What is so freakin’ scary about threads in ATMB that the second they’re “answered”, they must be instantly closed? What harm is done by leaving them open? This is a discussion board: it behooves us to allow people to discuss.
More annoying than the “insta-close” is the similar trend for two people arguing in an ATMB thread and rather than deal with the two people, the thread just gets closed. Why not deal with the hijackers, rather than close the thread?
Well, there is this thread, in which a poster asks how another poster was able to shut down a thread. There was some speculation from other posters, then the moderator popped in to explain the he closed down the thread. Discussion over.
The next most recent was this thread(which is the thread the first example is referring to). The OP asks for a moderator decision, a long discussion ensues, the moderator in question finally issues a ruling, and the OP says that he is happy with the ruling and asks for the thread to be closed, which the moderator does.
Perhaps the moderator felt that, even if the two posters were dealt with, the well was pretty much poisoned. That’s a judgment call moderators have to make sometimes, I guess.
If a question has been answered to the OP’s satisfaction by the moderator, isn’t closing the thread a reasonable moderator response?
Good point. 'Beating a dead horse" doesn’t even begin to describe some over the threads that have shown up in this forum, and I can see where the mods might get tired of some of the marathon threads that go far afield and decide trim out some of the length and anger.
I never implied that I was a mod, and if you are trying to say that only a mod should be responding to questions in this forum, then why didn’t he just send them a private message? Is there some rule for this forum that says that the first response has to be from a moderator?
No, since others might want to discuss the issue. Again: discussion board, not “question/answer/thread-close” board.
I’ve always been of the opinion that almost no thread should be closed, period. What harm does it do if they’re left open. If a hypothetical thread turns into two intractable people saying “uh-huh”/“nuh-uh” over and over, who does it hurt? Why close it?
Speaking only for the one I closed…we just had had a topic that got to 130+ replies about racism, most of it not even seeming to talk about the moderator action in question, but a bickering debate over what racism was, whether or not “racist” was an insult, and many other random things, hijacks, and strawmen. The original concern/question was then addressed near the end of the topic.
So when someone started a new topic asking about how a regular member closed a topic (note: a topic not about race or the word racist at all), I closed it after it was answered (on topic) and when it looked like it might erupt into another huge debate/fight/bickering match over race and racism (which was not on topic to that thread in the least).
All discussion (and discussion about race and racism and discussions in general) is fine…mostly in GD or the Pit if it’s about “Is racism an insult?” or arguing what racism is or is not. ATMB is not fine for these discussions, in general, only for moderator actions and rule discussions. All other discussions should take place outside of ATMB or they risk being closed.
And although cases can be made that all the race discussions are directly related to discussing the rules of the board, this topic shows that there is a difference.
I try explaining in both posts 8 and 11 and TubaDiva explains it better in post 14.
As I’ve pointed out in a lot of threads: this is not the Pit Lite. The forum is here so we can discuss issues and answer questions. It’s not here so people can snipe at each other over varying interpretations of the rules or settle scores, and recreational complaining (though it’s allowed to an extent) is definitely not the point of the forum.
I might have done, because I can be quite unpleasantly sarcastic without the valid excuse of a sleepless night, but if it helps to make amends I hope the leg cramps sort themselves out and you get caught up on your sleep.
