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I was reading The harsh password change and after some of the other attempted answers, proposed own:

https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/a/30133/19047

Coming back to check on it I found that it had been vote-deleted. Does anyone who down-voted have an explanation to share so that I can do better next time?

The text of the question, for other low-rep users:

Is it

41 64 6f 6c 70 68 20 48 69 74 6c 65 72

Which would be

Adolph Hitler in hex, because he was very harsh to Jews.

Note: For future reference, my answer was later made completely invalid because a mistake in the question was not discovered until after I posted the answer in question. It has been further pointed out that I mispelled the name in any case, which further invalidates the answer, but a) that was only here pointed out, and b) an honest mistake (I used an incorrect alternate spelling of the same first name).

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    $\begingroup$ Could you post the answer so other users can see... behind spoilers of course $\endgroup$
    – Anthony Pham
    Commented Apr 1, 2016 at 23:10

3 Answers 3

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This answer should not have been marked as offensive.

Mentioning Adolf Hitler is not offensive in itself (if it was, a lot of history teachers would necessarily be offensive and History SE wouldn't be allowed to exist). Nor is it offensive to say that he was "very harsh" to Jews. It's an understatement, sure, but the words "very harsh" come from the question: presumably they're not the words the answerer would have chosen to describe the Holocaust, had they been able to choose any adjective they wanted.

I don't think it's fair for someone who guessed that "very harsh" might refer to Hitler to be treated in the same way as someone who typed an answer like (warning - offensive):

Suck my dick, pussy faggot nigger bitches

The latter is what offensive flags are designed for and should be used for. From the canonical main meta post about such flags:

Even if a post is a bad post for some reason or another, it is probably not rude or abusive. The rude or abusive flag (formerly known as offensive) is meant to be used only in extreme cases, like hate speech, abuse against people, or abuse of the community or system.

As a rule of thumb, if you can’t justify something being hate speech or abuse, you shouldn’t mark the post as rude or abusive. Instead, you should downvote the post.

The answer under consideration here clearly does not qualify as "hate speech or abuse", and thus marking it as offensive was against SE policy. Furthermore, the voting on this meta post shows that PSE community consensus was also against marking it as offensive. Both the other answers here have been downvoted into the cellar, while comments against them are highly upvoted.

As has been noted by the answerer themselves, the answer was made invalid by later edits to the question, so it shouldn't be undeleted either. The correct course of action now is for a moderator to clear the offensive flags against it, thus unlocking the post and restoring the lost 100 rep to the answerer. (Doing so may also undelete the answer, but the mod can then promptly delete it again.)

I would like to request that one of our moderators do this, in the interests of fairness to the unfortunate @pydsigner :-) - thanks @Deusovi!

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    $\begingroup$ Didn't realize I could even do that! In any case, it's done. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi Mod
    Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 0:15
  • $\begingroup$ @Deusovi Thanks! :-D $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 0:19
  • $\begingroup$ No problem, happy I could help! c: $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi Mod
    Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 0:19
  • $\begingroup$ @Deusovi + rand: Thank you both, I'd given up hope on this being reverted. $\endgroup$
    – pydsigner
    Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 2:54
  • $\begingroup$ (warning - offensive) should be **WARNING: OFFENSIVE/VULGAR** instead :) $\endgroup$
    – EKons
    Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 6:07
  • $\begingroup$ @Deusovi Mods can remove flags; -100 rep is very harsh! (see what I did here??) $\endgroup$
    – EKons
    Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 6:11
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Your answer was deleted because it was flagged as offensive by several different users.

For users who can't see deleted answers, for the purposes of discussion:

Adolph Hitler [...], because he was very harsh to Jews.

I don't think this needs an explanation as to why it was considered offensive, especially considering the only clue it follows from the puzzle is two words.

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    $\begingroup$ I disagree on it only following two words from the puzzle. It also met the length requirement and, based on the OP's comments on other guesses, met the link to the urkntenz (Fgne bs Qnivq). That's all of the hinting we've received. It bothers me slightly that the name of a historical figure caused mass offensive votes and that only a cursory investigation into the applicableness of the answer has been made. $\endgroup$
    – pydsigner
    Commented Apr 2, 2016 at 5:53
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    $\begingroup$ So answers to puzzles cannot be sensitive topics whatsoever? Is that what you meant to say in your answer? Hitler himself is offensive, not the OP's answer. $\endgroup$
    – Insane
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 4:11
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    $\begingroup$ Was your answer here some kind of April Fool's joke??? $\endgroup$
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 0:18
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I find it highly offensive if you belittle the Holocaust as a "harsh treatment".

Also at a purely technical level your answer does not make much sense, as it does not fit with all the clues of the puzzle.

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    $\begingroup$ "Very harsh" was the phrasing of the question, so that's how I phrased my answer. My intent was in no way to be flippant about a man who systematically murdered tens of millions of people, but if it's expected for there to be a disclaimer paragraph attached to every mention of every genocidal dictator ever, that needs to be in a site rules post somewhere. $\endgroup$
    – pydsigner
    Commented Apr 2, 2016 at 18:45
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    $\begingroup$ @pydsigner: You are not getting it. I wrote that I find it highly offensive if you belittle the Holocaust. Your answer is not to the point (and rambles something about mentioning the name of dictators). $\endgroup$
    – Van.Graaf
    Commented Apr 9, 2016 at 13:52
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    $\begingroup$ My point is that I was not belittling the Holocaust. $\endgroup$
    – pydsigner
    Commented Apr 9, 2016 at 22:27
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    $\begingroup$ Actually, Hitler was very harsh to Jews. Perhaps pydsigner could have used more superlatives to describe Hitler, but the answer should not be deleted for a lack of superlatives. If the answer does not make sense (which it doesn't - for many reasons, including that Adolf is spelled with an f, not a ph), it should be downvoted, not deleted. $\endgroup$
    – Richard Roe
    Commented Apr 12, 2016 at 16:36

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