What if Pit threads didn't show up under "New Posts"?

I think the Pit is somewhat unique on the internet. I don’t know of any general interest kind of board which allows threads like “PosterName1234, you’re an f*ing, ahole!”. The closest thing might be boards with political/religious sub-forums. They will have contentious discussions there, but it’s typically cursing and personal attacks are not allowed.

There are people who don’t like cursing and don’t want to see threads like that. They may leave SDMB simply because they don’t like seeing the coarse language. If Pit threads weren’t in “New Posts”, those posters could easily stay on the board and contribute in other areas.

As people are pointing out, there are workarounds. People can just go into certain forums. People can use a custom url. While those things work, they are hassles that not everyone is going to do. With all the places on the internet, the simpler choice is to just go somewhere else. Perhaps as an alternative, Pit could be hidden, but people could use a custom URL if they wanted to see it. So instead of excluding forums in the url, explicitly include them. For example:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?do=getnew&**include**=666

So if you want Pit in New Posts, you can do it by taking a few extra steps. But for most people the Pit would be hidden.

Sultantheme’s Responsive vB3-Blue

There ya go. I know the Dope had to include a mobile skin for Google or some shit like that, but I don’t have any use for it. I like pages to display on my phone just like on a comp.

I know the chance of adding a mod to the SDMB vBulletin is close to 0 but there is a patch that allows custom New Posts use to exclude Forums. Giraffe has this working on his board.

Each user can exclude whichever forums they like from their new post function.

FWIW, I think the board would be much better if the Pit was deleted.

Can it be restricted to members only?

That is already built into the base software, but it sounds like a terrible idea to me. I think it would cause more grief than good.

I hold the opposing view.

As do I.

I don’t think I’ve *ever *used the New Posts link. Before just now, to see what all the fuss is about, that is.

It is a pretty commonly used tool. I would think you’re in the minority of regular posters. Both New Posts and User CP are pretty handy.

I agree. Another interesting phenomenon in the Pit is that the creative license allowed by relative absence of rules – particularly in the scope for parody – has led to some of the funniest and most entertaining posts anywhere on the board. The Pit is not for everyone and I have no issue with those who’d prefer to stay out of it, but I reject the implication that it’s some kind of cesspool that has no value or interest. There is no reason to treat it any differently than any other forum.

If we were allowed to call out lying racist assholes for what they are in thread, there’d be no need for the pit.

I had no idea people used new posts to browse. But I doubt very much that a noob would even find it until they’d browsed a bit and gotten a feel for the different fora.

Someone totally new to forums probably won’t use New Posts, but it’s a common function available on many forums. I will often use it if it’s available. So if I came to SDMB today, I would use New Posts pretty soon after signing up. It would probably be one of the first things I did to see what kinds of discussions were active on the board.

It’s a great way to get a feel of any forum you’re on. If the New Posts only has a few threads or the threads are from days ago, then you know the board doesn’t get a lot of activity. But if you see pages of threads where the last update was the same day, then you know the board has a lot of activity (and where the posters are). When I have some unique question and I want to find a forum for the answer (e.g How do you replace the transmission on an E36 BMW), I’ll look at New Posts to see if the board is active enough that I’ll probably get a response. If the board seems dead, I don’t even posting my question there.

I started using new posts as soon as I signed up. Much of the time I’ve got no idea what forum I’m in. If I think I might want to say something that belongs in the Pit (which is rare) or if I read a post that I think might be reportable elsewhere, then I’ll check – oh, this is in the Pit? OK then.

Maybe Pit posts could be highlighted with a warning sign – have the forum name show up in bright red, or something? I don’t know whether the board allows doing that.

There are too many forums I don’t want to see. Can we ban them, too? Otherwise I’ll be forced to continue doing what I already do, and open each subforum that interests me in its own tab and looking at new posts on those tabs.

While we’re at it, can posters be more interesting please. I mean just like SNL, the Dope hasn’t been as entertaining or funny as it use to be.

I’ve been on the SDMB for a decade and never used New Posts. Not on purpose anyway.

Unless an admin turns it off, it’s on every vB board (as well as others). True, if this is the first time someone has used a BBS, or at least this one, they may not see it or know what it is, but I think a lot of people are at least aware of it, even noobs.