A modest proposal:
That the SDMB form a new folder for the safekeeping/quarantining/whatevering of selected threads as a way of containing Teh Stoopid.
If you want somebody ‘Boxed’, go to the Giraffe board.
The is the sort of thing you are suggesting, isn’t it?
Why, exactly, should we encourage stoopid threads?
For those interested in this sort of thing, there would seem to be a superfluity available elsewhere on the net.
I think you miss the OP’s point. The point being threads of stupidity that already got made in one of the existing forums - move them to their own forum(sub forum) so that we can point and laugh.
I’m not really for or against it. Just pointing out what I think the OP meant.
I understand what the OP meant.
I don’t recall encouraging stupid threads. Reading the OP for comprehension yields that the OP is about addressing the abuse of the existing fora by removing or otherwise containing the work of certain posters who otherwise are free to clutter the existing fora.
And understanding the mindset of a small percentage of posters yields that such a forum would encourage them to take less care when they post, or even encourage them to deliberately post nonsense just to see it get moved to the new forum.
To be clearer about it, this would not be a forum that would allow new threads to be created - it would consist of threads moved into it from the legitimate fora.
Which then begs moderator action in the case of excessive, abusive or otherwise actionable poster behavior. A Garbage Forum would allow for the transparent disposal of Teh Stoopid, provided that moderator- driven sanctions addressed posters gaming of the Garbage Forum.
No, they are not “free to clutter the existing fora.” Really stupid OPs are frequently either deliberate attempts at trolling or made while drunk. These may be closed or disappeared. Trolls or people who persistently post nonsense may be banned or suspended.
Regarding other stupid threads, there has been a considerable amount of discussion about what constitutes a thread “too stupid to live.” Some advocate that there should be no lower limit; no matter how idiotic a thread, it should be allowed to run its course. I take it that you are proposing that we establish a new forum to accommodate such threads rather than closing them. Knowing that such threads would not be closed would encourage them.
Indeed: it is a helpful system.
[ It can be refined so that certain people can only be permitted to start threads there, by putting them in their own user-group. ]
Good point - I could see locking them as well.
The only way to do that would be to lock any thread that gets started in there, which seems like it would be a pain. And every time we sent a thread there, we would probably get grief from the OP. We don’t close many threads because they’re too stupid, so I’m not seeing any need for this.
And yes, creating a new forum would encourage more stupid threads. As it is, you can’t “point and laugh” (unless you’re in the Pit), but you can criticize a topic or the assumptions in it unless you take it so far it becomes threadshitting.
I don’t SAGN myself.
Truly stupid threads get closed.
Truly stupid comments lead to Pittings.
The Giraffe or Nonny fora are for bitching out Dopers as individuals, not what they post.
That, I think, about covers it.
This thread could be the first one sent.
I don’t think it would be a bad idea to have a forum where mods can move threads they would otherwise close. Then the posters who have been enjoying participating in it can continue to do so.
Personally, I think that if we did do that, then SDMB would turn into another of the Sites That Must Not Be Named - I hang out here because we don’t usually resort to that. Even our reactions to teh crazy are more … mature … than most places. (Case in point, a recent post was outed to have been posted several places over the Internet. Looking at how some of the other places handled it made me easily tell the Dope apart from them. Putting up such a place as suggested would make it harder to tell this place apart from the others.)
We used to have a lot of fun with the crazies, like Jack Dean Tyler, for example. Nowadays, he’d be banned out right. Why can’t we just have a specific forum for the nutbars?
We do. It’s called Great Debates. 