offtopic posts

[neko kyouran]

Hello everyone,

My superiors have asked that I ask you all to stay on topic when you reply to posts.  You may ask yourself, what is an off topic post.  Well, I was given this thread http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=38419.0 as an example of what off topic posts are.

Please review this thread and let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them as best I can.

From this point forward, I have been instructed to move threads, such as the example listed above has been moved, to the complaint forum section.

If you wish to express your opinion on this new decision, please feel free to reply here, or PM the administration team directly, and I'm sure they'll be glad to provide further feedback to you.

Thanks, from your friendly fur-ball/lead moderator.

[novacadian]

Nova cheers wildly at the decision 

[Catlemur]

Sometimes I wish I was an admin. so  I can ban everyone who ruined my topic.

[Aiwendil]

Haha

But yes...I have a question. What happens if the thread goes off topic but not in a complaining way?

[Geoni]

Darn those troublemakers! The life of a troublemaker is (something bad...)!!!

[Illysia]

Now Aiwe, you know good and well that the only posts that this thread is actually referring to is the complaining about how the game is needlessly not going well or how the administration of the project is not well suited to a project of this type. I just wish things were written as they are actually meant, rather than couched in other words. Can I make a new complaint thread about that or is that on topic for here? Our forum mods shouldn't be asked to make overly general posts about that which isn't meant by the general meaning of the words used in said posts. 

...or PM the administration team directly, and I'm sure they'll be glad to provide further feedback to you.

I'll just leave this one alone as this is just shooting fish in a barrel for starting off topic discussions on the topics that are actually meant when the words "offtopic posts" are used.

[Sangwa]

Sounds like a perfect decision to me.

Also... This post of her... It seems to fit the description of off-topicness (since it matches so well what is in the linked topic.) I think there should be some kind of filter that would direct all her posts to the Complaints Department.

[Illysia]

You are such a little instigator Sanwa.  Be good and don't provide "offtopic argument" bait in a topic specifically asking for an end to it.

[Geoni]

Oooooooooh, I bet chu' won't hit 'im! 

[Illysia]

[LigH]

Different boards are managed differently.

I am already a "Super Moderator" in a quite important german video board (part of the Doom9 network). We never had such a degree of trolling there, and we moderators would never let so much trolling develop unmoderated. Therefore I was quite surprised how relaxed this board was managed until now.

With vBulletin 4, we have a quite mighty tool to manage issues quickly: Cutting out off-topic replies (at our board e.g. discussions in the "News" area which is reserved for notifying about current versions only); warning a user who misbehaves and violates board rules with an easy-to-use interface; automatic banning for a limited time when warn points pass a threshold; putting users on a global ignore list so they won't know that noone will see their posts...

It is the responsibility of the moderators to keep the board in a state the administration enjoys. Details of the expected state may differ from board to board. I, personally, would like to see more efforts in "trimming the lawn"; not down to a golf green ... but it doesn't need to look like fallow and rank growth either.

[Minks]

Finally. I'm tired of sorting through the bickering in search for the topic of a thread. 

[Illysia]

Usually the topic comes in the beginning, then someone answers the topic (yes... answers. Usually the reason the bickering can start is because the thread actually didn't require more than a little statement to answer the topic and there's still a whole thread there), then the side points come out, those turn into bickering and then the only people that should bother reading any more are the people directly involved in the argument or those that want to become involved... It's rather simple actually. Why keep reading when you know the topic has gotten to the bickering stage?

And of course it's not as bad there LigH, the people there aren't as passionate about the topic. Anywhere you have MMOs though, stuff like this can come up. However, even I have to admit to being surprised at how much was allowed to slide. But I guess Neko can't chase after every battle when they crop up so often.

[novacadian]

But I guess Neko can't chase after every battle when they crop up so often.

It should be a simple matter of checking your Show the last posts of this person each day.

- Nova

[Aiwendil]

My questions was kind of serious though...Is this about only moving complains to the correct board or to do something about off-topic posts like advertising own projects in every thread, littering RP threads or the usual "It's not broken...go and play on IRC" answers to complains also?