# Can we have no more omnibus threads please? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 18, 2015, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549 "2015-07-18T21:31:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/1 "2015-07-18T21:31:04Z")
Omnibus threads get too long and unmanageable. Good points get lost in the clutter of other points, and thereafter, following either point becomes impossible. Sure, the alternative is to have a thread every other day about some specific event, but wtf, electrons are cheap. Omnibus threads are useless when it comes to searching for specific points on specific events. Those threads are like having one large, unlabeled, file cabinet with everything thrown in instead of filed. Let’s end this nonsense before we get lost in the omnibus of omnibus clutter. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/2 "2015-07-18T21:46:36Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/3 "2015-07-18T22:02:12Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Omnibus threads get too long and unmanageable. Good points get lost in the clutter of other points, and thereafter, following either point becomes impossible. Sure, the alternative is to have a thread every other day about some specific event, but wtf, electrons are cheap. Omnibus threads are useless when it comes to searching for specific points on specific events. Those threads are like having one large, unlabeled, file cabinet with everything thrown in instead of filed. > > Let’s end this nonsense before we get lost in the omnibus of omnibus clutter. No. The clutter would be far worse if every single subpoint was made its own thread. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/4 "2015-07-18T22:10:59Z")
What about a chartreuse microbus? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/5 "2015-07-18T22:11:37Z")
I’d need examples, as I can see times where separate threads are justifiable, and when shoving them altogether makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/6 "2015-07-18T22:37:45Z")
Mhendo’s “Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread” is a good example. Police are killing civilians too quickly to have seperate threads for each. > **[Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus...](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=736919)** > > TLDR version: This is the law-enforcement omnibus thread. Discuss controversial shootings, tasings, pepper-sprayings, arrests, and other police encounter here. It’s in the Pit because these discussions sometimes get heated. Full version: I figured... ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/7 "2015-07-18T22:46:39Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Mhendo’s “Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread” is a good example. Police are killing civilians too quickly to have seperate threads for each. > > [Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=736919) I appreciate having all discussion about why it’s perfectly acceptable, not to say desirable, for the police to shoot black people all in one spot. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/8 "2015-07-18T22:56:37Z")
Neat and tidy. ---
**Author:** ![orangeapples](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@orangeapples](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orangeapples)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/9 "2015-07-18T23:13:39Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Omnibus threads get too long and unmanageable. Good points get lost in the clutter of other points, and thereafter, following either point becomes impossible. Sure, the alternative is to have a thread every other day about some specific event, but wtf, electrons are cheap. Omnibus threads are useless when it comes to searching for specific points on specific events. Those threads are like having one large, unlabeled, file cabinet with everything thrown in instead of filed. > > Let’s end this nonsense before we get lost in the omnibus of omnibus clutter. I second (or third, or what-have-you) this in its entirety. There are entire issues being discussed here that escape my notice because they are taking place within the cluttered confines of massive threads I’d rather not try to keep up with, y’know, because of the clutter and such. I expect no change, but I would welcome change should it come. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/10 "2015-07-18T23:20:07Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Mhendo’s “Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread” is a good example. Police are killing civilians too quickly to have seperate threads for each. > > [Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=736919) 5 months from now when something happen and you want to resurrect a topic in that thread, are you going to bump the whole thread and then fish through page after page of items looking for the part about the blue car and the red truck? Far better to have smaller threads that just fade off to rest in the dust. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/11 "2015-07-18T23:24:23Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > What about a chartreuse microbus? Is that the one you want behind the suicide jockey? ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/12 "2015-07-18T23:25:30Z")
I propose a single thread where we can keep all conversations about specific thread types that annoy us. F’rinstance, all polls in the Pit should be kept to one thread. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/13 "2015-07-18T23:39:17Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Mhendo’s “Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread” is a good example. Police are killing civilians too quickly to have seperate threads for each. > > [Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=736919) That is indeed a good thread. It sucks, but those types of stories are not all newsworthy enough for their own threads–because they are so depressingly common. Unless one rises to some level of significance, there is no real reason for a separate thread, IMO. > [@Morgenstern](#): > > 5 months from now when something happen and you want to resurrect a topic in that thread, are you going to bump the whole thread and then fish through page after page of items looking for the part about the blue car and the red truck? Far better to have smaller threads that just fade off to rest in the dust. No, you’ll just bump it without looking back, like you do in every thread. And it will be at most one post and some comments about it unless the topic was big enough for a separate thread in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/14 "2015-07-18T23:47:29Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > … > > No, you’ll just bump it without looking back, like you do in every thread. And it will be at most one post and some comments about it unless the topic was big enough for a separate thread in the first place. Wut? ---
**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:** [July 18, 2015, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/15 "2015-07-18T23:53:05Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > What about a chartreuse microbus? > [@running\_coach](#): > > Is that the one you want behind the suicide jockey? It would only go in Great Debates. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/16 "2015-07-19T00:11:08Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Is that the one you want behind the suicide jockey? That would be the combined omnibus thread about dynamite truckers and long-haired friends of Jesus. (Hey, are we showing our age or what? How many young-uns on this board are going to know where that’s coming from?) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/17 "2015-07-19T00:14:41Z")
Not toooo many omnibus threads, but ISTM the number we have now (which fluctuates occasionally as new ones are created), seems to be about right. There’s a new omnibus thread in the Pit just for Donald Trump now, as posts about him alone were cluttering up the SRIOTD thread. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/18 "2015-07-19T00:15:59Z")
What we seem to have never had, and perhaps ought to, is the Omnibus Colonoscopy Thread. And one for discussing the latest research and theories on the value of 0.999… ETA: Oh, and one for quantum cats. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/19 "2015-07-19T00:24:01Z")
So who’s going to start the Omnibus moderator complaint thread here in ATMB? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549/20 "2015-07-19T01:57:14Z")
What’s to stop somebody from starting their own thread about a particular instance or specific example of a topic covered in an ‘omnibus thread’. I know that if there is, say, a “controversial encounter between law-enforcement and civilians” that I felt strongly enough to post about, I won’t feel compelled to put it in the omnibus thread. In any case, in addition to all the good reasons given by others above about why omnibus threads are hardly desirable, I believe they actually detract from what made this board great. Who knows how many potentially wonderful or even classic threads have been lost in the morass of the omnib[del]us[/del]i. Get rid of them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-we-have-no-more-omnibus-threads-please/725549.md?page=2)