Friends of Captain Awkward

Hi,

I recently had a response to my post moderated to remove "advice." The removed content consisted of a link to a Wikipedia article related to what I was struggling with. I can see how an article would be considered advice if it contained specific suggestions for action but this one didn't.

I've also seen things in Jedi Hugs like poetry and essays on concepts related to the person's struggle and I thought that was ok. Same with people telling personal stories related to the situation or offering their interpretation (in a way that doesn't call for specific action). I'm wondering if maybe the moderators could write a clarification of what does and doesn't constitute advice, especially regarding external links. It's not clear to me where the line is.

((mod hat on))

Thank you for this question DT~DM, the mod team is working on it and will post here with an update as soon as we have one.

((mod hat off))

((mod hat on))

DT~DM, thank you for your inquiry.

As a general guideline, anything that is phrased as (or could be equivalently phrased as) "you should..." or "you could..." or "have you considered..." counts as advice.

So "you could read X", "you could think of this like Y", "have you thought of trying Z" all fall under the banner of advice and therefore are never allowed on the Jedi Hugs board.

That said, the OP in a thread can set whatever boundaries they want about responses, provided those boundaries don't break the board rules or the specific limits of a board area.

So an OP in Jedi Hugs may NOT say "I am open to suggested reading, but no action steps please" because advice is against the rules of Jedi Hugs, full stop.

However an OP in I Need Help can certainly say "I am open to suggested reading, but no action steps please" and any users replying to the thread will be required to respect that boundary.

If an OP in Jedi Hugs decides they are ready for advice and wishes to have their thread moved to I Need Help, they can PM a mod or report their post requesting to have it moved.

Hope this helps clarify things!

((mod hat off))