Hi, over on help.openstreetmap.org, user Gnonthgol has posted the following in http://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/10799/why-are-opinions-removed-from-helposmorg:
I have noticed that several personal opinions and discussions have been removed from this site. Is this an atempt to censor people or is there another reason? Deleting comments may show weakness of an indivitual who made such thing and can destabilize the community. Do we not have the freedom to express our own opninions?
I have replied, on help.openstreetmap.org, with the following, but would encourage discussion on this mailing list rather than over on help:
This is not a site for expressing opinions. Answers, and comments, should always be aimed at solving the problem at hand. Questions that solicit opinions instead of factual responses are off-topic (see FAQ link). I occasionally edit questions/answers or remove comments when they become too opinionated. For example, if someone writes: "Why does <x> happen? I think that those who allow this to happen are really stupid!" I would remove the "I think.." sentence. Or if someone comments an answer with "Your answer is really unhelpful and an example of the arrogant attitude of many people in this shitty project", I would remove that comment entirely. (If you a re unhappy with an answer you can vote it down, and arrogant/unhelpful answers will frequently be voted down by many people which is sufficient.) I also remove comments or even answers if they later turn out to be wrong ur unnecessary. For example, someone posts a question that lacks important information to give an answer; someone else comments "please explain what you mean with <x>", then the original questioner enhances his question - this makes the comment redundant and it should be removed. I also think that we should do more editing of answers by consolidating the answers given by multiple people into one "best" answer that will help anyone who looks up something in the future; if someone makes a helpful comment to an answer, and that answer can later be extended to include that comment, then the comment can be removed. This is easier for later readers. This medium is less helpful if the reader has to browse 25 answers to get the whole picture! I hope (and believe) that others edit help.openstreetmap.org in the same way I do. Discussion and expression of opinion shold happen on the forums and mailing lists. I agree with you that all members of our community should be entitled to expressing their opinion in an un-censored way but the medium for that is forums and mailing lists (orc IRC if you prefer). help.openstreetmap.org is for help, not for discussion. I suggest that we discuss this on the "talk" mailing list.
Bye Frederik _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
