Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place
How do you feel about OT posts?
brokeplex:
you are going 'Off Topic' Artiste, restrain yourself.
HUGS!
Artiste:
I do not think that I am going off topic.
The wet dreams I will soonest be having in my bed... that is off-topic.
May you and all have those too... ha! ha!
Much can be said yet on this thread question!!
Hugs! Sleep tight you lucky dud(s)!!
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: brokeplex on January 14, 2008, 12:29:46 am ---Perhaps the best solution to this is to drop all OT restrictions. I am convinced that OT monitoring can not be done in a fair and equitable fashion. So lets just drop the idea that there should be any restrictions on posting content.
--- End quote ---
Well, except that the majority of people who've voted here have indicated they would prefer some kind of limitation -- that OT discussions either remain brief, or that they're more appropriate on certain kinds of threads. A fair number also have said some kinds of OT posts are OK, though it's not clear whether there's any agreement among those voters as to what kind would be OK.
But of 33 voters so far, there have been only 4 votes in favor of all discussions being entirely free ranging. And only one, as of this writing, favoring absolute prohibition on OT posts.
In other words, most who've voted in the poll have expressed a preference for something in between really restrictive rules and total free-for-alls. I don't know that there is any way to write hard-and-fast, absolutely equitable legislation of in-between policies regarding OT posts. On the other hand, are strict rules strictly necessary?
I would suggest that this thread may be the basis for people to use some common sense.
Would it be possible, without absolute rules, to argue that one person's posts were deemed OT while someone else was allowed to blather on? Sure. But remember that reminders of OT posts are not punishment or chastisement -- they're simply that, reminders. And in many cases, they're given for the sake of the OT discussion itself; again, many such conversations would be of interest to wider audiences but will be overlooked if buried in a thread on a different subject.
Ellemeno:
Here's something else I want to ask people's thoughts about. When reading a thread, and you feel that someone in some way has crossed a line, either by being too off-topic, or by being hurtful or cranky, or something else that doesn't feel quite okay to you personally, do you ever PM that person yourself to let them know your impression of their posts?
I have done this, even before I was an admin. I never meant it harshly, but more as an opportunity to let them know their post's effect on me. Some people have responded very good-naturedly, some have responded as though I had slapped them. Now that I'm an admin, I actually feel less free to write those sorts of PMs to people, because even though I overtly tell them I'm not coming from an admin perspective, but just as myself, I've seen that some people see me as an authority figure trying to squash their freedom to communicate the way they want to.
Anyway, do you ever let people know directly when their posts aren't working for you in some way? I think it's a great thing to do, when done respectfully. What kinds of responses have you gotten?
moremojo:
I have never PM'd a poster in reference to a post of theirs that I thought was out of line, but I have PM'd members who were the subjects of posts that I felt were vituperative, unfair, or somehow hurtful to let them know that I sympathized with them and supported them.
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