Creation of new threads restricted to 1/person/day in OT

[Alexander's Horse]

<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
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</font><font size=1>Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat on 06-14-2000 09:09 PM</font>

it just begs the OT crowd to run amok.


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Hmm, never thought of it like that......I now support the new restrictions

[MasterBob]

People, don't you see, this is just MarkG's slow way of banning the forum altogether. As far as I see, this rule is pathetic and should be abolished. "Off-Topic" should mean we can post anything we want.

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Come Drink with us at the
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"If you cannot beat them, don't join them, instead corrupt them, make them join you, then throw them off a cliff."

"The seeds of evil are the the same seeds of greatness."

[Sergeant Sheets]

Again, its a dictatorship of two, and theirs to do with as they see fit, just is why MarkG makes an ass of himself and creates useless rules. Like 1 topic per day. But, its JUST a ****ing web site. It don't mean ****.

[Adam Smith]

I have been on Apolyton since the begining (almost two years) and am still working on becoming a King. That works out to about 1.5 posts per day, much less OT threads. That said, I think one thread per day is WAY too tight. I think one thread every two to four hours would make it tough to spam without hurting posting too much.

One possible solution for group spam attacks might be to send a notification to the moderators if the time between the first post and the last post on Page 1 drops below say two hours. (This appears to happen once a week or less.) The moderators could then check for a group spam attack instead of constantly monitoring. Is such an idea technically feasible?

If we go to one thread per day, we are all going to wind up praying that the Apolyton Deities will "give us this day our daily thread". Atheists, of course, would not have this option.

<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by Adam Smith (edited June 14, 2000).]</font>

[berzerker]

This policy would effect me - some of us start threads dealing with community projects like "Pick the Winners" for football, or more recently, "Battle of the Bands". Now, obviously I could wait a day to start a political thread (my favorite kind) if it was necessary to start one of these community threads, but by then the inspiration for debating the political issue has diminished.
I believe 1 thread per hour (or something of that nature) would be a sensible attempt to accomplish your goal without causing harm to the atmosphere of the OT...

[werefox]

*werefox dances on markg's head.*

[Lancer]

Con, I guess I'm fairly prolific w/ about 5 threads a week on average. However I am streaky, today none, yesterday I did three and one in Civ2 community. This is when I'm really having fun and enjoying the OT the most. So in this way I think it will cut my enjoyment of the site. I have tried to contribute to the Civ 2 community forum, but it's work at this stage, Civ has been done. I like the site so I try but... So it's a dry time and unlimited posting in the other forums has little value to people who enjoyed Civ and hang out in the OT and BS and wait for Civ 3. This further control related move, this punishing of the members of this site, innocent and guilty alike will further drain our depleted numbers in the OT in my estimation. Splitting S&D from the OT and now this...

This is the second internet place that's I've really enjoyed, the first went belly up do to a single management decision. When the Xoom International chat went membership overnight I lost a community I really enjoyed. Though I had the address of some of the regulars we fell out of touch.
I'd really like it if the management here realized how peaceful things have been around here, so much more quiet now than just 8 or 9 months ago when I left for the Phils. Almost too peaceful..GPs recent thread, a list of the departed, was huge. I think something should be done to stop the bleeding, rather than choking the patient w/ a thread restriction, in my opinion.

Pro, if people don't leave or spend less time here and if they don't resent not being able to post a second or third thread on a new idea, then perhaps the effort that goes into each post and each thread will increase. If that happens then thread quality would increase. Perhaps good threads that pass off page 1 and into history might continue to grow instead of fading.

Well there you go.

On the balance I'd say thread limits should be forgotten.

[Alexander's Horse]

*Mark G lobs hand grenade onto notice board, toddles off to bed somewhere in Greece*

He he, Mark will be waking up soon.

"Wakey Wakey Hand off Snakey Mark, you naughty naughty boy! Clean up this mess!"

<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by Alexander's Horse (edited June 14, 2000).]</font>

[Mao]

Damn...less than a day and already over 100 posts...

This doesn't apply to mods does it?

*goes back to working on grand scheme to become a mod*

[Gary]

Trying to kill off the OT ?

OK there does seem to be a fair number of insignificant threads, and few serious ones, these days, but unless you have increased the serious discussion crowd up to a high level already, it is possible that this change will deaden the whole place. I suspect the limit will not change the quality, and is merely a crude attempt to add further flood control.

Points:
a) This thread is too long already to read all that above.
b) One a day is Draconian. 5 would be a better limit.

Is there any evidence that the restriction is needed anyway ? Apart from a few isolated incidents, I suspect not.

[Ming]

MWHC... Many of your comments are valid, and I agree with them. But MarkG is not getting lazy. That's just a cheap shot. MarkG and DanQ put in an amazing amount of time to provide us all with such a fine site.

Now, If I made this rule, it would show that I am indeed getting lazy... because MLeonard and myself are usually the ones that have to clean up the mess

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Ming
CivII & Off-Topic Forum Moderator
Ming@Apolyton.net

[My Wife Hates CIV]

cheap shot?? I don't think so.

whenever you take the easy way to fix a problem it's being lazy. this placing limits on everyone to fix a few small problems is the easy way. it's lazy. i know they work hard, that's what makes this a cool site. but again, placing restrictions on everyone???? just lowers the quality of the site.

[Smash]

Hmmmm...a forum you can't post in .What a unique idea!

I hope this doesn't steer the OT crowd to on topic forums.

[TNapoleon]

Here am I, coming back from a 2-month exile...

And I could not disagree more with this rule. In some 16 or 17 months here, I have started something between 25 and 30 threads-that's 2 threads per month. But I might have posted 2 or even 3 threads in the same day, and I frankly see nothing wrong with that. Is it spam? Of course it is not, but it would be against that rule. It's no wonder why Ming and MLeo are against it.

2 threads per hour would be a reasonable limit-remember that not everyone connects to the Net more than once a day.

[Atahualpa]

I dont think, other forums will be attacked by spammers, but rather I think, a lot of threads on OT will be hijacked and spammed.
And spamming within threads is much harder to control, cause you actually have to read a lot of threads, to see if he is really spamming.
And, Mark, I dont think this will work, to populate other forums.
People will go to other forums, when there is something to discuss in other forums! Right now, wait we have Civ3 that was/is discussed to death (nearly). Then there is CtP2, but well not everyone did like CtP and so some dont care. And well, the things people will say about CtP2 is: "Correct this bug in CtP1". And now, if everyone said that, we'll go crazy over there.
Smac forum never got much attention here. That was mainly, because there was an official forum for it.
And CtP, well, the CtP forums still live, but I dont think, there is much going on there. Unless you dont have a fast PC, CtP isnt really that good.

Ata