(OT), who decides, who adds it?

Recently a node of mine was marked (OT) by someone else after I had posted it. I didn't have a huge problem with it (I disagreed completely, but thats life), but it did raise the issue: Who decides whats (ot)? And after they decide, who changes it?

At the moment, as far as I can tell some random person with the power to edit nodes decides it's ot and edits the title? And if that is the case, can we atleast get some consistency?

Personally I would much rather have an "ot" flag that you could toggle viewing or something of that nature. I suppose you could accomplish the same thing by allowing a regex to be specified to determine node titles that shouldn't be displayed.. but thats icky.

Comment on (OT), who decides, who adds it?

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Re: (OT), who decides, who adds it? by BazB (Priest) on Nov 01, 2003 at 10:35 UTC
In most cases, a node is considered by any monk, Friar or above. Once there are sufficient votes for "edit", one of the editors will amend the node as mentioned in the consideration. IIRC, the node in question had a large number of edit votes. So, the answer is, everyone decides if a node is off-topic or not. If the information in this post is inaccurate, or just plain wrong, don't just downvote - please post explaining what's wrong. That way everyone learns.	[reply]
Re: (OT), who decides, who adds it? by Anonymous Monk on Nov 01, 2003 at 10:26 UTC
sigh This node was well-written and definitely asks a lot of questions. However, I must admit that the post leaves me with a certain impression: who really gives a crap? Normally someone will consider a node with the little Approval Nodelet thingy on the right side of the screen. This of course is if said someone turned it on under their user settings page. Now when something is considered, it ends up on a page called Nodes to Consider. Yep, this is where Monks and above can go to cast their opinion about nodes and actions that should be taken. It is up to the editors and gods to decide at what point action should be taken. Usually this is right after one of them becomes bored enough to actually go over to the nodes to consider page and review things. (When I say bored, I'm not saying that they don't do it often or anything like that. I'm just saying these guys don't get paid for this stuff and are doing it at their leisure.) Anyhow sometimes the editors and gods just say, "gee willy, something just isn't right with this node" and they fix it on the spot. They usually put something at the bottom of the node that says what they changed. Lo and behold, their name ALSO usually appears. (An example would be this node which incidentally was also written by you.) What do you know? The wonders of reading.	[reply]
Re: (OT), who decides, who adds it? by pg (Canon) on Nov 01, 2003 at 20:55 UTC
So base on BazB's explanation, OT means off topic. I didn't know that, so I went check my recent nodes, and two of them have this OT tag. I believe that, most of those who visit this site, judge the value of each node base on their own standard, and are not influenced by the editor's notes any way.	[reply]
It's not a stigma by DentArthurDent (Monk) on Nov 03, 2003 at 15:07 UTC
Your questions about who decides and who edits are already answered, but I just wanted to encourage you that being marked as off topic does not in and of itself mean that nobody is going to read your post, or apply careful thought and consideration to it. I've read many "OT" posts on here and just as many of them are thoughtful and well-reasoned and interesting as the on topic ones. So, don't let it get you down that somebody else decided that your post wasn't on topic. Let the fact that they allowed the discussion to happen here be enough for you. ---- May your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth with the force of a thousand caramels.	[reply]

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