News threads getting derailed by gun control debate.

[Procrustus]

@Fiveroptic

Yeah, there WAS more to discuss. It was a thread started by a Doper who lost friends on that day and the thread was started in MPSIMS, not the Pit and not Great Debates, for crying out loud. That was a thread that begged for support from people and that’s what it should have been about, that’s all. Furthermore, if the mods seemed like they had too much “emotional investment” because of a friend’s involvement then more power to them for being able to recognize a genuine need from someone in this community. Jesus Christ, get a fucking heart, people.

I agree with this, I was referring to this:

I understand that reflects real life. These shootings do reignite the issue. But can’t we reserve threads on these tragedies to discussions about the tragedies? For example more details have come out about the shooter. But its pointless to post them They’ll just get washed away in the gun control debate. It happened last night. They lowered the fatality count from 13 to 10. Really encouraging news and my post just got washed away. The thread was on a new page within the hour.

Lowering the fatality count from 13 to 10 is good. It is not, however, grist for an interesting discussion. Some people, like the OP, seem to think the SDMB is a news feed. That’s fine, I guess, but others seem to want to debate or discuss. My point is simply there are other places on the web to learn about breaking news. Or so I’ve heard.

i don’t disagree with anything fiveroptic said, however.

[jimbuff314]

@Morgenstern

[…]That being said, I’m sensing that there was a little too much emotional investment by the mods to a truly tragic situation suffered by a member. It seemed apparent in some of the items being quoted in the warnings.[…]

Wow. I’m starting to sense something myself.

[Irishman]

aceplace57, I don’t really know how to address your OP. If you see a debate or hijack breaking out in a MPSIMS thread, by all means report it.

The bigger question is how do we get people to think before they post in those threads. How do we shift the culture to prevent hijacks?