[serious] Off Topic Moderation Input - Part 2

[Lorizael]

This sums up my position too.

Plus we'd have a section we'd actually have to moderate, and often the most serious threads are the ones that cause the biggest arguments.

Well yeah, but you're a moderator who's not in favor of moderation.

[ZEE]

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[MikeH]

You'd be creating a forum where people from other parts of the site would be attacked mercilessly, for one. I doubt that makes for a better community.

Also, there is little enough traffic in OT some days. Splitting it isn't going to help.

This sums up my position too.

Plus we'd have a section we'd actually have to moderate, and often the most serious threads are the ones that cause the biggest arguments.

[SlowwHand]

No doubt, ForumWarz is the place to be emulated.

[ZEE]

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[Lorizael]

BTW it wouldn't work at Poly people would get butthurt on page 2, then a MOD would move the thrade over to the NO-RULES...

No no no. I wouldn't want to move offending threads over to no-rules. People would abuse that and get posts/threads moved all the time, destabilizing discussions. I would simply delete posts that met the criteria for the no-rules forum but not the serious forum.

[ZEE]

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[ZEE]

I'm currently toying with the idea of branching the Off Topic off into a no-rules subforum and a main serious discussion forum.

sounds familiar....

[Asher]

Only if they deny the DL is theirs. I'm open about it.

[SlowwHand]

Isn't creating a DL kind of like lying?

[Lorizael]

I think we should all just be adults...

Yeah, but that's clearly not going to happen.

[Jon Miller]

I don't think the idea is good Lori.

I think we should all just be adults, both about when someone else flames us and when we joke with others.

JM

[Lorizael]

You'd be creating a forum where people from other parts of the site would be attacked mercilessly, for one. I doubt that makes for a better community.

It would need a warning and a disclaimer, yeah.

Also, there is little enough traffic in OT some days. Splitting it isn't going to help.

My hope would be that posters would feel encouraged to once again post serious discussion threads in the OT, knowing that they could do so without having to worry about the crap that often drags such threads down. But yes, that kind of growth would be slow and the OT is not exactly bustling right now.

[notyoueither]

You'd be creating a forum where people from other parts of the site would be attacked mercilessly, for one. I doubt that makes for a better community.

Also, there is little enough traffic in OT some days. Splitting it isn't going to help.

[Lorizael]

That's a really, really bad idea.

Why do you think so, and what do you believe is the solution to a forum that behaves as this one does? The problem here is that there are times when posters think it's perfectly acceptable to engage in name-calling, attacks, and trolling, and other times when those same posters are very opposed to that idea. The difference depends on the subject and the posters involved.

To me, the solution is not to discriminate between subject and poster in that manner. I think it's better to have one forum in which serious discussion is expected (because that's clearly what some posters want) and one forum where insults and depravity are allowed (because that's clearly what some posters want as well).