What Do People Think About Topic Regulation In Forums?, And When Are Y

[Javacat]

We do give warnings and we have a warn system in effect for that very reason, but we don't publicly advertise these warn levels as that would be in the realms of name and shame.

It's been brought up quite a few times in the past and nothings happened, but I still think the warning ratings should be publicly visible.

 

[sam fisher]

We do give warnings and we have a warn system in effect for that very reason, but we don't publicly advertise these warn levels as that would be in the realms of name and shame.

It's been brought up quite a few times in the past and nothings happened, but I still think the warning ratings should be publicly visible.

I too think that warn levels are pointless if you cannot see them.

 

[Monk]

So i will just give my thoughts on this topic... I think threads are being closed exceptionally often because (some) people here are exceptionally rude. I have countless times read "closing before flame war starts" etc. as people seem to have difficulty maintaining any kind of decent manner while online. This automatically causes moderation to become extreme... welcome to our world!

If we could show some decency and respect for each other we might not even need moderators... wouldn't that be a nice little (fantasy?) world?

An interesting point with, no doubt, some (sadly) serious validity... but... if a tree falls in the forest, would it still make a sound?

Or, to put it another way, what Ir ead from your posts tells me that in some cases threads are getting locked before they end up in flamewars - OR, indeed, before the populace has a chance to calm down and behave more rationally. We've no way of being 100% sure that a flamewar could not be avoided if the threads are amputated before they ever reach such a stage. Maybe the relevant posters have learnt where the cut-off point is and would stop there themselves - we may never know

edit: I think Exophase's posts are some of the most interesting/insightful, so the fact he is raising this should mean more consideration is given to it...

I agree that Exhophase seems like one of the more reasoned,, rationa posters and should be given more credence on such matters than the average bear.

We do give warnings and we have a warn system in effect for that very reason, but we don't publicly advertise these warn levels as that would be in the realms of name and shame.

It's been brought up quite a few times in the past and nothings happened, but I still think the warning ratings should be publicly visible.

I too think that warn levels are pointless if you cannot see them.

Add me to that list - if you're goijng to shut down a poster, a silent message to him/her/it is fine, but to me if you're going to shut down a thread then the thread itself should contain notice that such is in the offing before it happens. Give warning to the thread, not the individual, or "punish" the individual, not the thread. IMHO.

Ta,

 

[dsraa]

Monk, obviously each instance of topic that strays has its own differences of why it strays. However a blanket rule cannot be applied. We cannot at each and every venture of off-topic posts or begining of flamewars, flames being the extreme, just close the topic.

Its counterproductive to give the same reaction for each topic that goes off-topic. I think, and I don't care what others think.....(BLah).......but still....the rule should be adaptive...if a topic goes off-topic by like less than 5 posts, or goes into something actually RELATED to the original topic, then maybe a post by a mod to keep it on topic would be sufficient......however if a topic goes wildly off topic then sure close the frigin topic.....i just don't like the quantity of topics getting closed....far too many that are good topics that I wanted to post my opinion in have been closed for it seems no good reason.

DSR

 

[Vorporeal]

I feel like the mods need to do two things: 1) kill off stupid, pointless topics faster, before they get totally out of hand by "veterans" flaming and making fun of new members who don't understand that we're a community of mature people (not 13-year-old PSP fanbois), and 2) let the other topics with mature discussions stray a little further from the original topic before closing them. Warnings are totally necessary - topics should never be closed out of the blue without a moderator warning. At the very least, delete seriously offending posts or move them to off-topic (and make a post in the original topic saying that the posts were moved, and link to their new location). There's nothing wrong with moderating the discussions that occur in an online forum.

Slightly OT (but VERY slightly):
What helps me put this into perspective a bit is going back to the origins of the word "forum". Back in Roman times, it was an open area (basically a square or plaza) where people could congregate, meet up, have discussions, etc. etc. These were places where communities gathered and places that communities formed around. I almost feel like the moderation style lately is analogous to the image of a group of people talking in a Roman forum when a Roman general walks in, forcefully breaks up the discussion, and summarily forces people to physically split up and go discuss other things in other parts of the Forum.

(Another analogous situation
Imagine this as well: A large group of students are in a classroom, and the group is having a discussion about some topic or another. In the middle of the discussion, other people start making comments that cause the discussion to go off on a total tangent. The teacher will ask the students to get back on topic, and remind them that they can talk about the totally irrelevant topic later. Another possibility is that they make comments that shift the discussion in a different direction. This is not what the teacher initially wanted the discussion to be about, but it is still an interesting topic and is worthy of discussion. The teacher won't cut off discussion in the name of being on topic, but will let the students continue to explore this different topic. (I'm sure you can all put together the analogy to the current forum situation.)