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Oh my god, would you get the hell over yourself? I'm fed up of you taking it upon yourself to decide what is entertaining to discuss and whether it should be allowed to be discussed or not. If someone really is to decide this, it definitely shouldn't be you. Furthermore, it's detracting from the spirit of the forums, where I've always felt the moderators were quite liberal in terms of allowing us to express ourselves (but within set rules). Not any more, it'd seem.

 

But seriously, what the hell happened? You used to be someone who I genuinely found interesting to hold a conversation with. You've just become somewhat of a grouchy old man who thinks any topic that isn't devastatingly important to our well-being is a waste of time.

While the wording is far more harsh than I would put it, the general points of view in this post pretty much sum up my feelings about this, to be honest.

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Oh my god, would you get the hell over yourself? I'm fed up of you taking it upon yourself to decide what is entertaining to discuss and whether it should be allowed to be discussed or not. If someone really is to decide this, it definitely shouldn't be you. Furthermore, it's detracting from the spirit of the forums, where I've always felt the moderators were quite liberal in terms of allowing us to express ourselves (but within set rules). Not any more, it'd seem.

 

But seriously, what the hell happened? You used to be someone who I genuinely found interesting to hold a conversation with. You've just become somewhat of a grouchy old man who thinks any topic that isn't devastatingly important to our well-being is a waste of time.

 

 

Well said.

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you do realise that I'm not actually preventing discussion, right? I'm just moving it. Same topics, different thread. How is this in any way confusing or threatening?

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My one concern with this is that if there are two or more stories being "discussed" (lol inverted commas) at the same time, things may become confusing. But as long as big stories continue to get their own thread, I don't mind it being done this way or with seperate threads as before.

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works fine in every single grouped thread on the board. People are just being pissy about this because I r teh thread nazi or some shit.

 

I've already said I'd be up for something else if it doesn't work- and Jayseven has suggested a pretty good alternative.

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I think the point is that before this thread was created, last week, there were several news story threads that were closed by you for the reasons stated above. After several more were posted, it obviously made sense to move them all, but initially at least you were just closing them because you didn't like them. That was stopping the discussion.

 

I have to say I agree with Dannyboy here in that I echo Sheikah's sentiments but with less harsh wording. I know being a mod is a difficult job and that it's voluntary, so thank you for doing it, but if you're going to stop people talking about things that they want to talk about just because it depresses you then maybe you should be looking at yourself. The job itself if about stopping people from stepping out of line, being rude, or creating topics that are in the wrong place or against the rules of the forum (ie offensive about individuals or groups, rude, or reposts). Discussion about depressing news articles is not against these rules and so when you shut those topics people objected.

 

I admit the new thread is a good idea, but I think the problem people have is that you won't listen to what they are saying about the title, it being stickied, etc.

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well youve merged three seperate topics in to one. which makes it a lot harder to follow one topic. if your not intrested in one topic you still have to read all three incase you miss part of one. this forum does not need any more mass threads.

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you do realise that I'm not actually preventing discussion, right? I'm just moving it. Same topics, different thread. How is this in any way confusing or threatening?

Threatening might've been your bullshit logic in closing the threads before.

 

Confusing because you've changed your tune [mentioned above], potentially confusing as personal definitions of news may vary from yours. Thus confusion might occur when someone posts a seperate topic on something they deem to be on its own and you have a bitchfit, slamming out your crystal ball predicting how it will end.

 

Pure speculation.

works fine in every single grouped thread on the board.

That's because, might just be me that's thinking this, that they are more confined to a certain subject matter.

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People seem to have latched on to this 'depressing' thing

 

It's not why I locked them- I locked them because I wanted to change the board culture of C+P news stories without any thought from the OP as to the merits of debate. It just so happens that the threads that got me started were particularly morbid and in bad taste, too.

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The one thing that I don't get is that for ages mods/admins were against big threads such as MPOTD and HWYD and saying that it prevented discussion and stopped people from creating threads. Now you are taking threads and merging them into one massive thread, thus going against what you all wanted before.

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I think the merging of threads is part of a problem in itself. Personally, I feel that this forum is nowhere near as spontaneous as it used to be. I think generally these news threads can be quite good points for discussion. Sometimes I've made a few threads like that where they've just dropped off the front page, but I've also created many which have gone on for a few pages, and it's been quite interesting.

 

Personally, when I see a new thread, I look at the title and try to identify what that thread is about. The problem with all these big threads is that the majority of the time the discussion is already defined - you know what is included within that thread, you know where the direction is mostly going, you kinda know who the regular posters are going to be.

 

Each thread like that basically becomes a small "forum" of its own, although it's very messy. It's almost like walking into a room where the groups are already established, and you're a bit un-easy about joining in. With a new thread, there's that fresh feeling, like every thread is a new slate.

 

Over the years, the number of threads that have been created has, imo, dropped massively. There's no need for many people to create new threads, so they don't bother. It seems nowadays that the forums are basically just a collection of posts in several topics, and very little discussion is actually new. Part of me thinks that in trying to create a utopia or a discussion-based forum that we have in fact maybe over-done it.

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Threatening might've been your bullshit logic in closing the threads before.

 

Confusing because you've changed your tune [mentioned above], potentially confusing as personal definitions of news may vary from yours. Thus confusion might occur when someone posts a seperate topic on something they deem to be on its own and you have a bitchfit, slamming out your crystal ball predicting how it will end.

 

What he said.

 

This appears to be Dan simply using his power to take away anything he isn't personally deeply interested in. It's an annoyingly snobbish and arrogant thing to do. Yes, there was a lot of shitty C&P news threads, but so the fuck what? If you don't want to read a thread as it doesn't interest you, then don't. If you have to as a mod, then don't be so god damn lazy.

 

Personally, for news of actual interest, there should be copying and pasting aloud (it's much easier than re-writing the whole thing yourself...), and then elaborate on it.

 

This whole shenanigan has stopped me, for one, from starting a thread about the Iranian elections, an issue of importance to me, for fear that Dan will say "we're not in Iran, who cares?", throw his toys out of his pram, and lock/merge it.

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That may be a bit of an over-reaction. The Iranian elections is an important issue (not just in Iran but worldwide due to the implications of a potentially rigged election). Whereas a woman freezing her baby is something for FIVE to make a documentary about.

 

It is being discussed behind the scenes and something shall be sorted factoring in the general consensus soon :).

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I think the merging of threads is part of a problem in itself. Personally, I feel that this forum is nowhere near as spontaneous as it used to be. I think generally these news threads can be quite good points for discussion. Sometimes I've made a few threads like that where they've just dropped off the front page, but I've also created many which have gone on for a few pages, and it's been quite interesting.

 

Personally, when I see a new thread, I look at the title and try to identify what that thread is about. The problem with all these big threads is that the majority of the time the discussion is already defined - you know what is included within that thread, you know where the direction is mostly going, you kinda know who the regular posters are going to be.

 

Each thread like that basically becomes a small "forum" of its own, although it's very messy. It's almost like walking into a room where the groups are already established, and you're a bit un-easy about joining in. With a new thread, there's that fresh feeling, like every thread is a new slate.

 

Over the years, the number of threads that have been created has, imo, dropped massively. There's no need for many people to create new threads, so they don't bother. It seems nowadays that the forums are basically just a collection of posts in several topics, and very little discussion is actually new. Part of me thinks that in trying to create a utopia or a discussion-based forum that we have in fact maybe over-done it.

 

I argee with you Flinky. Too many huge topics and no space for an discussion.

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I think the key word for me is spontaneity. As long as we aren't offending people, I don't even see the harm in randomness in a thread.

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Let people create the threads they want. Survival of the fittest means the unpopular ones die. Obviously quality of thread has nothing to do with the process.

 

However, you could have a thread that encompasses less worthy news. Kind of like a tabloid thread. You could mod that pretty easily.

 

Is there point in a news thread? No. We've had one. It lasted almost a page. It doesn't work. Also the ration of inane news to real news threads is heavily weighted to the former; the threads represent the members.

 

Again, I have no idea what I'm on about but I've typed this now so I'll post it.

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However, you could have a thread that encompasses less worthy news. Kind of like a tabloid thread. You could mod that pretty easily.

 

A tabloid thread is not a bad idea. Be aware, however, that the 3rd page will be clogged with girlssssss.... :awesome:

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Each thread like that basically becomes a small "forum" of its own, although it's very messy. It's almost like walking into a room where the groups are already established, and you're a bit un-easy about joining in. With a new thread, there's that fresh feeling, like every thread is a new slate.

 

This is so spot-on about the HWYD and Music Threads. Probably the general threads too, but I've never even been into one of those.

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This is so spot-on about the HWYD and Music Threads. Probably the general threads too, but I've never even been into one of those.

 

Very much so. That said, I don't see that being the case for this thread. I see what Dan is trying to do and personally I like it. It's not about censorship in the slightest, it's simply about grouping together the small news story threads that go on for one or two pages before everyone loses interest completely.

 

Think of it this way; if we didn't have the music thread, then we'd have new threads about new album releases and people being excited and asking for their opinions quite often - but not everyone wants to read/talk about music, so it's been made in to one collaborative thread.

 

The same has happened here. Some people don't want to read/talk about small news stories, be they quirky, serious, jokey, whatever. I'm sure that bigger news stories will still warrant their own threads (As DD said, the Euro Elections is a good example) but for stories such as the tattoos and such this does make sense.

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Think of it this way; if we didn't have the music thread, then we'd have new threads about new album releases and people being excited and asking for their opinions quite often - but not everyone wants to read/talk about music, so it's been made in to one collaborative thread.

 

Yeah but it's the same few people in the music thread who post constantly. There isn't that much discussion and not much variety on the sort of music that is discussed. The same would happen here. People wouldn't bother going through pages just to find the latest news article that people were talking about. Whereas in a thread they can hover over the title to see what it is about.

 

I can see the reason for one big thread, but little news threads aren't clogging the board up, and it's not like it's particularly busy as it is. by doing this you'll just be removing another set of threads. And with less threads being created, if you don't like any of the big threads then there won't be much point in coming here. So we'll just lose members.

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Think of it this way; if we didn't have the music thread, then we'd have new threads about new album releases and people being excited and asking for their opinions quite often - but not everyone wants to read/talk about music, so it's been made in to one collaborative thread.

 

I dont see what the problem would be. I dont post in the music forum as i find it to clicky.

Same goes for the move thread. Last week a toy story 3 thread got locked as apparently it belonged in the movie thread. But that the same feels to clicky in my opnion.

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(its a side point (hence the plural parenthesis) but the Toy Story 3 thread was mainly locked because a) it was a teaser trailer and b) its not out for another year)

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and it'd already been posted in the movie thread.

 

the point being people dont visit these threads. and so what if its not out for another year? i fail to see how it matters.

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The reason why there should be individual news topics rather than one merged essay topic is the exact same reason why newspapers don't merge all their news into one chunk of text. It's all about headlines. You see a headline for some shocking article and you're encouraged to read on. Similarly, you see a topic with a title that shocks or interests you, and you're encouraged to click and subsequently post your thoughts. If all such topics were to be merged into a 'News thread', people wouldn't have much of an urge to click it. Picture a newspaper headline reading 'News', with the actual news being listed underneath. It'd be pretty ridiculous.

 

Really, though, there isn't a huge number of topics being created on these forums. There's topics from 3 days ago still sitting on the first page of this forum, so I wouldn't say that 'useless' topics are camouflaging good ones.

 

Edit: After reading Flink's post it seems that he's pretty much covered my thoughts.

Edited by Sheikah

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