Journal mightybaldking's Journal: Meta-Modding Interesting 2
Comment under moderation:
"... A more likely explanation for the cellphone ban on planes is due to the networks not being able to handle several hundred clients moving at 800km/h in view of tenths maybe hundreds of base stations."
Moderation under Meta-Mod
+1 Interesting.
Interesting is a tough one to meta-mod, as what is interesting is very subjective. An in depth discussion on the seven styles of light-sabre fighting may be fascinating for some, it's tediously boring to me. What is interesting is that there is a Wikipedia page on the aforementioned seven styles. (Just as the existence of Goatse is more interesting than Goatse itself.)
When I disagree with a mod, I usually try and figure out how I would have modded that particular comment. In this case, I probably would not have modded it at all, so my test doesn't really help. However, assuming I had to moderate it, the three candidate options are "Interesting", "Informative", or "Insightful". All three have their strengths and weaknesses.
Insightful: This comment adds a new idea to the discussion.
Informative: This comment adds new facts to the discussion. The phrase "A more likely explanation..." suggests to me that there is no voice of authority here. It's more of an "I'm just throwing this out for discussion." feeling to it. Based on the lack of an authoritative voice, I have to reject "informative" as a mod.
There is a problem with this comment: It is dead wrong. The FAA wouldn't ban cellphones from airlines due to network problems. The FAA doesn't give a damn about the cellphone network. It's not their purview. The FCC might be interested in such a ban, but not the FAA. So we have to accept the ban as given, that cellphones could potentially interfere with the avionics. (That there is later evidence suggesting the interference is trivial can be ignored)
Ultimately, I have to reject insightful because of the blatant wrongness of the idea put forth. However, just because an idea is wrong, doesn't mean it's not interesting. This comment prompted me to think about the rules, and the bodies that create and enforce them before I rejected it.
Originally I was torn between meta-modding the "interesting" as either unfair or leaving it untouched. But after thinking about it for a while, this is a fair mod. The ideal mod would be "Interesting idea, but wrong."
Re: (Score:1)