Hmm, a thread deemed to be a rant against Trump, moved to the Pit.
And we were told the moderators don’t do this.
We don’t. We close the thread, then ask the OP if they want the thread reopened in the Pit as a rant. We no longer move the thread sua sponte.
It’s a small distinction, but an important one.
Fair enough, but the claim was that moderators will let a ranting thread stay in a non-Pit category if the rant is about Trump, because you folks are biased. Which I know isn’t true, and I think most of us know isn’t true, yet a couple of misinformed people were insisting that it was. I was showing how that is absolutely false.
Mmmm…I would say that the “they” who told you this were mistaken.
Ah, I’m sorry. I misunderstood your point.
You’re right. The thread will either be closed as inappropriate to the forum, or if the OP wishes, it will be reopened in the Pit. Inappropriate threads can be opened by posters of any political persuasion. Or no political persuasion at all.
Thanks for the clarification.
Since all of the PE moderators, and the vast majority of the posters in the thread disagree with my position on this, them’s the brakes, and I accept it.
Just for the record (and I don’t much care about the answer) i have no clue why my OP about a unifying theory for Trump’s somewhat puzzling motivations was deemed a rant. What Exit? was kind enough to tell me that we have too many Trump threads going on in P&E and that he felt that it could have been folded into one of those, but i don’t see how that begins to make it a “rant.” I’m not being abusive (even to Trump) in the OP, I’m coming up with a politically extreme (perhaps) explanation for his actions, and it seems pretty calm and rational to me, given all that.
As I say, it doesn’t matter much to me, and everyone in the Pit seems to be behaving themselves so far and continuing the rational political discussion over there, so no harm, no foul, but it does seem to me an odd and unnecessary act to take it from P&E and put it in the Pit.
You are simply factually wrong. If you or I stole top-secret documents and stored them in your home, you or I would quite possibly have to try to plea bargain down from a death sentence.
That you find it hard to imagine that certain Dopers, in good faith, don’t think a former President (of any party) should (or, ideally, could) be treated differently — shows (IMHO) a disturbing take on justice.
Roger_That’s recent post in this thread clarified why it is unlikely to happen — but it’s not politically biased to view Trumps actions (especially, to me, regarding those Georgia votes) as treasonous, and the possible punishment for that is what it is.
(FTR, I’m against the death penalty, and though I despise Trump, I think it would be too strong a punishment for him even if I were for it.)
The last couple of posts have been interesting, but i think they are more about the topic, and not about moderation or this message board. That is, i think we may be drifting into relitigating the topic.
You’re right — my mistake.
This whole thread appears to be in the time honored Trump tradition of “working the refs”. In other words, instead of defense against the accusations, call into question the enforcement agents and actions.
But that’s just my opinion.
My last post was about the moderator’s decision to put the thread into the Pit rather than P&E. I don’t really mind, but it seems capricious to characterize my OP as a rant. How is it any more of a rant than any other P&E thread?
Any clues as to what was rant-like in my OP would help me identify future P&E posts as rants so I could put them in the Pit myself.
Keep in mind I fired off a response fairly quick but did explain my reasoning.
So my full response to the query was this …
It really doesn’t rise to the level of a P&E thread and we have too many Trump threads currently. It doesn’t belong in MPSIMS as too political but not much to the thread but just an idea you had.
Honestly it would have been best in some existing thread probably already talking about the Trump Files. But it should be good enough for the Pit.
Yes, and I credited you with being kind enough to explain your reasoning, but I still don’t see traits that were “rant”-like. My OP didn’t “rise to the level of a P&E thread”? What exalted levels are those? There are “too many Trump threads” currently in P&E? How many is “too many” and how am I supposed to track them so I’ll know there are too many? It was “just an idea” I had? Well, yes, that’s what most P&E threads are, ideas that people have. If you look at the thread, now moved to the Pit, where again I don’t mind it being, there is a vigorous discussion being variously argued as to my idea, mostly opposed to my idea of Trump’s motive in mishandling the documents, with people offering all sorts of alternatives to my idea, and it reads like a perfectly fine P&E thread to me. And again if you can point to language that I used in the OP that seems to you “ranty” that will help me recognize such language in future threads. Seems to me a rant would elicit responses suitable for the Pit such as “Your an idiot” or “I agree 100%” instead of the numerous thoughtful responses this one is getting.
Just as a general question for the mods, but let’s say that a thread looks like it’s Pit material (because it doesn’t seem to fit anywhere else and seems likely to generate Pit-type responses) but the thread evolves into a different kind of thread through the subsequent replies and the discussion they form. Is there a potential to move it outside of the Pit? Or is it “tainted”, like pulling a fresh uneaten donut out of a garbage can (in the style of George Costanza)?
Other mods will be more knowledgeable on this than me, but speaking as a poster:
Some of the most productive conversations I’ve seen and participated in have been Pit threads. So much so that the Pit was my most participated-in forum until I became a mod. I always thought it was a shame, because many posters won’t go near the Pit. But I’ve never seen a thread that was in the Pit moved into a different forum, no matter how productive the discussion became.
Speaking as a mod:
It would be difficult to do, because surely some of the posts would be Pit material and some productive discussion. We would spend a lot of time separating them out and making decisions about what an original poster intended. I for one wouldn’t like doing that.
I’m pretty sure a few threads have been moved from the Pit to MPSIMS as they were too mild for the Pit. But I can’t think of a recent one.
Way back in the day the Pit was getting overrun with lame parody Pit threads like “I Pit my cats for being so cute when they wake me up at 5am” or “I Pit What Exit for being more eloquent than I am”. Eventually a rule was made against doing that and those threads were moved out.
I actually had that one in mind but I couldn’t figure out how to phrase it effectively.
You should PM What_Exit for help. I hear he’s pretty eloquent.