Over the past weekend before the server upgrade, we had a free-for-all in the Pit, where (nearly) all rules were suspended and people could post whatever they wanted. It was interesting to see how different the Pit was without rules, and I wanted to hear if people now feel we should change any of the forum rules.
I myself found it very interesting that people felt so much more confident airing their pet peeves about other posters during the free-for-all weekend, considering that this is in fact the original and primary purpose of the Pit. I also found it interesting, if a little disturbing, how quickly the Pit became a cross between MPSIMS and a chat log. It was hilarious and fun quite a lot of the time, but I don’t think that aspect would do well in the long run.
It seemed to me (I didn’t read all the threads, or probably even half of them) that the majority of the posts didn’t even break any rules. I think peoples’ behavior was affected more by the temporary nature of the posts than by the suspension of the rules. People knew their post would disappear, so they let loose (despite threats by some to save their words and repost them at a later date.)
Yeah, it was a bit weird, but then again since all the rules were off IN HERE ONLY, you could go ahead and post MPSIMS type stuff but still have Pit style free-for-all insult fests if you wanted to. I was actually surprised at how well behaved everyone actually was, mostly.
The Pit, for good or ill, is actually the better debate forum overall, because people CAN get heated if it’s necessary, which it often is. There are trolls and dickweeds and namby pamby fucktards that infest GD who wouldn’t set foot in here, knowing what would await them, so the debates are better because the tards are elsewhere, gooping up otherwise good arguments with their trolls and glurges and endless “but you said” parsings and nitpicks. So The Pit stays fairly level and measured, overall, because nobody wants the GOOD debate space to get fucked up.
I’d like to see a REAL free for all forum, with the rule structure in place for the Pit from this weekend. No personal outings or info, no NSFW links, otherwise it’s “Rules? In a knife fight?! No rules!” “BOOT!” all the way. Shoot, the game people got their forum, some of us have different kindsa games we like to play. Besides, a new forum would preclude the only REALLY annoying (IMO) feature of the weekend, which was the zombie threads. Heck, a forum like that could conceivably kill the SnackPit all by itself… Win!
Also, if we’re gonna get more n00bz in, it would be nice to have a total free for all space to really fuck with 'em to get them whipped into shape for this place, while leaving The Pit as a debate space for pottymouths.
I really liked the free-for-all atmosphere of the Pit - it was indeed fun and furious. I would support leaving the Pit as more of a no man’s land, and keeping all the rules and regulations for all the other forums. That would turn the Pit into a sort of catch-all, but I don’t have a problem with that - the posters will make of it what they want it to be, and I can see it changing and evolving over time.
ETA: Or taking SmartAleq’s idea and creating another free-for-all forum and leaving the Pit as it was - either would work for me.
I agree with Don’t Call Me Shirley - I believe that the impermanence was the major contributor to the change, not the official suspension of the rules. I didn’t see too much rules breaking, but I have to admit I also avoided some of the threads that seemed to me to be have far too high a frustration quotient to be entertaining to me. So, I may have missed out on the good rules breaking.
But if the impermanence is the true contributing factor, I don’t know whether it can be replicated in the future.
Another thought - one of the perennial complaints about the Dope is too many rules, too constrained. While I think most of us old-timers appreciate the rules and understand that the rules help control the fun, I can see making one little area more like the Rest of the Internet to squelch those complaints.
Giraffe, what was the rationale behind doing this? Was regular moderation for some reason unavailable? Was it just a test to see if it would become something worth keeping around? I was a little confused as to why this was implemented. While interesting, it did come as somewhat of a surprise.
It was a nice change of pace, but I wouldn’t want it to be an everyday thing. Rules (and figuring out how to get around them!) are what make some things fun. I would be in favor of a “knife fight” forum, if we could keep the crazy confined there.
It was fun, it was fast paced, it was in some misshapen way a bit of the Dope of yore. It was also completely retarded. I’ll throw my hat into the make a new “Knife Fight” forum ring, because sometimes setting things on fire just isn’t enough.
I think the best idea that come out of the free for all was the one about creating a new Spanish Language forum, i think there were volunteers for moderating it.
I enjoyed the free-for-all, but by Monday I was ready to read some more substantive threads. I hope they get the various post-upgrade issues worked out quickly and we can get back to it.
A lot of posters entered shocking stuff, supposedly their real thoughts. Or maybe they were just trolling for the hell of it.
But I don’t/didn’t believe I was able to really answer some of the threads honestly, because someone, either mods or other posters, would be keeping track of what was said, for later use.
My primary example of that was a now disappeared thread in which posters were invited to name those whom they would ban if they could. I refrained from posting my list, because of the shit I’d catch later, either from those I named or from other posters who would see “bias” in my choices.
I will say that this weekend reminded me of how the Pit used to be, back in the old days, before the Empire…err, back in 1999-2000. Obviously, some things were over the top this weekend, but I did sort of enjoy that, because it seems lately that the Pit, and the boards in general have changed. I can’t give you specifics, really, but ti just seems like people are thinner skinned now, and people are more cautious about what they say. I don’t know if it’s a function of the moderation, a function of pay-to-post (in the past), or what, but I’ve noticed that change.
