Sorry I didn’t wade through an 83 post sticky thread (why make something that long a sticky?) with a broad-ranging title to determine whether or not I could note that I appreciate the SDMB & ask if people found themselves posting at the same rate. I don’t know that that’s “post-count padding” at all.
I would submit that people adding patronizing comments that the thread is about to be closed is very much post-padding, as is adding comments that you agree or disagree with a board policy (with no stated reason why to add anything to discussion) in what belatedly becomes a sticky. The irony in all this should be self-evident.
Apparently that was too mundane and pointless for “Mundane and Pointless…” So much for truth in advertising. Well over 90% of my posts have been in the first 3 (fact-based) areas of the SDMB & that’s what ya get for extending youself socially I suppose. I simply don’t usually hang out in “MPS…” and I appear to have flubbed. (Actually perhaps not even, I think the question about people’s first year post-accumulation is a pretty legit one.)
I’m not pitting SkipMagic by the by, he wasn’t being a tool. Took an action, explained it, cited a reference, wasn’t rude in doing so. But 3 people taking the time to post gleefully about the thread getting closed? That’s just asshole behavior, and a clear(er) waste of resources.
(I’d make the suggestion that not all moderation Qs or critiques belong in the Pit. That makes everyone with a moderation issue sound like a groundless whiner as soon as the issue at hand is even posted and encourages sycophantic piling-on and baiting of the thread starter. I’d like to see those threads start in questions about the board and only get moved to the Pit if personal attacks are involved. It seems that moderated civil discussions of moderation issues should be possible among adults.)
It’ll be interesting to see if I get any Pit residents (there do seem to be a lot of people on here who post more in the Pit than anywhere else - talk about bandwidth waste!) attacking me in this thread on the grounds that I was using up the SDMB resources.
For most of the folks who’ll read this though, it’s been, overall, a positive 13 months.
You didn’t have to wade through shit. Post count “parties” are mentioned explicitly in both the title and first post of the sticky. Fuck man, is it too much to expect a member to be even minimally familiar with the forum rules? It ain’t like they’ve duplicated the friggin’ U.S.C., or anything.
You are quite the wit. See, this is an excellent example of why I don’t think these threads have to belong in the Pit. I think my critique of the moderation itself in this thread was polite and rationally argued. Putting this in the Pit is now allowing UncleBeer to respond with abuse. Uncalled for, really, from someone called a “moderator.”
What the title says is “Notes on Game & Post-Count Padding/Party Threads,” my post wasn’t a game and you didn’t define a “party.” I certainly don’t consider it post-padding to ask if the rate at which I accumulated posts in my first year was typical for SDMB vets. I didn’t post a thread which said “This is 1000th post, wheeeeeeeee!” and leave it at that. I hoped to engender coversation … and not this one.
In any event my post here is more a pitting of the piling on of sycophantic posts which do waste resources and “pad” counts in absolute terms just to say that one is happy my thread will be closed… presumably on the grounds that I’m wasting their resources by doing the same!
How about a rule against speculating what moderators might do? That seems like a good way to cut down on the excess posting. Or, if it’s that severe a problem, do away with the MP… board entirely.
And hey, thanks for the kind thoughts in general, UB. Sometimes I’m really suprised that people stick around a whole year. The circling-the-wagons attitude of some mods is really out line.
Well, I must respectfully disagree. Yes, they were joshing you, but in a good mannered way. It’s just that they’ve seen it so many times before, they couldn’t just let it pass without comment. I’ve only been here a bit longer than you have and I’ve seen a great many post-count threads like yours closed, so I can’t see why you’re all that surprised.
Would be kinda hard to fit all that in a damn title, doncha think?
I haven’t been a moderator here since before you joined. GAve up that gig in 2/04.
Belatedly? That thing has been a sticky since 12/23/03 when I created it. That aside, I won’t argue your main point in that quote about patronizing comments. I agree with it completely, but it’s no longer within my jurisdiction.
Another point of view: I don’t think that I would be wrong if I stated that, in addition to explicit rules, the SDMB also has a culture of its own with its own norms and customs. This is pretty normal for any community of humans.
The thread that you are referencing in this Pit thread clearly violated those norms and customs (specifically creating threads to announce a milestone post is unseemly (full disclosure: I did it to with my 666th post)). So, people pointed it out to you.
All of this is a long-winded way of suggesting that you get over it. It serves no good to get mad at the fact that someone pointed out that you pissed your pants, or to rail at how mean they were in the way that they told you that pissing your pants was bad. The unalterable fact is that you, my friend, pissed your pants. The take-home here should be “don’t piss yourself”.
Obviously I respectfully disagree as well. I think that when people see something “they’ve seen so many times before” the usual reaction is very precisely to let it pass without comment. Otherwise people would be walking around saying “Good lord, a tree!” or “Sweet Holy Jesus, it’s a car!!! Look honey, a friggin’ car!”
There’s a lot of ‘helping the moderators’ on the boards, which smacks to me of sycophantism and a little sadism. Nice way to start an insular clique, bad way to “fight ignorance.” I don’t happen to like it. But thanks for discussion the issue without being superior about it, Ponder.
Does UB make you buy your own kneepads or buy them for you?
You would never, ever see any representative of any real time, real life organization (paid or volunteer) phrase an explanation of organizational policy that way without getting canned. Not to mention the fact that people often seem to grow Keyboard Balls which allow them to type things they’d never say face to face at people a thousand miles away. Maybe some people like being talked to like shit by moderators, I don’t.
Imagine, “Fuck man, is it too much to ask you to know that the Shamrock Shake costs more than a friggin’ small soda before you walk into the McDonald’s? The menu’s right there, you didn’t have to read shit.”
Who would put up with that? That the Shamrock Shake does cost more is hardly the issue.
Yet some people seem to positvely cream their pants around here when mods behave that way toward other members. I am reminded of not so much the schoolyard bully as the schoolyard bully’s smaller cheering section.
So, are we clear that a discussion of how frequently people find themselves posting as time goes on is banned from the boards? Because no one has yet addressed that issue, and unless that’s on post #82 of the “Game…” sticky I don’t know that to have been stated as an out of line discussion.
If you had wanted conversation, you should have left off the post count. Since UncleBeer made the sticky on 26 December 2003, there have been five 1000th post (and Og knows how many other numbers) threads, most of them probably dropped off the first page before a Mod spotted them. One that was not locked was clearly a trivia thread that happened to have a post count attached.
You never wondered why that, with some 40,000 active members, post count threads (i.e.: “parties”) hardly ever turn up?
Dude, aren’t you being just a tad thin skinned? Your thread got three posts to it before being locked. They consisted of:
“I hear jingling keys and a Cajun accent…”
“1,000 posts and 13 months later, you have much to learn, young Padawan.”
and
“Ride the lockdown! Wheee!”
C’mon! Two (correct) predictions that the thread would be locked, and one lighthearted (and equally correct) observation that you have not yet fully absorbed the rules of the board. This is asshole behavior? There’s not even a single direct insult in there, unless you count “padawan.” And was it really necessary to pre-emptively slam people who like to post in the Pit like that? What’s that all about? If that’s your attitude right out of the gate, why shouldn’t people insult you back?
Actually, when I’m on a road trip with my wife, I’ll occasionally say, “Oh wow! Look - a McDonalds!!” or something like that just to break up the boredom a bit. It’s not hysterically funny, but it’s usually good for a chuckle, which was (I think) what the folks in your thread were doing.
Well, after looking up sycophantism (I was told it means sycophancy, which means servile flattery), I had to go look up sadism* because I was really confused. I can only assume you are going with the extreme cruelty definition, which didn’t really clear things up for me. Are you saying that the ‘Report bad post’ function, or emailing a questionable post to a mod is really that awful? Not trying to be a dick here, just a little confused.
No I haven’t. For one thing I hardly ever read MPS… let alone post there.
I also believe, again, I asked a pretty legit question in there.
I think it’s funny that it was necessary for you to take a second swing at me in another forum for the same thing! Are we earning our Lil Moderators’ Merit Badge?
Incidentally it looks like that thread has now been viewed 150 times, so some people are obviously interested in reading it.
Dude, I was noting the count padding irony. If that’s the issue, why add to it? Why even read the thread? If it’s that mundane and you know what’s going to happen to the thread, because you’re such an all-knowing SDMB jockey that you’ve seen it all before, why even click on it?
Implicitly it’s about one-upsmanship. “This is the cool people’s board, your thread is going to be locked, haha.”
To answer lightingtool: there are a good many people here (the Pit especially) who love to see anyone get chastized by a moderator and love it more when the language used to do so is superior and abusive. What they love even more than that is making anticipatory comments about lockings and bannings. Naturally moderators in any forum ultimately always win these battles.
The voyeurism and additional remarks in support of any of that are purely sadistic. Tee hee, your thread will be locked. Hardy har, you’re going to get banned. No one who has been around here for a while can’t honestly say they haven’t read those posts. I don’t happen to like them.
