Explanation for Recently Locked Threads

[JenniZ]

Mod, would you please stop banning people, they come to #neochat and complain! like I can do something about it .. its rather annoying, Maybe I should ban people from #neochat as they are banned here

BTW - Anyone who doesnt know, the offically unoffical 'anandtech offtopic' chat is #neochat on undernet.












butter....lol

 

[Usul]

I think that providing a brief explanation of why each thread is locked would prevent many people to be sad and angry, as well as stopping other people to post the exact same thing next day.

*what is a butter thread?*

 

[Budman]

Thanks for backing me up.Usul.


That's what i was trying to say.

 

[Taz4158]

Folks I really don't see why it's hard to grasp what's appropriate or not. Ask yourself before posting if what you're about to write will actually contribute to our community here or am I trying to be a smart*ss? Am I trying to just get my post count up? Or do I really have something to add to an ongoing discussion or is the thread I'm about to create worthwhile? Just a little common sense goes a long way and contributes to everyone enjoying themselves more. I think the mods do a tremendous job but it would be nice for them and for us if they didn't have too close so many threads because the majority of us know what's acceptable. As has been pointed out there are many boards where there is no moderation and if anarchy disguised as being freedom of speech is more attune with your personality those are the places for you to play. The VAST majority here prefer things the way they are....controlled to a degree but still FUN!

 

[Degenerate]

That is quite true, i mean there isn't really a line which sperated the good and the bad

 

[Moltnrok]

Good job mod, but a recent thread was locked that I feel was NOT useless. The "which search engine do you use" thread can be invaluable to alot of the people here, although maybe the name should be "which search engine do you use for computer hardware?"


He should have posted it in OT instead of Hot Deals


Anandtech Moderator

 

[bigbootydaddy]

I agree with dcdomain...im a regular neo CSer, and well, most of us use the one official CS thread. a lot of us are regulars on there and we depend on that thread to get us rallied together, and never have we complained about valhalla's constant and somewhat annoying, "i love firebirds and anyone who doesnt is suck" threads.

so i guess im asking don't kill our official CS thread. long live imports

 

[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. >>



I think for the tens of thousands of impressions here everyday, Anandtech can afford the bandwidth(I'm sure everyone has noticed those banners on this forum by now). Basically, without the massive audience here Anandtech wouldn't be as successful as it is today if it was exclusively a hardware news and review site(without the community).
Infact, Hardware sites and hardware forums are one of the few Internet startup businesses that are making a profit. I'm sure Anand is quite happy with all of us posting on this forum despite us neffing and posting so called &quot;useless&quot; posts.

 

[Ornery]

<---- One Happy MoFo!

 

[Thorn]

<< 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? >>


It's a benevolent dictatorship, get over it. Someone needs to be in charge in this crazy community, and the mods do very well considering what they have to deal with. They don't have to answer to you, and furthermore even if you don't like the atmosphere here, there's nothing you can do about it... other than leaving.

 

[Optimus]

Its funny to read the posts complaining about the &quot;lack of freedom&quot; on these privately owned and payed for boards. I notice that almost without exception they are posted by the very members most threatened by a crackdown on useless threads and neffing.

I think that the vast majority of members here have NEVER had a thread locked...

So call it butt-kissing or whatever you want - but I'd leave this board if the mods stopped doing the excellent job they are. In my time here (2+ years) I've noticed that its because of the mods that this place has hit 45,000 members. There are tons of poorly moderated sites out there - they all stink because they turn into anarchy.

I don't object to people asking for a set of rules if they need one, but the ones that are simply complaining? Well, I'd tell them to leave but experience shows that they wind up leaving anyway.

Good job, Mods - don't let the garbage pull you down.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

I agree with all the posts that suppport the moderators position on this. However, the basic problem remains unadressed. Useless posts arise b/c the economy of the OT thread support them. Since, posting is cheap (ie free) to the members, there will always be the potential for a posting bloom to occur. To fix this systemically, you need to make the posting process more expensive. One way to do that without charging a fee might be to limit the number of new thread. I am not convinced that this would work, but it would make for an interesting experiment.

 

[Adul]

Are your freedom are belong to us! (sorry couldn't resist)


I guess I better be watchful now. The mods have their eye on me :Q


*Tries to hide somewhere*

 

[Viper GTS]

Just a quick point for the mods...

While a thread in itself may have no intellectual or social value, do consider that some threads serve as a humorous relief for the OT readers. Granted, we don't need 50 of them going at once, but the occasional thread that exists for no other reason than to make people smile &amp; shake their heads isn't such a bad thing. Large nef threads are an entirely different story, but sometimes the most inane things can lighten a mood, &amp; preserve sanity in an otherwise hectic day. Your own definition of OT (&quot;a pub&quot supports this, as a pub is a place to relax, unwind, &amp; not have to worry about the troubles waiting outside the door.

While I support your decision to crack down on the number of garbage threads, don't take it to the extreme.

Viper GTS

 

[SirFshAlot]

I'm all for weeding out some of the crap.

I wonder if it's possible to remove replies from decent threads rather than locking the whole thread when someone comes in and desecrates it with perversion.

 

[xodarap]

Oh man am I going to get flamed for this....

Look frankly the volunteer thing is an excuse. I don't care if you don't make the best decisions all the time, but if you saying this job is to much for you to handle, and that frankly no one could do it better. Then that is a bad attitude you've given up and you should do your self the favor a quit! Yes we have the door and you have the door and some of us have been here longer than you have so if we think your doing a poor job we have the right to criticize. If you have a respect for your title you will except that criticism with a general effort to improve. And if you don't feel you owe us that then I'm sure Anandtech can find some moderators who do... Id be one. I'd take all the crap they give me with a I cant expect you to take yourself as seriously as I do but I cant respect you if you don't.

The private forum argument is a lie. This is a business we are customers and you owe us the respect that we give you by showing up every day. Maybe you don't feel that way since you since you spend so much time patting yourself on the back but Anandtech sponsors this forum and its their head over yours. Anand spends allot of time in the media bragging about the size of this forum. That is a major selling point to sponsors.

I'm sure this post is premature I'm sure you have more pride in your job than your shallow rebuttal's indicate. But before you snap back with another tired excuse lets chill a bit and look at the big picture.


You are NOT a customer
Did you purchase anything from Anandtech ?

I'm sure this post is premature I'm sure you have more pride in your job than your shallow rebuttal's indicate. But before you snap back with another tired excuse lets chill a bit and look at the big picture

You are the one who needs to calm down and take a chill pill with your lousy attitude in this post


Anandtech Moderator

 

[Viper GTS]

You are NOT a customer
Did you purchase anything from Anandtech ?

No, we are not customers here... We are the PRODUCT! AnandTech exists only because advertisers are willing to pay for ad impressions. We create those ad impressions. We are drawn here by the reviews &amp; the forums. If those things change, we will leave, and AnandTech will die.

Like it or not, we all need each other here.

Viper GTS

 

[Azraele]

Mods: I agree with your position and I think that listing general posting rules is a very good idea. However, might I suggest that you take car to ensure that there is little to no vagueness in those rules. There is sometimes a fine line between nef and useful, although more often than not nef threads are easily spotted. I think that if/when the rules are posted, it will make it easier for new members to know what/what not to post. Please include a definition of nef in those rules if they get made, I remember when I was new and had no idea what a nef was. As for the existing members, I would hope that the new rules would go through with little quibbling, but I fear that may not be the case. There will be a few that raise a stink. I also doubt this will eliminate neffing in its entirety, but hopefully it will help some.

I know you mods know what you're doing, I was just giving out some of my thoughts/opinions on the issue.

 

[sickNtired]

Not that I agree with everything that Xodorap said and how he said it, but I think that he does have somewhat of a point. Anandtech overall is funded by advertising. By us users clicking on the banners, it shows to the advertisers that we saw their banners on anandtech and anandtech continues to get paid. So therefore, we sort of are customers in the sense that Anandtech is providing a useful service and we use it and Anandtech gets paid for it.

Most of us want to obey the rules here on Anandtech. However, isn't the off-topic forum supposed to be for stuff that doesn't fit in the other forums? Granted, some of the posts would generally be agreed upon to be trash. However, some do seem worthwhile but still get locked. I guess the answer is that it is not up to us, the users, to decide what is appropriate to post. We find that out by seeing what gets locked.

Some stuff is obviously worthless and others are obviously valuable. It's trying to find that line between the 2 that I suppose the moderators are trying to define. With 45,000 users, shouldn't the moderators enlist our help to find what is worthless? Maybe with each thread, there should be a button somewhere that we can use to &quot;vote&quot; to have it locked. Once a certain percentage of the people who have viewed a certain post and have voted to have it locked is achieved, then it would be locked automatically. That way we are sort-of policing ourselves and saving the moderators time/energy.

Just my $0.02...

 

[geno]

This is something that's been a big issue lately. The fact that I've seen so many threads locked then unlocked kinda makes me think. It's like the mod has an itchy trigger finger and second guesses it when it was a valid thread all along. I love it here, or else I wouldn't have stayed since December of '99. But lately there's been a real air of unneccesary discipline about us all. I don't get why useless nef threads are so religiously monitored. If no one has any interest in it, it'll fall to the bottom. If they hopelessly reply to it and make a big deal out of it - who is it hurting? No one's forcing anyone to look at it - yet it gets locked tight because the mod doesn't feel like seeing it. Things have changed a lot around here - not just with the Mods, but the user base have changed a lot as well. And I will admit that there has been much more useless crap posted. But have some tolerance at least. I'm not telling the mods how to do their job here, and I'm not demanding anything change. It's just that there's a reason that I've stayed here so long, and what's been going on lately has diminished that fact. Don't turn this into a strict board, that's the only thing I ask.

 

[apoppin]

I like the crack-down on useless threads. However, I feel this Explanationshould be posted for longer than 5 days as some members only log in on the weekends (neff-time}.

Also, please post permanent rules at the top for EVERY forum specific to that forum for the newbies.

Thanks for making it better.

 

[Russ]

I always get a kick out of members who ramble on about how they &quot;make&quot; AnandTech and, by inference, suggest that the moderation is going to somehow kill this forum.

Yep, I've been chuckling about that complaint since we had 1/20 the membership we do now.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Valhalla1]

<< 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?

>>






okay, the car threads are not useless.. the cs posts that are useless are the ones like &quot;someone come to neo's to play CS&quot;, they appear every 20 minutes.. those are useless

then neo I've seen many times post one thread saying &quot;##########who thinks xxx map is cool on CS&quot;##########, then another thread saying &quot;##########xxx map will be up on server in 10 minute##########s&quot; then another thread 10 minutes later saying &quot;##########xxx map is now up on server, come and play##########&quot; then 5 minutes later a thread pops up saying &quot;hey everyone come to neo's to play xxx map&quot; and then a newbie sees all the hullabaloo, and posts another thread saying &quot;how do I get to play CS to I can play xxx map on neo's&quot; then everyone goes and plays and a new thread is started &quot;man, xxx map was cool on neo's&quot; and someone posts another thread saying &quot;xxx map was cool neo but how about zzz map&quot;

etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum.

you see?

 

[jsm]

I am actually surprised that ever so generous mods never responded to my Fastest Speed Driven post. I made a case again the lack of consistency, but it was never responded to by the mods. It's good to see you folks are paying attention and working hard to keep things moderated.

GOOD JOB! FIRST PRIZE.

 

[Ornery]

&quot;I don't get why useless nef threads are so religiously monitored. If no one has any interest in it, it'll fall to the bottom. If they hopelessly reply to it and make a big deal out of it - who is it hurting?&quot;

Damn! Some people are so friggin thick! :|

Decent topics get displaced by your drivel! Personally, I don't give a damn about unnecessary posts to an existing topic, but creating new nef topics burns me up like nothing else! :|