Why Moderator will decide what is displayed in community forum?

Question

I have just recently added a comment on a question that was something related to the problem I was facing. And then someone (so-called moderator) flagged the question saying it is like a commentary or question over a question. And it was hidden. Though he was kind of right in saying that question was a question. But I have a problem here. Moderators have full control over what will be displayed here in the community. And I am not getting any chance to explain anything. Which I think should not be the case in open community forums like this. Instead of moderators, they seem like a dictator. So I will explain a reason here why I have added a comment over a comment.

Recently WordPress Gutenberg has released something which is still in kind of beta version and not lot of people have tried it. I tried searching for questions or comment related to the problem but could not find. And finally, I found a question that was something related to my problem. And even in that question, answer was given by the same person who has raised the question. It clearly shows that it's hard to get an answer, as not a lot of people have tried this thing. That is the reason instead of asking a new question in the forum I raised a question inside question as he might be having the first-hand answer to the question.

Would like to hear some words from the moderator. Or maybe they can block this question too. And I am not new to these community forums it's just I have recently switched to WordPress.

Regards

Answer 1

Stack Exchange sites are not forums, either in format nor content. The Q&A format is a model which all Stack Exchange sites adhere to, and the tools and interfaces which Stack Exchange provides rely on posts practicing that format in order to best facilitate the structure of help and knowledge sharing which is it's goal.

I'm not certain, but the comment and flag you describe sounds like one I might have made in the last week (I'm not a moderator - but was it me? :O).

There are a handful of actual moderators who have the tools and responsibility to act on exceptional circumstances, but it's worth noting that all Stack sites' content is community-moderated. Any community member with a reputation high enough for the corresponding privileges can play a role in the moderation process, which largely consists of voting to close and reopen questions, editing to improve and categorize content, and reviewing first posts and suggested edits. Flagging posts is a privilege unlocked for all users with 15 reputation.

All of these procedures are all guided by the network and the site's rules and guidelines. Discussion regarding those rules and guidelines is certainly encouraged, which is largely why these meta sites exist. There are usually moderators hanging out in our main chat as well.

It sounds to me like you might have posted a question or critique of a question or answer as an Answer, in which case the moderator's action was less dictatorial and more just enforcing a rule that stands (to the best of my knowledge) across all of Stack Exchange's 175+ sites. There was no judgement on the value of the content you posted - it was simply posted incorrectly per the network's rules.

The help center's "Why and how are some answers deleted?" page succinctly details,

Answers that do not fundamentally answer the question may be removed. This includes answers that are:

• commentary on the question or other answers
• asking another, different question

As your very first post on the site, it was so quickly noticed and addressed for ending up in the "First Posts" review queue, where reviewers are given specific guidance to ensure answers actually answer the question, and to flag them in the case which they do not.

If you do have a question which you would like help with, by all means post it as a new question! Dropping a link in there to the Question you were originally posting on for additional context is totally a good move as well. I for one would loooove to see a lot more Gutenberg hubbub on this stack.

If you did not have a Question but were only commenting on another post there, that would be something which would be better left in an actual comment on the post. Until you have accrued 50 reputation to unlock the privilege you are only able to comment on your own posts, however.

Answer 2

TLDR: Answers should answer the question. Yours didn't attempt to answer the question, and was not an answer so someone flagged it for moderator intervention. It should have been left as a comment instead.

As Bosco said, this isn't a discussion forum, and questions are not discussion threads. Users post questions, then other users try to write an answer that definitively solves the question. Comments can be left by users to clarify the question, and a minimum reputation is needed to prevent spambots flooding the site with comments for mystery pharmaceuticals.

I found the deleted answer, and it looks like you did not write the solution to the question. It is instead, a comment containing a new question. It should have been posted as a comment.

Posting it as a solution can signal to the site and other users that solutions have been written for the question, which wasn't the case ( it was actually a question ), so these get flagged for cleanup by other users. In this case it was flagged by a non-moderator for moderator attention.

Users need a minimum amount of reputation to post, which isn't specific to this stack. If you have 100 reputation on any stack, you get 100 reputation one very other stack you join. I would recommend you do this on a stack of your choosing, if only to gain the perk that removes the adverts.