Getting close-thread happy around here?

[OuTpaTienT]

Is it just me? I dunno. I see 7 or so closed threads on the first page of messages. Do we really have THAT many idiots posting rude or unacceptable messages?

I guess the one that perturbed me was the thread with us ranting about various products we hate. I don't see anything wrong with that. What's the point in that thread? Well for one, to vent. Two, to share experiences (albeit bad ones) with other users.

So SysOpt doesn't understand the point to a thread like that...um....ok. So what! I don't understand the point countless threads around here, that's no reason to close them.

And don't get me wrong SysOpt. I think you have every right to close any thread you please. But don't expect to keep friendly, helpful, intelligent, and sometimes colorful people around here if this trend continues.

And to my friends here, please let me know if I'm out of line. Maybe I just have a bug up my *** today...I dunno.

[akaBruno]

LOL http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

I think that everyone had that bug yesterday.
hehehe
But we do have to think about the sponsers. And sometimes threads just get too ragged. Oh well, what the hey, huh?

No hard feelings here. Hope you all can say the same.

Bruno

[Warthog]

I was kinda wondering why that thread was locked too. It was interesting to see what companies members like and don't like. Oh well. Whatever. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Warthog

[smunzli]

OuTpaTienT

have you ever read "ANIMAL FARM" or was it "FARM ANIMALS" oh well try it, and you will understand why!

[This message has been edited by smunzli (edited 05-28-2000).]

[Eli]

I wanted to post in that thread myself... Seemed harmless to me. There have been far more useless threads that have not been closed.

[chipbgt]

considering the content of some of the threads lately, im not surprised some are getting closed. Maybe that particular thread was closed because they have a whole forum for dealings with companies. But basically it looked like just a whining session to me, and thats why it was probably closed.

[Warthog]

Personally, I wasn't whining about anything. I don't have AOL and have only ever had it for 1 month. I was simply telling about how bad it is. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Although, others were complaining about their bad experiences with companies (how they were ripped off, etc).

Anyways, life goes on. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Warthog

[jman01pa]

Do you guys actually read this stuff? The majority of the closed posts I just viewed were simply moved to the proper forum. As for the other closures, they deserve it. Personally I am quite tired of listening to you guys whine about this stuff.

The closed topic "Name a brand name you hate and why" was not a bad idea. The content was useless. Seeing descriptions like "blow", "sucks" and "stupid" really shows the mentality of those that posted there. Come on guys be a little more mature and professional. I know you are capable of it and if not then please move on.

J http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[OuTpaTienT]

Hey jman, personally I use words like "blow" and "suck" to help convey the level of emotion I'm feeling about a subject. The more "colorful" my language, usually the more emotional I am. There's really not very many people here that are immature...however there seems to be a few that are all too willing to quickly pass judgement on others.

Regarding you being "tired of listening to you guys whine", well, no one is twisting your arm to read dude.

[oblivion]

"I guess the one that perturbed me was the thread with us ranting about various products we hate. I don't see anything wrong with that. What's the point in that thread? Well for one, to vent. Two, to share experiences (albeit bad ones) with other users."

OuTpaTienT,I totally agree with what you have said,I did see the thread about bad product ranting as being totally useful............I was not going to say anything(although I was tempted to)because I feel like my threads always draw more attention from the uppers around here(that is because of the threads I started about such things as "do you use drugs" or the whole k6 vs celeron thing)and that they will get closed quicker then if another "more respected" person posted them........but since you brought it up.............

Does every thread that the uppers "do not see the point of" have to be locked? I realize it is thier right and all,but cant we have an intelligent informative debate without thier approval? I thought the thread about bad products/companys was a great thread in potential,and it was not even looking to be a flame war at all..........I was hoping to share my experiances and learn from others about thier dealings with different companys,so I could better my knowledge as a consumer.......is not that what sysopt is supposed to be all about? Sharing knowledge and learning from one another? I am not saying that is not what is happening here,but at times we seem limited to the whims of others at seemingly random intervals.

I was not even going to bring this up,but I am now because I feel that it is related.

When I made ultimate member,I made a little post related to it and my happines with the community here.Nothing out of hand was said at all,just reflection I guess.
But it was quickly locked........why I thought at the time(and for the last couple of months)...........no other thread about any one that I have seen making ultimate member was locked.........I just naturally assumed that either scott or sysopt did not like me andlocked the thread because of it.Which is thier right,no matter how biased and opinionated it may be,it is thier right,whether right or wrong it is thier chioce......"I thought about all of that,and I also was thinking "what of objectivity?"

It does bother me about this furom how things at times seem to be locked and forgotten for no apparent reason. But hey,who am I? Just a guy posting here,my word carries no weight in these matters.....just stating my opinions that is all.

I do have respect for the members here,and I love to hear what they have to say.


I do respect socalgal's position and I understand her actions............

**** other moderation seems to be whimsical and given to opinion more then objectivity and understanding.

I do not mean to offend anyone here,so please do not take it that way,I am just talking about some things that have been on my mind for quite awhile..........and since they were brought up I felt it my duty to share them with the community.

[oblivion]

I almost feel as if my making the post I just made was a bad idea..........but I will not edit it or remove its content because of my feelings.......I am sorry if I offended anyone with that post,but that is how I was feeling here,so I should have posted it right?

[chipbgt]

Hi Oblivion http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

I went back and did a search on your locked thread about member status. I didn't see anything bad about it that would have caused it to get closed. But I have a theory, albeit a loose one: When people post about there new member status, it can give off the impression that it is an important thing to strive for. Now you and I know its not. We all remember everyone by the content of there posts not the status next to there name(seems someone says this everyday). But someone new coming in may see that thread and how warmly everyone responded to your achievement and think that the higher your post count the more welcome you are...hence we have people posting like fiends....I dont know. If you notice, socalgal did say congrats and gave you a smile before it was closed. I am guessing her view was "congrats, you have been recognized, now lets close this so it can sink down and let posts with questions stay at the top." As to why yours was the only one of those closed, I dont know. Maybe yours hung around longer than others http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif I seriously doubt it was anything personal though. I find the Guys and Gals in charge here very fair, helpful, and their willingness to get involved is a breathe of fresh air. So lets all forget about why threads are getting locked or not getting locked, lets just answer peoples questions http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif I myself am heading over to the tech support forum so see if any unanswered posts will accept my limited knowledge.

[OuTpaTienT]

I don't see anything wrong with your post O. And it certainly shouldn't offend anyone,...I mean hell, it's just your perspective on things. Just as whatever I post is my perspective on things. And if our perspective is incorrect (about threads being closed on a whim) then I'd hope any knowledgeable parties would give us the respect of setting the record straight.

Know what I mean? I really like to hear, "Hey guys, you are completely wrong. There is a rational reason for closing that thread and it is......blah, blah, blah."

But I also don't want this to get too far outta hand because I know how I am...I can hold a grudge for a long time....no, I can hold a grudge forever. So I don't wanna get all worked up over something I shouldn't. I enjoy and respect everyone around here too much to go flying off the handle.

I guess we'll just see how it goes from here on out...

[This message has been edited by OuTpaTienT (edited 05-29-2000).]

[jman01pa]

Like I orginally said. The topic was not a bad one. If the responses were less colorful and a little more intelligent the thread probably would not have been closed. Maybe I am wrong.

I like it here and intend on sticking around for a long time. Lets all be friends. No grudges here.

J http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[mgordon99]

I think this thread should be closed. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

LOL http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[zzzreyes]

I am wondering how long before sysopt gives his imput....
Hey... btw, we all have different opinions on different software, and hardware. What might be great for you might be **** to me. For example take AMD, most people here defend it with vicious bites! But me, after trying it for a while, can say that I rather have an INTEL product. Haven't given athlon a chance yet, and probably I did have a faulty proccesor, but I never had such a hard time with one before... not to mention the nasty LAG!

I am usually glad that most of the topics and post here usually stay.
I remember one time getting really mad while posting and working on a thesis, my system did a memory dump for no reason.... Lost everything, and posted a really nasty tread... It got shut within seconds of being opened.... I really need it to vent... I still don't feel to strongly (hate) microsoft products, but what the heck, if you can't beat them JOIN them

[madthumbs]

I got a little pertubed at the closing of that post. I thought I started it off right by giving an example of why I didn't like a brand. Having it locked, I did go back to spending most of my time at the 3dfx message board again. This is a great mssg. board even for non 3dfxers. Its not perfect, but I don't think that post wouldv'e been locked there, but I could be wrong. I still find good info here, but it woulda been nice to see why some brand names were hated so we could make our own educated choices. BTW, I just pass by all the 3dfx vs nvidia **** there too. :-)

[SysOpt]

What you need to understand is that we do our best to ensure that the threads here satisfy the following:

-EarthWeb's legal policies and this board's terms of use policy (which you agreed to when you registered)
-SysOpt's forum mission/purpose
-You, as the reader
-Me, as the editor-in-chief

It is virtually impossible to know where to draw the line, which is where subjectivity comes into play. Choosing to close or delete a thread is not an objective action - a variety of variables must be considered and then it's just a matter of whether I feel that it's the right course of action to take.

I closed the thread whining about companies for several reasons: One, many of the posts were bordering on slander - your identity is NOT protected if the company comes after you and demands that we provide them with your email/IP/etc - keep that in mind. Two, whine whine whine - lots of people have had lots of problems with lots of companies, but I don't think that a thread here is the right way to handle them. The only thing it accomplished was to let people vent, not help others.

Regarding posts about "hey, I've made ultimate member!", I don't have any problem with those. I don't recall closing one of that nature - perhaps it started out harmless enough but ended up being some debate about something inappropriate, who knows. Feel free to email me the link if you have it and I'll look into it.

As I've said before, a few way OT topics are ok, but I still don't understand why we can't just stick to the Internet/web, computers, hardware/software, technology, electronics, etc., for the general discussion forum, with an emphasis on Q&A and/or helping people, rather than rant threads, threads about your favorite color, etc. Pretty much anything goes in the brainstorming forum, but it's for intelligent thought provoking discussion, helping someone come up with ideas for something, etc.

Someday in the not so distant future, hopefully we'll have a chat room here so you can ask any question or make any comment you want as OT as you want, and leave the topical discussions for the forum. But right now, we have to make the forum work.

Scott

P.S.- As someone else pointed out, it's very important to note that a closed thread does not automatically mean it was shut down. Threads that get moved to another forum (from general discussion to technical support, for instance) will appear as closed in the original forum and will be open in the new forum.


[This message has been edited by SysOpt (edited 05-29-2000).]

[richamies]

As I've said before, a few way OT topics are ok, but I still don't understand why we can't just stick to the Internet/web, computers, hardware/software, technology, electronics, etc., for the general discussion forum, with an emphasis on Q&A and/or helping people, rather than rant threads, threads about your favorite color, etc.

Above quote was taken before Scott edited it, and I believe but am not sure that the thread in question was created before the Brainstorming forum and moved there at a later date(don't quote me on that!)
Didn't you start off this thread Scott? http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/Forum16/HTML/000003.html

I see no problem with people having a few friendly posts about trivial stuff. It is needed in order to keep a happy, warm atmosphere around the place. Without that atmosphere, the members, and the information they share Sysopt wouldn't be what it is today. The atmosphere is going, in my humble opinion, and soon will some of the better known and best regarded members, unless something is done.

All boards get the usual asswipes who cause trouble, post **** all the time to try and get one up on the member rankings, or just post general cack all the time. It's been happening since the dial up BBS's were in action, and it'll never go. But I cannot see any reason to stop people having normal discussions with each other.

I have absolutely nothing against any member of the forums, any member of the Admin here, and especially not Socalgal. But I don't like the way this board is headed, I fear it is going downhill and will not get caught in time to be retrieved.

I only joined in November last year and it was GREAT! It was the biggest, friendliest place on the web there was, with loads of like minded individuals who actually cared about others and their problems. How many posts were left for a couple of days, then the guy who responded bought it back up to the top by asking "How's it going 'X'? Hope it all worked out OK for ya!".

I feel that atmosphere has gone, and that is why I'm not here anything like as much as I used to be.

Sysopt is a good place to be. It used to be a GREAT place to be, the admin has always said it's the members that make Sysopt what it is. True, but the atmosphere is still controlled by the guys above the members.

I hope that nobody takes any of this personally, it was not intended to be taken as such.

Everyone on here is great - let's get things back to how they were.

Rich
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by richamies (edited 05-29-2000).]

[SysOpt]

Indeed I did start the color dilemma brainstorming thread, in the brainstorming forum. I had a problem that I needed some ideas with, OT from computers, and don't have a problem with others using the brainstorming forum for similar things.

I agree that atmosphere is important. Maybe my above post was too harsh. A community does need to discuss more than one general topic to be interesting and to survive. We don't want to police this board at all, ideally, and really don't want to be closing posts left and right. It isn't fun for us to do it and it isn't fun for you all either.

It has become more necessary as more and more people have joined the forum, many of whom don't know how things work here - as is generally a good idea elsewhere, it would be nice if people would lurk on the board for a few weeks before registering and posting something unless it's a technical question. If it's a criticism of someone or of a policy here, a way OT post, etc., lurking to figure out what things are like here, is best.

No matter what we do, you are the ones who make this board what it is. I don't know what the solution to all of this is, frankly. It didn't used to be an issue. Everything ran smoothly with little intervention on our parts. It seems that every day someone is pushing the envelope of acceptability, perhaps hoping to see what we'll do. I'd rather do nothing, but fear this forum will head into uselessness without guidance.

[This message has been edited by SysOpt (edited 05-29-2000).]

[Brydon]

I usually don't get involved in these issues as in my opinion that is why we have moderator and in my opinion Socalgal does a sterling job second to none. I feel as a member and part of the Sysopt community which I spend most of my online time that I should voice my opinion of the current events. The first thing I would say is that I am a member here and when registering agreed to obey the guidelines set down by Sysopt. I feel that these guidelines are why this board has the high reputation as THE best IT board on the net and is still attracting so many new members each day. When I first joined the board was more like a big family and everyone genuinely cared about getting to the root of the problem and following up on it to see if it was solved as Richamies said in his post. Lately there seems to be a lot of bickering about nothing which is detracting from the purpose of the board and also makes Sysopt look bad to new members. I agree totally that we should have off topic posts every now and then as it would be heck of a boring without them and they also help to keep a human feel to the forum. The majority of people on the forum are VERY knowledgeable and I hate to see all this go to waste on fighting amongst ourselves. All I am trying to say is I love it here and I never forget that being here is a privilege not a right so cant we all just get back to business as usual.

[slowlearner]

sysopt
I have to agree with you to a certain extent
where to draw the line, I posted in that topic and if you read what I wrote I had decided not to say a name brand for your reason,in effect I censored my own reply.
I think thats your point that we need to self
moderate our selfs,which a lot of us do.

[madthumbs]

I appreciate that Sysopt is attempting to protect its users from slander. I am unsure what slander is though. If it was slander wouldn't they have to show that I was lying? Also, if that was the purpose, why wasn't the whole post deleted? I didn't start the post to whine, but to help others be more aware of the products they may shop for. It seems insultive the replies from Sysopt concerning this event. Was it necessary to make a comment about "ranting", or "whining"? I believe all that was necessary was to state why the thread was closed. If someone has any guidelines or information concerning what slander is please let us all know because it seems that this whole site borders on it, though I may be wrong.

[jad1097]

Does anyone want some cheese with that?

[akaBruno]

No thanks, just fries and a Coca Cola. I hate Pepsi. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[Ed_S]

Good topic with weel thought out responses. Wish I could add something but everthing has been pretty well covered...
I'll agree with Rich in regards to the atmosphere, it's not what it was just a couple of months ago!

Also, about locked threads that are transferred. Why are they copied and locked, rather than just moved with nothing left in the original location? Seems like a waste of space to me. You could merely post to it's new location that it was moved, this would most often generate an email to the originator who would then know of the change.

Ed

[alpha]

Can I get that to go?

[jad1097]

Ya just don't get it do ya?




Ok OP a correction is due I guess.

You just do not comprehend it do ya?

[This message has been edited by jad1097 (edited 05-31-2000).]

[jad1097]

Oh and yes you could get it to go.

[OuTpaTienT]

Come'on now. How can he "get it to go" and yet still "not get it"? You're being inconsistent.

[alpha]

Oh, and no cheese on the cheese burger too.
Read that back to me there please!

[krusty the klown]

Have a nice day http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif