I actually dont report much, but yes, I did report three times in that thread. In the first case, The Mod agreed with me.
Thanks.
This really confused me until I remembered I posted more than once in that thread. At second look I can see how it might be possible to misinterpret my second comment. Kind of makes me wonder if this is the first time I’ve been reported?
Strictly speaking, no. While I did mod the post, you reported it as “being a jerk,” rather than as a joke, which is how I modded it. (If it actually had been being a jerk, I probably would have issued a warning instead of a mod note.) You reported another joke as junior modding. You didn’t report any of the jokes as jokes, which is the issue you are complaining about in the OP. Reporting mild offenses as more serious offenses ends up as the equivalent of calling “wolf.”
I find no other reports.
Reported.
DrDeth, this:
is pretty much all that Colibri is asking you to do. Given that your idea of what is and is not acceptable with respect to joking around in GQ is very much out of line with what the moderation staff feels is appropriate (and the way that joking in GQ has been enforced for as long as I have been around here), and given that this seems to be a bit of a hot button topic for you, I think it’s a perfectly reasonable request. It’s not that we don’t want to receive post reports. We would definitely rather receive too many post reports than not enough. We want everyone to enjoy their time here. If you get upset about people joking around and you make a snippy comments about it, doesn’t make it enjoyable for you or anyone else in the thread.
No, we don’t have a hive mind, and while we do try to be consistent, we are only human.
That said, looking at the thread in question, the OP asked a set of questions that probably can’t be completely answered factually. For security type reasons that I think should be fairly obvious, I seriously doubt that some of the information asked for is published anywhere. A lot of the joking and/or snarky responses are basically pointing that out. Given the nature of the OP, I think the questions were answered factually about as well as they could be. Demanding that people only give factual answers isn’t particularly helpful under the circumstances, and also isn’t consistent with the rules of GQ.
Looking at the thread as a moderator, I see two things that need attention. The first is that the first post does not factually address the OP. That’s not really that much of a surprise given the nature of the OP, but that’s the way we traditionally enforce the rules in GQ, so it needs a mod note. The second is your implication that joking responses aren’t acceptable, which is definitely not true. While it is a bit of jr. modding, it’s not exactly a major infraction or anything and certainly doesn’t warrant anything more than a mod note. No biggie.
In other words, I would have moderated it exactly the same way Colibri did.
Yes, we would much rather have things over-reported than under-reported. And we don’t really care that much if some folks don’t use the report button wisely or anything like that. When in doubt, report the post and let us figure it out. That’s what we’re here for.
I have little doubt my sense of humor doesnt match that of others, so I will try and not report such posts, OK?
But altho I did say Mea Culpa, I do wanna say that I didn’t post “that joking responses aren’t acceptable”:
Originally Posted by chappachula
We have a winner!!!
The thread is over.
Originally Posted by DrDeth
This is not MPSIMS. Not looking for joke answers.
In other words, jokes or no, GQ is looking for factual answers first, so thus the best joke answer doesnt mean the thread needs to be closed. 
It’s not so much jokes, it’s jokes *before any factual answers are offered. *
That is a problem in GD.
I think that DrDeth has a JokeDAR that’s often much more sensitive than others. But in this case, I see their point. Only a handful of replies seriously answered any of the specific questions in the OP, and the thread became largely jokes before the OP got firm information (instead of reasoned guesses) on even half of his questions.
It wasn’t some egregious example of too much joking before answering, but more that so many posters contributed just a bit, which added up to what seemed like a lot, IMHO.
Ah. I see now what you intended. That’s not quite how it came out though, at least not to me.
When someone suggests the thread is over or /thread, or anything like that, they are being facetious. They are expressing appreciation for their own or someone else’s bon mot and awarding them one intrawebz!!!11!!111 They are not seriously suggesting the thread be closed and that no one else need reply.
As for your objection, md2000 did give a serious factual answer before Loach made his joke and chappacula congratulated him on it.
You are correct in that your sense of humor doesn’t seem to match that of others and you are making a huge mountain out of a molehill.
I suppose this thread is more about one situation, but FTR, I find jokes in GQ to be tedious (I must be a dull person).
A few are fine, but the signal to noise ratio in that thread was pretty bad.
I don’t like wading through post after post of clever wit in order to find a nugget of truth.
The worst offenders IMHO are real-looking fake answers and puns.
What I mean by real-looking fake answers is when someone crafts an answer that is tongue-in-cheek, but I pause and think “Wow, I never knew that was the answer!” before thinking “Oops… he was just kidding.”
Those are troublesome to me because I believe that they go against the “fighting ignorance” charter of the Straight Dope: someone somewhere probably thinks the answer is straight and accepts it in their own body of knowledge, just like those subtle bits of intentional misinformation my brother salted my education with when I was a child.
Puns just aren’t clever (again, IMHO).
Actually, it appears that you object to jokes per se. You previously calledfor whooshes to be banned from GQ. Nobody agreed with you then either.
Post #2:Uvula Donor
I find myself agreeing with you here: whooshes and drive-by bullshit answers are distracting and don’t really contribute anything useful to GQ. Does every forum have to be turned into a clone of MPSIMS?
Post 4:** esse**l
I see no real harm in the rule as there’s plenty of other places to screw around on the boards. However IMHO it’s only the real subtle jokes that cause a problem. Sometimes screwing around in GQ has been really funny. I do think the same etiquette guidelines that apply to hijacking should be used because it almost is hijacking sometimes. That’d be common courtesy. i.e. don’t screw around when the OP’s question is still awaiting an actual answer.
Post #5:** TubaDiva**
*You shouldn’t make jokes in an informational area unless you also are ready to provide the answer directly afterwards. Like so:
Question.
Snappy witty nonresponse.
Response.
If you don’t have the correct answer save your wit for somewheres else.
*
Post #7
As for the 2nd, I’d say that at least people should use smileys if their post isn’t serious. It’s really annoying to have to sift through everybody’s attemps at comedy to get to a real answer. Having smileys would alleviate a lot of the problem. I wouldn’t be totally opposed to an outright ban on whooshes or deliberately wrong answers, but I don’t think that the solution needs to be that drastic.
#9** hajario**
What Uvula Donor said.
#11 Samclem
*Since I’m a moderator in General Questions, I want to express my opinion of what I consider good behavior in that forum.
I don’t want too many rules. I’m against making a new, restrictive rule. Hell, sometimes the OP is such a good “straight line” that I have been known to respond with a less than helpful post. That kind of thing is gonna happen. I try to resist, and I hope others do. I know it’s pretty hard. As Khadji said, this is a social board. Hell, even Cecil would probably post one liners in GQ.
But where I draw the line is posting something that can be misconstrued. That’s what happened in your example. While I’m sure the poster didn’t mean for it to confuse, only posting in jest, it resulted in many people reading it the wrong way. And when a doctor, Qadgop, reads it the wrong way, in a thread which was designed to help someone understand a recent term, “Restless Leg Syndrome,” and posts that this is one reason he doesn’t post as much in GQ anymore, then it’s time to say enough!.*
Post 14 DrDeth
*And I got no problem with the “Hollywood Squares” format for GQ, after all, some question scream for a one liner. If you whip out that bit of snappy repartee, but follow it with a solid answer, that is a winner, as far as I am concerned
Compromise?*
Post 21: Tastes of Chocolate
*Unforunately, GQ, which used to be my favorite forum here, now contains so much chaff that it becomes hard to find the real answers. I though the reason we had seperate forums is so that different types of questions could be answered differently. It seems that GQ has become just another IMHO.
Just as it isn’t acceptable to tell jokes in every real life situation, is it really necessary to tell them in every SDMB thread? If someone walks up to me at work with a serious question, they get a serious answer. GQ ican be like working with Don Rickles these days.*
Post 26 Thudlow Boink
*Yeah, the problem isn’t posting jokes in general, but the kind of humor that consists of giving ludicrously wrong information with a straight face. President John Quincy Adams had 372 people beheaded during his administration for precisely this offense.
I don’t know whether or not we need an Official Rule, and if so how it should be worded, but I don’t think people ought to be doing this sort of thing in GQ if there’s the slightest chance they could be taken seriously. Maybe, if you must post a joke answer or “fact” or suggestion, include a disclaimer that you were just kidding? (like I was about the John Quincy Adams thing)*
And indeed the then unwritten rule of “No joke answers in GQ unless a real answer has already been given.” became written.
So, I think your line “Nobody agreed with you then either” is pretty damn wrong.
Have you actually read those comments? Do you really think they are agreeing with you?
You called for a complete ban on whooshes.
Do the comments you quoted agree with you?
*“However IMHO it’s only the real subtle jokes that cause a problem. Sometimes screwing around in GQ has been really funny.”
"I don’t want too many rules. I’m against making a new, restrictive rule. Hell, sometimes the OP is such a good “straight line” that I have been known to respond with a less than helpful post. "
“the problem isn’t posting jokes in general” *
Are any of those comments agreeing with your call for a complete ban?
DrDeth, just as an item of information, you can quote multiple posts (even from other threads), by clicking the “multipost quote” button ["+] at the lower right of each post. Formatting quotes in the manner you did makes them a bit harder to follow.
Post 14 DrDeth
*And I got no problem with the “Hollywood Squares” format for GQ, after all, some question scream for a one liner. If you whip out that bit of snappy repartee, but follow it with a solid answer, that is a winner, as far as I am concerned
Compromise?*
You also selectively left out those who agreed with me 100%.
If that’s how you wish to interpret it, then I won’t try to contradict you.
Sometimes, all I’ve got is a bit of repartee, probably not snappy and certainly nothing close to resembling a “solid” answer. Am I not then allowed to play at some point, DrDeth?
I would ask that not before the real answer had been given and discussed*. I prefer Tuba’s suggestion, however.
- and this is, more or less, the current rule.