Explanation for Recently Locked Threads

[AnandTech Moderator]

Duckers et. al,

Unfortunately, the best answer I have is: to each his/her own. Of those threads, I have only read one or two of them; I simply do not have enough time to read every thread on here. I cannot speak for other moderators, but the threads I read had a valid question, and were attempting to discuss something which I felt was useful.

I was invited to be a moderator because I used discretion in my posts; while I appreciate and value your input, I want to reiterate that we do not want to eliminate all posts, but just the ones that serve no discernable purpose - such as this one: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=38&threadid=362171

Please attempt to look at this from another angle. There are a limited number of mods, and we cannot police everything; however, as is determinable from this thread, what we have been locking has been generally unwanted.

I hope this clarifies things for you.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[AaronP]

I can understand that they're busy, but if they're too busy to do a proper job of moderating, then they shouldn't be mods.

Just being an unpaid volunteer shouldn't give them the right to be poor moderators. Where I work, unpaid volunteers are canned all the time.

Though I may be mistaken in this, it appears as though most of the users believe we are doing a proper job of moderating. If you believe you can do a better job (no snideness intended), feel free to start up a new forum with 45,000 registered members and give it a shot.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[ltk007]

I hereby volunteer to join the ranks of the anandtech moderators, and help alleviate the neffing problem that has so invade the forums that I am no longer considered one of the top nefs (well that's not true, so shoot me). I will selflessly spend all my free time on AT (like I don't already?) and annihilate the neffing scum with extreme prejudice.

 

[uncouth]

I agree with Aaron. The unpaid thing shouldn't be an excuse. I'm unpaid to surf around here and post.

I'll go back to reading Animal Farm and 1984

This is a PRIVATE forum. What part of that do you not understand? If you want to leave, you are free to do so; if you continue comparing us to communists (Animal Farm) or socialists (1984), you will be given a free ticket out.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[bobtist]

Emoticon boycott, lol! That's why I'm not a mod, I think that's hilarous.

 

[Dexion]

LOL! Good one ltk007

I totally agree with AaronP though.

I think this problem arose when the mods started to lock more and more types of different threads. Neffing is a huge problem, however is it something controllable? Does it cause a lot of problems on the board? Personally, I think neffing is something that everyone is guilty of from time to time. Its definately difficult to control but it doesn't directly or even indirectly cause anyone on this board any grief(including the mods). If someone is spamming or flooding the board, thats a different story. I think you mods are just way too concerned over "nothing".

 

[Valhalla1]

about f-ing time is all I have to say


lets put an end to useless CS threads. I'm sick of seeing 20 threads a day all saying "lets go play CS", or "how do I get on the AT cs server"

or "hey, this map will be up tonite" then another thread 10 minutes later saying "okay, the map is on the server now, its really nifty!" :disgust: :|

I'm also sick of "all your USELESS NEF THREADS are belong to us" fortunately thats just a fad which will get old fast (/me crosses fingers)

and you guys just let me know when you need moderation help.. if my exponential post count in the last 3 months shows anything, it shows that I have a lot of free time while at work that I can help out with.

 

[Duckers]

Please forgive my ignorance, but how do 'Animal Farm' and '1984' compare to communism and socialism ?

Orwell has written about using the animals in Animal Farm as a metaphor for communism, and EngSoc in 1984 as a specific brand of English-Socialism.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

oh yes my dream came true. thank you mr/ms/mrs/androgenous anandtech moderator!

 

[datalink7]

<< This is a PRIVATE forum. What part of that do you not understand? If you want to leave, you are free to do so; if you continue comparing us to communists (Animal Farm) or socialists (1984), you will be given a free ticket out. >>



Hey! What you got against communist and socialist?

BTW... I have no gripes against you. Thanks for spending your free time moderating.

 

[Duckers]

lol, when he said Animal Farm I thought he was talking about some porno web site

 

[Pretender]

Contrary to popular belief, Animal Farm was more than making a criticism on communist society. If you analyze it's situations carefully, it also places heavy criticisms on capitalistic societies as well. But to the uneducated reader (I'm gonna get banned for this comment ), the only thing that appears is the comparison to communism. J/k, j/k, holy crud just kidding.

Pretender,

For the most part, Animal Farm could be viewed as a critique on the human condition in general, irrespective of political idealogies. Having done several critiques on the writings of Orwell, I am aware of the full ramifications of the novel; I was merely trying to explain it, in one sentence or less, to someone that didn't understand the relationship between communism and Animal Farm. Please remember: mods are people too.

Verstehen Sie?

AnandTech Moderator

 

[uncouth]

out of curiousity what would you like to be compared to?

Democracy doesn't fit, nor does anarchy. Monarcy perhaps.... but not really.

oligarchy? hmmm

perhaps if I compare you to deities?

here is a bit by Stephen Crane since we are discussing literature:
19 -
&quot;A god in wrath
Was beating a man; -
he cuffed him loudly
With thunderous blows
That rang and rolled over the earth.
All people came running.
The man screamed and struggled,
And bit madly at the feet of the god.
The people cried:
'Ah, what a wicked man!'
And-
'Ah, what a redoubtable god!' &quot;

 

[SVTPower]

Um all the last few reply's, I'm thinkin you should start it in a new tread and leave this one for the subject intended

 

[uncouth]

perhaps this thread will be locked... j/k


/edit Alright I am seriously done for this evening! good night to one and all and sorry for the more critical, slanderous remarks I have made about the mods.

As I said to Pretender, please remember before making critical, slanderous remarks: mods are people too.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[jyrixx]

mods taking a stand, i like it.

 

[Pretender]

Ok, you win. You probably read and analyzed Animal Farm more than I ever did or wanted to. And just so you know, I've got no problem with your locks, and now that you've made this thread and actually posted a little somethin' in the threads you locked, you don't seem all that bad.

I just have one more question.


Is the rumor about being able to buy eliteness true? If so, PM me with the address and price

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Thank you Mods.

 

[loogie]

I'm glad that you guys have established that this forum is not a place for &quot;stupid&quot; and &quot;useless&quot; threads, but rather, one for pseudo-intellectuals to flex their mental might.

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take that, loogie. I can definitely feel the sarcasm oozing through the post, but at the same time, I know that you aren't trying to piss me off. This place is neither a place for stupid/useless posts or for pseudo-intellectuals to flex their mental might; it is a &quot;A public meeting place, a Pub, if you will... A place for computer junkies to boldly post Off Topic... Things you might want to tell everyone... Or things you wouldn't say to anyone else.&quot;

As Russ posted, bandwidth is not free, and we have to draw the line somewhere. It is our job to decide where to draw that line, and I know that you understand where it is drawn.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[perry]

<< Having done several critiques on the writings of Orwell, I am aware of the full ramifications of the novel; >>



Hehe.. Must be the Educated Mod on tonight Both good books that make ya think...

Anyways. I don't really think 'usefulness' can be something that can be decided by committee. What one person sees as useful, another may not. There is a very fine line between what is useful and what is not. The mods are not borgs (as far as I know), and they all think independently. That's why threads are occasionally locked and relocked.

As the mod said, if you don't like the way the board is moderated, go someplace else. Throwing a temper tantrum on the board because your thread was locked does no good. Just wastes bandwidth of several thousand people that have to look at the header of the message on their screen.

I would like to see what types of threads are appropriate and useful, maybe not rules laid in stone, but in eraseable pen would be nice. Allow the rules to adapt to a particular thread as necessary. Start off by acting quickly and decisively on threads that are deemed useless to serve as an example to us. Most of us should be able to pick it up rather quickly. I feel that simply locking a thread w/o explanation (how long does it take to write a sentence or two explaining why a thread was locked?) adds fuel to the fire, making the mods as guilty as the person that started the thread. I sometimes see threads that I think are alright but are locked for no apparent reason. Having a brief explanation in there would help educate me and make me a better member of the community.

I couldn't have put it better myself, perry. I will notify the other mods, and maybe we can come to a consensus to notify the public as to why certain threads are being locked.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[Russ]

<< Neffing is a huge problem, however is it something controllable? Does it cause a lot of problems on the board? >>



Dexion,

Bandwidth is not free. Perhaps you've never encountered the &quot;forums busy, come back later&quot; message. Useless garbage is theft of resources, no better then spamming a NG.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Shuxclams]

So I take it that the &quot;Butter&quot; thread would have never happened? I am not being critical, I am stating that times have changed since then with the addition og 40,000 new members. I hope that the same type of &quot;fun&quot; posting won't be outlawed completely, but I do understand the need for less &quot;marginal&quot; posts.






SHUX

Shux,

Fun is not banned, it is just strictly moderated.

In all honesty, &quot;Butter&quot; would probably be locked now, despite being the classic thread that it was; things are different, as you noted, when you have 44,000 more members. One butter is fine. Five butters is hard to deal with. 50 butters?

You get the point.

AnandTech Moderator



That I do.

Thanks.

SHUX

 

[Budman]

It's hard beeing a mod,nobody likes you &amp; everybody questions your descisions.

I dont want to seem to be a butt kisser but you guys do a very good job considering all the traffic you guys get.

You can only please some people some of the time,but you cant please all the people all of the time.

 

[dcdomain]

Valhalla1 and Moderators,

I too am wondering what threads are deemed useless or useful. I'm not a big fan of CS and have grown tired of seeing them, however I also think some people have grown tired of the car threads that Valhalla1 and I have obviously posted in (domestics suck! ). And to be fair, if the CS threads get banned, I guess car threads would be banned too am I right?

As stated above, there is a fine line between good threads and crap threads. From what I have seen, most car threads usually turn into flame wars between domestic supporters and import supporters. Those obviously waste resources when points that have been made in past threads are restated.

On another note, I have personally replied to the many 'desktop' threads, or the favorite soda threads and the like. Are they considered crap threads too?
If I were a moderator, I would certainly think so. Most polls I've seen are the most useless threads because the results from these polls hardly ever get used.

As stated above, there is definitely a fine line between the two and sometimes, two threads with the same subject matter could turn out quite differently. I know this is a hard job, and the decisions to lock some of them are hard ones to make. At some points in my day, I rely on the Off-Topic forum to keep me up to date on the news. Why go to a couple of different news related sites when I can stop by the Off-Topic forum and have people feed me the most important news of the days complete with commentary from various people?

I applaud the way you moderators are handling things but the Off-Topic is definitely a gray area. It'll take a while for members to get the hang of what sort of threads are deemed okay or not okay. Please be 'very' specific when you moderators decide to lock a thread.

 

[Budman]

Yes i agree with dcdomain on the subject that when a thread is locked there should be a reason &amp; an explanation on why it was locked.

This will help other members on how to conduct themselves &amp; deter others on doing the same thing.

Locking a thread &amp; not giving a reason only invite other similar threads.

Giving a reason on why such a thread is not accepted is a very good practice &amp; prevents other similar threads from arising.