What is off topic?

I had a post removed in an Ask Me Anything topic post.

The question was for Stanton Friedman regarding his characterization of SETI as a cult. I wanted to know why he thought they were one.

A moderator, in this case Springer chose to remove it.

Nothing about the post was off topic as far as I can tell. I'd like to ask him the same question privately, and would like the text of that post back because I put a lot of work in it (links to ATS threads, etc).

It seems like putting that much time into a post here was wasted because the question was QUESTIONING the authority who said "Ask me anything."

I have serious issues with that and am wondering how wise it is to spend as much time as I have on ATS.

reply to post by JadeStar


The most succinct answer to your question will almost always come from the staff member who performed the action on your post.

As advised above, please contact staff directly for any and all assistance regarding actions taken on your account, or questions regarding staff policy, procedure and T&C infractions.

Thread Closed

~Tenth

reply to post by JadeStar


As I explained to you in the PM I sent you the content of your post in, I had asked multiple times that people avoid asking multiple questions and avoid writing a long winded, multiple scroll tomes so that your fellow members would have a chance of getting their questions answered. Your post was very long and it was your third or fourth (maybe more than that) question in the thread. You managed to ignore both of my posted requests even after I stated that I would be removing posts that did so.

These AMA threads are an opportunity for ALL interested members to ask a question of someone they likely would never get to interact with. This is a busy site with hundreds of thousands of members, these threads get super busy really fast and it's extremely hard for the guest to keep up. That's why we ask that each member only ask ONE question and avoid writing multiple paragraph essays outlining their beliefs or opinions. That can be done in an appropriate thread later.

You have to look at it from the other side sometimes, imagine you were trying to answer all those questions, you can't possibly keep up but you're trying like heck and then BAM! You come across one that is a 15 paragraph long essay on SETI with a single line question at the end from someone who has already asked 4 or 5 questions. The time you spent reading and processing that one essay you could have answered 6 other people's questions. Those 6 other people shouldn't get screwed out of having their questions answered just because one member gets "greedy".