Maybe I’m wrong, but with[ul][li]Cafe Society administration threads popping up in the BBQ Pit on a now weekly basis,[]The recent revelation that change may be coming to the arts (& leisure) forum:[/li][quote]
…The mods are discussing amongst ourselves…the description of IMHO says clearly that’s the place for polls, and very clearly “Vote for your favorite” is a poll, not a discussion. On t’other hand, Cafe Society is the place for discussion of arts and entertainment. So, we’re not entirely sure where a poll about movies should go. We’ll resolve that one…
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[li]Debatable (but sensible) ideas and opinions being offered by members in Pit rants,[/ul]I assume there are more than 2 or 3 people who may want to offer constructive advice on improving Cafe Society. In most business models, getting customer feedback before making changes from on high usually has more positive results. Perhaps there’s a way of civilly attaining that goal here in ATMB. [/li]
If there’s going to be another change (or clarification) in forum descriptions, I assume it won’t bother most people. I learned long ago that forum descriptions are guidelines - and nothing’s carved in stone. My question is: If future Cafe Society “poll threads” get posted to the IMHO forum, won’t topics like[ol][li]Art (Painting, photography, sculpture, art history)[]Film (Discussion of cinema, actors, impact on culture)[]Television (Reality TV, drama, contest shows & cartoons)[]Music (All genres)[]Literature (Fiction, non-fiction, poetry)[]Sports (Professional & Amateur / Team & Individual)[]Cooking (Food & Recipes)[]Games (PC, Board & Console)Comics (Anime, superheroes)[/ol]Crowd out all general interest topics that are now be found in IMHO?[/li]
And how will poll threads be defined anyway? Most threads I’ve read that initially ask members to “Vote for your favorite…” usually end up becoming interesting discussions. And on the other side of the coin; most threads that solicit an opinion to a specific question could loosely be defined as a poll anyway, couldn’t they? Is ‘What’s your favorite Beatles Album?’ or 'Best Shakepeare Tragedy?‘any more or less of a poll than’Which Super Hero could rebuilt the transmission of a 1932 Model T’ or *‘Which Contestant Should’ve Been Bumped From American Idol?’*Every once in a while, disagreements arise over an imbalance of a specific thread category crowding other topics off page 1 of Cafe Society. People make false spam reports or complain in the BBQ Pit. Even if there was a clear way of defining what a poll thread was, wouldn’t moving them to IMHO cause more disagreements? Maybe a ‘less-is-more’ approach to moderating Cafe Society is the answer. Don’t close any topics that discuss arts & leisure: let the market (views/replies) decide which threads stay on page one, and which fall back into oblivion. Maybe change the default settings in CS so that the first 150 (as opposed to 50) threads display on page one.
Perhaps there’s a ‘better way’ to resolve the disagreements in Cafe Society whilst leaving IMHO out of the mix. What do other members think?
