Arguments, speculations, rants and generally off-topic/repetitive topics megathread

[David Hayward]

I hope you are willing to stick with this long enough to make it work. People who are willing to get banned repeatedly are not going to give up easily.

Originally Posted by David Hayward

I hope you are willing to stick with this long enough to make it work. People who are willing to get banned repeatedly are not going to give up easily.

Peopel are getting banned because of negative posts, Luthier could change all the tomorrow, unless he's serving a ban for the Troll banjo post.

[Blackdog_kt]

There's nothing exceptional about it really.

It's just a purpose-built venue for people to vent and blow off some steam without cluttering other threads, not a "go stand in the corner" type of punishment

The reason posts are moved is because it facilitates easier selection of reading material for the user and it's not only this thread it's done for.

A couple of days ago another thread was going off-topic by discussing the differences of coop and DF modes, a user helpfully suggested we take the discussion to another more relevant thread, so i just moved the off-topic posts into another thread for which they were considered on-topic, told everybody where to find them and the discussion went on like before without any ruffled feathers.

I don't see why this thread should be any different, especially since the alternative up till now was locking threads and banning people if they wanted to argue among themselves. Now there's a dedicated thread for that with a bit higher tolerance level and an off-topic nature by default, which means it wouldn't have to be locked. The reason it's a single thread is because this is a flight sim forum and not an arguments forum.

Generally speaking, i prefer to have a thread partitioned into separate topics if it starts sprouting separate discussions, i don't like just locking everything that goes off topic and i don't want to hand out bans. This is why i went with this approach, if people want to argue about speculative topics they now have a place to do so and if other people don't want to they can just not read/post in this thread, so everyone should have the ability to have the kind of discussions they like.

What is not possible with this approach is for group A to force their kind of preferred discussions on group B and vice versa, which i honestly think is a good thing: everyone should be able to have their say without having their conversations sabotaged and without being offensive to others.

[Wolf_Rider]

hey, alright... so we get a boxing ring - many forums have one


what's the criteria for getting entry made? (rules of engagement, so to speak)

[Blackdog_kt]

I don't have a concrete line to be honest and i certainly don't let the username above the post influence my decision, all of us are prone to outbursts and this is a place for us to just say it and be done with it.

It's just that when things get personal and drag other people in the mix, a few posts get moved here to let the originating thread run its intended course and also let the "duelers" continue going at it in here. The basic forum rules still apply (we do have minors on the boards after all).

If i had to make a parallel, i'd say it's like going to a football match where it's permitted for fans of opposing teams to punch each other up, but only as long as both parties agree to it, there are no lethal weapons involved and they don't endanger others who just want to watch the game

There's normal seating and there's a separate mosh-pit area, people enter the pit either voluntary or get moved there if they get rowdy in the normal seating area, some people watch the match, some people get or give a black eye while catching a glimpse or two of the match, but in the end they all go back home having done what they wanted to do

[klem]

It's a nice try Blackdog but you'll never win or you'll find yourself on a 24/7 mission.

I know you're trying to keep threads clean and readable and I wish it could be so but I think you're flogging a dead horse. People can't resist replying to a post they feel strongly about, time and again. Some of course are just there to goad.

I'm an offender too (not a goader I hope) but I'm trying to resist re-entering old arguments and thats not easy when someone has actually quoted your post.

Most of these repetitive threads don't really need to be worried about. They just take up server space. Let them vent their spleens. The fact is that anything in a thread past about page 3 is either a valuable piece of work (not often) or has become a general discussion or a competely worthless slanging match. You can definitely tell by page 5! Just act on the justified 'reported' posts and if necessary ban people. It won't stop them though, they'll either create a new account or come back after the ban.

My advice to people that don't like certain posters is to add them to their ignore list and let their blood presure come down. Its working a treat for me and one well known Troll ('Troll' IMHO). I would also suggest people assess the thread for the first few pages and decide whether its even worth bothering with. Why repeat an argument that's already been posted? (I know, I know, and I'm trying.) Back round the circle, if they do keep bothering with it, let them get on with it.

[Ibis]

You lot are a riot, David the bore has wrung eight pages out of you so far, "circus" springs to mind.
cheers,

[Rattlehead]

Just a quick question...

Is this the off-topic thread that Nearmiss proposed a while back? Judging from what Blackdog has said, I don't think so.
If someone can clear this up, I'd appreciate it.

[JG52Uther]

Originally Posted by Ibis

You lot are a riot, David the bore has wrung eight pages out of you so far, "circus" springs to mind.
cheers,

What else is there to do! If we are keeping him off the streets, that can only be a good thing...

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Rattlehead

Just a quick question...

Is this the off-topic thread that Nearmiss proposed a while back? Judging from what Blackdog has said, I don't think so.
If someone can clear this up, I'd appreciate it.

Off topic discussions are certainly ok in here but actually this thread is pretty generic, so i don't know how easy it would be to keep track of a longer conversation with a more focused subject matter.

This is more like a place to vent some frustration, speculate and engage in forum dueling without taking over unrelated threads, which means a single thread can do the job because personal exchanges between members are either short or repetitive in nature and as such, easier to keep track of for the participants without needing dedicated threads.

What Nearmiss proposed was an entire off-topic section. I don't want to overstep my boundaries, being the new guy and all, so i'm not going to do something i haven't cleared with him or Alpha first but if you guys want such a section i'll ask them about it.

Originally Posted by klem

It's a nice try Blackdog but you'll never win or you'll find yourself on a 24/7 mission.

I know you're trying to keep threads clean and readable and I wish it could be so but I think you're flogging a dead horse. People can't resist replying to a post they feel strongly about, time and again. Some of course are just there to goad.

I'm an offender too (not a goader I hope) but I'm trying to resist re-entering old arguments and thats not easy when someone has actually quoted your post.

Most of these repetitive threads don't really need to be worried about. They just take up server space. Let them vent their spleens. The fact is that anything in a thread past about page 3 is either a valuable piece of work (not often) or has become a general discussion or a competely worthless slanging match. You can definitely tell by page 5! Just act on the justified 'reported' posts and if necessary ban people. It won't stop them though, they'll either create a new account or come back after the ban.

My advice to people that don't like certain posters is to add them to their ignore list and let their blood presure come down. Its working a treat for me and one well known Troll ('Troll' IMHO). I would also suggest people assess the thread for the first few pages and decide whether its even worth bothering with. Why repeat an argument that's already been posted? (I know, I know, and I'm trying.) Back round the circle, if they do keep bothering with it, let them get on with it.

Actually i thought i was up for some trouble but i was surprised how easy it is: instead of having to plead with everyone who might derail a perfectly good thread to let the rest of the participants have the kind of discussion they set out to (and getting sucked into the off-topic debates myself), all it takes is clicking a few check-boxes to select some posts and pressing the "move" button.

It actually saves me a lot of time, because i don't have to quote and answer every person that might be going off-topic and ask them to stay on the original subject. Hopefully it saves the same amount of time for the other participants.

Other than that i browse the forum daily, sometimes twice a day, so it's pretty easy to keep track of things and sooner or later most people will be coming here on their own if they just want to have a bit of a verbal brawl. If for example i'm having a one-on-one exchange with somebody in another thread and we're going off topic, i might as well ask him "hey, let's take this to the arguments thread, will reply to you there, is this ok?".

In other words, the workload is pretty light (much lighter than having to reply to and convince people not to derail threads): the forum interface is easy to use and the amount of duelists is not that big anyway.