Are you serious Inks?

[Torie]

Another option, a more "moderate" one , might have been just to cull those posts deemed beyond the pale, rather than freeze the thread sinking it into oblivion. But that can get labor intensive. But in the end, part of the job of being a mod is being a good politician.  One just cannot wholly escape that.

[Torie]

Another option, a more "moderate" one , might have been just to cull those posts deemed beyond the pale, rather than freeze the thread sinking it into oblivion. But that can get labor intensive. But in the end, part of the job of being a mod is being a good politician.  One just cannot wholly escape that.

The whole idea of the thread was one of ultimately insulting other people, something that opebo and others really brought to my attention and convinced me of over recent months on The Atlas board.

Plus, that thread had too many problems, and when you have to delete over a page of crap - it's time for the thread to just be put to rest.

How are we better off with a forum that respects stupidity?

Stupidity is subjective. And the forum is supposed to encourage a civil atmosphere, not bullying.

And quoting a post in that thread was merely an expression that you believe what a person said is absurd- not bullying, in any way.

When you put up in lights a post of a poster which you are characterizing as "absurd" or whatever, it certainly has the potential of hurting the feelings of the subject poster. I mean, if in a thread you said, hey Torie, your post is just absurd (!), without more, could that not be deemed a personal attack?

Whatever your views of the merits of the thread, it strikes me as certainly reasonable to deem that as one of its liabilities on its overall balance sheet. Then it is a matter of deeming just how much of import that liability is. In the end, all of this stuff involves judgment calls at the margin. From afar, one might deem the appropriate approach obvious, but inside the ring, with all the constituencies to please, Dave's expectations, the collateral damage to those from whom blood is drawn, and so forth, I suspect sometimes the answers are not all that obvious.

[Torie]

Another option, a more "moderate" one , might have been just to cull those posts deemed beyond the pale, rather than freeze the thread sinking it into oblivion. But that can get labor intensive. But in the end, part of the job of being a mod is being a good politician.  One just cannot wholly escape that.

The whole idea of the thread was one of ultimately insulting other people, something that opebo and others really brought to my attention and convinced me of over recent months on The Atlas board.

And that won't occur in the Goldmine or "ohhh snap" threads? Give me a break.

I guess now whenever I find an ignorant or absurd post, I'll just have to put it in the Goldmine since it's OK there.

If you can't take the heat, GTFO.

Sure.  But I don't think it "absurd," to deem a post as stupid or absurd, as of somewhat more gravity, than to characterize it as funny, or a clever towel snap. It is just a matter of degree.  But sure, you have a point. Hopefully, the way to square the circle will not be to freeze those threads too. One might wish here in other words to distinguish rather than conflate. Just a thought.

[Torie]

If you look back at the threads from around 2004 or so, there are many 'personal attacks' and stuff that would receive infractions today. And yet pretty much every one of our veterans agrees that the quality of discussion was better back then.

One has to consider now if classic forum traditions like use of words like "poors" and "dumbs" and Freedom Fighter vs. Horrible Person would be infracted as "trolling" if they started today.

Agree about the HP thing, with which I was never comfortable when it pertains to a poster (as opposed to a public figure), but what on earth is remotely offensive about opebo's charmingly incorrect grammar?