Moving threads

[Boston Guy]

The description of this forum -- "The Lounge" -- read as follows: "A place to gather and exchange ideas."

 

Well, here's an idea to discuss and it's specifically directed to HooBoy and the moderators: I think moving threads from the forum in which they are started to another forum is a piss-poor idea.

 

I started two threads in The Lounge, one called "A Love Affair" and the other "American Funerals". I specifically started them in The Lounge, for two reasons: (1) while the subject matter of each was tangentially related to politics, neither was, at it's heart, about politics at all; and (2) threads placed in the Politics forum are skipped by many people, who simply choose to ignore that entire forum. (How do I know this? Because people have posted that fact here and because people have said this to me in private emails.)

 

Frankly, I see very little value in having so many forums. Some, like the Travel section, serve a useful purpose. But this Message Center has gotten so complicated, with so many forums, that people simply skip large parts of it. Atkol went through a similar evolution a few years ago and you know what? Most of the forums over there are simply skipped by most people. The site has gone into a great decline and I think the division of threads into so many different forums and the enforcement of that division by having threads moved by moderators has been one of the reasons Atkol has seen its popularity wane. It is not a model to emulate here, or at least it is not a model for success.

 

Everyone who visits here is aware of the structure of the various forums. It is my impression that everyone who visits here is also an adult, one quite capable of deciding what forum is most appropriate for a thread that is being created.

 

This Message Center exists only and solely because people who come here are willing to take time out of their day to share their thoughts with other people who visit here. Absent these contributions, the Message Center would die an almost immediate death. Yet the continual creation of more and more forums, combined with the enforced movement of threads that were purposely started in one forum to another is to treat the very people who are creating the messages that make up 100% of the content here as if they are children.

 

Am I pissed that these threads were moved? You bet. Do I think that either one belongs in the politics forum? No, I do not.

 

Further, I think some of the forums should be eliminated and that the moderators should immediately cease the practice of moving threads from one forum to another. So what if a thread is started on subject that might technically belong in another forum? With the exception of the Travel forum, where it is my impression that old threads are deleted on a regular basis, no maintainance is done on the other forums. Absoluately no work is involved in allowing threads to start, live and die of their own accord in whatever forum the thread author wants to start them. I see no harm whatsoever.

 

On the other hand, moving threads from one forum to the other risks alienating and aggravating the author of the threads, for no good reason. Instead of welcoming the free content and thanking God or whomever that people are willing to contribute time and energy to this site for free, their hands are being slapped and threads are moved -- without notice and without any indication of who actually moved the thread. Having it done to you is a lot like being three years old and having your hands slapped.

 

Am I pissed? You bet.

 

BG

[OneFinger]

>...I think moving threads from the forum in which they are started to another forum is a piss-poor idea.

 

First, I'm not HooBoy or a Moderator so perhaps I shouldn't be responding to this thread. But, I do have an opinion so I am responding.

 

I totally agree that your original posts were not meant to be of a political nature. However, there was a good potential that the responses would be controverisial or of a political nature.

 

I side with the moderators moving the thread to another topic. IMHO it was appropriate and a better place for the discussion.

[FrancoDiSantisxxx]

Appropos

 

>>...I think moving threads from the forum in which they

>are started to another forum is a piss-poor idea.

>

 

>I totally agree that your original posts were not meant to be

>of a political nature. However, there was a good potential

>that the responses would be controverisial or of a political

>nature.

>

>I side with the moderators moving the thread to another topic.

>IMHO it was appropriate and a better place for the discussion.

 

I often think a number of threads are started in the wrong place: for example, the DELI is where we "discuss escorts" and yet escorts post their web sites and clients discuss escorts in this forum, The Lounge, frequently. As I have long stated, especially because so many clients enjoy answering the ASK THE ESCORTS threads, a new forum would be a good idea, i.e., ASK THE CLIENTS. Finally, yes, there are a lot of forums but the great majority of them are very topic specific: escorts in certain geographic areas, massage/body workers and strippers, for example. I have no interest in strippers and I am sure many clients do not as well. However, when I traveled to New York and was interested in possibly going to the GAIETY, I knew exactly where to go. I have also pointed clients who were traveling to, for example, Buenos Aires, to both the specific review section and to the ESCORTS SOUTH OF THE USA forum.

 

You are right. There are times I have been tempted to start a topic which I knew could, in this 'hot house' environment and with the crowd we have, generate both controversy and political disagreement, even if that was neither intended nor apparent from my initial post. However, once posted, we have no real control, within the limits imposed by Hoo Boy and the moderators. I have, at times, reconsidered posting at all, or posted in the political forum, even though there often is little readership or interest.

[HooBoy]

Personally, I enjoyed your comments about Funerals. I was sorry to see other people derail your thoughts by denigrating you and other members.

 

After that, I suppose it evolved into a topic the Moderators felt was more appropriate elsewhere.

 

I am sorry you are pissed and upset. I will take your comments into consideration as I implement the new structure of this Message Center.

 

Thank you for all your contributions.

[+ deej]

>Am I pissed? You bet.

 

I'm very sorry you're pissed. I posted to that thread and was surprised to see it moved. But based on its current content I agree with the decision to move it, no matter who made that decision.

 

Most of the forums here were created based on member requests. People got tired of the weekly "at the Gaiety" threads in the lounge. People got tired of incessant nattering about Rio. People got tired of the Lounge getting mired in politics.

 

For every complaint you've got, Hooboy gets a hundred that may or may not agree with you and he does his best to average things out and try to be accomodating (although I'm STILL trying to imagine what brought us the Fetish forum ;-)).

 

I'll disagree with you about ATKOL's demise, but that's another discussion entirely. (It's still a viable forum, btw.) I've talked with Jeff, who deserves a lot more respect than generally accorded, and I know a little about what went on over there.

 

There is much that can and might change around here. Moving threads that are potentially politically charged to the area reserved for them isn't one of them. Sorry, bud.

 

Having said that, hailing frequencies are open. Hoo is listening always, as you can see from his response on this thread.

[ValleyDwellerNorth]

x(

 

 

 

Smilies don't work when they're the first thing on a line. Put a space in front of it.

[JamesK840]

Maybe, instead of moving threads that become political, off-topic, and offensive the posts that make them so could be deleted? Otherwise aren't you simply making it so the Doug and Woodie show can get everything they disagree with moved into the unread (wonder why..?) political forum?

 

I think the originator of a thread should be able to generally set the topic, and hopefully those of us here to exchange ideas will stay within that general topic within that thread. Otherwise we can start a new topic. Somebody wants to post an entirely political response to a thread then they can do it in the right place, somebody wants to go on a ranting personal attack and turn a good thread to shit...

 

Just my 2 pence.

[jackhammer91406]

Mine fields

 

BG,

I have been tempted several times to comment on threads this past 10 days. Several of them involved ideas that you posted, including the funeral thread. In one thread you posted a train of thought that attempted to described the decline of civil discourse in this country . That concept is one that has troubled me for a number of years, and I have tried several times to post those thoughts over a number of months , but never with the clarity with which you "spoke".

That being said, when we post here, it is with the clear caveat that often times our original threads will become something else again when added to by others. I don't single anyone out for this practice, because to an extent, we are all complicit in this kind of thing. It's the nature of sharing ideas in a forum such as this. Everyone has the ability to post a response that can end up being on topic or stray to a different perspective altogether,(I won't speak of rights, since that leads to arguments of censorship ad museum).

 

I thought your intent in the post was clear and forthright. But the thread quickly became a rehash of similar threads already begun on the theme of the deceased president. It became political. Not your doing, but you can hardly be surprised given the climate in the country the past week or so (or dare I day decade or so) and more specifically , the climate in this message center.

 

I have found in the past, that whenever I wanted to make a broad observation on social, political, or ethnic topics, something I said inadvertently would trigger a response where someone could point out my previous statements or inferences, and make a case (valid or not) that I was some kind of hypocrite or was preaching. It's fair game. We navigate in a mine field, because we are touching on thoughts in our MIND field.

 

the job of the moderators generally is a thankless one, since what one poster loves, another will rail against.

 

In the case of your post, a great topic for discussion got marginalized into a political one which caused it to be banished to the nether regions of the forums list. Perhaps that was the intent of the posters who responded that way all along.

 

In any case, for what it's worth, my two cents (actually devalued to 3/4 of a cent given the current exchange rates) :

 

( author's note, I wrote 7 very intelligent and poignant paragraphs regarding the national events of the past 10 days, and then in re-reading, realized that they could possibly cause this thread to be moved as well, and rightfully so, so discretion being greater than ego, I have deleted them prior to publication. Trust me tho, they were spot on and very pithy {that's pissy with a TH]).

[Rick Munroe]

RE: Mine fields

 

>pithy (that's pissy with a TH]).

 

I was just about to ask!

[Rick Munroe]

>I will take your

>comments into consideration as I implement the new structure

>of this Message Center.

 

May I make a suggestion? Can we have an Ass forum? }(

[Guest Tampa Yankee]

>Maybe, instead of moving threads that become political,

>off-topic, and offensive the posts that make them so could be

>deleted?

 

I dont agree in the extreme. First of all the message center is a forum for open discussion. Who is do decide what is offensive? Where is the line drawn? That is not to say that there are not posts that go over the line and that they cannot be recognized. Egregious examples of bad taste are obvious to most. A few just don't care. The less egregious instance is a gray area. Drawing lines is an exact exercise. Deciding where to draw them is not. I think the moderators do a decent job on the whole. I recall a few instances where I thought a post should have been tossed or that a post was needlessly consigned to Siberia. Until I am the moderator I suspect I will continue to have an occasional difference.

 

Otherwise aren't you simply making it so the Doug

>and Woodie show can get everything they disagree with moved

>into the unread (wonder why..?) political forum?

>

 

Contributors can drive the thread in a certain direction as apparently has been done to BG's threads. Unfortunate maybe, but that is the nature of an open board. And there must be sufficient contributing support to take the thread in that direction. So i dont think the credit goes to a single contributor or even a pair, as their exchange would wind up being a subthread dialog in its purest meaning.

 

I dont share your view of the motives of Doug and Woodie. They like to participate in discussion for whatever reason. Each has contributed some very fine discussion. I dont think that they desire to have discussions with those they disagree with consigned to the coat room. On the contrary they like to exchange ideas, fact, and arguments out in the open. They also enjoy taking some to task out front too. All part of a vibrant board.

 

 

>I think the originator of a thread should be able to generally

>set the topic, and hopefully those of us here to exchange

>ideas will stay within that general topic within that thread.

 

Oh what a nice polite planet you must come from.

 

>Otherwise we can start a new topic. Somebody wants to post an

>entirely political response to a thread then they can do it in

>the right place, somebody wants to go on a ranting personal

>attack and turn a good thread to shit...

 

This occasionally happens. A contributor wants to take the thread in another direction and starts a new one with some introductory background about the other thread. I suspect that they also originate from your planet.

[Guest Tampa Yankee]

BG,

 

Sorry about the thread. I hoped it would not become a 'political football' but I cannot say that I am suprised.

 

>Frankly, I see very little value in having so many forums.

>Some, like the Travel section, serve a useful purpose.

 

I actually appreciate the segregation of topics as there are several in which I have no interest. Guess I am lazy. I liken it to the analogy of limited access highways that take me where I want to go on an express path and the local streets that require I negotiate every intersection along the way. Another analogy might be walking through a nice clear pasture or through a littered pasture stepping over the cow patties or land mines, depending on one's designation of the landscape. (Of course that is no guarnatee that I will not encounter the odd land mine anyway...lol.) :+

 

>But this Message Center has gotten so complicated, with so

>many forums, that people simply skip large parts of it.

 

True parts are skipped but not so because of the complicated structure, rather because of the segregation of topics, at least in my case. I think it is a good thing. It is unfortunate that some threads get consigned to a forum that may be out of the way for some of us. But on the whole I do appreciate the fact that threads in which I have no interest do get consigned to their own topic fora. That simplifies my visits, it doesn't complicate them.

 

TY

[woodlawn]

>Maybe, instead of moving threads that become political,

>off-topic, and offensive the posts that make them so could be

>deleted? Otherwise aren't you simply making it so the Doug

>and Woodie show can get everything they disagree with moved

>into the unread (wonder why..?) political forum?

 

To the best of my recollection the "unread" political forum at one time contained some lengthy and rather acerbic conversations between you and Ad rian on his favorite subject, the Mideast. Unless you think everyone who reads this board has amnesia, stop pretending that the political forum is some weird place that has nothing to do with you.

 

For the record, I'm not in the habit of asking moderators to move or delete anything. I didn't participate in the threads BG is talking about, but I am not sure why he thinks the MC will die due to the proliferation of topic-specific forums. I ignore most of the forums because the topics to which they're ostensibly devoted don't interest me. I don't see why others can't do the same.

[+ deej]

RE: Mine fields

 

>train of thought that attempted to described the decline of

> civil discourse in this country . That concept is one

>that has troubled me for a number of years, and I have tried

>several times to post those thoughts over a number of months ,

>but never with the clarity with which you "spoke".

 

Jane, you ignorant slut!

 

Sometimes, it's worthwhile to back off and look at how we're talking to each other.

 

Point well-made, my friend.

[+ Charlie]

I think the subdivision of the board into different fora has been, on the whole, a good thing. The main problem has resulted from trying to separate items out of the Lounge, which has the vaguest mandate of all (no one would oppose the movement of a question about bathhouses in Budapest from the Deli to the European section, for instance). As I remember, the creation of the Politics forum followed 9/11, when the Lounge was overwhelmed with threads that were "political" in nature, because that was the only forum in which to logically start them. Many of the discussions were long, hysterical, and filled with personal vituperation, and I suspect the Politics forum was created to segregate those issues for readers who were specifically interested in them (and to placate the readers of the Lounge who were upset by them). The problem, however, is in moderators making a judgment about whether a thread is "political"--after all, don't many discussions about "ideas" have some political dimension? IMHO, the Politics forum should be collapsed back into the Lounge, possibly with some sort of flag on threads that specifically discuss factional politics.

 

And while I'm at it, I would suggest that the Fetish forum was unnecessary, and its threads should also be reincorporated into the Lounge. There has not been a single post there in the past ten days.

[HooBoy]

There was a valid reason for the Fetish Forum.

 

Anyone who made a contribution to this website when I needed help can write to me and I will explain.

[jackhammer91406]

RE: Mine fields

 

(I won't speak of rights,

>since that leads to arguments of censorship ad museum).

 

Sometimes the print on the computer screen is just too small for these old eyes, and spell check doesn't always work either. Obviously, it should read ad nauseum.x(