Questions on the results board are getting deleted!!!

[ringo-ring]

One person posted for Neuroscience program at Caltech that (s)he was at the interview with 17 other people: I asked if the poster could share his stats, and maybe he knows if they gonna accept only from those 17 people (17 is not too much I guess...) but my post was deleted! I asked again, now I visit the website and guess what? it got deleted again! I wonder what is going on?

[Bukharan]

One person posted for Neuroscience program at Caltech that (s)he was at the interview with 17 other people: I asked if the poster could share his stats, and maybe he knows if they gonna accept only from those 17 people (17 is not too much I guess...) but my post was deleted! I asked again, now I visit the website and guess what? it got deleted again! I wonder what is going on?

Well.... strictly speaking, the results board is for ... results! For questions, there is a forum.

In the past, moderators tolerated questions there for a certain period of time. After a while, those questions would be deleted. I believe the procedure remains roughly the same.

[fortehlulz]

One person posted for Neuroscience program at Caltech that (s)he was at the interview with 17 other people: I asked if the poster could share his stats, and maybe he knows if they gonna accept only from those 17 people (17 is not too much I guess...) but my post was deleted! I asked again, now I visit the website and guess what? it got deleted again! I wonder what is going on?

The results board is not the place to be asking questions, especially for stats. If the person wanted to provide their stats, then they had the option when they submitted. Questions only clutter up the results listings and there is no efficient way to ask or answer them on the board. Just ask your questions in the forum. That's what it is here for.

[ringo-ring]

OK: I have seen people asking about stats of other posters on the board very often, and they get replied, so asking is actually quite helpful and beneficial, it would be wrong to make it prohibited. Regarding other questions - about something else than stats - I agree that forum is much better method for discussion, but I'm not sure it gets as many visitors as result board, plus not everyone will want to bother himself with registration, which is required for forum discussions.

[fortehlulz]

OK: I have seen people asking about stats of other posters on the board very often, and they get replied, so asking is actually quite helpful and beneficial, it would be wrong to make it prohibited. Regarding other questions - about something else than stats - I agree that forum is much better method for discussion, but I'm not sure it gets as many visitors as result board, plus not everyone will want to bother himself with registration, which is required for forum discussions.

Before they implemented the stats viewer, I can see how this strategy might have been helpful. However, now anyone who wants to submit their stats can do so when they submit and it shows up without the need for clutter on the results board which can be confusing and look like multiple acceptances, rejections, etc. Stats themselves are not very helpful, anyway, as they may vary widely within programs and are not nearly as important as SoPs and LoRs in many respects. Very little in the admissions process is easily quantifiable, hence the forums for discussion. Just ask in the appropriate thread (or make one) and if the admitted person is interested they might be able to give you some useful advice. If they are not interested, then they would probably not answer your questions on the results board, either.

[newms]

I think what's happening is that people are reporting them as spam - if enough people report a 'result' as spam then it gets removed. As people above said, the results board are for results and questions are better asked in the forums where more people will see them.

[ringo-ring]

I doubt it - my musings were removed once from the board well before spam button was introduced (at the same time, offensive racist comments weren't deleted)

[Mrs. Grad]

There's a simple solution. Stop asking questions on the results page. That is not what it's there for. "Someone else did it first" is not a valid excuse for civilized adults.

Even better, you could post your questions about the disappearing posts in the appropriate forum.

Edited March 8, 2011 by Mrs. Grad

[ringo-ring]

"A well-mannered lady should not ask questions on the results board"

[ringo-ring]

Before they implemented the stats viewer, I can see how this strategy might have been helpful. However, now anyone who wants to submit their stats can do so

they could do this as well before.

when they submit and it shows up without the need for clutter on the results board which can be confusing and look like multiple acceptances, rejections, etc.

there are not too much replies for any single program, so even if some posts come from same person it doesn't make the whole thing cluttered...

Stats themselves are not very helpful, anyway, as they may vary widely within programs and are not nearly as important as SoPs and LoRs in many respects.

that's very controversial I would say...

Just ask in the appropriate thread (or make one) and if the admitted person is interested they might be able to give you some useful advice. If they are not interested, then they would probably not answer your questions on the results board, either.

not everyone who visits the result board is registered on this forum. so there are people who can answer questions related to their post on the result board but will never bother to look up your question here.

all in all, these were very well focused questions that does not provoke a long, bloated discussion that would make the results board "cluttered". if they were I'd post them on the forum, but so far I don't see the reason why a little questioning would be harmful for the results board.

Edited March 8, 2011 by ringo-ring

[Mrs. Grad]

all in all, these were very well focused questions that does not provoke a long, bloated discussion that would make the results board "cluttered". if they were I'd post them on the forum, but so far I don't see the reason why a little questioning would be harmful for the results board.

I would have to disagree with you there. Very few accepted applicants on the results board go back in order to search for questions being asked of them and the results board is designed to maintain the privacy of forum members. If you would like to gain additional perspective, I suggest you create relationships with fellow forum members rather than adopting an entitled stance. Your questions were deemed inappropriate for the results page. If you'd like to suggest an addition of a comment option to each result, I would suggest making a thread devoted to your request here.

However, you're probably not going to be taken seriously if you continue to flout forum rules.

Edited March 8, 2011 by Mrs. Grad

[ringo-ring]

I would have to disagree with you there. Very few accepted applicants on the results board go back in order to search for questions being asked of them

I would have to disagree. I'm watching this board for a while and have noticed people reply to questions being asked of them quite often.

and the results board is designed to maintain the privacy of forum members.

I don't think question can break the privacy. The answer can, but nobody has to provide an answer.

If you would like to gain additional perspective, I suggest you create relationships with fellow forum members rather than adopting an entitled stance.

That's a question of personal philosophy. The whole Internet thing was made to help people gain information they need for free - without the requirement to pay other people, or - for those in poor - without the need to bend under other people worldviews and/or having to make false friendships. If my message seemed "entitled" to you then I'm sorry, just a little nervous.

Your questions were deemed inappropriate for the results page.

That's why this topic was created in the first place.

If you'd like to suggest an addition of a comment option to each result, I would suggest making a thread devoted to your request here.

Thanks. Will definitely start a thread later when I'll have time.

However, you're probably not going to be taken seriously if you continue to flout flout forum rules.

A progress can't be made without having to flout-flout some rules.

Anyway, I don't want to go into long forum battles here and suggest you not to spent too much time, too.

Edited March 8, 2011 by ringo-ring

[UnlikelyGrad]

I'm "only" a moderator, and I imagine bgk can strike me with lightning if I'm wrong, but my feeling is that the forums exist so that people can ask questions. The results board is supposed to be for results only.

If you feel this is not the way it should be, ringo-ring, why don't you start your own results page? This is not the only one on the internet. When (or if) you do, you will find out exactly how "free" the internet is.

[ringo-ring]

I've explained in previous posts that there are cases when asking questions on the results board seem to be justified; if the "owners" of this result board still disagree - well, they have a right to. I have no interest to force anyone to return my questions back. The emotional charge in my message is because that's a second time my questions are deleted, and when it happened first time, as I told before, my absolutely neutral questions were deleted at the same time while other offensive, racist and sexist comments (unrelated to my posts) were filling the results board and nobody seemed to take any care of it. Henceforth, I decided there is something completely wrong with this result board, and decided to clarify it here. If everything is actually ok then I'm happy with it.

[UnlikelyGrad]

I've explained in previous posts that there are cases when asking questions on the results board seem to be justified; if the "owners" of this result board still disagree - well, they have a right to. I have no interest to force anyone to return my questions back. The emotional charge in my message is because that's a second time my questions are deleted, and when it happened first time, as I told before, my absolutely neutral questions were deleted at the same time while other offensive, racist and sexist comments (unrelated to my posts) were filling the results board and nobody seemed to take any care of it. Henceforth, I decided there is something completely wrong with this result board, and decided to clarify it here. If everything is actually ok then I'm happy with it.

You have to understand that we don't go through the results weeding out what we feel should be deleted. If you feel comments are offensive, racist, or sexist, report them. Chances are they won't get seen otherwise.

(The same goes for forum posts, btw. I read ~30% of the posts of my own volition but frequently don't see spam/offensive posts unless reported.)

[ringo-ring]

You have to understand that we don't go through the results weeding out what we feel should be deleted.

then it is even more strange that my single, lonely questions were noticed right after they were posted, while floods of offensive comments left unnoticed for days despite of the fact they even led users to create topics dedicated to them on this forum... anyway