There are many threads and posts on this message board over 15+ years that have attained legendary status. Would it be fun to enshrine them for later comers to “catch up”, and for old-timers to revisit in read-only mode?
We could do it Cooperstown-style, with there being a nomination phase by open vote, where anyone can submit three threads and then vote on up to maybe 7 threads, and any thread that exceeds a certain vote threshold gets “voted in” in a given year?
I agree that it’s a very good idea that would spiral out of control. Even if they were just selected by the moderators the debates and bitching would be endless.
A while back (few years maybe) I started a thread called The Truly Great SDMB Threads and it saw sporadic activity after an original flurry for a few weeks. Now and then I will spot something to add to it, and have done that a few times.
Judging from the interest it has maintained, I would expect any similar attempt to flutter after a while.
Mod support or being “pinned” in the appropriate forum might give another such effort more legs.
As long as political threads are excluded, I don’t see a problem. I didn’t even consider anything with a political bent when I read the OP, I was just thinking of 'The Horror Of Blimps" and such.
I don’t think he means political threads, but rather the politicking that might go on between users trying to get certain threads into the HOF, making it a popularity contest.
As far as autocratic, I’d be fine with the Mods selecting threads for the HoF. But there really should be a Read Only archive for Future Generations of Dopers to marvel at.
The popularity of a poster, not the thread itself, meaning a lame-ish thread would get attention because the OP is well-liked and rallies support for it. Or a great thread by an unlikable poster being left out due to their standing in the community.
It sounds like a good idea to me. If a thread needed to not only be nominated but get some high level of support by vote it should work. I don’t think weak threads would make it. I’m not sure of the mechanism but lets say the initial nomination was 20 threads from over 10 years ago and people could vote Yes or No for each in the poll and the Yes would have to win by a 4 to 1 (80%) or 3 to 1 (75%) margin.
The What if someone else wrote the Lord of the Rings, Horror of Blimps, Hal’s Sheep thread (unless he objected), Emperor of the World, etc. are all good starts for nominations.
A good question for something like this is whether or not threads started by members who are now banned are eligible. Goes in hand with the whole “don’t give banned posters attention” policy the board has.
I’d say that threats started by banned users should be eligible, but threads that are famous because of a meltdown or (not-in-good-nature) pile-on are not.