Data Dumps yes or no?

[Allie]

One of the things I've always liked about this forum is that enforcement is not strictly rules-based but based on an ideal of civility enforced by actual human beings using their judgment. Sometimes I may disagree with a particular judgment, or even wonder if a moderator got up on the wrong side of the bed, but for the most part it works and works remarkably well. This is a private forum with no obligation to be impartial. It's allowable to hold a preference for civility over incivility, to refuse to allow comparisons to modern politics even when they might seem relevant to the Civil War, and to make other judgments as need be.

One of my favorite things that happened when I was new here was a thread in which a moderator actually asked, in red text, for references to be given if a poster intended on continuing to make certain assertions. On most other forums such a demand from a moderator would probably be considered ludicrous. But that's what makes this forum special. It has standards, and the standards are enforced, not according to the letter of the rules but according to their spirit.

I would be happy if mods felt free to step in on a case by case basis: in a particular case a mod might post something like, "This is getting out of hand - going forward please restrict your sources to no more than five per post, provide links to the material, and allow others to respond before dumping more sources." Just a suggestion!

 

[M.Warren]

I've given my thoughts but just wanted to say it's nice to get to discuss potential policy. By all rights the owners could just do what seems best to them or do nothing but instead we're getting to offer opinions and suggestions. It's nice that we're being given the opportunity and are being heard.

Yes! Thank you Mike and mods for letting us give our two cents. This comes from someone who spends most of their time here reading and not so much posting. Lately its rare that I post on a thread but very common for me to spend hours here reading. The idea of that being hindered in some way was worth coming out of the shadows back to the posting world. Im sure that CWT staff have everyones best interests in mind.

 

[Allie]

I think up and downvoting would quickly lead to hurt feelings for people who did nothing wrong.

 

[Schwallanscher]

If we added this ability, it wouldn't be open to everyone.

Here's how it would work, if 4 people give a thread 5 stars, and one person gave a 1 star to the same thread, it might bump it down to 4 stars total, and it would get 2.5 stars if there was a 50/50 split of 1 and 5 star votes. 2, 3, and 4 star votes would be weighted accordingly. The server is good at doing maths!

It's not that different to what most e-commerce sites use, like Amazon, but for threads.

It's possible that I might only open thread ratings for Hosts and Moderators, it's also possible I would make it a perk for Patrons if they don't abuse the privilege. I could even open it up to senior members of the forum with 2,500 or more posts, but again, I would revoke the privilege if it was abused.

The people who would have the ability to rate would need to agree to rate the overall discussion quality, rather than the topic itself.

And besides, this won't stop viewers from reading threads, it just suggests which threads have good content.

At least, that's the theory.

I can install the add-on, try it for a few weeks, and if we don't like it I can later remove it. So the technology is not a problem, it's putting the tool to it's proper use I'm concerned about.

Will it help to solve this problem without creating new rules? I'm not yet sure...

let's say moderator j (as in agent j) gives a ***** on page two of a thread - this thread then goes down - can he take ***** back and give it ** on page six or are first ratings set in stone. this is of course (and in theory) not a problem with great numbers of 'raters' but if rating is exclusive for moderators and silver patrons (and above) that is a limited pool of people

 

[CivilWarTalk]

let's say moderator j (as in agent j) gives a ***** on page two of a thread - this thread then goes down - can he take ***** back and give it ** on page six or are first ratings set in stone. this of course (and in theory) not a problem with great numbers of 'raters' but if rating is exclusiv for moderators and silver patrons (and above) that is a limited pool of people

I would say that if a discussion started as a quality discussion, and someone came in and started to "tarnish" the quality of the thread, then perhaps that new discussion should be broken into it's own thread and then rated on it's own merits.

At least in a perfect forum

 

[diane]

That's an interesting point. I know there have been some threads that you just want to give a like to the whole thread and as soon as you say so, it hits the skids! But the recently installed practice of breaking off a tangent, good, indifferent or bad, has been effective in keeping the original thread on topic.

 

[dlavin]

Not that I want you to, but make it a pay site, and you will see some people leave....

Related to the "star system" i am a member of another site that uses this, and yes the "highly rated" threads get moved up, but it is open to all members, and its a free site to join and recently someone went through and one-starred a lot of threads...and it just bugged the **** outta people. Its a sports site devoted to my alma mater's collegiate athletics and members from rival teams were "one-starring" the threads...not life threatening or anything but nonetheless obnoxious.

 

[chellers]

I hope if you are to kick me off you would allow me to defend myself before the staff based on the rules on this forum. If i start posting in a manner against the rules than I hope I would get a warning and chance to correct. I can certainly have my op view before i post i have done that before and can every time if needed.

I belive you have made some big judgment calls that should be supported rather than claimed, i think the relevant threads are a good place to do that.

1stvermont: You are off topic, and this thread is not about you. If you continue to post off topic you will be banned from replying to this thread.

Respectfully,
Chellers