May I ask why the “Surreal Continuing Story” thread is still unlocked? That has a total of 1,018 posts and 8,011 views. Exactly two persons have produced 918 of those posts (474 and 444). I would think that thread would also qualify for ending, given that the rationale for shutting down a number of the game threads is:
Furthermore, most of the posts in that thread are several paragraphs long, thus adding far more to the database burden than the typical game thread. Even the “Corrupt Wish” and “Predict the Death” threads didn’t have so many voluminous posts.
That the game threads are being cut back drastically is a matter of SDMB policy, and while I’ve enjoyed playing in the ones that require thought and creativity, I’m not about to bitch about the rules in someone else’s house. But fair’s fair. The rationale for locking the game threads seems to apply in spades to the continuing story thread.
Would game threads, continuing story threads, and so forth be more tolerable to the mods, admins, and frivolity-haters if there were a length limit? That is, automatically locking them at, say, five pages? Then they couldn’t grow into hamster-crippling monsters, yet Dopers so inclined would still be able to enjoy that aspect of the SDMB community.
Yes, I know – you’d close down one such thread and someone would immediately open a new thread on the same theme. Unless the lock-down message said: “No more on this game for a month” or something like that?
I don’t know if this would be workable, or too much more of a burden on mods and admins who already have plenty to cope with. But is it something you would consider? Or have considered?
An aside on board speed: A lot of it, of course, has to do with the time at which one accesses the SDMB. I find a distinct difference in response, for example, between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. I’m sure the reasons are obvious.
May I ask that the SDMB staff let us know, after a reasonable amount of time to see how this works, whether cutting back the game threads has actually improved things?
Humm… Okay. If that’s how it’s going to be, okay. I don’t see how the game threads are less “fluffier” than the post-count ones, that’s all. One kind enables some people to post the first thing that pops into their minds, whereas the other consists mostly of praise and supporting statements. (Of course, these are both highly general statelemts; there are some game threads that involve skill and are entertaining, and there are post-count parties that are all about Me Me Me.)
I understand about trimming the fluff. MPSIMS was designed for fluff, but not all fluff is equal. Random musings and the like might be best served in another environment, such as a private journal.
I agre wholeheartedly (not that it matters) with the concept, but it just seems to me that if you’re going to take the game threads on a case-by-case basis (per the OP), it might make equal sense to do so with the post-count ones. For the game ones, you mentioned some criteria, including relevance and entertainment valud. Why not do the same for the post-count parties as well - place limitations on them, rather than categorically close each of them as they pop up? You could prohibit all post-count parties except, say, 5000, 6000, and up, or even 10,000 and up. Nothing else.
Even if you don’t do that, though, I still think it’s a great idea. I can’t imagine how much time and trouble moderating MPSIMS is, if only for the sheer volume of posts and threads. If this strategy reduces the amount you have to wade through, wonderful - and we won’t notice any downturn in the overall quality of the board, either.
Games can be useful too. I personnaly, as a French native, use the WM game to enhance my English vocabulary/skills. This may not be the goal of the SDMB, but that helped a lot. Makes me use my brain too, which is not a bad thing
I am disapointed that this game is over (bad Xmas gift! and hope that somehow, someday, it will reappear…
On a more analytical side, I’d like to know how resources are taken between the “core business” (roughly: Comments on Cecil’s Columns, Comments on Staff Reports, General Questions and Great Debates) and the other stuff (Cafe Society, In My Humble Opinion. MPSIMS, The BBQ Pit)… From what I see 1.5 million posts for the core business for 2.8 million posts for the other stuff…
Soooo… Even if I like it, is MPSMIS strategically part of SDMB ???
Oh, well… Time to sober up Xmas.
While I don’t disagree that 48.1% of the replies is way out of proportion for 7% of the current threads, I would also like to point out that those long game threads often run for several months whereas other MPSIMS threads tend to be rather short lived. As a result, the 93 non-game threads account to only a fraction of the total number of threads that have come and gone since some of those 7 game threads have been around. In all fairness, shouldn’t we also consider the lengths of the threads?
Yes. Either, that or calibrate the posting dates and start the stats from where they sync up. I am curious though. Of the 93 non-game threads, how many were stupid?
While I agree in theory with the concept, I also believe some of the game threads do inspire creative thought (does this mean the Predict the Next Death thread will die? :eek: )
As for the non-game threads: one man’s useless thread is another’s treasure. Should the Star Trek and Matrix threads be suspended? I personally find them beyond boring, but I know others are interested in participating. What about a thread wherein it’s clear the OP needs support and kind words?
Good luck - I understand the need to conserve the limited resources, and I’m confident the right decisions will be made the majority of the time. I would not want your job, though, UncleBeer!
As all of you well know, we aren’t going to write some algorithm to score these kinds of things—which seems to be what many of you are asking for—that would not only be impossible, but undesirable as well. There’s no way we can say that a thread of “x” type is okay as long as it remains under “y” number of posts and is populated by “z” number of posters. We can’t do that and none of you really wants it anyway.
Once again, we’re not proscribing anything absolutely. We’re providing a few simple guidelines and letting you, the membership, exercise your own best judgment. That’s always worked pretty well in the past, and we have no reason to believe that it won’t continue to be the case, now and far into the future. If you truly require guidance, write to the mods of this forum and one of us will help you out.
Actually, it hasn’t worked well in the past and thus the birth of this sticky thread.
But I like UncleBeer’s suggestion: If, after reading through the guidelines in this thread and you’re still unsure if your game/flirt/possible fluff thread is a good idea, email the OP (and, if need be, some examples or a short explanation) to a moderator and let them pass judgement for you. After all, they’re gonna pass it anyway once your thread hits the forum.
Not all game threads are created equal. The word association one, for example, gets a large number of posts. Even though I used to post regularly on it I agree it should be left alone and forgotten.
On the other hand, I also post to the internet detective thread. Now that’s a thread that I’d hate to lose. It has all the characteristics of the threads described in the OP. It has a large number of postings, many by the same people, a group of no more than 15 people. But I really don’t want to let go. In this case, I really need some guidance.
The thread is one of the reasons I come to SDMB, but there are many others. I could live without it, only I don’t want to.
I’m sorry, I just read through my post and realized it’s confusing as hell. What I meant to say is: in the mods opinion is the internet detective one of the threads that causes problems?
Personally, I thought the Consecutive Number Game thread took a lot of thought to play. Granted, some people just said ‘easy’ answers - and I went overboard to find numbers that were sums of prime numbers, triangular numbers, etc. Still, that made it interesting with a nice mix of all kinds of number facts.
I was somewhat disappointed when it was locked (and I didn’t even start the darned thread).
But I’m glad it is gone because I felt I had to post something to it to keep it from dying. Not only did that take up Message Board space but it seriously cut into my own time coming up with facts such as “784 is the square of a perfect number”. Now, I can get out of my house a little more often.
So, UncleBeer that’s my long-winded way of saying I agree with your decision.
This will free up the board for the weightier issues of the day - such as the discussion of those deadly weapons that were deveoped about 80 years ago.
and hope that somehow, someday, it will reappear…