It’s a meltdown. I think.
Wowza. I leave for a few hours and the thread takes on a life of it’s own!
Thanks for your kind words Brad and Chris, I almost gots my own little fan club up in this mo fo! Whooo-ya!
Yeah. So, I’m not gonna touch this thread anymore. I’m no fool.
If any of you are interested in continuing the hijack of the OP by IDBB, I have begun one in Great Debates:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=204427
The title is Political Correctness vs Sensitivity. In retrospect, I acknowledge that the title is a little loaded. Please forgive.
I probably should have posted it in IMHO, but I wasn’t feeling terribly humble at the time. I promise not to ask for any cites even though it is in Great Debates.
But I did think that the discussion had become worthwhile. And those that were disagreeing with each other were doing so in a civil way. I didn’t want that civility to get sidetracked by opening the discussion in the Pit.
::thinks all too hard about invisible paint:: Why would you paint something with invisible paint? Since the paint’s invisible, it couldn’t improve the looks of whatever you painted with it. Why else would you paint something?
I think it’s my bedtime.
That you jumped the gun? That you overreacted? That you have the reading comprehension skills of a lentil?
Maybe one of those.
The point of the paint, Laura, is to make the object invisible. Sometimes I use it in a spray can and just spray it all over myself. But then my eyes are visible, because you can’t spray into the eyes. So people see these floating eyes walking down the street.
Oh, so it’s making-things-invisible paint? That makes more sense. Because I still haven’t slept.
Perhaps I can send you some of this paint. It’ll let you sleep during the day, because you can paint it over the sun. It rocks.
Email me for more info. Hint, hint.
PACKERS SUCK!
Jumped the gun with what, spoofe?
Complaining that I thought the thread closure, at the time a completely different and civil conversation was getting underway, was wrong?
What, you wanted me to wait a week, then complain about it?
Whatever dude.
Why don’t you come right out and tell me I need to shut up about everything, because that seems to be your point.
So let me get this straight- A poster starts a joke thread dealing with ‘Foxworthy-isms’ in MPSIMS. Almost immediately, and without surprise to those of us acquainted with the offenderati, a small, but vocal group of posters swoop in and start attacking the poster and his posts (You know, why wasn’t anyone telling them to start a different thread about their complaints? You know, like in the pit, where it would have belonged? Hmmmm). The thread takes the inevitable turn it was going to take, and was thrown to the wolves in the pit.
Out of exasperation the OP’er says, 'Shut ‘er down… PLEASE’. Presumably this guy was just out to have fun, but saw that instead, he was going to be attacked and ridiculed for his choice of topics… to the point of ad-naseum.
About all I saw in that was him trying to stop a train wreck.
But this is where it gets interesting, at least to me. A well respected, long-time moderator comes in and essentially says to the poster, ‘Nope, I’m not going to close this down. Others might, but I think further discussion on this is good’. There’s a comment about ‘lessons being learned’ but he doesn’t go into detail on that point (And again, if I got this read of his comments wrong, well… I don’t know what to say. Apparently I really can’t read).
Discussion ensues. Good discussion, if you ask me. The attacks and mudslinging seemed to be subsiding, and it genuinely seemed to be turning into a reasonable, if not contested, topic. Train wreck avoided, if you ask me.
Cool cool cool! I love that shit!
Except… it gets closed, with no further comment from the new moderator to the thread than, ‘closed at the request of the OP’.
Huh? What the hell?
I open a thread, in the appropriate forum, following all the appropriate rules, disputing, questioning, and generally venting about the decision. About all I get for that from the mod who closed the thread is, ‘Oh hey, I’m in the lead again’.
No comment on why, in the middle of a new and important discussion, that had new and different posters chiming in, it needed to be then closed. The train wreck was over people. It wasn’t heading anywhere bad, or anywhere that offense was going to be rampant.
But no, it was closed. And about the best explanation to closing it, even now, is a… I dunna know, what is that, a non-response? A comment about him being in the lead again?
Whatever.
You’re right Guinastasia, this is a meltdown. A horrible, irredeemable, meltdown of the HIGHEST proportions!! Call your friends, call your enemies, show them this, and the other thread, and show them how out of control I am. I’m a nut!
Whatever to that too.
I’m afraid i haven’t read this whole thread from start to finish, but i just wanted to make a general point (which someone may or may not already have made).
No matter the relative merits of closing or not closing the particular thread in question, i have always been opposed in principle to the idea that the OP can request to have his or her thread closed. I know that sometimes mods refuse to close the thread, but it seems to me that once you start a thread on a message board such as this one you should accept that it may not go the way you intended, and that just because you are the OP you do not “own” the thread.
I’ve had some of my threads go off-track before, and you know what i did? I stopped posting to the thread! Really, it’s that easy folks; you should try it sometime. And if you don’t want people doing things you don’t like with your threads, then don’t open new ones. As long as people stay within the rules of the Boards, there should be no cause to close a thread, even at the request of the OP.
Just my 2c.
I may be wrong, but I am almost certain that this is the lesson UncleBeer wanted IDBB to learn.
So in a weird kinda way, Diane, it was fine that the thread stayed open so long as the OP’er was getting bashed?
That sure seems odd.
Lesson wasn’t really learned, since it closed anyway, Diane. That’s like a parent telling their child they can’t have the toy they’re throwing a temper tantrum over in the grocery store, then going and buying it for them once they get home. Kid didn’t really learn much of a lesson there, did they?
And Coldfire, while I respect you as a mod and poster, that was a really lame response. Quite a cop out. You didn’t address any of CnoteChris’s questions, really. That was essentially a “because I said so” response which is a bit condescending.
So what if it was? Why would an explanation be owed? The thread was closed at the request of the OP. Why would you need more? Just move on.
The reason, perhaps, that the questions weren’t answered is that UB cleared it all up, clarifying his own post that had been misconstrued.
No, you’re in a rut. Funny how Zoe started a thread to continue the hijack of the locked original but all you’re doing is bash a couple of Mods.
A nut in a rut, let’s kick him in the butt. Tut, tut.
What?
dantheman it’s because we’re now questioning why the OP even has the authority to request a thread be closed. How is “because the OP requested it” an appropriate answer to “why should the OP be able to get a thread they started closed, just because they started it, if no rules are being broken?”
It’s a non answer to a very specific question. A rule is being questioned and no mods are offering answers. We are in the correct forum for questioning board policies, are we not?
Anyone has the authority to question it, lezlers. That’s always been the case. The moderators do not have to honor such a request, but they sometimes do. If they do, then that’s all there is to it.
Really, you’re reading much too much into this. If your question is “why should the OP be able to get a thread they started closed, just because they started it, if no rules are being broken?” then the answer is simply that it is the discretion of the moderator to honor such a request or not.
And what if they do close a thread simply at the request of the OP? What of it? How exactly does that harm you, or make things inconvenient for you? The content of the thread is not forbidden. You are certainly free to begin a new thread on the same topic, as Zoe has done in this case. So the non-OP poster is not affected one bit.
My question to you, then, is why you would take something like this so seriously when the issue is moot, in that it’s already been decided AND doesn’t affect anyone other than the OP.
Ok, here’s my explanation of what happened. Hope it helps you out.
Mod one is NOT a mod in the area of the forum that the thread was located. Therefore, he chose to leave the closing of the thread up to the mods of that area. This was the right choice IMHO.
Mod two IS a moderator in that area of the forum and decided to grant the OPs request to close the thread.
It’s as SIMPLE as that!