Cessation of discussion

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Ok guys, Tage started it, but I think it's gotten out of hand.

I'm talking about restricitng conversations. No comments in the quotes threads? Or the grumpy or happy things threads? That's kind of lame. In entropy's words: "surely the entire purpose of a forum is... discussion"

I think he's right. We should be able to post within a thread about something. If you want to scan for cool quotes or something, go use Google.

[Entsuropi]

While tage earns kudos for being the only person I know to cry out in (virtual) terror when faced with exploding zombies in a MMORPG, I do agree. Having no discussion makes the threads seem like a place devoid of life, just a bunch of AI's posting stuff.

[Spriggan]

I think it's perfectly acceptable to have a few threads with out comments and tangents, 98% of the threads here aren't affected so it's not asking too much to have 4 that are that way.  Its also not that hard to make a new thread about what you want to talk about, it's not like people are limited in how many new threads they can start.

If you don't like it don't post, no one is forceing you too.  JP is the forum admin and we choose him for a reason, to do his job and I think he did the right thing here. But ultimatly it's between Fell and JP on weither or not this is acceptable, the rest of us are guests on this forum.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

the problem is it's NOT just a few threads. It keeps getting to be more and more. I'm just calling "lame" it's the suggestions box, and that's what I'm suggesting, that this sort of limitation doesn't appeal to people.

[JP Dogberry]

I don't mind conversation at all, I encourage it.

I saw a fight brewing, and wanted to stop it before it started.

That's all. I've seen too many times where I've done nothing and a fight has erupted. This particular instance looks like a fight would happen.

Comments are fine, any other comment and I'd ignore it, I just don't want to see Entropy, acting as typical entropy, and outcast, acting as typical outcast causing a big flame war. Again.

[Spriggan]

It appeals to me and last time I checked I was a person.

I was perfectly fine with Entropy explaineing what JP's quote was in the quote thread but after that it became pointless drivel.  I rarely speak up on how much it annoys me when certain people hyjack threads to discuss things that don't have a lot to do with what the thread is.  But it does upset me in certain cases (like the "comment on Rob's Bloviateing" thread when people started going of on stupid tangents) and I don't like to speak up on it becaue people are free to post how they want on most threads.  However there are a few that are and should be more restictive.  I personaly don't care about the happy/grumpy threads, I never read them anyway, however I like that there's a place for all the winers to go so I don't have to deal with it when someone who's not getting enough attention tries to hyjack another thread with their personal problems.  So that would imply that there should be discussion there, which I don't care if there is, but I support JP's call on this and allwayse will since he's the one we chose to decide such things.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Note that I started a new thread for this discussion. I'm observing the rules, but supporting "leadership" never means giving in without questioning or calling lame when you see lame. So can we move away from "i support JP" because it doesn't improve your argument at all.

I'm glad that JP accepts comments. However, at least 5 or 6 comments were deleted from the quotes thread. Comments that were about posted quotes. They didn't move into any new areas. I'm calling lame there, whoever did it. Because it was lame.

[JP Dogberry]

yeah, I didn't and have nothing to do with that. I generally don't delete posts anyway. I just lock threads when I see flamage happening or imminent.

[Fellfrosch]

I noticed those comments were gone as well, though I'm not sure what happened to them. In general, I see certain threads as being blessedly devoid of conversation: stuff like Cool Lyrics and Cool things on the Internet. These are threads that I can go to and find, well, cool lyrics and cool things on the Internet, and I know that I can read them all without having to wade though a bunch of dialogue to get to them. I don't mind when the occasional person pops in and says "ooh, I like that song," but big discussions feel out of place in those threads and others like them.

That said, I don't know to what level we should enforce non-discussion, or if we should enforce it at all. For me, I'm totally happy creating a separate thread to discuss how much I hate a lyric rather than "spoiling the purity" of the lyric thread itself, but I realize that not everyone shares that opinion. I'd like to see what other opinions there are (assuming more people see this thread and make their opinions known).

[stacer]

Personally, I barely ever read Cool things on the internet or Cool lyrics, because I find them boring. (Which is why, I suppose, if I find something fun people have usually already seen it.) Occasionally I'll pop in and see what's been posted, but mainly I just ignore them. So I really don't have an opinion.

[MsFish]

I don't read those threads because they're boring, on account of the fact that there's no discussion going on, which is uninteresting to me.  

[EUOL]

Agreed.  Now THIS thread--this is an interesting one.  

[Spriggan]

Good then leave us our few "boring" threads; it's obviously not too much to ask since you never read them anyway.  Over the past year this site has become less about gaming and timewasteing and is more of a place for people to complain about their lives.  I do know certain people, who use to be permanent members here, have stopped posting and/or reading the forums because of this.  I don't even read 90% of the insipid threads on this forum due to this and if it wasn't due to the fact that I write articles here I would have stopped coming to these forums a long time ago.  I'm frankly shocked that we still run a gaming site, and not some psychology site, since our "community" has absolutely no interest in the gaming aspect of TWG.  If I had my way, and why JP is forum admin and not me, I would have been locking and deleting threads a lot more around here and made sure people knew that people at TWG weren't here to solve other people's problems in life.

[Entsuropi]

I just don't want to see Entropy, acting as typical entropy, and outcast, acting as typical outcast causing a big flame war. Again.

Stop stereotyping meh! >_<

[Fellfrosch]

And that is why, as he himself stated, Spriggan is not a forum admin.

I am more than happy to have non-game-related stuff on the site. We have a lot of game discussions, a lot of geek discussions, and a lot of completely unrelated discussions. That's good. Non-game discussion is, in many ways, the lifeblood of this site.

But accepting different topics of discussion doesn't mean that we are required to combine them. I don't pop into a "Happy Things Go Here" thread and start laying down HeroClix strategy, regardless of how happy it makes me; I expect people to show the same courtesy in keeping their personal discussions away from the HeroClix strategy threads. That's why we have so many different categories and threads, and why they each have a title--you can read what you like, find people with similar interests, and talk and talk to your hearts' content. Everyone on this forum--including people who aren't even registered--can make their own threads; that's a pretty impressive level of freedom in communication.