Closing threads...

zzzzzzzz

Can someone explain to me why threads are often closed if the mod "can't see this thread going anywhere"?

I can't see any reason why people can't continue discussion on whatever subject they want, regardless of whether some mod decides it's ok or not...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055287396

tman

Seems like a sound bit of moderating really, the original question had been answered and if the thread had been left open it would have just descended into chaos.

Or possibly pictures of cats...

Xavi6

Beacuse sometimes threads move waaaaay off topic and you get two or three users who just bicker back and forth without adding anything to the actual discussion. Happens quite a lot when people have run out of things to say about a certain topic.

In the case you quoted, the OP's question was deemed hostile i.e. referring to cyclists as 'bastards'. That's inevitably going to annoy people so why leave it open for a row to break out when the cycling brigade get involved? Maybe had the question been phrased more politely it would have been left. Good modding imo.

muffler

I had a look at that and it had the main ingredients for a flame war. Nothing constructive was going to be achieved by any further debate and it was just going to turn into one of those farcical threads where one thing leads to another and it ends up going way off topic with probably a handful of people sniping the tits of each other. It was the right call to lock it.

WhiteWashMan

tman wrote: »

Seems like a sound bit of moderating really, the original question had been answered and if the thread had been left open it would have just descended into chaos.

Or possibly pictures of cats...

would it?
you should pick lotto numbers for me with that sort of ability to tell the future.
mods are there to facilitate discussion, not fortune tell.

Xavi6 wrote: »

Beacuse sometimes threads move waaaaay off topic and you get two or three users who just bicker back and forth without adding anything to the actual discussion. Happens quite a lot when people have run out of things to say about a certain topic.

In the case you quoted, the OP's question was deemed hostile i.e. referring to cyclists as 'bastards'. That's inevitably going to annoy people so why leave it open for a row to break out when the cycling brigade get involved? Maybe had the question been phrased more politely it would have been left. Good modding imo.

and if every thread on thee forum didnt have some sort of bickering back and forth, theres be no threads at all.
how do you know when people have run out of things to say?
perhaps someone else might have something to add to the debate, but now cant because the thread is closed.

muffler wrote: »

I had a look at that and it had the main ingredients for a flame war. Nothing constructive was going to be achieved by any further debate and it was just going to turn into one of those farcical threads where one thing leads to another and it ends up going way off topic with probably a handful of people sniping the tits of each other. It was the right call to lock it.

to be honest, and this goes for the above as well, im not actually seeing any sort of bickering, or flame war type material. i also cannot see how anyone can decide 3 posts into a thread that its not worth leaving open, how it will turn out, or anything else.


its bad modding.
anyway, i fail to see why it cant be left open. is there actually a need to close it? if people cant have a deabte about it like adults, then warn or ban them, but dont curb the conversation on what may or may not happen.

WhiteWashMan

and while im at it, it makes me worried that all those comments came from mods.

Xavi6

Sorry WWM but labelling cyclists 'bastards' is blatant flaming and is bound to provoke a reaction. Was it necessary to use that term? Course it wasn't. If the OP had merely said 'cyclists' without the adjective then there would have been no problem.

Ciaran500

If you look around the motor board or the cyclist board you will see that every thread like that descends into the exact same bickering, with motorists claiming bikes shouldn't be on the road, they should pay road tax, should stop breaking red light,etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.

That thread was right to be closed.

Sully

Tad bit early to close the topic.. in this example, I think it should have been cleaned and warned to keep to the topic / charter. If it continued to go of the walls, then fair enough - time for closing.

WhiteWashMan

Xavi6 wrote: »

Sorry WWM but labelling cyclists 'bastards' is blatant flaming and is bound to provoke a reaction. Was it necessary to use that term? Course it wasn't. If the OP had merely said 'cyclists' without the adjective then there would have been no problem.

i guess we all get hot under the collar about things.

boo urns to things that annoy us.


maybe im in the minority that can read something without being provoked by the language used.

If you look around the motor board or the cyclist board you will see that every thread like that descends into the exact same bickering, with motorists claiming bikes shouldn't be on the road, they should pay road tax, should stop breaking red light,etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.

That thread was right to be closed.

its an emotive topic.

people have the right to disagree with each other. just becuase you call it bickering, to others its a point they feel they have to make.

you and i disagree, should we close this thread right now?
in fact, should we close every thread ont his forum now where someone disagrees with someone else?

or should we close every thread on every forum on this site, just in case someone disagrees, and you class it as 'bickering'?

or perhaps i should just go through every thread on the motors forum, give my opinion on it, and then close the thread, becusae what i say, goes?

where do you draw the line?



closing threads bec aseu fo what may be is not really something a mod should do.
a thread should be closed becusae there is a reason to close it.

in fact, a mod should only do something, when there is a need to do something. we are not a proactive force. we are reactive.

gosh, i hope i dont get arrested tomorrow becusae the police think that someday i might go out and cycle without a helmet on...

Ciaran500

WhiteWashMan wrote: »

people have the right to disagree with each other. just becuase you call it bickering, to others its a point they feel they have to make.

you and i disagree, should we close this thread right now?
in fact, should we close every thread ont his forum now where someone disagrees with someone else?

or should we close every thread on every forum on this site, just in case someone disagrees, and you class it as 'bickering'?

or perhaps i should just go through every thread on the motors forum, give my opinion on it, and then close the thread, becusae what i say, goes?

where do you draw the line?

I'm not saying it should be closed because people are bickering in it. I'm saying it should be closed because the same topic comes up constantly and ends in the same argument every time.

Same way if you started a thread in the Playstation forum calling all Xbox owners bastards it wouldn't be left open.

WhiteWashMan

Ciaran500 wrote: »

I'm not saying it should be closed because people are bickering in it. I'm saying it should be closed because the same topic comes up constantly and ends in the same argument every time.

Same way if you started a thread in the Playstation forum calling all Xbox owners bastards it wouldn't be left open.

why, becuase they keep beating their playstation counterparts in orange box?

im not sure i see your point there.


im not sure i see your point about the same topic coming up again and again. are you saying that after a while we should close down forums becuase there might be a reoccurance of a theme?

hell, PI wuld be the first to go with all those pesky 'should i text him' threads. followed closely by the soccer forum. every bloody week, its the same 'predict the scores this weekend' thread, and the man utd are crap threads, and the chelsea only bought their silverware threads.

oh, and those pesky 'this is me' pictures on the know your nerds thread.

or maybe 'im looking for work please help' threads on the work forum, or the 'what song ar eyou listenin.........


oh, i think you get the idea. theres lots of threads and themes repeating ad infinitum on these forums.
its not a mods job to pre-empt what its going to be. there is no need to interfer.

if it ends up the way the rest of them do, then great, at least it keeps someone amused for a while. whats the harm?

seriously, i fail to see the point in a forum where the mods dictate what can and cant be discussed.
and dont get me started on this 'off topic' crap.

a conversation that must stay on the topic. bollox. forums are about fun and discussion and information. not about rules and regulations and standing in rank and file lines speaking only when spoken to.
you want that, join the army.

tallaght01

So many times I've been annoyed when I've seen threads closed when they're still active. It definitely makes me use the forum less when it happens. It started happening a lot on the ladies lounge a while back, so i stopped using it as much (which is fair enough, as I'm not a bird ).

But a lot of mods just feel free to close threads for pretty rubbish reasons. I think if people are actively posting (which is what the site is for) and it's not getting way out of hand, then I think there should have to be a really good reason to close it.

What really bugs me is how on some forums mods will close threads because "this topic has been discussed several times before" and they'll then also close a thread if you "drag up an old thread"! bizzarre.

Open threads FTW!

Overheal

Free Tibet!

muffler

WhiteWashMan wrote: »

and while im at it, it makes me worried that all those comments came from mods.

Why? It doesn't bother me.

Maybe 2002 was a bad year

WhiteWashMan

muffler wrote: »

Why? It doesn't bother me.

Maybe 2002 was a bad year

it bothers me becuase you all agree that closing a thread for no reason is a justifiable thing.

zzzzzzzz

Maybe we should close this thread? After all, we're just bickering - right??

I think that threads are closed way too easily on this site - what's the problem if people want to argue about something that has already been argued about? Who cares? Let them bicker away, I say!

Sully

Right I think this topic has ran its course. There can be nothing gained from discussing the matter further.

Topic Closed.

Red Hand

Just out of interest, why do some mods get so hot under the collar if you drag up an old thread, and post a comment on it? It may be one or two years old since the last comment, and yet such threads are also locked, often straight after the most recent comment.

tallaght01 mentioned it above, but it's happened to me once or twice. Somebody revives an old thread, and I've never seen it before and it interests me, and by the time I've read through it all, and want to post a comment...it ends up being locked.

Hobbes

WWMan is the pinnacle of freedom of expression (and I mean that in a good way ). While I agree with him to some extent the answer is a bit more complicated.

The truth is it really depends on the forum. To give an example lets say the Islam forum. Posting about Aisha is not liable to get a thread locked but it is liable to annoy the regulars of the forum. Mainly because the subject has been done to death numerous times. If you ask a question that has already been answered your going to illicit a negative response. Moderators who are in a forum for a long time are aware this is going to happen and may pre-empt by a lock. Every forum has a similar subject matter.

The other thing is where you get into the infinity spiral . Both sides think they are right, neither backing down and the subject goes around and around and around. Not even agree to disagree. This happend a lot on politics. All it does is create noise on a valid subject. In such instances threads have run their course.

Jeremiah 16:1 wrote: »

Just out of interest, why do some mods get so hot under the collar if you drag up an old thread, and post a comment on it?

Depends a lot of how it was done. If you had a valid reason to bump it then it shouldn't be an issue. Often though threads are bumped with stupid responses in a way to goad people responding to a hot thread when the arguments are over.

One other thing to realise, certainly with the really old threads is that a lot of the first boards.ie people know each other well. Have gone drinking together, dated, broken up, married and all other sorts of carry on. Some threads have back stories outside of boards (like hearing an old tune and it reminds you of that time you woke up naked in some field in Kerry after a binge session ). So bumping those sort of threads can cause rational actions to go out the window.

Red Hand

OK, fair enough, thanks Hobbes.

Marksie

In PI bumping an old thread serves no purpose as the issue is in history as it were. If it is the OP updating that different of course

peasant

WhiteWashMan wrote: »

it bothers me becuase you all agree that closing a thread for no reason is a justifiable thing.

Opening a thread on cyclist vs motorists (a hot topic at the best of times) with a gem like "bastard cyclists" doesn't equate with "no reason"

That is the most perfect reason to close it ...on the motors forum anyway.

The alternative would be edits, warnings and bannings left, right and centre ..handed out by two (now three) mods on a rota, keeping a constant eye on the thread.

We're mods with a life ...not air traffic controllers.

During normal business hours, the motors forum has constantly more than 100 people reading it ...motors goes trough three,four pages of posts a day. It's hard enough keeping an eye on all of them without having to stay with one thread through every post.

Closing it early is the least painful option for all involved.

peasant

peasant wrote: »

Opening a thread on cyclist vs motorists (a hot topic at the best of times) with a gem like "bastard cyclists" doesn't equate with "no reason"

That is the most perfect reason to close it ...on the motors forum anyway.

I have to admit, I love those threads. I'm a cyclist and I'm always looking in the Motors Forum for those cyclenazi threads, and on the Cycling Forum for the cyclenazis of a different colour.

emma peel

Admittedly I am new here, but in the very short time I have been on the board, I have seen a thread closed just now for absolutely no reason that I can ascertain. I have been a mod on a large board before, and I'm no stranger to why threads get closed. But I am beginning to suspect that spirited discussion/debate -- or in this case, fairly perfunctory discussion -- isn't encouraged here. I hope I am wrong.

Mr Magnolia

emma peel wrote: »

Admittedly I am new here, but in the very short time I have been on the board, I have seen a thread closed just now for absolutely no reason that I can ascertain. I have been a mod on a large board before, and I'm no stranger to why threads get closed. But I am beginning to suspect that spirited discussion/debate -- or in this case, fairly perfunctory discussion -- isn't encouraged here. I hope I am wrong.

Link?

Sully

emma peel wrote: »

Admittedly I am new here, but in the very short time I have been on the board, I have seen a thread closed just now for absolutely no reason that I can ascertain. I have been a mod on a large board before, and I'm no stranger to why threads get closed. But I am beginning to suspect that spirited discussion/debate -- or in this case, fairly perfunctory discussion -- isn't encouraged here. I hope I am wrong.

To be fair that revenge topic in PI needed closure.

Doctor DooM

Just to stick my oar in, I know its annoying when something has been discussed before, but it tends to be new people who post those threads and it's very discouraging for them to be lambasted/ have their thread closed for, to them, no apparent reason. I think it would put them off starting threads again (also, bear in mind efficient use of search engines is a skill that not everyone holds, so the whole "do a search first" thing isn't always a good answer.)

Yesterday there were 2 threads in the Atheism forum about Westboro and Jesus Camp. They might have been closed, but as it happened there's was a new update at the end of the Jesus Camp programme, which would have been missed by me if the thread was closed.

Ponster

aidan.offbeat wrote: »

Maybe we should close this thread? After all, we're just bickering - right??

Nope. Go look up the meaning of 'bickering'.

A lot of mods will close threads once they can smell a flamewar building up. Believe it or not but this can sometimes be to protect members from getting themselves banned. There is a rule (unwritten?) that once a thread heads away from the original subject in the OP a mod can close it or try and direct it back to its original purpose. The decision usually comes down to what has already been posted in the thread.

Peasant said it all really.

Beruthiel

emma peel wrote: »

Admittedly I am new here, but in the very short time I have been on the board, I have seen a thread closed just now for absolutely no reason that I can ascertain. I have been a mod on a large board before, and I'm no stranger to why threads get closed. But I am beginning to suspect that spirited discussion/debate -- or in this case, fairly perfunctory discussion -- isn't encouraged here. I hope I am wrong.

Because I don't suffer fools gladly and that thread was hardly a PI.

WhiteWashMan

peasant wrote: »

Opening a thread on cyclist vs motorists (a hot topic at the best of times) with a gem like "bastard cyclists" doesn't equate with "no reason"

*mental note to self.
close all threads which may be a 'hot' topic, or may require me to keep an eye on it, just so that I can have a nice easy mod life.