Question for Czarcasm

[EllisDee]

Czarcasm, you moved [post=8787243]The Diet Coke Phenomena[/post] from IMHO to Cafe Society. I can only assume this is because cooking is a recognized Cafe Society topic. How a thread about diet coke is related to cooking I can only guess.

At the same time, two other threads remain on the IMHO front page:

Why baseball now sucks!
MLB: How’s your team doing? How about vs. what you expected?

Sports, like cooking, is a recognized Cafe Society topic. Rants against MLB and discussion of how MLB teams are doing are clearly sports topics; you don’t even need to squint to see the connection, unlike the diet coke thread.

So why move the Diet Coke thread but not the sports threads?

[Czarcasm]

1. I just got home from work and haven’t had a chance to do any moderating yet.
2. I’m not perfect.
3. When I go out to a cafe, the only thing besides water I can drink is usually diet Coke.

[samclem]

@Czarcasm

2. I’m not perfect.

[sub]Psst. pg.8 in the mod handbook. Never admit you aren’t perfect. It only encourages them. [/sub]

[Czarcasm]

@samclem

[sub]Psst. pg.8 in the mod handbook. Never admit you aren’t perfect. It only encourages them. [/sub]

[sub]Have you never heard of false modesty?[/sub]

[Liberal]

Actually, it’s a damn refreshing thing to hear.

[EllisDee]

@Czarcasm

2. I’m not perfect.

Works for me. Thanks for the reply.

[Frank]

@Ellis Dee

Sports, like cooking, is a recognized Cafe Society topic.

This is open for debate. There’s no one set place as appropriate for sports as Cafe Society is for food and drink.

[EllisDee]

@Frank

This is open for debate. There’s no one set place as appropriate for sports as Cafe Society is for food and drink.

I’m perfectly happy to debate this with the mods and administrators.

Sports are entertainment, much moreso than diet coke.

There’s [post=6956920]this[/post]: (emphasis mine)

@C K Dexter Haven

I’m willing to accept that, broadly speaking, sports threads belong in Cafe Society, if the topic is related to entertainment/leisure. A few months ago, we did modify the description of Cafe Society forum to include leisure activities, to cover exactly stuff like cooking and sports.

Unfortunately, Dex then goes on to say:

However, I issue the same caveat that TubaDiva had a few posts earlier, and echoing Skip:
– “In Cecil’s column about the different ways to get to first base, he forgot rule 17(b)(iii)…” goes in Comments on Cecil’s Columns

• “That *#@ umpire's *#@ stupidity lost the game for my team!” is flaming, and belongs in the Pit.
• “I saw Michael Jordan at the laundromat!” belongs in MPSIMS
• “Which sports figure would you most like to have in bed?” belongs in IMHO.
• “Should city governments subsidize professional sports so heavily?” belongs in Great Debates, it’s a political discussion even if it’s peripherally about sports.
• “How many runs did Babe Ruth hit in 1937?” is a factual question that goes in either GQ or Cafe Society. GQ would be preferred, since this is a factual question and not a discussion.

We take the same attitude, BTW, with regard to Shakespear or movies: the type of discussion often dictates the forum.

This is disingenuous at best. Tell if any of the following threads would go in any forum other than CS:

“Why do people drink diet coke at the end of a plane trip?”
“Who won the first season of survivor?”
“Which actor/actress would you most like to have in bed?”

You can’t possibly tell me that any of these threads would last even a full day before being moved to the Cafe.

Sports threads are about entertainment, and as such should be afforded the same courtesy that all other entertainment threads are given.

[EllisDee]

There’s also [post=6434619]this[/post]: (emphasis mine)

@C K Dexter Haven

Sports is something of an issue, since the Moderators fight each other over it. (“It goes in Cafe Soceity, I sure as hell don’t want it and I’m moving it!” “No way, it goes in General Questions, I’m moving it back!” “Damn, OK, maybe I can move it to MPSIMS and they won’t notice.” “Get it the hell out of here, I’ll move it to GD.” and so forth.)

[…repeat of “but factual sports qestions go in GQ,” etc…]

And, I reluctantly admit, sports as entertainment goes in Cafe Society (“I hear they’re starting an All-Wresting Channel…”)

[samclem]

@Ellis Dee

“Why do people drink diet coke at the end of a plane trip?”
“Who won the first season of survivor?”
“Which actor/actress would you most like to have in bed?”

You can’t possibly tell me that any of these threads would last even a full day before being moved to the Cafe.

Sports threads are about entertainment, and as such should be afforded the same courtesy that all other entertainment threads are given.

Actually, they just might. Just my opinion of course. Might depend on which side of the bed a mod woke up on.

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

I think it’s pretty well established that questions about sports-as-entertainment go in Cafe Society, at least for the present. Similary, food questions in general go in Cafe Society.

I said (as quoted above in more detail): “the type of discussion often dictates the forum.” That’s our general guideline. Cafe Society is the only forum (so far) where content/topic is the determining factor rather than the type of discussion. This invariably creates some grey areas.

So, while content related to arts, entertainment, food, sports &c tends to point to Cafe Society, it’s “not always.” There obvious clear distinctions are threads about Cecil’s Column or a Staff Report which would go in CoCC or CoSR, even if the topic were sports or food (or Hollywood or theatre or…)

Why does a moderator move some threads and not others? Sometimes they just haven’t come to her/his attention. Generally, moderators don’t read or look at every thread (especially when time-pressed), but rely on members to REPORT a thread that’s in the wrong forum. Sometimes it’s a deliberate decision (e.g., “This thread really belongs in MPSIMS even though it mentions baseball.”)

[TubaDiva]

Asked and answered.