You should have added “MMP” to the title. Cite
When was the last post padding party?
Sounds like what’s really needed is rather a forum name-change.
How about Mostly mundane and/or kind of (but not completely) pointless stuff I must (or just want to) share? Hopefully I didn’t miss anything.
You just missed "at the discretion of the mod du jour."
MMA/OKO(BNC)PSIM(OJWT)SATDOTMDJ has quite a nice ring to it, don’t ya think?
I would like to know from those that feel that a thread can be too pointless: what is the actual harm in it? In what way is it detrimental to this board? How are we, the users, adversely affected by it?
I veer towards the view that if it is too uninteresting, it will die a natural death, so let it be. But I’m open to persuasion.
Well, I don’t know MPSIMS, but I closed this thread in the Game Room for being a post-padding party. Post padding isn’t really a problem on the SDMB, but I’ve seen it get out of hand on other boards. Note that I’m not one of the most active mods - the Game Room is very quiescent and usually manages very well on it’s own - so other mods probably do more of this than me.
As for why we close fully pointless threads, I think that can be broken down into two reasons;
1: Front page real estate.
2: To discourage creating more of the kind.
The opinion in this thread seems to be that if friend Twix hadn’t closed the thread, then it would have died on its’ own and disappeared. That’s probably true, too, but on the spot when it happened, Twix had a set of rules to follow and did.
Does that mean it’s a good rule? Maybe, maybe not. Can we repeal it? Sure, if someone makes a new thread and argues well for repealing it, the mod loop will consider it. But as it were and as it is, Twix did the right thing. IMHO, of course. 
(Sorry if I’m stepping on your toes here, Twix 
)
This, as I’m sure you know, comes up from time to time. My highly unscientific view of the consensus in the past has been:
Users: 70-30 in favour of allowing them to stay open.
Mods: at least 90-10 in favour of closing them.
I’m not sure that anyone can post an argument strong enough to convince enough mods to keep them open, beyond ‘why not?’ and ‘let them die a natural death’, which, let’s face it, are not very passionate arguments.
The strongest argument, in my view, is that it’s impossible to tell how they will develop. Some have ended up being highly entertaining. So let the proletariat decide! After all, if, say some posters want to keep it going, why should a mod smack them down by closing it? But this has been said before, to no effect.
- Were you counting posts, or posters?
- Could you give a rough estimate of what percentage of the general population of the SDMB have waved in on the subject?
We don’t need to have brilliant arguments when the name of the freaking forum has pointless right in it! If you don’t want truly pointless threads then change the name of the forum, but if you’re going to leave it as is, then let them stay. This is not a difficult concept.
This might pertain more to closing general threads than “truly pointless” threads in MPSIMS, which doesn’t happen too often. (I just checked - I had to go back to may 17th to find a thread that was closed for not meeting minimum requirements, which was a single post with a link to a picture and a smiley.)
As for posting arguments strong enough to convince moderators to re-open threads, I don’t know that I agree with you.
Mostly all we need is a sufficient reason to believe we were wrong about the thread, like tovarich Twix above asking for a direction for the thread. Other than that, we do try to give the reason for why we closed down threads and in 90% of the cases, making a new thread and complying with what the moderator asked for in the closing will ensure your thread stays open.
For instance, if Little Nemo had reposted the thread with a sentence to the effect of “What does this say about the posting habits of the SDMB?” I don’t think Twix would have closed it. (Possibly moved it to ATMB, but not closed it.) As it was, the thread went for six hours with two responses - one asking for clarification of a term and another asking what the point of the thread was.
To adress the point of “let the proletariat decide”, I’d say that by and large the proletariat does decide. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t minimum standards to what they can or can’t do; the strongest pillar this community has is our minimum standards. And I don’t think those standards are unreasonable - but that’s of course debatable. Should SOP be to post and request a direction from the OP instead of closing it down? Should we PM the poster? That’s of course up to discussion - mostly we do what we do out of expedience.
Anyway, sorry for rambling. Now, I need to get some coffee. 
- I wasn’t counting. I was giving my impression.
- No.
As I said, I was giving my impression; scientifically worthless, as I pointed out. Do you think I’m wrong?
You do realize, I hope, Gukumatz, that it was actually you that won that thread, not the OP?
;)
ETA: Mods have an unfair advantage in games like that, since they can close the thread immediately after getting in the last post 
It’s not “getting the last word.” It’s explaining what we do.
If we didn’t explain what we do there would be griping that we’re not communicative about what people need to know.
Since the “point” of MPSIMS is to share “pointless stuff”, then once the OP posts, the “pointless” thing, like my bolding of Gukumatz’s post, above, has been shared. Guk didn’t include a link to that one, but it’s not hard to imagine what it might be. Even if the thread is closed, the OP is still there, and the thing in question has been shared. I will stick by the mods who have posted in this thread. Basically, they are people the owner of this board have appointed to maintain the type of board the owner prefers. Don’t like it? Then start your own board. Do like it? Then stick around. The owner of the board is apparently producing something to your taste…
Yes, I know what you do and why you do it, but it still means Gukumatz won the thread! 
Gukumatz:
No need to apaologise: they’re good rambles.
I agree that one of the strengths of the SD is its adherence to high standards - and I wholeheartedly support that. And I generally support moderators upholding those standards. Where difficulties and confusion arise is in translating those standards into rules, and the amount of leeway mods should have in interpreting those rules. It can get fuzzy. I think they should listen to the users of the board. I’m not sure that the proletariat does usually decide; sometimes, yes, often, no. Some mods can be defiantly intransigent in the face of the majority’s disagreement. There have been instances where a mod has made it quite clear that he/she has no interest in what the majority think, which I believe is wrong. (I’m not advocating mob rule, BTW, just healthy discourse.) Some issues can almost cause the board to rupture (as in The Winter Of Our Discontent or whatever it was called).
I think the truly pointless threads are obvious (the ‘a’ one mentioned earlier, for example). I do understand the mindset behind not allowing those, but I don’t agree, for the reasons I gave before. But Little Nemo’s thread is different. As you have intimated, there is a fairly obvious reason for his post. As **twickster **explained, his problem is that he didn’t give it; but I don’t think he needed to. He collated some data (which required some effort from him) and presented it to us. By not extrapolating on it, he allowed us to take it where we wanted (which includes nowhere). It’s just another approach.
In response to Cheshire Human:
Sure - it’s great board; that’s why I stick around. But can’t the customer make suggestions as to how it could be made even better?
How about taking the “Pointless” out of MPSIMS? This would allow people to post on miner things they might find interesting, while getting rid of posts that usually bring forth “WTF?” responses.
I’ve always felt that a post of “tell me what you think” was redundant. Every OP on this board is asking people to post what they think so I’ve assumed that asking people for comments is implied by the opening of a thread.
I think a very small percentage of active posters have commented on the subject, and a large percentage of the comments made are from a small percentage of those posters. I don’t think you have near enough real information available to hazard even a very rough guess.