# Revised policy on rants **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [June 1, 2022, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516 "2022-06-01T18:17:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/1 "2022-06-01T18:17:00Z")
Rants - impassioned tirades about whatever is bugging you - should go in the Pit. In the past, rants posted in other forums were routinely moved to the Pit, sometimes to the consternation of the OP. To avoid that problem, we’re changing our policy: 1. Rants started in forums other than the Pit will be closed and the OP notified. If the OP so requests, the rant will be moved to the Pit and reopened. 2. Mods will attempt to prevent threads in non-Pit forums from degenerating into rants or flamefests more appropriate to the Pit. If these efforts fail, the threads will be closed. I’ll leave this thread open briefly in case there are questions. ---
**Author:** ![tofor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tofor/32/13727_2.png) [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/2 "2022-06-01T18:21:54Z")
While this is likely nobody’s top priority of a problem to fix, it seems like a good change to me and I applaud the efforts of the mods and management to improve the level of discourse on this platform in whatever ways they find to do so. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/3 "2022-06-01T18:35:59Z")
Second what **tofor** said, no problem with the change. Especially since there are posters who don’t want to wander into the Pit. It gives them the choice to have it closed and maybe rephrase it and post it where they wanted it to be. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/4 "2022-06-01T19:30:36Z")
I too support this change. Not that my opinion would change things, but there it is. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/5 "2022-06-01T20:13:21Z")
Some lighthearted rants are fun and funny, and should not be consigned to the depths of the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/6 "2022-06-01T20:28:38Z")
I would argue that those aren’t actually rants. They’re jokes. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/7 "2022-06-01T20:33:47Z")
> I’m confused –[**Lewis Black**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Black) ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/8 "2022-06-01T20:40:19Z")
I don’t understand the change. Rants were already supposed to be in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/9 "2022-06-01T20:51:31Z")
The mods, (I know I did it several times) would move rant threads from GD or IMHO, etc, into the Pit. Often this happened to posters that didn’t post in the Pit at all. Now instead of moving them, we’ll close them and ask the OP if they want them moved to the Pit and reopened. So now OPs have a choice at least. 1. They can leave it closed and drop it, 2. Have it reopened in the Pit and happily rant away 3. They can leave it closed and try a new, less ranty OP not in the pit. Maybe with a better written OP as this has often been the case. * * * Similarly, we’re not ~~dumping~~ , I mean moving ~~GQ~~ FQ into GD when they’ve been answered and moved into a debate. These will either be closed or moved to IMHO as typical a Debate was never framed in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/10 "2022-06-01T20:57:59Z")
Got it. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/11 "2022-06-01T21:00:11Z")
Sounds like a minor, but good change to be making. It’ll minimize the pitting of some posters who drew scorn when their original rant was moved and they did not want to try to defend themselves within the pit. Which will in turn limit some of the animosity towards the Pit - if you’re in it, you’ve come, as it were, of your own free will, either to attack or defend. And it’ll cut down on ATMB threads about heavy handed mods. So a Two-fer! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/12 "2022-06-01T21:01:16Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > The mods, (I know I did it several times) would move rant threads from GD or IMHO, etc, into the Pit. Often this happened to posters that didn’t post in the Pit at all. Yes, moving a thread into the Pit was a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/13 "2022-06-01T21:07:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yes, moving a thread into the Pit was a bad idea. I know we’ve had at least one impassioned thread debating whether it was okay to move threads to the Pit, with some posters strongly against and others thinking “What’s the big deal?” > [@DrDeth](#): > > Some lighthearted rants are fun and funny, and should not be consigned to the depths of the Pit. > [@BigT](#): > > I would argue that those aren’t actually rants. They’re jokes. I wondered, upon reading the OP, what counts as a “rant,” but I assume that, for the present purposes, belonging in the Pit is what makes it a rant. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/14 "2022-06-01T21:18:21Z")
So, what constitutes a rant? For example, if a baseball player makes 3 errors and strikes out every at bat in a game and I rant about it, I would have placed it in the Game Room since the audience would be familiar. Same thing if I see a horrible big budget film and I think it sucked, I’d normally put it in the Café. If an actor or ball player was driving drunk at 140 MPH and being an asshole, that I’d put in the pit since you don’t need to know anything about movies or baseball to understand the context. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2022, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/15 "2022-06-01T21:23:44Z")
The Baseball one pretty much belongs in The Game Room unless you starting wishing harm on the player or something. Then it has stopped being a sports rant and something else. Though if you just started a new thread, “Joe Blow is terrible” and didn’t add much more to the OP, it would probably be closed. I know I would close it, but not my forum. A movie sucking depends, if you start a thread: _The Titanic sucks & the director is a moron_ and add almost nothing else. We’ll shut it down and offer to move it. If you actually build an OP explaining why you think it sucks, then it would stay in the Café. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/16 "2022-06-03T01:44:36Z")
All issues having been addressed, I’m closing this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2022, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/revised-policy-on-rants/965516/17 "2022-06-03T01:44:46Z")