Why do decent threads turn into p*ssing matches?

I worked at a shit convenience store back in college where one of the kids working there "misspelled" a sign for a new batch of nuts as "hot fresh peanus". They didn't sell.

 

Completely agree with ijag's disagreement.

To me, if you want to talk about politics on a sports journalism message board, you pretty much get what you get, so the political pissers don't bother me. I'd feel different if that junk dominated the journalism and sports threads.

Maybe it's just me, but it's more annoying to wade through endless threadjacks and inside jokes and personal chitchat and nasty barbs--not one or two posts, but pages--on threads about real topics that are of interest to the general community here.

I hate the locks, hate 'em. So many good things get lost--go take a look at the Roe/Wade thread that got locked, Cadet had one of the greatest posts I've ever read on the subject, and now it's locked. She took the time to write this terrific post--world class great--and it's just wasted because a couple of pricks can't keep their hands off the keyboards. In those cases, I wish we could delete the crap and keep the gems.

At the end of the day, it's still a message board, not a private country club, and I wish everyone would just chill.

 

More moderators...

 

Seriously. Someone's Bruce Banner all of a sudden, looking for a shirt.

 

I think the board was a much more pleasant place when it was Webby, Moddy (the one and only original) and Idaho.

There are way too many moderators now, some of whom are way, way too quick with the locks. IMHO.

 

It's teh interbutt. You'll be hard-pressed to find one unmoderated or liberally-moderated discussion forum with exclusively civil discussion. Most people aren't assholes, but almost all of us have a streak of it within that can come tearing out at any given moment. Of course, I can find y'all some boards that make the worst arguments look like a night of fine dining.

 

5 years ago, we had one sherriff (Moddy) trying to police the joint with some help from Mayor Webby. Now we have more mods, and they are stricter than the standards of 5 years ago. You may draw your own conclusions as to whether that is better or worse, but it does account for the increase.

And (knock on wood) the board seems tamer than in the 04 election cycle. I think not having Bush directly on the ballot has helped tame some of the bile.

 

It's not wasted. It's still there, and obviously posters us did read it. That post isn't going anywhere because the thread is locked, it's still there, preserved in case someone wants to reference it at another time.

 

As it is in sports, perhaps we need harsher penalties for instigators. Or for the second poster in.

Or, as seems popular these days, we simply need a program of extraordinary rendition in which they can be silently dispatched for "re-education."

 

Like a farm system?

 

Maybe make a Rated X subboard where the turned threads can speed to their icky conclusion away from the main population? Then up the standards on the other boards, and if a thread goes to pot, move it on over.

As for threaddrift and in-jokes -- irritating, and inevitable. But I've found that it's easy enough to drift it back to the original point with a decent post.