The problem is, someone will sidetrack a thread, and the whole thread winds up being closed. This is irritating as hell to the OP, to the people who were interested in the initial discussion, and to the sticky rabbits who touched the tar baby.
[thread=603946] Here’s an example[/thread]
The thread you link to was not side tracked. Everything I posted was directly on topic. It just didn’t jibe with the hive mind.
Ah, that’s right. :smack: Since that was me I’m surprised I didn’t remember. And I can think of one other poster who was proscribed from talking about near-death experiences in some ways and making particular comments about science and such, although he wasn’t banned from NDE-related threads. But again, that’s after years of misbehavior where other moderating didn’t help.
You think I was talking particularly about you. You are wrong.
I suspect that if we discuss particular, recent threads, it’s going to turn into exactly the sort of unproductive back-and-forth bickering that I’m proposing this rule to prevent. On the one hand, that’s annoying as hell. On the other hand, perhaps it’ll provide a perfect opportunity to test this proposal out, if it happens :).
you’re just part of the hive mind!! Help help, i’m being oppressed!! My free speech rights are being trampled on!!! You can’t handle the truth!!!
“Part of”?! I AM the hive mind!
bzzz bzzzz
Certainly, I think this should be the first option considered before closing a thread that has been derailed. Closing a thread due to derailment should only be done if there is absolutely no hope for a reasonable on-topic discussion to continue.
Because it was more than a year ago, and despite the furor it caused that week, it was a blip in the history of the board. So that would make three times we’ve told individuals they couldn’t discuss a particular topic.
Rules rules rules.
If I owned this message board tomorrow, the first thing I would say to the mods is “Use your discretion. Mod as you see fit. You are not answerable to any of the members, you are only answerable to me”.
We dont need a rule for threadshitters, we just need to give the mods the freedom to act as they see fit. You think somebody is shitting up a thread? Give him a final warning, and then point and laugh at the rules lawyers when they flock to ATMB. Anybody who doesnt like the mods decisions, get bent.
I get the impression somebody like Marley is looking at threads, and thinks people are just threadshitting, but is then scared to act before he has considered all implications or covered all areas of attack. Of course this means that when it is a marginal call, nothing gets done beyond a watered down “please be nice people”.
Lets cut all this crap, go the Something Awful route and let the mods have some power.
I appreciate the trust, but we want a community atmosphere here - we moderate here because we like posting here. And beyond that, whether you call them “rules” or not, if people don’t know what to expect from the moderation, whether there is a lot of moderation or a little, then the moderation doesn’t really work. Specific terms like threadshitting are used to help people understand what they’re doing wrong. That’s not required either, but it helps identify the problem.
Not at all. I’m never scared to act. My decision making is based on whether there is a situation that needs dealing with, not whether or not I can justify my actions according to the rules. We’re allowed to step in and moderate even if no rules are being broken and we often do that.
I’ve seen ATMB threads where people complained about being scolded and talked down to by the staff, but I’ve never seen anybody complain about being addressed like an adult. I do say “please” in most of my notes and warnings, but it’s not something I’ve always done and I don’t do it because I think I have to. I do it because, to my eyes at least, it works. If I thought it prevented me from getting my message across, I’d stop.
At the end of the day we do have the power to ban people here, you know. The next upgrade might allow us to break thumbs, but we’re still waiting on that one.
When I was modding here I kicked people out of threads when it was apparent they were unable to post in a reasonable manner. Sometimes it was done to head off an official warning (taking into account the person’s emotional response to an emotional topic); other times it was a step after an official warning but before a suspension–that is, an attempt to keep the poster from a death by mod. In any of those cases, however, the threads were, in my opinion, pretty salvageable; threads that were wrecked by the time I got to them were closed.
Regardless, I don’t recall any great outcry about keeping a poster from participating in a particular thread. I think it’s a pretty good tool to use when it seems like a thread can be saved.
I have, on one occasion I recall, given a specific poster who was persistently disrupting GQ threads with unsupported opinions instructions to limit himself to strictly factual posts, and if he was challenged on something he was required to provide a citation or else stop posting in the thread. In that particular case it worked pretty well. (Well, from my point of view, anyway. He just went over to GD and did the same thing over there. :))
Generally we can handle this in GQ by giving general instructions to drop a hijack. But in exceptional cases I can see instructing a particular poster to change their behavior or else to leave that thread.
What I think would be a better option would be to do something like what Left Hand of Dorkness suggested in Post #34. Not edit the posts into oblivion but add a notice into the relevant posts that the poster has been banned from the thread for hijacking and other posters should not respond to the hijack.
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Yes you do. It’s obvious you feel like a victim. You clearly think this any anyone who contradicts this statement is a liar. And posts nothing but bullshit.
No he doesn’t.
I think the mods have a good handle on keeping the lines straight and the trash off the ground. I’d hate to have a poster barred from a thread because of a tantrum or two, after all, it may be frustrating, but it’s entertaining.
We don’t need any more rules, things are overall going just fine here, imo. Although I disagree with some of the moderator actions on occasion, the mods do an excellent job keeping order on this board. Often threads don’t run smoothly. Doesn’t mean we need any more rules.