What I’m seeing here – or maybe at least in that anime thread – is that the mods have a tendency to shut down threads because of something one poster posted, especially the OP – even though the thread is attracting some non-trivial discussion by other posters. I see lots of viable on-going discussions getting shut down just because the same OP is starting lots of them, or because someone threadshitted it, or because it’s something the mods just seem to not want people talking about.
(I’ll abstain on the question of OP’s being in the right or wrong forum, and what mods should do about that.)
I work in an environment (9-1-1 call center) where we often hear repeatedly from the same callers, some of whom have a history of making false reports. Various factors, including mental illness, come into play. We do not take their whole call history into account when they call. We evaluate each call independently. And sometimes there are some important gems in there.
Evaluating each posted thread on its own merits would be a similar approach. It doesn’t matter that the last 10 threads posted by that board member didn’t attract much attention, if this one now is getting a discussions started then please leave the thread open.
Jonathan Chance didn’t close the anime thread, though. He merely moved it to Cafe Society and left a mod note reminding boffking to take note of the forum he was posting in and making sure that it was the right one.
This board suffers from a lack of interesting new threads at times. Shutting down a thread that has attracted interest just because of who started the thread is not helping.
Personally, it doesn’t matter to me that the subject is a pet topic of the poster, that the poster is prolific, or that the poster tends not to return much to the thread he starts.
I am capable of sifting the wheat from the chaff. I have to do it at work and it really isn’t much of a burden. And sometimes, even with those prolific callers (analogous to our prolific board posters) there is some really good stuff.
Here I simply look at the message topic and read what I am interested in, regardless of the poster.
It’s proof of nothing. But the claim was made that a thread had been shut down after it had attracted a certain amount of interest. It hadn’t. Anyone is free to open a thread on that topic in IMHO if they wish.
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.
Entertainment discussion go in CS. “Our salon for art, drama, literature, movies, music, comics, cuisine – all the artistic disciplines – if it’s about creativity, entertainment, or leisure, it goes here.”
So post it on an anime board in their equivalent of the Great Debates forum. On this forum, your anime post was better suited to Café Society.
In any case, this thread isn’t about your anime thread; it’s about your disposable cups thread. Do you actually believe this is a topic suitable to Great Debates as described in the forum description?
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.
A debate, around here, does not involve starting hundreds of threads and never returning to them. While there’s no hard and fast rule about it, the general (and reasonable) assumption is that people who start a thread in GD actually have an interest in discussing the issue they are starting the thread about. If you keep throwing out a few questions and then abandoning the thread, you simply won’t be taken seriously by anyone (if that hasn’t happened already).
I sometimes think I blog here, but tell myself I’m just uninteresting to explain the lousy response rate. But really, the OP had a cute woman’s naked ass! What’s not to like?
Sorry for the delay. I’ve been out watching two movies about a chocolate madman and aliens blowing up the world (again).
Over the last week or so I’ve tried to provide guidance to boffking about his thread starting and lack of participation in those thread. It’s hard, of course, to know whether he’s even seen the guidance given his habit of not returning to threads. He may be reading them but without any follow up posts it’s hard to know that.
So, to boffking I will reassert what I would like to have happen. I would like him to participate in the threads he starts. Otherwise it just gives the appearance of boffking saying, ‘hey, you guys argue about this’ without him actually being interested in the outcome.
In addition, pay more attention to the differences in the various fora and where threads should be placed. The fora are fairly distinct and well-defined.
On the other hand, it’s not very encouraging when his only response in the anime thread you started is to complain about the relocation as well as his reiteration of that complaint here in this thread.
My guidance stands. Boffking has been given notice, provided guidance and may now be warned for continuing this sort of behavior.
My take is that this is about a specific poster starting yet another thread he will not participate in. Most anyone else here is free to restart that thread if you’d like. The subject isn’t the issue here.