Originally Posted by
wibblefox
Maybe we should be more concerned with actual users than outsiders? The acronym thread was clearly for fun posting, and people were enjoying it. Is that not a "purpose"? Entertainment is a billion dollar industry you know, sure if you take an existential view point and go full nihilist then what's the point, but it's pretty clear to me and probably everyone else that "fun" is a purpose.
In my opinion, Off Topic should be a fun and relaxed board; but this is very different than a meme driven meme board that no one without two dozen years of extensive Toribash-meme-metaknowledge could hope to participate in. Thus, Wibbles is still not a good idea.
Originally Posted by
wibblefox
One thousand times this. Every time I'm infracted for "useless" posts I'm sure to ask, because no one has any idea how to define it, they worm around, deflect, and they just end up saying "oh it's just an infraction" don't complain.
In my opinion: A useless post is one that doesn't meaningfully affect what the thread knows, or doesn't positively contribute to what the thread is doing. For example, posting "The Uke position is much better than the Tori position in spiritwrestlingrigged.tbm" in the thread "Use of trains for transportation rising in 4th world countries!" would definitely be useless. "Yes", without context, is also generally useless, especially if you get ninja'd by someone else asking a different (but still yes or no) question.
Originally Posted by
wibblefox
As for the rest of your post, can you elaborate why these things are a problem?
"If it is determined that your thread has become a thread that always receives the same responses, it will be closed."
Why does this matter?
Because if every thread is the same, we arrive at the same issue we are currently at, just with a different selection of threads. Also, believe it or not, some threads are incredibly predictable, and it takes miraculous luck to save some of them.
@Ele: Really. Some of them are. Not taking preemptive action against them would be doable, but I do believe that doing so would lessen our ability to maintain a certain level of interesting quality in Off Topic. In a board like this, quality doesn't (shouldn't) need to be high effort -BUT- that doesn't mean there is no such thing as low quality.
I'd agree that it should be limited to the lowest of the low quality. If we get a page of threads that are all the same and have all the same responses though, we are probably going to ban that thread type, at least temporarily.
Originally Posted by
wibblefox
"Try to avoid extensive back and forth dialogue unless it's immediately pertinent to the thread."
Why does this matter?
Thread: "Boats!"
Example 1: "Hey, I like boats."
Example 2: "Oh, do you own any?"
Example 1: "Oh sure, I own three yachts."
Example 2: "Oh neat can we get pics?"
Example 1: [INSERT NICE YACHT HERE]
^ this would be fine.
Thread: "Boats!"
Example 1: "Hey, can I buy a demon head texture?"
Example 2: "Oh sure, what specifically do you want?"
Example 1: "Like fangs and blood and gore and edge and shit!"
Example 2: "Okay, sure, I can do that. How about 5k for it?"
Example 1: "But I'm poor how about 3k?"
^ this would not be fine. Take it to PMs.
Originally Posted by
wibblefox
"No surveys is fine"
Why are surveys a problem?
The forums aren't here to do your homework. If you can disguise your survey as something clever like "Boats!" and someone just happens to admit to owning 3 yachts, that's probably fine. However, "Can you please fill out this oddly invasive Google Form for the hope of receiving 10TC?" is not.
Originally Posted by
wibblefox
"you're being lazy, stop that."
Why are 1 word answers a problem? You can just reply "Can you explain?" if you want someone to explain.
No.
fake edit:
Okay, seriously, one word answers are the epitome of not even trying. Writing even just two words, even if one of them is "fuck" is supporting your answer. If you can't even justify why you're giving a one word answer, I'm not entirely convinced you can justify why it should be allowed as a post. Or, in other words, it's hard to imagine a world where a one word answer (which takes zero effort to post) is a better use of your time than a five word answer or a one word answer that's secretly a link to an FAQ page or something of the sort (which takes a grand total of one effort to post, which isn't much if we're honest), when the latter inherently supports itself much more strongly and takes a grand total of 1 second longer to write on your part.
If you have any reason to expect that someone might reply "why?", which you SHOULD expect in Off Topic, then you should already be answering that question, or you're just actively wasting their time.
The forum is not an instant messaging platform. You have the opportunity to convey your ideas more fully than on, for example, Skype. Please use this opportunity, even if only slightly.
Originally Posted by
wibblefox
"Is necroposting even bad"
It's not against the rules in this board, so no explanation needed, but if someone who is pro-time limiting threads, can they explain.
We usually argue against necroposting because the original thread context has decayed into nothingness by then, and a lot of the time starting a new thread is better. If your necropost seamlessly and meaningful integrates into the thread despite the difference in time, then it's obviously fine. In something like Technical Support, this is close to impossible, since most issues are fundamentally different, and it messes up our ability to track what issues are or aren't solved if there's a ton of different issues getting shoved into one thread.
Off Topic's a bit of a different situation though, and it should definitely be possible to make decent necroposts. At the same time, there's still some big merits to starting a new thread entirely.
Originally Posted by
wibblefox
"I'm fine with this, honestly."
Unfortunately most people DONT KNOW, and it isn't explained... Even in this thread there are staff who have no clue.
In general, I'd say that we should just hold a discussion on it and see what we come up with. Having two way communication between everyone on these things helps a lot, but at the moment that'll basically require that we actually decide on what we want Off Topic to be.
Originally Posted by
wibblefox
TBH that whole "how to make a good thread" post is shit, if there is a more appropriate sub then lmods can move it, if there is an org or existing megathread or if the post is inaccessible someone will say so. Threads shouldn't be so much work to make, especially in OT which is not a srs bsns board.
I don't want OT to turn into a non-srs-bsns board, but I do agree that you shouldn't be held to extremely rigorous standards before posting threads here.
Originally Posted by
wibblefox
There are dozens of boards on this forum, obviously something that is called "offtopic" is a board that exists only for fun. You are suggesting that people will leave as soon as they see 1 thread they don't like, but you are ignoring that the majority of people come to this board for fun in the first place, not for serious debate and discussion.
IRC has like 5 active users at any given time and everything is buried by the time anyone else comes on, it's obviously not comparable. Skype is clearly not comparable to a forum at all. Do you understand how stupid it is to suggest we just get everyone on the forum on Skype together and make dozens of threads? This is such an absurdly dumb idea that I can't even fathom why you thought to post it.
Fun discussion can be serious discussion. I don't want people to forget that. Too often people seem to get caught up in some kind of "Discussion means I must defend my points to the death however I can!" mentality.
I'd disagree with that sort of thing though. To me, a serious discussion is a discussion that produces insight of some sort. Even if the discussion is "What would change if cats had laser eyes that could melt through steel?", that can be simultaneously fun, ridiculous, but also serious if anyone bothers to reply with anything like "Cat food probably becomes government subsidized" or what have you.