Seriously…I’m putting this here instead of the Pit because I’d like some serious answers (instead of the funnier ones I’d get in the pit).
I’ve never understood the trauma that some seem to suffer when a thread is closed with a note to reopen it elsewhere (it’s a matter of cutting and pasting…the work of seconds) or when a thread is moved (yeah, it’s annoying to try to find right after the move, but it’s not THAT hard)
I’m emphatically not aiming this at anyone in particular, but in the last few weeks there seems to be an increase in “YOU MOVED/CLOSED MY THREAD YOU BASTARD!” tantrums.
I’ve had threads moved. It was no big deal. Can anyone explain the reason that this generates so much anguish? I mean, if you’re asking people for advice, you should trust them enough to assume that they’ll find your thread in another forum.
Fenris (prepared for this to be moved into the Pit, if it gets ugly)
I think that occasionally people (and like you I have nobody in mind and no axe to grind) feel that their threads involved some effort to start or were of genuine interest to them. I imagine that you can lose perspective if you feel that it’s been ‘dismissed’ as pointless, offensive or inappropriate in that situation. That feeling might hold true regardless of whether you’re in the wrong or not.
I think there’s also some feeling of territoriality or possessiveness involved as well–“It’s MY thread, don’t you touch it!” plus the loss of control involved in it being closed/moved. I’ve seen people get upset over a particular person posting to their threads, too, though that’s much less common.
Some people just don’t take criticism well. Everybody has at least one co-worker who gets in a huff and starts re-writing his résumé after the mildest of scoldings from The Boss. That same reactionary tone kicks in when a thread is moved or locked. The moderator is, in effect, criticizing the poster’s decision to open the thread in whatever forum, or to open the thread at all, and they take it personally.
Maybe some people want to fit in so badly here that when their thread is locked or moved, they feel like they’ve failed whatever expectations they’ve set up for themselves here. Maybe they want to impress someone, which all goes back to insecurity.
I can only think of one thread that I’ve had moved (“Cigarette Assholes”), and it was moved from GQ to the Pit. When it was first moved, I was annoyed (but I didn’t complain), since the discussion veered away from a GQ, I understood. I was more annoyed at the direction of the thread, not at the moderation.
I have never had a thread moved. Why? Because I am a genius, that’s why.
It is of course possible that I’ve actually had several threads moved and just never noticed. While I do my best to post in the right forum, I seldom remember where I posted later on, and rely on the “View New Posts” link to get me there. If it’s not in that list I figure people have lost interest and stop posting myself. Is that bad?