Is insincere / random banter just not allowed on AH anymore?

hatrickpatrick

Should it be re-named "Interwebz is srs bznz"?

I've been meaning to post this here for a while, but two very specific examples have caught my eye today. Firstly, the following:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057536381

Inside is a link to a news story about a US town which has banned solar panels on the grounds that they waste the sun's energy or some other such verifiable ridiculousness. The thread title presented that argument as a fact. Now to me this is a very obvious form of snide satire - something which has been a part of AH culture since I joined Boards in '07 and probably since long before that - but the thread was closed because no summary or comment on the article was provided, which would have ruined the bait and switch joke the OP was intending.

The second instance is the following:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057536716

This one is a very obvious example of someone posting on the wrong forum - where it should have been taken to the motoring forum or the personal issues forum. However, it has long been the AH tradition to ruthlessly rip the piss out of such serious / advice seeking posters for a while until eventually informing them that AH isn't the place for such discussions - yet these days the threads get locked almost immediately as soon as any sarcasm or craic begins to develop within.

I had only intended to post those but a third one popped up in my autocomplete so I may as well include it:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057535034

Hard to tell if the author is serious or taking the piss here but the same thing applies. It was breaking some non-existant "importance / social relevance" rule.

It feels like AH is being steered, clearly against its own historical culture and user base, towards being an incredible mundane, stale and sincere forum. This was never what AH was for and the number of banterous threads getting locked indicates that it's not what its users want - so what exactly is the point? We have Politics Cafe for political discussion which is fair enough, but it strikes me that there's a movement to turn AH into a monotonous /b/ style situation where there's almost no wit or originality and only long running numbers, lists, anecdotes etc threads left, along with a handful of serious discussions of heavy social issues (but kept within a relatively limited purview, no piss taking allowed beyond a small amount)

I normally don't post threads like this, but lately it really feels like the soul is being sucked out of AH. It used to be that threads were locked because they were either too controversial, broke rules, or caused drama - now it seems there's an added "this is pointless" criteria which of course is a highly opinion-based thing to define, and which essentially means that AH is coming to resemble more the comment / letters and puzzles page of a newspaper than the random craic it used to revolve around.

It strikes me that a headlined thread linking to a Waterford Whispers article could now get locked because "article is satire, thread title misleading" - that's not what AH is supposed to be about, or at least it never used to be.

Maybe this is just me and I'm just grumbling like an 'auld fella, but I doubt it...?

Ciderswigger

I can only comment on the second example because I was the last one to post in it before it was locked and I have to agree. I was surprised to see it locked and the OP given directions to the motor forum. Same as, I thought the usual AH crowd would have a good laugh.

kneemos

Could never figure out what harm these threads do?If people want to post nonsense let them at it,they can be quiet amusing.

Into The Blue

The whole forum is pointless, (most threads could be put into more relavant forums, but threads would die quickly), but the clicks keep the lights on..

So until the actual forums generate enough clicks to pay the bills, boards is stuck with ah (its most popular forum)

Lovely Bloke

You see, witty repartee may offend someone.

God (or other applicable deity, or none at all) Forbid.

Imagine a new user, posting in AH and having the piss ripped out of them. Shure they might never come back. We couldn't be having that. Oh No, not at all.

Eugene Norman

Closing the turkey thread seems really odd. It's clearly designed to be a frivolous AH post.

Penn

Why do people all of a sudden think After Hours doesn't have rules?

Pretty much everything posted above breaches the charter in some way, and the charter is based on years of history, review and discussion.

From the charter, which sums it up better than I can (emphasis mine):

Don't be a dick.

If you can do that you're unlikely to encounter any problems here.

What is After Hours?
After hours is the place to come on boards where general discussion can be light-hearted. The aim here is to have a bit of a laugh, a bit of a chat and not to piss anybody off while doing so.

If someone posted a serious thread in AH by mistake and AH posters start taking the p*ss (or direct their "witty repartee" at them), of course the mods will and should close/move it. Same happens everywhere on Boards.

HIB

kneemos wrote: »

Could never figure out what harm these threads do?If people want to post nonsense let them at it,they can be quiet amusing.

Couldn't agree more. Why does everything have to have a point? What's so sacred about making a point.

Best forum thread I ever read. http://www.peoplesrepublicofcork.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43805

Pssst....try proc...... You don't even have to be from cork..... Just act natural and the langers won't know the difference.

kneemos

Penn wrote: »

Why do people all of a sudden think After Hours doesn't have rules?

Pretty much everything posted above breaches the charter in some way, and the charter is based on years of history, review and discussion.

From the charter, which sums it up better than I can (emphasis mine):


If someone posted a serious thread in AH by mistake and AH posters start taking the p*ss (or direct their "witty repartee" at them), of course the mods will and should close/move it. Same happens everywhere on Boards.

Think we're all aware of the holy grail.The point the OP was making was the lack of harmless banter.

Penn

HIB wrote: »

Couldn't agree more. Why does everything have to have a point? What's so sacred about making a point.

Best forum thread I ever read. http://www.peoplesrepublicofcork.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43805

Pssst....try proc...... You don't even have to be from cork..... Just act natural and the langers won't know the difference.

If that's what AH would be like by allowing those types of threads, I for one think we're better off without them.

sonny.knowles

Health and Safety gone mad.

Eugene Norman

Penn wrote: »

If that's what AH would be like by allowing those types of threads, I for one think we're better off without them.

Those kind of threads used to exist. What was wrong with the turkey thread?

kneemos

Eugene Norman wrote: »

Those kind of threads used to exist. What was wrong with the turkey thread?

Killed their Golden Goose imo.AH is only a shadow of its former self.

sonny.knowles

kneemos wrote: »

Killed their Golden Goose imo.AH is only a shadow of its former self.

Agreed - where have the threads about people sh***ing themselves gone? Or is there a scat forum I just haven't discovered yet?

Grayditch

The drysh1tes will always win.

El Weirdo

My guess...

Example 1 was locked because the OP just posted a link and essentially just posted a one sentance synopsis of the article. This goes against the charter as "AH is not a news dump", and posters are expected to add something to help get the discussion started.

Example 2 was in the wrong forum.

Example 3 was a parody thread, iirc.

kneemos

El Weirdo wrote: »

My guess...

Example 1 was locked because the OP just posted a link and essentially just posted a one sentance synopsis of the article. This goes against the charter as "AH is not a news dump", and posters are expected to add something to help get the discussion started.

Example 2 was in the wrong forum.

Example 3 was a parody thread, iirc.

We know the rules,that's what he's arguing about.

Harry Palmr

Knockabout humour has been killed by the current regime. Any chance of a coup?

What's After Hours for if not sh'its and giggles?

K-9

Seems to be a few pointless/random threads there atm. I wouldn't read it as regularly as I used to but is there an element of "it was better in my day" to it?

Harry Palmr

Maybe its time for a forum called Pub Talk.

Earthhorse

Of those three examples I feel the 2nd and 3rd are applying the charter rules to a fault. There was no real harm being created by the presence of those threads nor was any harmful precedent being set.

If we're going to roll out the "don't be a dick" rule then surely that should be applied to whoever you thought was being a dick and not the thread starter?

Insect Overlord

Back in the day, the random/mental threads went to the Cuckoo's Nest. But then tCN argued that they didn't want to be the recycling bin of After Hours.

Nowadays it's rarely very active. A lot of the old regulars are gone, so maybe the crew in there now might be more receptive to a few odd threads from AH?

Thanks for your feedback. I won't get into specifics regarding the threads listed as we are currently discussing this, but this issue was raised before, and we addressed it as best we could at the time. Most of the mods of the forum at that time, have since moved on, so we have a lot of new mods finding their feet who wouldn't have been involved in older feedback threads.

As I said, we're discussing this at the minute, and we'll keep an eye on it again. I agree that we should keep threads open whenever possible, so we'll have a chat on how best to do that and to get other mod opinions before locking them up, unless of course they are blatant charter breaches or legal issues.

If anyone feels that a thread has been locked unnecessarily, we are always open to outside opinions. So please feel free to report the closing post and give us a decent reason to consider re-opening it. Mod decision is not always final and we are very much happy to get user feedback and look at ways of improving the forum.

We are also all in full agreement that the place needs more lightheartedness about it.

Earthhorse

One suggestion that might help both mods and users is the introduction of thread tags, like in Site Development. When creating a thread a users could have the option to label it as Serious meaning only serious replies are welcome on the thread. This seems to have worked successfully in many of the major subreddits and I don't see why boards would be different.

I realise it's probably contingent on the the new site rolling out and the particulars would have to be teased out but I think it could save everyone a lot of time and become an effective tool of self-moderation.

hatrickpatrick

sonny.knowles wrote: »

Agreed - where have the threads about people sh***ing themselves gone? Or is there a scat forum I just haven't discovered yet?

Flutt got banned years ago

My favourite AH quote of all time, regarding an unfortunate incident in a taxi: "A butcher's pocketful of gas escaped my chicken coop"...

HIB

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Maybe its time for a forum called Pub Talk.

Sounds like a plan.
Leave after hours for the point loving, on topic-ing, 'frivolity is not allowed' brigade. They're savage craic and all, but I fancy a break from them.

Shield

The Forum Requests forum can be found here if you're being serious.

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Maybe its time for a forum called Pub Talk.

Azalea

kneemos wrote: »

Killed their Golden Goose imo.AH is only a shadow of its former self.

Strange from someone who regularly posts there.

mynameis905

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks for your feedback. I won't get into specifics regarding the threads listed as we are currently discussing this, but this issue was raised before, and we addressed it as best we could at the time. Most of the mods of the forum at that time, have since moved on, so we have a lot of new mods finding their feet who wouldn't have been involved in older feedback threads.

As I said, we're discussing this at the minute, and we'll keep an eye on it again. I agree that we should keep threads open whenever possible, so we'll have a chat on how best to do that and to get other mod opinions before locking them up, unless of course they are blatant charter breaches or legal issues.

If anyone feels that a thread has been locked unnecessarily, we are always open to outside opinions. So please feel free to report the closing post and give us a decent reason to consider re-opening it. Mod decision is not always final and we are very much happy to get user feedback and look at ways of improving the forum.

We are also all in full agreement that the place needs more lightheartedness about it.

That's great and all, but sometimes threads are just randomly locked without any post from a mod. This one may not have been locked by you personally but jesus mods, at least do a quick closing post to say why a thread is being locked.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057535034

challengemaster

Penn wrote: »

Why do people all of a sudden think After Hours doesn't have rules?

Pretty much everything posted above breaches the charter in some way, and the charter is based on years of history, review and discussion.

From the charter, which sums it up better than I can (emphasis mine):


If someone posted a serious thread in AH by mistake and AH posters start taking the p*ss (or direct their "witty repartee" at them), of course the mods will and should close/move it. Same happens everywhere on Boards.

Feedback had rules too back in the day and yet most of the threads still resulted in 10+ pages of lolcat pics.

In fairness, that changed for a multitude of reasons including having a bit of proper order to the place once distilled media came in, and having actual functional feedback for the website.

I'd agree with the OP, there has been an increase of site-wide "minus craic" over the last while.

sonny.knowles

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Flutt got banned years ago

My favourite AH quote of all time, regarding an unfortunate incident in a taxi: "A butcher's pocketful of gas escaped my chicken coop"...

Ha ha. I just got banned from After Hours for calling a poster a knobhead. Since when could you not a poster a knobhead in AH? Healthy and safety gone mad.