I have already said that I can envision a situation where the existence of bad OP’s is causing a general problem for an online message board. But we’re not discussing a hypothetical situation here. This board is nowhere close to that situation and that thread was not creating that problem. A mod can’t claim to be justified in closing a thread by arguing that a thread like it might cause a problem in some other time and place.
We have a difference of opinion on this point.
I don’t understand what your final six words here are trying to say. The mod is arguing that the thread is likely to cause a problem here, in this time and place. In other words, the mod is modding. Nothing to see here.
Quality of the OP has nothing to do with how fast it sinks. None of my threads have ever gone over two pages and they’ve all been solid gold, if I may say so myself. That particular thread would not have sunk. It would have been pages of “really, 75 options?” partly because Qin Shibdsdfs is well known. It wouldn’t have been a terrible thing to leave it open. But honestly, nothing of value was lost.
This isn’t a land where justice is blind. I trust these authorities with discretion. They really aren’t all that tyrannical.
Well, as I said upthread, some of us are not as enamored of our own aesthetic opinions as others of us are. IOW, you seem to believe that you have a right for this forum to only contain threads that you like.
I disagree with that. I think it’s perfectly fine for me to open a thread, think it’s stupid as hell, and close it without posting to it. This happens at least 5 times a day. And life goes on.
I think it depends on the nature of the problem.
If the problem is that the threads are stupid and pointless and no one pays any attention, the lack of reaction will get the job done. If people want to jump into the thread to say “This is stupid” then that’s what they want to do and I don’t see the harm.
Threads should be closed when they are somehow harmful. There’s no harm in being lame.
What problem do you feel exists now on this board? Are we so overwhelmed by nonsense posts that we can’t find any worthwhile threads? Are we another 4chan?
Actually Czarcasm hasn’t been able to offer any explanation of why Qin’s post was bad other than he didn’t like it. His defense of his modding is that he’s a moderator - an explanation that would cover any possible action he might take. The only justification he offered was his questionable assumption that people come here for the moderation. Considering that complaints like this thread have been an ongoing topic for the last ten years, it’s an equally probable assumption that people come here despite the moderation.
Amen, brother.
No, I believe that the creators of this forum have a right for it to only contain threads that they think are coherent enough to not be a distraction. In this particular case I happen to agree with their decision.
I don’t see a whole lot of harm. But I also see how it can prove a distraction, removing a couple IQ points from the SDMB as a whole, as some of its concentration is watered down by having to react to it. The SDMB isn’t some sort of idealistic democratic utupia, it’s just a message board with a fairly successful model for attempting to maintain quality. As I keep repeating, the starter of the OP in question is welcome to re-submit the thread with a little more organization. This seems immanently fair. No one is loosing here.
No, I think the board is fine, in part because of the very moderation that has some people in this thread upset. I can turn the question around, you know: do you really think you were denied a good discussion in this case? As I’ve said before, I think it’s a close call. I just don’t see why people are up-in-arms about a decision that seem to be made in a neutral attempt to maintain quality. Sure, you may disagree with exactly where the line is, but there will always be such disagreement, no matter where the line is drawn. Because of this, it seems petty to call-out a moderator in this case. There was no malice or gross negligence, just a mere difference of opinion on exactly where to draw the line in order to best maintain board quality.
I will be reporting this post for the obvious spelling errors.
I feel that they lower the whole intellectual tone of the boards.
Hopefully a mod can delete the offending post.
Of course if I was a mod I’d do it myself.
I can only hope that you are aware of the obvious difference between benign spelling errors and wasting people’s time, as you just demonstrated in the above post.
Who’s time did it waste? Certainly not yours as you chose to respond to it.
Or is that your point, that some Dopers will, against their will, respond to posts or threads that they think are a waste of time and thus we need ever vigilant mods to cull the threads from the forums?
It absolutely wasted my time, and I honestly did consider reporting it as trolling. Even your above post seems to be trying to waste my time. But after quite a few posts in this thread I feel I have something of an investment in it, and find it reasonable to at least bear a few ills for its sake. You seem to my making my point for me – it is difficult NOT to FTT without moderator intervention. Ideally mods would jump in to prevent the discussion from derailing.
You’re still not getting it. I don’t feel I was denied a good discussion. I don’t feel it was a close call at all - it was clearly a pretty bad OP. I doubt I would have posted on it and if I had I probably would have written the very same things that Czarcasm did about it. This thread is not an argument about the quality of Qin’s post.
But you know what I wouldn’t have done? I wouldn’t have closed the thread. First, because I’m not a mod and I don’t have the power to impose my opinions on non-mods. Second, because even if I did have the ability to do so, I like to think I’d act with self-restraint and be able to distinguish between my duties as a moderator and my actions as a regular poster. The moderators should only enforce the rules of the board - upholding the quality of the board should be left to the posters.
I believe the above is your thesis. I disagree with it (though I wouldn’t be surprised if “upholding the quality of the board” is one of the rules moderators are supposed to enforce).
In my experience boards without this kind of moderation suffer because of it. I am aware that some claim to be members of public forums that have less intrusive moderation, and yet higher level of discourse. I am skeptical (academic, niche forums excepted), and would welcome any examples that prove your point. I have an open mind. But from my own experience the SDMB could stand to benefit from even more proactive quality-assurance moderation than it already does.
I agree. I think all of your posts in this thread are a waste of time and they should all be deleted and you should probably be banned so as not to waste anymore of my time.
See how stupid that sounds? One posters waste of time is anothers comedy gold. Look at all the polls in Cafe Society. There is currently one about would you like raisin M&M’s and the poll is only, “yes” or “no”. At first it seems like a stupid poll that is a waste of time but if you read it there are some funny posts in there that made me chuckle. That is not a waste of my time even though it at first appeared to be.
My argument is the members should decide what is and is not a waste of time by either responding to the thread or not and letting it die after 3 posts. Mods acting as Mods should just go after the spam, socks and Czarcasms favorite thread with an OP of “QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ.”
Could you give us an example or two of such a thread?
Your example only sounds stupid because such a moderator decision would show obvious bias. Bias that appears non-existent in this case.
I mildly agree with much of the rest of your post. But my attitude is: save the complaining for an example that matters. Wait until a mod really fucks up and deletes a good thread. Otherwise you have no examples on your side to back up your claim that any damage is being done.
I’m confused. Aren’t we discussing exactly such a thread?
It’s going to be impossible to provide an example of a closed thread that would have been good if it hadn’t been closed. But you probably knew that.
The value of this board does not lie with Ed Zotti and a couple dozen moderators. It lies in having several thousand good posters (and some bad ones) who collectively participate in intelligent discussions of a broad variety of topics. Good posters have left this board over disagreements over moderator actions - and every one of them cost the board some of its quality.
Some of it does. I appreciate not having to wade through threads that are too mundane, pointless, or disorganized to live.
The moderating style of this board is one of the things that makes it what it is. The amazing posters are another. The two things are related; you wouldn’t have one without the other.