I don’t think threads started in IMHO, etc should be moved to the PIT. It means that posters who don’t like the PIT- or perhaps should never go to the PIT as they react badly- are sent willy-nilly to a place they don’t want to be.
Yes, some threads do get a bit out of hand. The solution is simple- close the thread offering them the choice of going to the Pit, or a warning that they should “take it to the Pit or the thread will be locked”.
There is NEVER a good reason to actually move a thread to the Pit.
Chiming in with the opposite perspective. I believe some threads belong in the Pit. Just like any other thread that’s in the wrong place, they need to be moved. If someone doesn’t want to be in the Pit, they can stop participating at that point, just as they would have had to do if the thread had been closed.
If you don’t want to follow a thread to the Pit, can’t you just pretend that it was closed?
It would have been helpful to me if you could have linked to some examples of threads that had been moved to the Pit, so that I could see what harm was allegedly done by so moving them.
I’ve moved a lot of threads from GD and Elections to the Pit. The most common reason is that they are in fact rants that are placed in the wrong forum. Typically this is done fairly early in the thread. My general approach is that after a thread has gone on past an inconsistent arbitrary length, it can be disruptive to move it at all as the rules per each forum can be different and the difference can be jarring.
That being said, it’s context dependent and ultimately the goal is to foster discussion, not stifle it. In some instances that can take the form of closing a thread to ward off potential bad behavior, it could take the form of moving to a more appropriate forum including the Pit, it could take the form of providing constraints to the discussion, etc.
Then why not just close and offer them the choice of restarting in the Pit?
Like I said, even if the thread deserves to be in the PIT, it never should be moved. Give the participants the free choice to participate in a Pit there, rather than forcing them into the Pit.
I can, but the other posters there are not under such conditions. They are free to insult the participants willy nilly, even those that only participated before the thread was moved.
It sounds like (and Deth, please correct me if I’m wrong) he’s more concerned about posts appearing the in the Pit when originally composed in another forum. Like, “I posted in MPSIMS, but when the thread got moved it now looks like I voluntarily posted in the BBQ Pit.” That about right?
By participating, are you referring to the fact that a person’s post will show up in the now moved Pit thread? Because with the moderation notation about the move, it’s pretty clear that the posts prior to the move weren’t made in the Pit.
And because posters are now free- nay encouraged- to personally insult the early participants, even tho they may eschew the PIT in general for that very reason.
Sure. But are the previous participants now open to being insulted, even tho they didn’t post while the thread was in IMHO or whatever? Can their posts be replied to, asking a question, etc, even tho they may not wish to participate in the juvenile bacchanalia that is the Pit?
If we had the option of deleting our posts, fine. But we don’t. You have, by moving the thread- a move which is entirely and 100% unnecessary-forced a poster into the Pit.
I’m having a difficult time seeing how “fair” enters into this. There will a post somewhere along the thread showing when it was moved to the Pit, so it’ll be clear where the poster was when they composed their message.
As for other posters insulting you in the Pit, that’s completely out of anyone’s control. There’s nothing stopping anyone from quoting your post in another thread. Posters are always free to insult you in the Pit, that’s part of life here on the SDMB. There’s no protections against being insulted in the Pit; moving a thread doesn’t change that one bit.