No one will read the rules and see “threadshitting” as a reason to not join.
But then I doubt anyone reads the board rules before joining.
Here are the terms of service of popular apps…do you read that stuff you are beholden to?
Again, it’s an obscure term and I guarantee you the vast majority of people who visit the board do so having never seen the term before. Their first and only definition will be the one here. You’re arguing for something absolutely useless.
You seem to be concerned about new users, so let me give you my experience. I only started here in 2019 (apparently I registered an account in 2017).
When I came to the forum, from Cecil’s goodbye note, the first thing I did was to read the forum rules, which meant reading this topic. And that topic has a very clear rule on “threadshitting”.
It’s common netiquette to read the rules of a forum you want to join.
~Max
In 20 years on this board this was the first time I was accused of threadshitting (I think…memory is not perfect).
So I looked it up.
And I take exception to it.
I don’t care about an 18-year-old definition.
I care what the majority of people will read in to it when they see that.
SDMB person: “Why did I get a mod note about threadshitting? What the hell does that mean anyway?”
SDMB mod: provides link to board definition
SDMB person: “Oh.”
Why the hell is that so hard?
But you should care about 18-year-old rules. Functionally, the rule could be “Rule 16” and not mention the term “threadshitting” at all. And mods could have warned you by saying, “this post is a violation of Rule 16”.
Are you contesting your warning or are you just saying “threadshitting” is a dumb term to use?
~Max
Because the vast majority of people will not bother to lookup unique SDMB definitions and just go with their own understanding.
And while the SDMB can do as it pleases why would it work to maintain definitions unique only to the SDMB?
I was not given a warning. I am saying the term was mis-used.
What do you suggest as an alternative? What would you have preferred Colibri to write when moderating that topic?
~Max
Actually, you have not shown that “your” definition is the common vernacular. Unless I missed it, you’ve only given one source (two links, but one was obviously copied from the other, so I don’t consider them separate sources).
I dunno…just not accuse me of something I didn’t do like threadshitting.
Certainly a “stop it” of some sort is fine.
- It’s not a common term – I will wager you that “the vast majority of people” won’t have their own understanding of it to start with, but could probably figure it out from context, anyway.
- You yourself said that a mod provided you with a link to the board’s definition when you questioned it.
- You discovered that, somewhere out on the internet, there’s a grosser or more damning definition of the term, and that somehow makes you unhappy.
That’s way more than anyone else has given.
And you have found nothing to refute it.
Not trying to refute it. Just noting that you’re creating a tempest in a teapot over the subject, and I’m now sorry that I’m contributing to it. I’m out.
The “tempest” takes two (at least) to create. Which means you are 50% of it.
No, it isn’t. Post #10.
After doing a bit of googling myself, I believe that there is no commonly accepted meaning for the word “threadshitting.” It is used to mean quite a variety of different things in different places.
Here on the SDMB, it means, by definition, what we say it means.
First you say members aren’t familiar with the rule against threadshitting.
Then you say, the mod should prevent threadshitting with some form of “stop it”.
I don’t think this is a productive approach, the members will think they have done nothing wrong. Inevitably some members will talk back (“Why should I stop?”) and get into real trouble.
~Max
Have you noticed that no one else in this thread is on your side?
Perhaps, you missed my other post, but what you’ve linked to has a whopping 12 upvotes and 13 downvotes. That is not a cite of anything.
And how do I know? Because when I was a teen I made up a complete definition of a word, and it’s gotten 78 upvotes. #8 here