Moderator deletion of critical comments: Abuse of Power?

Question

This week, while browsing through the site, I happened to come across two of moderator Brian Towers' answers (1, 2). I disagreed with large parts (though not all) of the points raised within, and thought that they were grossly misleading, especially considering the large number of upvotes they had garnered, which seems to be an indication of the number of people who thought they were good answers. I felt so strongly, in fact, that I left critical comments beneath both answers that explained clearly why I felt that the answers were incorrect and misleading.

I did so with two reasons. First, I expected that any reasonable user (let alone a moderator of this site) seeing critical comments below their answer would respond to the criticisms, either explaining why they thought I was wrong, or agreeing with my criticisms and therefore improving the answer. In both cases, somebody learns something, and positive benefit is to be had. Secondly, I believed that, if left uncorrected, these answers risk to mislead readers and damage, in a nontrivial way, the quality of answers on this site and therefore its reputation as a place to seek high-quality answers to questions about chess.

It did not take long before my comments beneath both of the answers were deleted. When I asked about the reason behind the deletion, Brian Towers responded: "You're right. I should have flagged as rude or abusive first". They have since deleted this comment, which is why it is now unviewable, prompting the question of why the moderator felt the need to do so if they truly believed in this justification.

I view this as a critical abuse of power by the moderator in deleting comments which are not in favour of his answers. I am asking this question on Meta to ask for the moderator to hold accountability for his actions and to be transparent in justifying his actions instead of sweeping it under the rug.

I would also ask whether the community at large accepts this sort of behaviour, because if it does, perhaps it is not one that I want to be a part of any longer.

It is true that the comments were rather strongly worded. I do not have the exact wording of the full comments, since I cannot refer to them anymore, given the moderator's actions, but wording such as that the answer was "odd and misleading", as well as the perspective in the answer being "naive" were used. However, the comments never personally attacked or abused the moderator themselves, and the criticism was directed only squarely at the (in my view) completely misguided answers with the potential to mislead. Yes, I agree that this phrasing could be interpreted as unfriendly. However, I staunchly believe that strong language, within the realm of civility, is necessary and productive for discourse to gain a deeper appreciation of any issue. The actions of the moderator appear to violate the principles of free speech.

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It seems that similar behaviour has occurred before with the same moderator. Since this is clearly an established pattern of behaviour, and if the wider community agrees that this is an issue, I wonder if anything can be done to hold the moderator to account.

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Edit: It seems to have happened again, ironically beneath this very post! A comment pointed out Brian Towers' past abusive language in his answer to this question, as well as how he deleted valuable comments that pointed out objective flaws with his reasoning (and carried additional insightful remarks) on that occasion. To silence even this criticism, Brian Towers appears to have deleted the comment beneath this meta post. This shameless behaviour must be stopped!

Answer 1

Thanks for bringing this up here instead of continuing the discussion via comments.

First, all of the moderators are volunteers, and we all do the best that we can. We do make mistakes from time to time.

In this case, I think that most of your comments came across as unfriendly or haughty. In fairness, one of your comments was probably collateral damage in the deletion, but one reasonable comment is not really enough when the overall tone is negative.

In general, the moderators do try to avoid deleting comments or otherwise moderating threads where we participate, but that's not always possible since there are only three of us, and especially Brian is active on so many posts.

Going forward, anything you can do to avoid being unfriendly will help avoid comment deletion. For example, adding words like "clearly", "indeed", or "surely" takes the tone from helpful to hurtful.

Finally, comments are designed to be transitory, and many times they are deleted after edits to the parent post. If you disagree with an answer and want to share a different viewpoint, adding a more comprehensive answer is the most efficient way to do so.

Answer 2

From the help:

You should submit a comment if you want to:
Request clarification from the author;
Leave constructive criticism that guides the author in improving the post;
Add relevant but minor or transient information to a post (e.g. a link to a related question, or an alert to the author that the question has been updated).

I feel that, as the post author, he is free to reject your constructive criticism of his post. The comment is therefore no longer serving its purpose and may be deleted.

Comments simply aren't designed to be a place for a permanent rebuttal of the post. The site really doesn't have any place for that, which may be a flaw but that's what we're given.

Answer 3

Making calm, rational counter arguments is one thing. Making rude and/or abusive comments is another. You have a history of the latter. In particular when your answer is not well received it is inappropriate for you to post such comments on another better-received answer. It comes across as spiteful rather than constructive.