# Ban disposable cups closure **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 26, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418 "2016-06-26T16:34:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/42 "2016-06-27T04:30:51Z")
Starting threads and not participating is like bumfights. Novel very briefly but always uncouth. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/43 "2016-06-27T13:01:04Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > I would like to mention about my anime thread. I spent the weekend at an anime convention. This was a topic that people were debating the entire time. They even had a panel which was basically a debate as to whether or not RWBY is an anime, or a cartoon. In the community that I am in, that is a Great Debate. I really don’t see how you could possibly not see that as a Cafe society thread, but that’s water under the bridge. I’d suggest that you disarm the mod’s ire here by PM’ing them if you’re the least bit unsure about where a thread should go. ETA. And don’t forget to participate. People expect a little contribution other than just an OP. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/44 "2016-06-27T13:29:04Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > You started that thread two days ago, and apart from complaining about a moderator moving it to the correct forum, you haven’t even bothered to return to the thread to join your alleged “debate.” If it truly is a “great debate” among “the community that [you are] in,” it does not seem to be a debate that you are actually very interested in joining. He was giving us a topic so we could talk amongst ourselves while he was _verklempt_. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/45 "2016-06-27T14:03:29Z")
**Boffking’s** only contribution to this thread is to complain about his previous thread being moved to **Café Society** … hopefully he’s gone through all the moderator comments on all his OP’s and he’s seen the suggestion to only start one new post per week. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/46 "2016-06-27T15:02:17Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > In the community that I am in, that is a Great Debate. Yes, it is such a great debate in your community that you didn’t even participate in your own “debate”. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/47 "2016-06-27T15:13:38Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > I would like to mention about my anime thread. I spent the weekend at an anime convention. This was a topic that people were debating the entire time. They even had a panel which was basically a debate as to whether or not RWBY is an anime, or a cartoon. In the community that I am in, that is a Great Debate. But in THIS community people were debating about topics like Brexit. Would one try to start a discussion about Brexit at an anime convention on the grounds that it was a Great Debate in the other community one is in? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/48 "2016-06-27T18:54:02Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > I would like to mention about my anime thread. I spent the weekend at an anime convention. This was a topic that people were debating the entire time. They even had a panel which was basically a debate as to whether or not RWBY is an anime, or a cartoon. In the community that I am in, that is a Great Debate. Forum definitions for the SDMB are not determined by you and your friends at an anime convention. The community you are in _right now_ is the SDMB, and we would appreciate it if you made at least a minimal effort to understand the conventions here _as we define then_, and abide by moderator instructions. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/49 "2016-06-27T20:49:13Z")
I can’t tell - was the thread started somewhere else, and moved? **Jonathan Chance** says - > [@](#): > > I’ve told you before, multiple times, that starting threads out of forum - or obsessively starting threads on single topics - is no longer an option for you. > > Not even moved. Closed. Which makes it sound like it was not moved. It doesn’t look to me like an example of obsessively posting about a single topic. The part about not starting a thousand threads, and not participating in most of them, I can see. But I know that from observation, not from the Warning. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/50 "2016-06-27T21:58:58Z")
I’m still not clear on what the problem was _with that thread._ I agree that **boffking** needs to post threads in the appropriate fora, that he needs to participate, and that he needs to be moderated to ensure that he does this. I agree that the anime thread was an example of posting in the wrong forum and also of not participating. I’m not clear on the problem with the disposable cup thread. It surely can’t be that he didn’t participate, since the thread wasn’t open long enough. I don’t think **boffking** has posted obsessively (or at all) about similar topics before. Have I missed it? Was it in fact a stealth gun control thread? Maybe, but I don’t see anything to indicate that. I guess that leaves starting a thread in the wrong forum. The anime thread was definitely in the wrong forum, but this one? He’s not asking what people’s opinions are about disposable cups; he’s asking whether the pollution and related harms caused by disposable cups are significant enough to warrant legislation. That sounds like a topic for Great Debates to me, just as I assume similar discussions about plastic bags, guns, or SUVs would be. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/51 "2016-06-27T22:25:59Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I can’t tell - was the thread started somewhere else, and moved? **Jonathan Chance** says - > Which makes it sound like it was not moved. It doesn’t look to me like an example of obsessively posting about a single topic. > > The part about not starting a thousand threads, and not participating in most of them, I can see. But I know that from observation, not from the Warning. > > Regards, > Shodan The cup thread was not moved. The anime thread was moved. And it was in that thread that some mod instructions were given. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418/52 "2016-06-28T01:28:11Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Was it in fact a stealth gun control thread? Maybe, but I don’t see anything to indicate that. Apparently not. As I said in post #7, I’ve seen so many gun control threads/posts/memes that I’ve reached the point of saturation. Second Amendment advocates often propose to ban some thing to point out what they see as the absurdity of gun control. (‘Water kills thousands of people in the United States every year! We should ban water!’) So saturation plus the word ‘ban’ in the title plus the seeming absurdity of banning plastic cups probably made me see something that wasn’t there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ban-disposable-cups-closure/758418.md?page=2)