I propose, in light of the recent reluctance of SuperHal to return to his thread about the frozen chicken debacle and answer one simple question, that there should be a board rule that read thusly: If a previous thread of yours has more than two people pleading for you to return to the thread to clarify a point and you don’t, you will not be allowed to post in any other threads or start a new one until you do. Every time you try to post, you will be automatically directed back to your previous thread and asked (politely) to ANSWER THE DARN QUESTION! As soon as you do (and a mod checks your work to make sure you ANSWERED the question and didn’t just post a vague reply) you will be allowed to post elsewhere.
All in favor?
And while we are at it, I think that there should be a new traffic law that says if you are stuck in slow-moving traffic on the highway for five or ten minutes, whether it be for construction, an accident or one of those mysterious slowdowns that seem to have no cause, you get to speed for an equal amount of time once you are past the slowdown point.
Hmm, I like the idea, but one of the great things about the internet is that nobody can really make you do anything - if you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to. Of course, everyone will think you’re a wanker if you won’t answer a simple question like why you had to defrost two chickens.
Not subpoena power…just Mom power! You know, like when your mom would tell you you don’t get to open a new box of cereal until you are done with the old one.
I like that even less. At least with a subpoena you’d have some due process. Mom just gets to tell you what to do because she’s the mother - and we definitely don’t need any more of that here.
Terrible idea. A better alternative is to just get on with your life, and not bog this site down with rules that would add lots and lots of work for the moderators.
No way. Chances are I wouldn’t even know it happened. If the thread doesn’t hit near the top of the page, and I didn’t think it important enough to subscribe to it, I will not see the requests at all.
Oh boy! Another rule to try to control people’s behavior!
Sorry, I’m opposed. While some rules are necessary, it’s better to learn to accept people as they are, warts and all, than to call “Mom” in to fix things.
I agree that clearly the OP is being semi-facetious in the OP, after all it was started in MPSIMS. In general it would be nice not to abandon a thread mid-discussion, but in practice there are all kinds of circumstances that I could think of where answering the questions of a fellow poster are obviously not required.
I vaguely recall another rule to the effect that if the thread you started turns into an ugly lynch mob–as a couple of mine have–it’s strongly suggested that you walk away from it. This proposed rule would conflict.
As to the second proposal, even if it went well, it wouldn’t actually get you back all that much time (you’d need to be going twice your normal speed to get back all the time you lost), and in practice, the only effect it would have would be to make people suffering from road rage even more dangerous. Thereby causing more accidents that cause slowdowns.
How about a proposal that if you ask a question and people go through a lot of trouble to give detailed answers you at least come back to thread and comment/say thanks! (and yes, I know teh OP was wasn’t really suggesting there should be such a rule and neither am I).