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I am a total noob to BH.SE but I respect a need for rules. I think I am following the rules and I find out that I am somehow not able or not qualified to answer a question when I thought I was doing just fine.

Similarly I had an introduction to another site where I didn't follow well defined rules and they deleted my comment. The site marked it for deletion. Everyone understood why it was so marked including me because we still had the ability to discuss it. After discussion died down and a bit of time passed it was automatically deleted. I went on to make several posts that followed the rules and were thus not deleted.

I would currently like to see if I was able to satisfy the moderator instead of doing an end run around him, but I don't get to talk to him alone. I don't see a way to talk to him in context of the question of my answer without copying it all into the meta. I find this introduction a little harsh. I imagine this type of thing dramatically cuts down on the number of participants.

I do think this would make a less harsh introduction to the site and perhaps occasionally inform readers about the rigorousness of the standard the answers have to meet to be retained on the site and what makes this site different.

Is LXX "Enoch pleased God" a reasonable idiomatic translation of Hebrew "Enoch walked with God"?

This is the question that frames my experience. While I see my deleted answer I don't even know if moderators can see it. I think it was requested that I modify one of my answers to only address the question but I have no desire to look like I am ignoring the first moderator. While this says moderators can see it, it was not obvious. If I modify them I am almost certain that moderators could not see what I had and my movement that I perceive to be taking the moderator's comment seriously. This is certainly an uncomfortable situation for any new contributor that would be alleviated by having a recorded conversation flow around a locked first attempt

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  • Thad, I'm sorry you had trouble with your first post. Just FYI regarding your last paragraph: the poster, moderators, and users with 2000+ rep can see deleted posts. Everybody who can see them can also see the revision history. We frequently do look at this and take note of how people have responded to suggestions.
    – Susan
    Dec 12, 2014 at 8:17
  • To the extent that this is indeed a "feature-request", it would probably be better suited for Meta SE since it isn't specific to BH.
    – Susan
    Dec 12, 2014 at 8:20
  • That makes me feel a bit better that there is a trail that is all visible to the mods. I confidently modified my answer. I am not sure how many noobs would be interested to know that all modifications are visable. I may have missed it in the extensive information package that the mod left. Dec 13, 2014 at 4:57

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I see where you are coming from here, but I have an idea this would create more problems than it solves. Such a feature with a delete timer is bound to create quite a bit more drama surrounding the deletion process. On the other hand I don't think it actually solves anything. Intervention would still be required in order to abort the delete process. In the end that's not much different than the ability we have to un-delete when issues get fixed.

Basically, if something needs deleting it might as well be done right away. If the OP wants to get feedback on how to fix it, discuss the deletion process or any other side channel issues we do have a venue for that. Meta is here for just that sort of thing. Additionally, you can still see and edit your posts. Moderators and high reputation community members can review your edits and vote to un-delete. The main thing you cannot do is chat in comments, but as I said meta is the correct venue for that anyway.

The format takes a bit of getting used to. We understand there is a steep learning curve for folks coming from standard Internet forum systems that ARE designed around discussion. That being said, we think the system here that takes the focus off discussion and puts it on focused, directed posts is worth the extra effort. The signal to noise ratio ends up higher.

It looks to me like the main reason your first posts are having trouble in the first place is that you're trying to bring too much discussion into the equation without enough directly addressing the exact issue raised in the question. I'm sure you'll catch on, but honing in on the specifics of questions is definitely one of the first things you should work on.

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