I RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM QUORA that read, “Quora Moderation collapsed your answer to ‘What irrefutable facts do Trump supporters need to know about Trump to change their mind?’ for violating a policy on Quora. Your answer may need improvement.” Receiving what could only be interpreted as a reprimand was a first for me—at least from Quora.
It immediately whetted my appetite for a potential confrontation with authority with potentially inscrutable ethics and reasoning. Inscrutable because the particular policy that I violated was not stated and I can see nothing in my answer that is “objectionable”: No vulgarity, no bigotry, no hate speech, etc.
My original answer was posted on December 1, 2019, which I thought a rather long time to wait before censoring me. Here is the question again: What irrefutable facts do Trump supporters need to know about Trump to change their minds?
And here is my original answer last year:
A: “Ha ha ha ha ha! Thanks—a good laugh is even better than a good cup of coffee to start the day.”
Now, how do I improve that answer? I made a few alterations in punctuation, adding hyphens in the opening exclamation. Then my answer reads like this:
A: “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Thanks—a good laugh is even better than a good cup of coffee to start the day.”
Then I removed the em-dash, which puts a lot of editors off. Then my answer reads like this:
A: “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Thanks! A good laugh is even better than a good cup of coffee to start the day.”
I changed “coffee” to “Cafe Bustelo,” which gives the answer a friendlier, warmer tone. So, here is how my answer now stands:
A: “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Thanks! A good laugh is even better than a good cup of Cafe Bustelo to start the day.”
Will Quora Moderation be satisfied?
Now, this works for me. I mean, I don’t think the intention of my answer is blurred in any manner by these changes. I then added the following comment to my answer so that Quora Moderation understands my actions:
As per the instruction/suggestion in the email from the Quora Moderation, I improved my answer:
1. I added hyphens between the “ha’s.”
2. I removed the em-dash between “Thanks” and “a” and broke up the one sentence into two parts.
3. I changed “cup of coffee” to “cup of Cafe Bustelo,” making it more specific.
Anything I missed?
I hope this works and I will keep you abreast if anything more happens.
To follow this back-and-forth on Quora, click here.
ILLUSTRATIONS: The illustrations above were cropped from images used by Cafe Bustelo in their first national advertising campaign in 2019. “The campaign is the first creative work for the brand from PSOne, Publicis Groupe’s dedicated unit for Smucker. The ‘Café Bustelo Was Here’ creative features illustration-style visuals, with a retro poster feel, and a Latin-inspired music track created by HiFi Project.” (MediaPost)