Should you be punished for responding to an off topic post?

[zanzibar]

Let's say that someone posts an off-topic or mostly off-topic question in a thread you start.  You then do that person a favour by answering his question.

Should you be punished for answering his question?

[Karyuu]

Depends on how long the off-topic tangent becomes.

[zanzibar]

So if it adds up to only a couple of posts, then no harm is done?

[Karyuu]

I'd say so :]

[bilbous]

It would seem to me that it would also depend how far off-topic it was. If it is a reasonable tangent which is obviously related to the subject at hand it can be better tolerated than something completely unrelated.

For example if the original post is asking for a recipe for chocolate chip cookies and two or three have already been posted I would think it fair if someone posted a recipe for ginger snaps and someone else posted a recipe for peanut butter cookies.
To continue the example I would think that any discussion of browser cookies should be frowned upon except in the case of a warning about a website linked that has cookie recipes which also has browser cookies of dubious intent.

In any event I would think that any complaining about off-topic posts should be via the Report to moderator link and not within the thread itself as they are the ones who ultimately must make a ruling and compounding the problem by commenting in the thread does not help much.

[lordraleigh]

Definitively not in "Hydlaa Plaza" unless the creator of the thread explicitly asked for a stricter enforcement of on-topicness.

Also as long as it does not disrupt badly the thread, it should not face harsh measures.

Finally if someone is responding to an off topic post, I would say part of the responsability for it falls indirectly on the one who made the first off topic post(Although I don't see a little of offtopicness as bad, as long as it doesn't become a 10 pages long off topic discussion or something like that).

[zanzibar]

So we all agree that banning someone for a day if they answer an off-topic question is a little ridiculous?

[bilbous]

I think it is not that cut and dried and the person's posting habits as well as the type of response will always color any enforcement. So no, I do not agree with that without qualification.

[zanzibar]

I think it is not that cut and dried and the person's posting habits as well as the type of response will always color any enforcement. So no, I do not agree with that without qualification.

Yes, bias always plays a part.

[Garile]

I think it is not that cut and dried and the person's posting habits as well as the type of response will always color any enforcement. So no, I do not agree with that without qualification.

Yes, bias always plays a part.

I don't think that is fair Zanzibar. The fact is that normally it wouldn't be enough of a reason, but that is something else then saying it is the wrong measure at all times. If the person in question for example has been warned several times it's a completely different scenario.

[zanzibar]

I don't think that is fair Zanzibar. The fact is that normally it wouldn't be enough of a reason, but that is something else then saying it is the wrong measure at all times. If the person in question for example has been warned several times it's a completely different scenario.

Perhaps.  But if the person has never been warned, then this line of discussion is irrelevant.

[bilbous]

I think that the forum should have something along the lines of the NHL's instigator penalty so that  not only do the participants who are subjected to 1-day penalty suffer it but the person who started the qualifying exchange gets an additional day where it can be unequivocally determined.

As far as bias is concerned that is not at all what I meant but is unavoidable as the moderators are human. They do a good job from what I can tell anyway. What I was suggesting was that the straw that broke the camel's back would not have done so if it had been the only load placed on the beast.

Now I realize that your premise suggests an isolated incident: 1 OT reply = ban; but I know of no cases where anyone was banned for their very first OT comment unless there was some other more important breach of forum policy that took precedence so I am speaking to the larger issue.


The Moderators do not owe us an explanation of their enforcement measures, that they do so is a courtesy granted.

[zanzibar]

I actually don't know of anyone being banned from this forum.

[Garile]

Not exactly sure why you are asking the question then. If in your view banning isn't even used as a punishment why discus if banning is an appropriate punishment in a single hypothetical case? Something we will have little say in anyhow.

[emeraldfool]

I actually don't know of anyone being banned from this forum.

I do.

Not exactly sure why you are asking the question then. If in your view banning isn't even used as a punishment why discus if banning is an appropriate punishment in a single hypothetical case? Something we will have little say in anyhow.

Obviously it came up. Zanzibar isn't one to just pull random things out of his arse, right?




Personally I think the punishment should be contingent on the situation. For example, if one was to go about digging up 2-year-old threads just to prove a point - completely against forum policy - they should be punished regardless of whether the thread goes 'mostly' off-topic. Just a random example of course...