How do I reply to a moderator deleting my answer on a false premise?

Question

I wrote an answer to question Who wrote about an energy free space elevator?.

The question is asking for scientific writers - which may indicate science-fiction writer using real science, or actual scientists - who would have considered the energy free space elevator. This is actually a triviality from a scientific point of view, based on a principle that was probably known even to engineers in the middle ages, possibly earlier.

Thus I suggested the names of scientists who had contributed the idea. They clearly were scientific writers, as requested in the question.

The answer was deleted on the basis that they are not science fiction writers, which is not what is being asked.

I actually checked the wording of the question before answering, as the answer represented some real work on my part, which I thought might be useful to science-fiction readers. It could also be useful to some authors who do write nonsense on that topic.

The site is about science fiction, but there is no constraint that matters relevant to science fiction should exclude real science, or real scientists.

But I did not get a chance to answer the moderator criticism, which seems unfounded, given the actual wording of the question, which is not the wording the moderator seems to be asserting.

Answer 1

The appropriate course to contact a moderator is to flag the post with a custom reason explaining what you want reviewed. You might get the same moderator, or you might not, and even if you do get a different moderator you might not get the desired reaction (in this case Kevin agrees with me, Thaddeus does not). Had you flagged with a custom reason and I saw it, I would have asked the other moderators for their opinions.

You can also take the issue to meta as you've done in order to get the community involved (but not all users will have the privilege to view your answer if it is still deleted).

As for why I deleted your post, I was responding to a "not an answer" flag. My initial reaction upon seeing your lengthy, upvoted post was to decline it, but I owe it to both the flagger and the poster to take a good look.

When I looked more closely I noticed that, while the question asked for a "scientific writer" as opposed to a "science fiction writer", the other example writers given in the question were science fiction writers. Furthermore, the asker said he was looking for a "story" (as in, a fictional work), not a "scientific work" as you posted. Still further, the accepted answer and another answer both cited fictional works.

I also think your answer has an issue in that you provide some Wikipedia links but do not cite a specific work. Moreover, you mention

It would be nice if some other user proficient in Russian could check these two authors

All told, this answer looked to me like it should be a comment rather than an answer since it would be a good hint to "some other user proficient in Russian" to look into those scientists and develop an answer out of it. However, it was too long to convert to a comment. Unfortunately, therefore, I judged that deletion was necessary.

You are correct that citation of real science and real scientists is permitted when relevant to the question, but I did not delete your answer for that reason.

Update: The user who asked the question you answered has confirmed that he was looking for the fictional work in the accepted answer. In light of this, Kevin has re-deleted your answer.

Answer 2

I think the original deletion was the right thing to do - your answer has some serious problems:

• It's a story identification question: in addition to the tag, the OP clearly states in the question that he's looking for a Sci-Fi story, not a science reference.

• "scientific writers" is most likely a reference to Sci-Fi authors with solid scientific backgrounds. The specific mentions of Clarke or Charles Sheffield indicate that he's looking for authors of stories.

• You're guessing that the original proposers of a space elevator would have mentioned the idea of descending elevator cars generating most of the power needed by ascending cars.

You don't actually know if the scientific papers you're citing fit what the question is asking for. You haven't read the original papers:

I guess no one here (myself included) has read the original scientific work on this topic

but then claim:

... I am pretty sure the original thinkers of the system thought so too.

(thought of the "the issue of free resources")

• More than half of your answer is general information about conversation of momentum and Bussard ramjets and has nothing to do with the actual question.

Answer 3

Flag the post with a custom reason and another mod will review it, or bring it up here on meta for more public feedback. But it's not going to help you here, the question is looking for a particular work by a particular author, not the scientific literature on the idea.