The After Hours mods cant be arsed to handle any controversial threads anymore

Dep!

Last night I created this thread asking "What happened to Madeleine McCann?"

It was a thread I put a lot of thought and research into as it is quite a controversial one. I spent time looking for links, I spent time giving 8 different poll options to the question. It went to 6 pages in a short space of time and it was looking like a great debate was going to be had.

Then this morning I wake up to this from a mod;

This isn't the murder she wrote forum.

The poll options had been modified by then to suit their own agenda and with that it was locked.

Now.

Why is this becoming more and more common in After Hours?

As soon as a thread that has hugely dividing opinions starts to kick off a mod decides that, instead of keeping a close on eye the thread like they signed upto do, that to close it would make theirs and the other mod's lives easier.

Everything just gets locked now if it looks like effort and this isnt how it is at all on other forums. Take the site that is probably the closest thing to After Hours in the UK, Digital Spy forums' "General Discussion" section, a site I frequented a lot when I lived in the UK. Out of the first 450 topics there, just 4 have been locked!

Now why cant After Hours have the same flow and open debate to it? In the past 36 hours alone, 4 threads have been closed on there and something needs to change.

Take the locking of the UFC thread last night as another example of how poor things have gone in After Hours.

The mod in question was a very active poster in this thread and clearly didnt like and agree with some of the opnions so he locked it.

How does someone this childish get anywhere near modding a forum as popular as After Hours?

AH used to have all topics and all sides to them. A thread was only really locked when the debate started going in the of "Yore Ma" type comments. But now, anything that a mod themselves doesnt agree with it now gets closed. Because to leave it open would take effort right?

Im not sure if it needs all new mods or just more of them to handle the traffic it gets. But one I am sure of is things need to change in After Hours.

The Hill Billy

Ah, c'mon - asking AH posters to view 4 hours of footage & then participate in a discussion? Would you go on outta that! That level of effort is above & beyond the type of 'bar chat' that usually occurs in the forum.

And why so indignant over a bit of AH-style humour with editing the poll? Personally, I think the current poll is even better.

Look - members' Feedback is always welcome, but when you do so by making digs such as calling mods childish, you don't do your arguments any favours. Try dropping the mods a civil PM asking why the threads were closed. Then if you are still unsatisfied, give us your feedback here, again - in a civil manner.

Orim

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Ah, c'mon - asking AH posters to view 4 hours of footage & the participate in a discussion? Would you go on outta that! That level of effort is above & beyond the type of 'bar chat' that usually occurs in the forum.

And why so indignant over a bit of AH-style humour with editing the poll? Personally, I think the current poll is even better.

Look - members' Feedback is always welcome, but when you do so by making digs such as calling mods childish, you don't do your arguments any favours. Try dropping the mods a civil PM asking why the threads were closed. The, if you are still unsatisfied, give us your feedback here, again - in a civil manner.

Isn't AH supposed to getting away from the 'bar chat' cliche? Hasn't a more serious and grown up AH been the drive for the last couple of years?

Even if it's not - "I saw a great documentary about Madeleine McCann and here's what I think happened" seems like bar chat to me.

Granted the OP hasn't done themselves any favours with the digs but there's also another example but that appears to be open now so maybe they jumped the gun.

Zaph

Not sure why everything needs to have a poll OP, but Feedback isn't the place for them thanks.

pablomakaveli

Orim wrote: »

Isn't AH supposed to getting away from the 'bar chat' cliche? Hasn't a more serious and grown up AH been the drive for the last couple of years?

Even if it's not - "I saw a great documentary about Madeleine McCann and here's what I think happened" seems like bar chat to me.

Why though? That was the whole point of AH in the first place. The other forums are for more serious chat.

Diamond Doll

I'd actually be in agreement with the OP here. No not everyone's going to be arsed watching a four-hour video, I didn't bother myself, but I still found it interesting to read everyone's opinions and ideas about the case after all this time. I mean the thread got lots of responses, clearly quite a few people thought it was a topic worth discussing.

I do realise mods are unpaid volunteers, and maybe this thread was creating a lot of work for them behind the scenes that we'd be unaware of. In general though, I'd be of the opinion that locking an active thread should be a last resort.

Nodin

Dep! wrote: »

Last night I created this thread asking "What happened to Madeleine McCann?"

..............

I'm not unsympathetic, but think you sunk yourself when you had four hours of required viewing, tbh.

Gaygooner

Why don't you bring it to conspiracy theories

Dav

It's a Humanities or News & Media type post, not an AH one - it's certainly a "Society & Culture" topic and not a "Social & Fun" one.

End of discussion really. People using AH to reach a larger audience for their pet project is something we've been critical of for years.