Okay, I’m not sure if this is a good idea- [name_f]Katinka[/name_f]/other moderators, if this makes it harder for you or just less effective, then tell me and we can just get rid of this. But I was thinking, sometimes I have questions about the platform that don’t feel worth making a whole topic about, but I still want answers to.
this can work like the waterfall quick question thread (shameless self promotion ) where each question can get multiple answers from different people and people don’t have to answer a question to ask one of their own, not a one-to-one-to-one sort of thing.
So, first question: [name_m]Can[/name_m] moderators see PMs?
No, moderators cannot. Admins ([name_f]Pam[/name_f], me and the tech team) can read PMs, but we have never yet had cause to. The reason Discourse has this function is so that admins can take action against spammers and harmful content which may be circulated via PM to avoid detection.
No, not unless you are part of the chat. If, for example, you were to PM me and mention @dogs_books, [name_u]Kit[/name_u] would not get a notification.
You can access the tutorial on your phone. You just @ mention discobot and then write "start advanced tutorial. You can do this either in a PM or in any topic. The tutorial and your responses will only be visible to you.
The user has locked it or requested that it be locked;
Long topics are automatically locked at 10000 replies;
In rare cases, moderators may lock topics that are getting derailed or dissolving into personal attacks;
Moderators may close topics if they are very old topics that have been bumped up and people are responding without realising this, e.g. offering opinions on a name for a child born 6 years ago!
Much lower! It’s probably also intended to keep the main boards lively, so that interesting conversations are had on the public forum for all to participate in, rather than hidden away in PMs.
How do you lock topics now? I haven’t been able to figure out how to do it since we switched platforms. [name_m]Can[/name_m] regular users still lock their topics or do we have to ask a mod?
New name entries are added by current members of staff.
Old entries may have been added by members of staff, or may have been brought directly over from Pam and Linda’s original baby name books, which is what the original database was based on.
In general, the entries are not updated systematically as a whole (there are over 77k names here!) but any new high-profile births or associations are added when they happen.
We are also continually working to amend entries which users have flagged up to us as being either outdated/potentially offensive, or factually inaccurate. These are the relevant topics for doing that
) where each question can get multiple answers from different people and people don’t have to answer a question to ask one of their own, not a one-to-one-to-one sort of thing.
