Just curious - do moderators get at all irked when they have to move threads from one board to another, or is it all just part of the gig?
Moving threads?! @#%$#@^%# :mad: (foaming at the mouth)
All part of the job, but of course it’s not something I look forward to. The part I like best is the constant stream of flowers, singing telegrams and chocolate cigars sent to me by my admirers.
Ditto what Arnold said . . . and add single malt. 
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
You get all that?
Huh … the only thing I ever got was …well, no, I never got that either!
Something on a similar note: How complex is moving a thread? Is it like moving a file in Windows, or is it more akin to writing a simulator in assembly?
Well, if you look at the bottom of the page, you’ll see a link called “move thread” under “Admin options”. If you click that, it’ll ask you for username and password, to confirm that you’re a moderator, and then it will presumably bring you to a page with a drop-down list, or a bunch of links, or something, to choose whither you want to move it.
< techchick offers to send Euty her body all wrapped up in a bow, and that’s it >
hehe
You don’t need a bow, darlin’.
<ahem> To the question: I don’t mind moving the threads as long as the OP is not a repeat offender. I’ll admit that sometimes one wonders whether some people are reading the forum descriptions at all, but most of the time it’s not a big deal.
Chronos got the mechanics of moving a thread exactly. How long it takes depends entirely on how the board is acting at the time. Moving a thread can take as little as a minute and as long as it takes to time out. Add to that, of course, the time to post that the thread is moving and the time to update the “moved threads” thread.
I believe many of the incorrectly placed threads come about because people are trying to direct their thread to a target audience of certain Dopers (or types of Dopers), rather than to a designated place for a type of query.
Beyond this, there does appear to be some inconsistency on the threads tat are moved or left alone, and this causes some confusion.
As an example, I once started a thread asking athiests if they would mind having their bodies fed to a dog. It was started either in GD or GQ (I think the latter) but moved to IMHO. By contrast, a thread is currently active in GD asking if people would keep or abort a fetus that they knew had Down’s Syndrome. (Not complaining, by the way; my thread worked out fine in IMHO). These seem very similar to me. There may be valid distinctions, but this points to the difficulty people have in deciding what goes where.
It is possible that people mean one aspect of a question when they begin a thread, but fail to make this clear in their words. Subsequently the thread develops along other lines, and has to be moved.
::: swoon ::: KLUNK!
Thanks for your responses.
It seems that some of the posters tend to get a little upset when threads get moved, and it got me to wondering.