Not so much a pit as curiosity.
I know why you closed them, but it seems to me that the ones responding to it knew exactly what they were being asked. No one was forcing them to answer. All replies were volunteered at their own risk.
Again, just curious.
obviously closed 'cause no link was provided.
For one thing, some people don’t seem to know how to handle themselves when they have information that they think they have an obligation to tell others. Those threads probably had a rather large potential for divulging that type of information, and then those kinds of people might find themselves in a compromising position.
Not that I particularly agree with the decision, but just sayin’.
You don’t have to email a moderator to ask permission to save a thread to a Word document in case they disappear it later, do you? I’d so hate to get warned for that.
It was just pretty interesting reading, IMO.
(in other words, it seems that some threads disproportionately spawn real-life conflicts and such, which are frowned upon…there have been several such incidents in the past, and it’s better for all concerned to try an minimize those)
We tend to close these threads – actually, we’d like to stop them before they get started - because the repercussions to our users tends to be so high.
As a routine part of life here at the Straight Dope we receive emails from scared panicky people who have divulged too much, been indiscreet, etc., and now that’s come back to them in very negative ways.
These repercussions come from spouses and parents and bosses. Fellow employees gang up negative information and use it against their cow-orkers. We’ve had people threatened with their own information in divorces and child custody cases.
We used to delete such information when the confessional chickens came home to roost; now, for the most part, we leave them there; however, we also prefer to take a bit of a proactive stance and try to head bad ideas off at the pass before people get too stupid.
Let me quote this one more time:
your humble TubaDiva
[member hat ON]
Ya know, Rog. You really are a putz.
Save the fucking thread. Save every last fucking thread on this board. Who the fuck cares.
[member hat OFF]
[Moderator hat ON]
No, that’s not anything you’ll get warned for.
But, by closing the threads in question, we’re heading off a potential problem. Message boards are funny things. People say things here that they later regret. And WE, not you, have to deal with this.
We choose not to.
Our board, our rules, our call.
[moderator hat OFF]
Hey, hey! I was hoping to maybe get this moved to ATMB. Thanks for dashing my dream, potty-mouth.
I knew there was a smart guy lurking in there somewhere! 
I keed.
Of course mummy and daddy, I understand that at my age I’m not old enough to decide what I do and don’t say about myself on the Internet, and must be protected from making a bad decision.
I’d much rather be nannied to death by a bunch of people who don’t know me at all than make decisions for myself just in case some of those decisions might turn out to be poor ones later on.
While I’ve got you looking out for me, perhaps you should call my real mummy and daddy and have them monitor my browsing habits so I don’t visit any sites I might regret.
Overprotective much?
Ah, the vast majority of the posts were about youthful indiscretions far in the past. But the potential for legal exposure is there, so they probably did the right thing.
Heh. I posted in it, too, but nothing to worry about.
There’s a difference between moderating and nannying. The line’s being crossed.
I agree.
Well, dearie, when your poor decisions make lots and lots of work for mommy and daddy, and when the lawyer men come running with their TROs and subpoenas, then mommy and daddy have to curtail the potential for idiocy on your part, not for your benefit, but for theirs. And since mommy and daddy pay the mortgage on this nice little virtual playroom, too fucking bad for you and your wing-spreading.
Now shut the fuck up and eat your pudding.
Of course, there’s no way lawyers would have gotten involved in either of those threads, because talking about your experiences being arrested or being in prison aren’t illegal.
that’s all fine and good, except that subjective censorship has more potential to lead to legal problems for ‘mommy and daddy’ then letting the kids swap stories about their past.
No they don’t. There’s nothing illegal about talking about the time you were arrested, or the time you went to jail. If you post about it and regret it, tough, you shouldn’t have posted.
i was addressing scrappy’s post, not metacom’s (see timestamps), but even not knowing that i don’t see how you could have misread my post that severely. try it again.