That makes sense, and those last two posts just made me look bad. You and Arlene said what I meant with much more clarity.
I pretty much agree with cale and willstar and arlene that there should be more freedom at to what can be posted as a thread and what should be put in random chat
See, if we allow free reign over topics, then whose to stop people from making multiple random topics everyday? Sure, some might be popular, but eventually the whole forum will become a macrocosm of the "Random Thoughts" thread, and then what's the point? A message board should differ from a chat room, imo. I would say that any thread that bears no hint of intellectual presence (ie: somewhat meaningful discussion) belongs in RT. For example: A thread concerning whether or not animals engage in organized religion is random, fun, and capable of meaningful discussion. A thread concerning whether or not the butt hair of animals influences their ability to engage in organized religion is random, more idiotic than fun, and not particularly amenable to meaningful discussion. So it would belong in the RT thread.
An open question to the admins here: Have any of you been on a forum that has a 'General Discussion' forum? This is pretty much what I'm suggesting Random Chat could be.
No, they can be seperate threads. Again, provided there is something legitimate to appreciate. So... "Appreciation of Chinese food" is fine, but... "Appreciation of poop shapes from Chinese food" not so good. @Cale: RC can be whatever people make of it. But they need to realize that there's a difference between random and pointless.
So, as long as it doesn't get out of hand, a Hayley Williams thread would be fine? Cuz I'm tired of raping RT.
So long as there's something to discuss that isn't vulgar or rule-breaking, yes it's fine. Most of the new album or movie threads are nothing more than appreciations. Also: who is Hayley Williams?
Lead singer of Paramore. Bright red hair. She's 19, looks about 16. Amazing voice. She sings me to sleep at night. Not literally, but I can't go to sleep unless it's to Riot.
This is where I get somewhat confuzzled. I mean of course Predicting Harlz's love life is pointless. But if some people get a kick out of it then why not? Not every thread has to have us coming out thinking "well I'm a smarter person for having gone in there" or have deep in depth scrutiny of the big issues. The 'not so good' examples are really extreme examples and not what i'm getting at all really.
I'm not familiar with that thread, but the reasons we tend to be more conservative are: 1. Keep the general intelligence of the forums reasonable. 2. We've seen time and again idiotic, pointless threads spiral into hell quickly. 3. Moderating takes time, and being too lenient makes the mods' job 10x difficult. If you want to talk about something pointless, sort of "spur of the moment" thing, then either use RT or do it in the chat room (I think we still have one).
1. I don't think the intelligence of the forum will decline if we're able to be post more general/light hearted threads. Most of us understand the rules and their boundaries and would know not to go outside of them. 2. I don't remember any recently but I've not really payed attention. 3. I don't think so to be honest. I mean, there are plenty of mods and admins here and a rule-breaking thread isn't that hard to identify. It's not leniency in terms of forum rules, just what is thread-worthy. Random Thoughts doesn't allow for anything to develop. 4. Maybe with more threads, increasing the threads displayed per page would be worth looking at to make it more moderator friendly. 5. Random Thoughts... 6. Thankyou.
Well to be honest, we really don't know how much work it takes to mod a forum like this... or rather I don't. What with having to moderate ALL n00b posts that take place, along with seeping through most recent threads to find offensive posts (the report-a-post button I hear is not used very often), closing necros, blablabla along with the daily rituals of real life, I'm sure moderating is fairly difficult. Not to mention how many admins and mods actually frequent the forums most of the time. Kaeton and Joe don't come by as often (not saying they're not doing their jobs of course), Omar and Todd are rarities (same), Nikki is nonexistent (again same)? Astat, Andrea, Derek are basically committed to timezones. But of course this gets beyond the point you're trying to make. The way I figure the admin-reasoning goes is... after having to deal with so much forum crap from members unlike the veterans of the board, it's hard to figure out what is being considered seriously or not. After closing/rejecting so many n00b threads, what makes the difference between that and something one of us posts? I don't know, rambling here.
The thing is, if they start allowing the random threads with no actual point, what's to stop the board from being flooded with ridiculous threads? How, then, would the Mods draw the line? You can say all you want that it won't get out of hand, but there is always that possibility. I think they're trying to eliminate that before it even gets a chance.
I think everyones exaggerating what I mean by being more lenient on thread creation. A look at any decent forum with a General Discussion/Off-Topic forum will show that they aren't the centre of all things idiotic and stupid. From what I've seen of this forum over 3 years, there is no reason to believe that an outbreak of ridiculous, rule-breaking, idiotic threads will occur. There is possibility of someone posting anything. It's not really an excuse that scans.
Isnt it the mods job to moderate the forum instead of just making rules so you dont have to do anything? Everyone is smart enough to make an good lastig entertaining topic, whether its 2 pages or 200 pages. As long as it is entertaining