content creators with such utter contempt, and this is the only thing that’s going to hit them where it hurts.

I got properly distracted by Quora about 3 years ago when my end goal of spending so much time scrolling through content was to get inspiration for my next book, a project which has barely moved on since, because Quora happened to be a lot of fun back then. It just isn’t remotely fun any more.

Now I feel like I am overcoming a harmful drug addiction, and I’m looking forward to life on the other side, spending more time in the studio and so on.

Anyone who’s interacted with me on Quora, please feel free to add me on Facebook and stay in touch, and thanks for the memories. I might start lurking on r/linguistics or stackexchange eventually. Lots of you are talking about Medium but it looks a bit too clickbaitish for my liking.

Posts on this blog will only point to the profile of users, and mention any reason for sanction given in edit profiles. Speculation about why people have been banned or blocked will not be entertained. BNBR applies in comments.

New to Quora? Check out Quora Base Camp

Appeal Rejected

See: Appeal lodged

Charlie (Quora)

Aug 28, 4:21 PM PDT

Hello Nick,

Your content was in violation of our Be Nice, Be Respectful policy. This core Quora principle requires that people treat other people on the site with civility, respect, and consideration. To learn more about this policy, please visit: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Qu…. From the policy:

Attacks against other people are not allowed on Quora, nor are disrespectful or insulting attacks directed at other people’s content. People should be civil and respectful in disagreement with others and should not (1) make attacks or otherwise disparage other people, (2) refer to other people’s content with insulting or disrespectful language, (3) harass others on the site or (4) advocate self-harm, even in a joking manner.

Our decision is final, and your content will not be reinstated.

If you see content that is objectionable, we suggest you either report or downvote it. You can report questions, answers, comments, and messages by clicking on the “Report” link which is located underneath the content.

We appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

Charlie
User Operations
Quora

No, Charlie. You will have no understanding from me over this.

When I get a spare minute, I will migrate this blog somewhere safer. There are other consequences to this notice for my motivations and presence here, which I will need time to mull over.

At least this rejection came across in less than two months. I’ll give them that. In fact, it’s the first rejection I’ve seen. (And it isn’t even my benburr, it’s Zeibura’s.)

2017–08–28

Deleted:

Posts on this blog will only point to the profile of users, and mention any reason for sanction given in edit profiles. Speculation about why people have been banned or blocked will not be entertained. BNBR applies in comments.

New to Quora? Check out Quora Base Camp

Appeal lodged

I’m back.

I note with concern that the blog Necrologue does not come up on autocorrect search in Quora (completion of @Necrologue); only the topic Necrologue does. This makes me surmise that this blog is under limdist interdict.

EDIT: False alarm: At-mention interdict of blogs by Nick Nicholas on Bug? or Feature?

EDIT 2: See comments there. Possibly not false alarm.

A note on moderation reports on the BNBR notice Zeibura received last week. The BNBR notice was not about comments made by any users to the post, it was about the post itself. I am concluding that the very existence of a blog reporting moderation actions is being considered to violate BNBR.

I have appealed the BNBR notice, and I am posting my appeal here.

2017–08–24, bis

A BNBR notice was sent to Zeibura S. Kathau regarding a post notifying that [redacted]’s ban from Quora had been rescinded, on the Necrologue blog.

The Necrologue blog is very careful to adhere to BNBR by limiting its posts to strict templates without editorialising. (We also obfuscate the names of users who have deleted their accounts, to respect their privacy.) I have asked Tatiana Estevez twice whether merely reporting moderator actions raises concerns to Quora, with no response.

At [redacted]’s request, Zeibura had deleted the post before the BNBR notice was issued. Both Zeibura and I have no problem honouring such requests, and have done so in the past.

The BNBR notice was issued against not user comments, but the strictly templated post (which is already deleted). It now seems that the very act of reporting that someone has been, not even banned, but unbanned, is considered a BNBR violation.

I require a response, in order to decide whether to continue with the blog.

A note on moderation

Hello readers,

I have been served a BNBR warning for a Necrologue post.

Without wanting to point the finger at anyone in particular, I would like to ask if we could pay a little more attention to the text in the footer. The reason being, it is not fair to excessively discuss why people have been blocked and banned, while they are unable to participate in the discussion.

I will now be moderating comments which speculate excessively.

Thanks

Posts on this blog will only point to the profile of users, and mention any reason for sanction given in edit profiles. Speculation about why people have been banned or blocked will not be entertained. BNBR applies in comments.

New to Quora? Check out Quora Base Camp

2017–08–23

Banned:

Unbanned (12 minutes later):

Banned (9 minutes later):

Unbanned (seconds later):

Posts on this blog will only point to the profile of users, and mention any reason for sanction given in edit profiles. Speculation about why people have been banned or blocked will not be entertained. BNBR applies in comments.

New to Quora? Check out Quora Base Camp