How to Reduce Off-Topic Posts etc. with Influx of New Members?

sushifiesta

sushifiesta

Champion Elect
Contributor
I was just wondering whether during what I guess you could call the 606 transition period it could be useful for there to be some sort of log of posts that have been moderated for some reason that new members could refer to to get an idea of what's acceptable within the rules etc. 606 was worse not your typical forum so I guess people who haven't got experience with 'normal' forums will need a bit of time to adapt. It could be anonymous with entries like "the post blah in thread blah was deleted because of blah" or whatever. Perhaps it could be just one example for each rule.

It was just an idea that popped up so I thought I'd put it out there. I think the Forum's fantastic and the last thing I want to do is create extra work for you guys and personally I find the rules etc. pretty self-explanatory, I was just trying to think of something that might help you out a bit at the minute and this is the best I could come up with! Please feel free to ignore me, I have a habit of sticking my nose in where it's not needed some times :whistle:.

Anyway, I left the title quite open so others can make suggestions or whatever here as well. Keep up the good work and I hope us pesky newbies aren't annoying you all too much :D.
 
Nice one Sushi. Coincidentally I had been working on this problem as well! I have started a thread for people (especially me!) to dump their little jokes in rather than derail other people's threads. It is here

http://cliptheapex.com/threads/gag-dump.2869/

I became conscious of the fact that people picked up on some of my remarks and posted replies skewing off in all directions. One problem though, I had a great gag inspired by someone and forgot it by the time I'd created the thread! Anyway, I like your idea and to some extent use off thread posts to inspire my Rooters News stories in the "utterings and nonsense" thread for that very purpose.:thumbsup:
 
As you've said, hopefully the rules are hopefully fairly clear. We do review them periodically and update them as required.
They probably seem a bit harsh or strict, but essentially we're aiming for an environment of mutual respect, without the name calling and arguments which can be found on a lot of other forums.
It is possible to be a fervent fan of one driver and have discussions with fans of other drivers or teams; it's been happening here for 3 years now :)

Regarding the off topic posts, the last week or two have been particularly hectic, make no mistake :D
With over 3,000 posts in the last week alone though, that is to be expected.

I would just like to state that we don't explicitly disallow all off topic posts or chat. Indeed, discussions are organic and it's natural that they will wend their way around a subject, sometimes going off on different tangents several times in the same thread.
If however one of those tangents starts to take on a life of its own, say 10-20 posts, then we tend to split it off into its own thread, where it can be discussed in more detail without affecting the original thread.

We don't want people to think that they can't post about a related matter on a particular thread for fear of their comments being removed. In most cases, comments such as that are perfectly acceptable; pick any thread and it will generally have discussion which is only vaguely related to the original subject.
The moderators will use their judgement to either try and nudge it back on topic, or split it off if it looks like it's going to continue.

If any posts are totally off topic, really make no sense, or contravene the site rules, then they are typically just deleted.

I hope that at least clarifies the situation somewhat.

As for the "pesky newbies", any forum needs new members to grow, diversify, and evolve, otherwise it will just stagnate and die. So any and all new members are most welcome and we're very happy to have them :)
 
Thank you Bro'. Hopefully, my little attempt to help in this regard will not send out the wrong message. I just felt that I had done my fair share of leading others astray and wanted in some way to help, in which the comedians among us could carry on trying to be funny (like me) without causing mayhem.:)
 
Fenderman said:
Nice one Sushi. Coincidentally I had been working on this problem as well! I have started a thread for people (especially me!) to dump their little jokes in rather than derail other people's threads. It is here

http://cliptheapex.com/threads/gag-dump.2869/

I became conscious of the fact that people picked up on some of my remarks and posted replies skewing off in all directions. One problem though, I had a great gag inspired by someone and forgot it by the time I'd created the thread! Anyway, I like your idea and to some extent use off thread posts to inspire my Rooters News stories in the "utterings and nonsense" thread for that very purpose.:thumbsup:
Click to expand

Ehm I do think that is more my fault than yours :s
 
Here we are trying to think of ways how to reduce off-topic posts...yet what are we doing? :thinking:

:D

I do think sushifiesta does have a valid point though, when you lock a thread it would be good for the moderator that locked it to state the reason why, or the rule I am sure you already do that, I have only seen one locked thread here during my time anyway
 
Fenderman said:
Sorry Sushifiesta. This is an exact demonstration of the problem I have. I just keep leading people astray.. Time to take this bounce elsewhere.
Click to expand

Got that in just before my reply :(

Take me and Fenderman out of the forum...there's your problem of off-topic solved :snigger:
 
On a typical thread, posts 5-11 (except 10) above would probably be deleted as they have little to do with the subject and it's essentially banter between two members.
If they're left in place, the danger then is others join in and the thread is essentially ruined.

Think of it as a conversation between a group of friends on the same subject. If two or three of the group suddenly start having a random discussion in the middle of it, it excludes the rest of the group and makes it difficult to carry on the original conversation.

We'll leave them here though as a perfect example of what would normally be moderated :)

That really only applies to the main discussion forums though.
The non-serious forums (Off The (Pit) Wall, Fun & Games, etc.) are far more lax.

slyboogy21 said:
I do think sushifiesta does have a valid point though, when you lock a thread it would be good for the moderator that locked it to state the reason why, or the rule I am sure you already do that, I have only seen one locked thread here during my time anyway
Click to expand
We try and avoid locking threads whenever possible. If however it just becomes a circular argument between the same few members and looks like it will just continue, then typically the moderators will attempt to stop it and if that doesn't work it will be locked.
Usually by that time though everyone has had their say so it's essentially the natural end of the life of the thread.

If anyone ever has an issue with an action taken on one of their threads, by all means contact a section or global moderator via conversation to discuss it.
 
Is there an easy way for us as contributors to break a thread or create a sub-thread as you find on some (eg linux) forums?

- Main topic (lots of good stuff)
-- tangent 1 (highly amuising ditty)
-- tangent 2 (caustic reply and banter between two individuals)

When I did the how many stops in Monaco, I created a new poll/post and then left a link in the qualifying/race discussion thread. Is that the best way to do it, or is there a better way?
 
Unfortunately only moderators can split or merge threads and the thread configuration here is strictly linear, not threaded as in your example above.
Most (all?) modern software no longer uses the threaded configuration.

What some posters do is start a new thread and reference the original post either with a link or a quote.
So for example: "jez101 made an interesting comment about threaded view here.... so I thought it would be good to have a discussion on that, as that's where the term thread originated."

Pasting a link in the original thread is a great way of alerting members to a related discussion.
 
On some 'vBad' forums i use there is a tag line at the base 'Related threads' which i believe is/can be moderated.

So at the base of 'The Danger of Monaco' it would maybe link to 'Monaco Race Discussion' 'How Many Stops in Monaco' and 'Monaco the Marmite Poll' etc...

This is particularly helpful when there are two or three discussions that could be overlapping is some respects. Has your above post just dismissed this, or is this something slightly different?
 
Related threads is an add-on for vB as far as I'm aware, and although it's also available as an add-on for Xenforo (the software we use), I've never really found it that useful to be honest.
 
Well, with the increased activity.....

I buggered off for the weekend last week, came back to my desk Tuesday and couldn't see the wood for the trees!
 
It's definitely hard to keep up with the new threads and posts now; but that's a good thing though, right? :D

A new release of the software is due out this summer, which will have a few more core features.
Once that has been installed, we can look at adding any increased functionality which the members may consider useful :)
 

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