Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place
How do you feel about OT posts?
Scott6373:
IMO it' a good thing if a certain topic sparks a new tangent, but those posters should be encouraged to create a new topic, and then the focus shifted back to the original thread topic. I personally hate wading through pages of off topic posts to get to something related to the original.
moremojo:
Some off-topic tangents are inevitable in many and perhaps the vast majority of threads. It is just the nature of human discourse, and discussion and critical argument should never be discouraged, in my opinion, in and of themselves.
At the same time, it is reasonable to expect a modicum of respect for the original poster's intent and wishes in creating their topic, and off-topic posts should be kept to a minimum whenever possible. When a moderator feels the need to step in and remind members of this, I think it wise to emphasize that the worth of the discussion in and of itself is not at issue, but rather the placement of such discussion. New threads should be encouraged to preserve and foster discussion that has lost its pertinence in the threads in which it first evolved. I applaud the existing record of our moderators in doing precisely this.
dot-matrix:
To me, these threads are like a discussion, a conversation if you will and they are organic, they should go whereever the natural flow of discussion takes them.
I'm not talking about people chiming in suddenly, who have not been part of the discussion with something so OT is has absolutely no bearing on any point within the conversation. That's disruption to natural flow of things and those people should be encouraged to start a new topic.
Also those people who sometimes hijack threads like chat rooms to check in with one another, not cool... they need to start a chat blog or go to the chat room or take it PM.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: louise van hine on January 06, 2008, 05:24:44 pm ---I am a regular at another forum called 'Rotten Tomatoes' and they have a rule against what they call 'Thread hijacking.' If a discussion lends itself to meandering - like 'Heath Heath Heath' which is all about Heath no matter what it is - then the discussion is going to range widely. However, if the discussion is about a particular political matter in Current Events and someone chimes in with a completely unrelated topic which derails the point that was under discussion, then that is a hijack - an interruption that may very well be intended to stop discussion or debate and make the topic fall apart as a result. It depends a LOT on the topic - and I do think that the current events area should remain more focused than say the fan discussion or the blogs or other places.
--- End quote ---
I agree with Louise.
I've said elsewhere that one of things that I like best about Bettermost is that "conversations" are allowed to "evolve." I would not want to see a more restrictive policy adopted--which would probably demand more time of the moderators--as elsewhere I've seen people become afraid to say anything for fear of getting their wrists slapped for going OT. It also leads to sarcastic remarks about zealous moderators. 8)
souxi:
--- Quote from: brokeplex on January 06, 2008, 05:08:50 pm ---Either one of two solutions needs to be adopted:
1) clear rules involving off topic comments need to be established and enforced on all forums all of the time,
or
2) the OT rules need to be ignored and only personal attacks or hate speech needs to be restricted.
--- End quote ---
I agree with you. There have been occasions lately, on some threads, where the topic has gone totally off topic and upset people. It,s ok to take it slightly of topic occasionaly, if it,s to make a point, but on the whole I think it,s better to stay on topic. Just my HO, for what it,s worth. ;)
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