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Post by RubberPiggy on May 11, 2005 14:45:44 GMT -5
For the last week or two, I have been noticing a major problem developing all over the boards. That problem is that a thread will spend about a page talking about the subject it was made for, and then, like, three or four MORE pages on something completely unrelated. This is not good.
I am not blaming any one person for this. It has just something that has kind of developed, because I just sat by and let it happen. And now we have to fix it.
When posting in a thread, we must all try to keep the conversation about the subject that the thread is about. A little deviation is fine, but the bulk of it really must be kept to the subject. Otherwise, chaos will ensue and no one will know where any topics of conversation are, which is basically the whole point of a message board.
For example, somewhere on this board, there are a bunch of people plotting on how to shave off Winston's sideburns. Where is it, you ask? I have no bloody clue. That is because it's in the end pages of some thread that has nothing to do with anything relating to Winston's sideburns.
I'm not saying you guys aren't allowed to start other conversations from something else you were talking about. Just make a new topic for it once you see that it's going to be a lasting conversation. If you want to talk about Winston's sideburns or Shawn Ashmore, then fine, just made a topic in Randomness for "Plot to Remove Winston's Sideburns" or a topic in Entertainment for "Shawn Ashmore." Or whatever. Just don't clutter the other topics.
As for the damage already done, over the course of the day today, I am going to go through all the boards and find all the topics that have gotten bad like this, and either close them, or move them to Meaningless Babbling, depending upon how much actual content is in them.
Thank you all for your cooperation, and let's try to keep this from happening again.
~RP~
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Post by CrazyDave on May 11, 2005 17:31:08 GMT -5
Thanks Sara....
I'm not blaming anyone, because I sure help facilitate it.
I was dumb. But, I didn't know what else to do.
I apoligies. Or however you spell it. I messed up on this one. I'll try to stay on topic from now on, but I'm.... well... crazy, and I may deviate. Please inform me (Through the message thing so we don't take up board space! ;D) about where and when I'm doing it and I'll stop.
Thanks Again Sara. I was starting to go overboard.
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Post by Winston on May 11, 2005 21:48:48 GMT -5
There are 8 people on this board.
What does it matter really?
Anyway, youre not blaming any one person in this thread, but Ive been blamed throughout multiple ones. I dont deviate threads, I reply to the topic that people are currently posting about. So Id appretiate if I werent bitched at for everything.
Yes, conversations evolve, and rarely to real conversations stay in one spot. How can you talk about the same thing for more than 3 or 4 pages before just completely running out of stuff to say?
Maybe conversations will blur, but thats the point of the subject title. Anyone can have the choice of saying, "OH I CANT WAIT FOR SERENITY" in the middle of the Shawn Ashmore comments. And that will at least get it on track some what.
Theres no real point to limiting all this. I just think someones a bit drunk on power, and is a bit too strict. Ive seen boards with thousands of members not go this far.
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Post by Smileygirl918 on May 11, 2005 22:10:46 GMT -5
I don't quite know how to say this.. I don't want anyone to get mad at me. I'm not posting this just to stand up for Winston or because I'm his girlfriend or anything so please don't think that. I don't totally agree with one person on this issue. I agree that a lot of little tiny posts doesn't add much to the conversation, but the one's winston posted (that I have seen) seemed relevant to me and in his nature. Also for the number thing I know he has been posting a lot lately, but I think what i've seen of it is relevant. Also just for the record, I think the number of posts one of us has is slightly important. I was made fun of for having the lowest number when Matt far surpassed me. I understand topics shouldn't deviate completly, but sometimes one topic just leads to another and i don't think anyone should be punished for making a connection to something else. This is a message board and I really do think it's a wonderful idea Sara, but i think it should be fun too, and not all about rules.
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Post by Angels Sleeping on May 12, 2005 15:04:12 GMT -5
I won't be adding to the agrument: I'm just going to say that I'll be more careful about it because I know I do it. . . a lot. So I'll definitely try to stay on topic. Just PM me or something if I go off on some sort of random, useless tangent. Everyone knows I have a good habit of doing that.
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XAevinX
Full Pirate Monkey
~siro ookami~
Posts: 488
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Post by XAevinX on May 12, 2005 15:19:32 GMT -5
So Id appretiate if I werent bitched at for everything. [glow=maroon,2,300] First of all I believe she said she wasn't blaming any one person so like I said before stop taking everything so personally!
Secondly I believe some deviation is appropriate and it will happen. Conversations deviate, and life is unorganized. I realize you want to know where things are at Sara, but if we are talking about something stupid (like Winston's hair) it is kind of pointless to drop the conversation to make a new thread about it.
At the same time I understand the desire to keep threads on topic so I guess I'm a advocate for somewhat of a middle ground. I suppose we'll see what happens.
[/glow]
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Post by Angels Sleeping on May 12, 2005 16:06:14 GMT -5
I do agree with Matt about the deviation because think of it this way. . . A lot of these threads are like a conversation and how often does a single conversation stay on the same topic for its duration? Not very often. I'm just saying. . .
I understand why you want to keep things organized but there are some times when moving a topic to another thread would be a little pointless.
I'm just saying! Please note that I'm not attacking you or anything.
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Post by RubberPiggy on May 12, 2005 19:53:37 GMT -5
Okay, I'm just gonna keep this short and simple, and not babble on and on like I was originally gonna do, lol.
Winston, I am not yelling at you. Never was. Please stop taking everything personally.
Some people seem to be a bit mistaken of what my concern actually was. I have no problem with short replies in threads or people posting in threads that haven't been posted in for a long time. Absolutely no problem with them. I haven't really seen any posts with any of these reasons that seemed at all unacceptable or causing any problems.
And the actual concern that I did have seems to have been blown way out of proportion. I was saying how it seemed pretty pointless to have threads with less than a page about the topic in the Subject line, and then four pages about unrelated stuff. But that was only a problem for a very small number of threads. I wasn't criticising every post on the board that got off topic, just those few threads.
And realize that I am not saying that you must stick to the Subject the entire time, just that once you've got MULTIPLE PAGES of something else, that you should hopefully know that it's time to stop.
I have taken all of your concerns into account and I will not be cracking down on this as hard as I had originally planned. Not at all. But realize that there does need to be some order. There does need to be rules. Because if there's no rules and there's no order, then all that is left is chaos. I really believe that if all the order is taken out of these boards, and things get bad and unorganized, leading eventually to craziness and SPAM, then everyone will get bored and no one will want to be here anymore. And I would hate for that to happen.
But I will not really be enforcing rules any more than I had been before. I just noticed that this issue was already being discussed on the boards without me, and I just wanted to adress it from an administrator's point of view.
Thank you everyone who came and posted your opinions on the matter in a civilized way. I appreciate your input.
~RP~
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