Who’s Single and Available? (aka the Chilling / Comfort Thread)
What was the broken rule/board misuse here? I thought everyone was getting along great and the thread was going well. We were learning more about some of our favorite dopers as well some we don’t hear from enough. No one was hatin’, lots were contributing. I thought it was a perfectly acceptable civilized message board thread topic.
Way to post in the right forum, dumbass.
Likewise.
To quote from the moderator who closed the thread, The Straight Dope Message Board is not The Personals.
It should be noted in passing that the Straight Dope’s corporate owner, The Chicago Reader, offers personal ads as one of their services. It would not be a good idea to set up anything that could be construed as being in any sort of competition with them, especially as they charge for their personals service.
Chicago Reader Personals
>http://www.chicagoreader.com/matches/
(You always want to keep on the good side of your owner/boss, in any event.)
your humble TubaDiva
Hey HG Pp…
Aww…not even gonna stoop that low.
And while TubaDiva’s response to my question here was pretty good, wouldn’t it have been more constructive for Cajun Man to have added similar detail to the closed thread notice? I mean, I’m born and raised in Reader-town Chicago and among the target demographic and I’d have never guessed that “The Personals” refers to a Chicago Reader revenue source. From here, it looked like a fun, light-hearted, community-building, non-Chicago oriented thread of the variety that makes MPSIMS the great forum that it is.
Also, at this time, the pages linked from http://www.chicagoreader.com/matches/ don’t work anyway*.
*Though, typically, when I write something like this, the site is just down for an hour for maintainence and I wind up looking like an ass.
Nothing like an accurate prediction, I always say!
Comments about board management and complaints about administration belong in the Pit, and I’m so moving this from ATMB.
But a singles thread on the SDMB isn’t in competition with personal ads in the Chicago Reader. The Chicago Reader’s personal ads are for people in the Chicagoland area who want to meet people in the same region. The vast majority of people on the SDMB are in places far from Chicago and wouldn’t use Chicago Reader personal ads, whether or not there were an SDMB singles thread for them to post in. If I were looking to date someone, it would never occur to me to place an ad in the Chicago Reader. I’m not in Chicago. But it would strike me as a good idea to post to an SDMB singles’ thread.
Besides–at this point, the SDMB has a membership fee. Doesn’t ponying up our money entitle us to some say in how the board is run?
[ul][li]Flirt threads are not the same as personal ads[/li][li]Very few members live in the Chicago area, and would not use TCR’s personal ads[/li][li]Since flirt threads are not the same thing as personal ads; and since even if they were, most members don’t live in the Chicago area, there is no competition with The Chicago Reader[/li][li]Linking of news articles on SDMB poses a more legitimate possibility of ‘competition’ with TCR than ‘getting to know you’ threads, and AFAIK there is no prohibition on linking to news articles and those threads are not locked[/li][li]The locked thread was not offensive in any way, and posters were well-behaved, so no SDMB rules were being broken[/li][li]Similar threads are not locked[/li][li]As paying members of the boards, we should have the right to interact with each other[/li][li]People were having fun[/ul][/li]The only reason given that the thread was locked is that it is ‘in competition’ with TCR’s personal ads. As has been shown, this is false. Therefore, I (and others believe the thread should be unlocked.
Holy fuck that has got to be the dumbest reason. Umm, so does that mean we can’t review movies we saw because the Chicago Reader does it? Does that mean we can’t review restaurants in Chicago because the CR does it? Etc, etc.
As the original moderator stated when he closed the thread, the Straight Dope Message Board is not “the personals.”
It’s more a question of degree here. Some flirting is permissible; a bunch of it in one spot is not.
Over time the Straight Dope has been pushed to be many things for many people, each wishing this community to be as they see fit.
Just some of the topics that come to mind off the top of my head follow: We have been asked to be a marketing tool, an advertising network, a file sharing service. We have been asked to provide medical advice, legal assistance, and access to old television shows. Dopers have been asked to provide material for books, to buy feelthy pictures, to participate in charitable endeavors, to have their preferences detailed for research.
Some see the Straight Dope as a bully pulpit, with emphasis on the “bully.”
Even more believe the Straight Dope exists to provide homework assistance and write term papers.
A benighted few think we’re here to promote the use of drugs and/or help people find a dealer.
Not every request is honored.
Not every perceived use is appropriate.
your humble TubaDiva
When I was born I was zero years old.
Everyone I know was born that old, although some were premature babies.
Some people grew up to enjoy ham, others have never tried it, and there are some that don’t care for it at all.
There’s a non-reply to your non-answer. The rules applied to that thread closing are Just. Plain. Capricious. Maybe you can reply to the points brought up so far in this thread instead of playing the ass axioms.
I have an idea. If I remember correctly, Siege used to have a Yahoo! group dedicated to nothing but those dealing with depression issues and the like. Anytime someone brought that up in a thread on here, there was usually a link (or whatever) posted recommending that as additional help/follow-up/support.
So, what if those of us interested do the same thing? Perhaps on Yahoo! or LJ, strictly for members soliciting flirting, possible dating, you-name-it. 
Now I’m not good at keeping up with such things, but it seems like a viable alternative. And that way, whenever applicable we can mention/point to our off-the-board, safety net version.
Whadda y’all think?
What a complete crock of shit. What on earth is wrong with you people (admins and mods)? Did somebody climb up your asses, die, decompose and put you in a foul mood, or what? Good grief this is utterly absurd. Flirting and getting to know fellow dopers in MPSIMS is competing with the Chicago Personals?? Are you insane? Next thing you know you’ll be forbidding dopefests because they compete with local church socials or some other ridiculous nonsense.
Hi Shayna! 
Hiya, cutie! 
Gosh, I sure hope this isn’t flirting! (Even if it is flirting with someone who looks like a young Audrey Hepburn! ) I’d hate for this thread to be locked as a flirt thread!
[sub]Incidentally, Spiny Norman could totally kick my arse![/sub]
Capriciousness from the staff is acceptable for a free service in ways that it is not for a paying service. I don’t know shit about the flirt thread because I’m not interested in them, but my puerly biased, superficial opinion is that the moderating staff has become more rigid in application of rules (and some might say more arbitrary) in the last year, not less. That seems counterintuitive to me. Also disappointing. Not so much as I’m not going to re-up when it’s my turn, but disappointing.
–Cliffy
Why the fuck not? What else won’t be allowed in “one spot”?
Comparing flirt threads to people trying to find drugs, homework assistance and dirty pictures seems to me anything but apt. Methinks a large dose of common sense is in order, since it’s fairly obvious that the mods can’t reasonably defend their position.