# Threads started by Grundig in GD closed without explanation? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 7, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925 "2021-07-07T17:42:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Delayed\_Reflex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/delayed_reflex/32/3172_2.png) [@Delayed\_Reflex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delayed_Reflex)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/1 "2021-07-07T17:42:19Z")
I’m just curious as to the reason that these 3 threads were closed without any mod explanation, so far as I can see: [1](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-direct-democracy-feasible/945826/63), [2](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-asian-pacific-islander/945865/30), [3](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-zealand-is-an-evil-colonial-country/945867/86) I assume some sort of mod investigation is underway for Grundig, but did these threads need to be closed for that? There seemed to be some interesting discussion even if the OP was not being very constructive with their responses. At least a mod note explaining why the threads were closed would be helpful I think. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/2 "2021-07-07T17:44:31Z")
I just assumed that he was a 12 year based upon his understanding of the subject matter. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/3 "2021-07-07T17:49:18Z")
I’m sure a formal explanation will be forthcoming, but it’s trivially easy to read between the lines as to why those threads have been closed. ---
**Author:** ![Delayed\_Reflex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/delayed_reflex/32/3172_2.png) [@Delayed\_Reflex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delayed_Reflex)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/4 "2021-07-07T17:52:59Z")
If the problem is the person who started the thread though, why not just suspend/ban the OP instead of closing the thread? Then the other posters could continue the discussions that they were having independent of the OP. I thought the last post by Dr. Strangelove in the Direct Democracy thread for example could have lead to some interesting discussion. I guess people will say if people were interested enough in continuing the discussion they can just start a new thread. It becomes cumbersome if you want to refer back to other existing posts in the other thread though. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/6 "2021-07-07T18:00:08Z")
I think the mods have been closing too many threads lately, but if a thread is going to be closed, a reason should always be given. With Grundig suspended, there was no need to close the threads as well, or at least not the Direct Democracy thread. ---
**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:** [July 7, 2021, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/7 "2021-07-07T18:23:18Z")
We’re discussing what to do with the poster and his threads. There should be an answer by late tonight. That is all for now. ---
**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:** [July 7, 2021, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/8 "2021-07-07T19:30:07Z")
> [@Delayed\_Reflex](#): > > I guess people will say if people were interested enough in continuing the discussion they can just start a new thread. It becomes cumbersome if you want to refer back to other existing posts in the other thread though. Yeah, this never seems to work very well. Once a thread is closed it seems like it loses momentum and nobody wants to start at the beginning again. I didn’t participate in any of the threads, wasn’t even aware of them until now, but they don’t seem too out of line so I would guess it was a sock. I noticed in some really old threads some posters show up as “system admin” rather than a user name. I wonder if it would be possible for mods to rename all socks that start threads that get a lot of participation “system admin”, since it seems that name can be used for many different former posters. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/9 "2021-07-07T21:15:05Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > I noticed in some really old threads some posters show up as “system admin” rather than a user name. I wonder if it would be possible for mods to rename all socks that start threads that get a lot of participation “system admin”, since it seems that name can be used for many different former posters. I’m not sure that would work. > [@Who is the mysterious "system" poster?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-mysterious-system-poster/931431/4): > > The System account is not a normal user account. No one can log into it. It is part of the Discourse software. > > A lot of early poster’s names were lost during a software upgrade many years ago. IIRC under vBulletin these posts simply did not have a user name associated with them. Since there was no user associated with these posts, Discourse just displays the posts as belonging to the System account, like it does with any other post that no longer has a valid user associated with it. > > The 2020 example was a spammer. That post should have been in the cornfield (and now is). > > The System account also does a lot of other things, like automatically silencing spammers, for example. But if you see at as a post author, it means that the real post author’s account no longer exists. > > If you quote the entirety of the post directly before yours, Discourse deletes that quote from your post (which some folks complain about, but that’s a topic for a different thread). Automatic post edits like this also show up as being done by System. ---
**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:** [July 7, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/10 "2021-07-07T21:57:22Z")
I should have checked with the guy that started that thread, he seems very trustworthy and knowledgeable, undeniably handsome too. Probably my favorite poster ever. Following up on something @codinghorror mentioned, _“If it’s problematic, you can change ownership of a post manually using the admin wrench on the post. It is one of the admin menu options. You can also select a number of posts via the topic-level admin wrench and change ownership on them all at once, too.”_ I wonder if you could change all socks to **Loser** , or if that would only work for the first sock and the next one would give you a “user name already in use” message. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2021, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/11 "2021-07-08T11:18:21Z")
The Banned user has 17 of the 62 posts in the Direct Democracy thread and is quoted in many of the replies. There is no reasonable way to prune the thread so this is indeed a case of if interested, someone please begin a thread on it. We have a general policy of disappearing the posts of people that register just to troll the board. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/12 "2021-07-08T18:17:34Z")
So he was a new user, not a returning banned poster? Man, those must have been some over the top threads for him to be banned for trolling so quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/13 "2021-07-08T19:15:56Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > So he was a new user, not a returning banned poster? I don’t see anything posted in this thread that would lead to that conclusion. Trolling is trolling; it’s possible to determine that from a single post. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/14 "2021-07-08T19:39:29Z")
Not really the place to argue about it, but that’s not been my experience on the board. It seems hard to get banned for trolling here unless you come right out and say you are trolling, or your posts are so over the top they border on parody. Quick banning like this usually means sock and since **WhatExit?** said the ban was for trolling, I was curious. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/15 "2021-07-08T19:45:23Z")
He was a _trock_. (a Sock that Trolls). * * * And we have no interest in discussing who he was or how we determined it. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/16 "2021-07-08T20:01:24Z")
Thanks for the info. I never ask about who socks were as it doesn’t really interest me. I just assume most of them are the same bunch over and over. ---
**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:** [July 8, 2021, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/17 "2021-07-08T20:02:23Z")
That is sadly accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/18 "2021-07-08T20:24:11Z")
@What_Exit, is this the same thing that just happened to user **Emb03** today? I got e-mails of two or three posts in the Britney Spears Diagnosis thread, making some seemingly constructive remarks in response to a post I made earlier. Upon logging in here, I find nothing in my Notifications about them, and upon viewing the thread itself, those new posts are nowhere to be seen. Those were useful posts there, providing some new information about my earlier post (specifically, a link to an old L. A. Times article discussing conservatorships, including a quoted excerpt), and I was about to comment further on that. What happened? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/19 "2021-07-08T23:02:09Z")
This is why the board is dying. Every time a new poster appears you guys ban them just because they’re a returning sock with no intent other than trolling! ---
**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:** [July 9, 2021, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/20 "2021-07-09T00:21:14Z")
Tis’ twue. Tis’ Twue. What were we thinking. ---
**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:** [July 9, 2021, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925/21 "2021-07-09T04:38:42Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > This is why the board is dying. Every time a new poster appears you guys ban them just because they’re a returning sock with no intent other than trolling! Really! You mods just need to loosen up a bit, we’ll double our membership in no time! Even if they are all the same person. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/threads-started-by-grundig-in-gd-closed-without-explanation/945925.md?page=2)