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A question about jokes was recently asked. It is (IMHO) about as far off topic as you can get. It took almost three days to close it and in the mean time it garnered 11 answers.

So, questions:

  1. Is a joke question actually on-topic and I just don't understand what we are trying to do here?

  2. Assuming a joke question is severely off-topic, does taking 3 days to close mean the quantity and frequency of moderation is lacking?

Assuming the answers are NO and YES, then I posit that we need more, and more involved, moderators. As of this edit, our four moderators last visited 4, 13, 126 & 948 days ago.

A related question was asked a few months ago. The situation described there remains.

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    $\begingroup$ I didn't know this question is that much rude that you may post this post. If the community share your comment I'll delete the question and never appear in the community. Anyway, as I've mentioned there it is usual in different communities of SE. I wanted to have fun with others. About becoming a joke site, I guess you are somehow humiliating the community. I've spent so much time to help others like many other users in the community without expecting anything. To help, not to joke. I guess some users of SO have begun to make SO as a JOKE site due to humiliating thos who askreplicated questio $\endgroup$
    – Green Falcon
    Commented Dec 17, 2018 at 15:22
  • $\begingroup$ Again, consider this. If others share your opinion I will leave here for ever after casting a vote for your moderation. $\endgroup$
    – Green Falcon
    Commented Dec 17, 2018 at 15:41
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    $\begingroup$ @media, I am not sure what here has offended you, but I am sorry I did offend you. $\endgroup$
    – Stephen Rauch Mod
    Commented Dec 17, 2018 at 15:45
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    $\begingroup$ Sorry. I didn't see anything wrong/offensive with that post. Converted to a wiki, so that more people can contribute, but with a proper rep cap. $\endgroup$
    – Dawny33 Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2018 at 6:19
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    $\begingroup$ @Dawny33, Offensive? How about just simply off-topic? Or do you feel it is on-topic? Maybe we should have more of these? Lot's more would be great. Yes? $\endgroup$
    – Stephen Rauch Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2018 at 6:34

2 Answers 2

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This post does not adhere to SO's standards. However, I don't see this as offensive or rude.

So, I have converted this to a community wiki, as there is no one answer to this post, and all the answers are relevant.

However, I will leave it to the community to decide whether it deserves to be closed down or not.

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    $\begingroup$ I did. I also noticed the 4 reopen votes. :) $\endgroup$
    – Dawny33 Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2018 at 6:54
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    $\begingroup$ Anything which do not adhere to SO's standards is off-topic. So, this one is, too. However, it is up to the community to judge whether they are fine with a joke question about their domain or not. In this case, I see that it isn't appreciated. So, I chose to not reopen it. $\endgroup$
    – Dawny33 Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2018 at 7:05
  • $\begingroup$ I usually don't close questions, unless and until it is way over the line, due to my Sledgehammer privileges (which means one vote of mine would close down the question completely). So, I let the community decide + I dont need to go to the review queues to review something. $\endgroup$
    – Dawny33 Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2018 at 7:07
  • $\begingroup$ The post was already closed :) $\endgroup$
    – Dawny33 Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2018 at 7:43
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The post is off-topic, to me.

However, this is a community too, where moderators try to implement what people want this SE to be (which is usually: on-topic and free of poor content). If a bunch of people want to answer this, I think it's less harmful to make the rare exception and not cut this off. I'd rather have an SE that allows maybe one joke post here and there that entertains 27 people, weighed against what must honestly be a really minor inconvenience for anyone else. It should be a wiki, and I've made a few popular "What are the best X?" posts wikis if they had a lot of decent discussion. That's what has been done and I agree with it.

Do we need more moderators? yes please. I have never been clear how we even call an election. The post you cite, however, is evidence of mods doing the right thing. The other post you cite seemed to expect a mod to answer flags in less than a day, which is nice I guess but hardly fatal for an SE at this scale. A week? maybe. But yes we need more mods to share the load.

What is harmful, in comparison, is the tone of the post here and your comments. This is not a constructive way to tell someone a post is off-topic, even when that's objectively true. We don't want people here, let alone mods, doing that. I think Dawny33's replies and actions are patient and reasonable, but you veer into ad hominem when questioning whether this person is doing their job, contributing enough.

Stepping back, this simply is not a big enough deal to escalate like this, even if you disagree. I'd agree we need more mods, but we need mods who will handle it more like Dawny33, not what you seem to want to happen here.

Let's leave it open as a wiki as exceptional, enjoy it, ignore it, move on, and keep it clean and light here.

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  • $\begingroup$ OK then, that answers that. Thanks for the feedback. $\endgroup$
    – Stephen Rauch Mod
    Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 0:31

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