Is the BBQ Pit a place for established forum users to blow off steam, or is it intended to attract new users who are only interested in ranting and attacking forum members?
If attracting new users who like the Pit format and avoid the rest of the forum is fine, then nevermind. Otherwise, would there be any value in restricting access to the subforum, at least until a new user has a few posts?
New posters should be able to post in whatever forum they want with no restrictions.
New posters who only post in the Pit and don’t participate in the rest of the board seem to flame out and get banned fairly soon.
A “new user” that posts mainly in the Pit, particularly one that appears to have an axe to grind, is likely a sock puppet.
If a new user is the sort whose contributions are best placed in the pit, I for one would rather have him/her place his contributions in the pit. That way he gets to enjoy the pit and I get to enjoy the rest of the forum.
…but that’s just me. Your mileage may vary.
I don’t know if it still exists but there’s a rule against confining one’s posts to the Pit.
Leave them in the pit. They are pretty quickly dealt with there.
There is? Never heard of it myself, and if it does exist then it shouldn’t. If some curmudgeonly Doper wishes to confine himself to griping in the Pit then why shouldn’t he? Sure, if his complaints are solely targeted against Mods and the Board then there’s a case for bannination for jerkish behaviour, but other than that I say, Lay on, McDuff! And curs’d be he that first cries, hold, enough!
No there isn’t. I don’t think there was ever any specific rule against that earlier, either.
If the “new” user has issues with the members and/or staff of the SDMB, then yes, almost certainly a sock.
Actually, I made something like that rule. I said that if someone’s primary purpose seemed to be to bitch about the SDMB, the members, or the staff, then I was gonna ban that person. And I did ban a few people for doing this. Some people were only interested in bitching about one aspect or another of the SDMB.
Thank god all those people are gone!
The way things are going, it looks like the pit is going to need to replace the old ban hammer with the new and improved one. It has a seek and destroy function.
I agree with this. We have a bunch of forums, and if you like some better than others, that’s not a problem.
In practice, however, that’s usually how it plays out. If you can’t communicate without using Pit-type vitriol or don’t want to make the effort, you’re probably not going to last very long here. And on that note, newbie who (I’m guessing) inspired this thread has been banned.
Not necessarily. They could be a long time lurker, first time poster. Whatever pissed them off enough to go to the pit also made them pissed off to make an account so they could post instead of just read.
Whether such a thing should be permitted or not, I have no opinion on, just wanted to point out there could be non-sock reasons behind such behavior.
While it’s possible that such a new user is a long time lurker, we usually find that in fact, it’s just another sock. Some people are incredibly persistent, but they don’t realize that they follow a pattern in certain behaviors.