I really hate to criticise...

The thread was discussed for a while before any action was taken.

The problem (as I explained in the thread), was that there were a number of people who were constantly trying to get the thread back on topic, and others who were completely disregarding this.

A few off topic posts here and there are fine, but around 60% of the thread had nothing to do with the topic at hand.

A natural progression into "off-topic" is when all posts relate to the new, off-topic subject. However, in the pictures thread, you had people fighting for the original topic to be maintained. That doesn't seem very natural or considerate to me.

 

Just another quick note:

It wasn't just a matter of whether or not the posts were appropriate for that particular thread. Some of the posts made in the thread weren't appropriate for EC at all, and weren't being moderated because the thread was so huge.

It was a good thread, and lots of people were participating in it. So instead of simply deleting the thread as was suggested by a number of people, I went through the 1050 (53 pages) to salvage at least the core of the post.

 

Honestly I would have just locked it and created an "All New & Improved Post Your Pic Thread".

Whatever though. It's just posts on a forum and the thread was OFF-TOPIC. Some of the comments and chit chatting could've been saved for private message or the chat room. Not a thread.

 

:jawdrop: Jeezus!

I avoided the thread because 56k plus viruses plus pictures... = head banging against any hard object around me. (wall, keyboard, ect.)

Kudos to your uh... drive? uh... commitment! Thats the word.

 

I heartily agree... I'm sure that doesn't surprise anyone.

I can't see the point of the mods killing themselves just to try to tame something that doesn't need to be tamed. In this particular case, all that really needed to be done was move the actual posts with pics into a separate thread, delete the inappropriate posts, and then let the remaining posts just be silly and meaningless.

I've never really understood this unspoken policy on EC that threads have to stay so strictly on-topic... it squashes a lot of opportunities for interesting organic discussion because (and yeah, I have said this before) if you close a thread because it's become off-topic, 9 times out of 10 you will discourage people from starting another topic in which to start discussing the new topic that has arisen because the closing of the thread is taken as "oh we've been bad." The same is generally the case if some authority figure steps in and says, "Get back on topic."

If people have trouble following a thread which has evolved well past its original intent, well... they'll just stop following it, which I'm sure MANY people did with the thread in question. If all of EC was like that, super-meandering, I'm sure that'd be a problem. But it's not so really, save yourself some grief.

If the mods focused more on facilitating discussion, moving it back on topic with a probing question or comment relevant to the original topic, rather than policing it by saying, "You need to get back on topic..." well, I'd say it'd make their jobs easier and EC run smoother.

 

Jeimuzu...... Thank you for sharing your concerns. Like Micah mentioned we had been discusssing this for several days. My problem was not that it went off topic but that some of the posts were inappropriate for this forum. It's hard sometimes to figure out what the right thing to do is. I welcome your suggestions.

 

hehe, this made me laugh. Actually I was surprised you hadn't made this thread yourself, Joey (I mean that in a complimentary way). But I totally agree with you two, in that I think the thread could have been salvaged. On the same note, however I can see how it would have been a hue job to do for the mods. I guess it's too late to do much about it, cos it's already been deleted, but I think that a certain level of meanderring in threads should be allowed. Perhaps in this case, the thread should have been renamed and a new one opened, wich strictly said "For pictures, not silliness"

I dunno, but I guess you guys did what you thought was best for the forum

 

I originally stored the "deleted" posts in the mod's forum, rather than actually deleting them. We've considered removing the inappropriate posts that caused the problems in the first place, then restoring it back to the general forum as a split off thread (so that those who wish to use the original thread as it was intended can still do so.

However you must understand that there are over 850 posts to sift through. So if we get around to it, it's going to be a while before anything is done (if time is found to do anything at all).

 

The problem with the thread was that people were still trying to post photos of themselves, but because of the mass of other stuff going on in it the photos were being ignored. So it was just not working as the title suggested and those posting these photos were becoming agitated.

Normally we would have done a thread split to move the other stuff to a new thread, then both could have continued. We feel this is the best approach in cases like this as both discussions are free to continue separately.

However because of the sheer size of that thread, a quick thread split was not viable. So we took the approach of getting the thread back for its intended purpose as quickly as possible.

We were then going to sort out the rest of the stuff, but after looking through it we felt there was nothing of value in there (nothing anyone would want or miss) so decided to just leave it out of sight.

However our assumption was obviously wrong, and people do want it back, either because of the content, or because they are unhappy about the random disappearance of over 800 posts.

As Micah mentioned above, some of the posts in the stuff that was removed were inappropriate, so we can't just put it all straight back here. However as soon as I have posted this I am going to go through it all quickly, remove anything that is obviously inappropriate, combine it all into one big thread then put it back here.

As I said before, this thread was an exception due to the vast size and that more was off-topic posts than relevant posts. So please don't assume the handling of this one by the mods is normal.

 

It's back, here http://emptyclosets.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5985

It took about 50 minutes to go through that lot, and I just deleted the inappropriate stuff without checking whether it upset the continuity of the thread. So there may be some comments that don't seem to fit in as they relate to stuff that is gone.

 

Thanks for all the mods' efforts on this one... it was definitely a strange exception, even for EC.

 

Haha do I win a medal for creating one of the most controversial EC Threads?

 

The mod who is best is the mod who mods the least, imo.

(but I do appreciate the all the work you guys are doing and obviously inappropriate stuff has to be deleted.. but let threads go the way they go..)

 

Well whatever we do or don't do, someone will complain. :bang:

 

I think the mods are doing the best they can, you guys. And Paul's right. Just like in life, every decision you make will somehow upset someone.

 

true dat...

 

Great Work Paul,Micah and Becky."IT'S A DIRTY JOB BUT SOMEONE'S GOTTA DO IT"

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

lol !

 

:roflmao: