Lounge threads need purpose now?
 

I have noticed some threads in the lounge being closed for not having a purpose, sense when did the lounge need a purpose? heck look at 90% of the poses here and they don't have a purpose so why not close them all? I totally agree with the other forums being on line and purposeful but not in the lounge as that was the place designed for us to talk about what ever, and as long as there is no flaming criminal activities and the general feel is civil I don't believe it should be closed.

Not picking on any Mod so don't take it the wrong way I just feel this issue needs to be addressed/discussed be for it gets out of hand.

Steve

What I find interesting that a thread as useless as "Do you believe in God", which has absolutely nothing to do with reefing, is allowed to carry on. :mad: There does not seem to be any rhyme nor reason. :confused:

BOB , I agree with you ,COMPLETELY!!!!

I figured it would not take long before someone posted this. :sad: Glad you see it as civil.

I closed the thread because the last post of so, were gettings close to crosing the line. It was also closed untill the other staff members could comment.

MOST lounges do not allow threads on politics, which is where this was heading and/or threads on religion, because they usually end up in a free for all.

The thread on religion was not closed on the decision of the other staff members, for now. I totally disagreed with the wording of some of the questions there, such as calling other beliefs "weak & fearful". FWIW, I thought it should be closed.

I will unlock the thread.


Why do topics that start arguments and hard feelings need to be talked about on a reef board lounge? There,s other places for that. Look at all the threads on here. Most are useful or provide a laugh or two.

I just feel this not the place for that , Thank you

Re: Lounge threads need purpose now?
 

Forum description reads:

Point well taken. But read on..

I think you answered your own question. There are a lot of topics that make people uncomfortable, but, so long as the general feel is civil, we try to leave them be. The thread you refer to was closed because it looked like it temporarily lost its civil tone, or had the potential to go that way.

With all due respect ... before what gets out of hand? The moderators are here to MODERATE things. If you have an idea how we can improve that task, feel free to present them to one of us privately. We're reasonable people doing at times an unpleasant job. Having our motives questioned like this, is I think, a little unfair.

In general, if you exercise COMMON SENSE when starting a thread, or responding to one, it will get left alone. And if not ... well then we have a duty to do. I'm sorry if that makes us unpopular, but the reality is we don't have to explain ourselves at all if we choose not to. It says so right in the user agreement that you agreed to, to become a member of the board. I would like to think, however, that the moderators have never chosen to abuse that privledge.

I think Tony has done a fine job answering this. It's funny, we leave a thread, we're wrong. We close a thread, we're censors, and wrong again. What's that old saying? Can't make all of the people happy ever, or something like that.
Looking back, the "americans are dumb" thread should have been closed in the first 2 seconds. The god thread should also have been removed, although I have to say after 3 pages, it has remained civil. Still, I'm recommending to the rest of the staff that any future politcs/religion threads be prohibited. This is a reef board, and I'm sure there are boards about gods and politicians elsewhere, and people should go there to discuss it.

I think the point of some off-topic posts is simply to learn about the point of views of other members in our reefing community and look for commonality.

Back around Nov 26, 2001, I thought it was decided that any topic could be discussed in the Lounge. That post is not there anymore but I remember reading it and someone followed up by posting a thread called "ANY Topic..?" to see if it was indeed true.

Re: Lounge threads need purpose now?
 

I also wonder what that meant?

Good post Tony. Thanks for putting it in another way.

I could not agree more.

Thats fine Sam and I agree but not when insults are being thrown about. I already mentioned how I found the #6 question part of the thread on religion as insult and how can anyone not tell me the American thread was not an insult to many people.

And FWIW, I would love to read and partcipate in a thread on religion in a decent manner but they never seem to go that way.

Could not agree more but the thought of a thread like this prevented me from doing so.

MODERATORS WELL Written!!!!!
and you have the right to close what ever you feel. If people can't leave a normal thread alone with out adding in their 2 cents of spaced out answers well time to go some where else to beak off.

Any ways i used to be a moderator on a board a few years back and I always got the emails you an Blank this and a blank that. Because you closed off a thread people wine on these threads because they are mad or ****ed ,due to the fact they didnt get a chance to post.... THAt is IMO and I'm sticking to it ..


Mike

I recently signed up to a board to debate religion and philosophy. I was very disappointed, and somewhat disgusted, by what I read there. In some cases, there was no true debating going on, only bashing of believers in God by those who did not believe in God.

I knew the belief/non-belief in God topic would be risky for this board, which is why I made it into a poll instead of a "tell us about your belief or non-belief in God" thread. That way, people could simply vote anonymously. However, I thought some people would likely want to talk about their beliefs/non-beliefs so I made it clear that bashing of any kind of another's belief was not going to be tolerated.

I also wanted to be all-inclusive while devising the possible beliefs/non-beliefs choices, which does happen to include everyone from strong believers in organized religions to those who are contemptuous of anyone believing in God.

So far in the poll, everyone has been respectful those people who chose to explain their beliefs/non beliefs. I give thanks to everyone who has taken the time and effort to respond, and to others who may not agree with some of what is said but have kept their criticism to themselves. Thanks, also, to the moderators for allowing such a controvsial poll to continue at all.

All that said, one topic I would NEVER discuss here or on any public forum would be p*l*t*cs :eek:

but it is this inconsistency that causes this questioning, I see the religion thread running, and several other controversial threads that have never been closed, then a joke one comes up about the Americans and it is slammed, I see worse than that about the Americans on city walk on Jay Leno :mrgreen: anyways I know what it is like to be a Mod, as I was a on line mod for a family chat for a board I used to be a part owner of in town, and I know your damed if you do and damed if you don't but this just didn't make sense when you see the other topics that have gone through the lounge in the last couple months.

anyways I guess I am just trying to rationalize why a thread like this was closed and one like this,
http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13687

which was totally out of line and should have been closed, was allowed to continue. as far as the topic line reef related but doesn't fit in another group, look at the last months of posts in the lounge, you can count the reef related ones on 1 hand, heck we got cars for sale and everything.

I agree you guys need to close some threads once and a while and I normally don't have a problem, but I think we need more consistency in the lounge.

Steve

Steve,
I dont find any comparison in Leno,s street talk & the thread I closed, but then thats my opinion.

Why the thread you linked was not closed, is also a good question. Perhaps its because the staff is like the rest of the board and we always dont all see things the same way either.

There will always be some inconsistancy, as I see also on most other moderated forums.

What I would like to know, is why are the threads I moderate, are question by some of the same people, almost everytime? I guess at least thats consistant. :lol:

And then you wonder why the hesitation or confusion in moderating threads.

Doug, we need to go on a moderating course!! Then we'll know what to do all the time. :razz:

IMO the mods are doing a fine job. I for one, do not like being put in a spot where my own judgement is questioned, and I believe it to be only human for others to feel the same.

I believe a mod should have the power to remove what they find offensive without question. If it is questioned, a simple explaination should be provided. Easy as pie, right?

Right.

Ive chosen not to take part in the religion or politics threads. I dont think they belong on this board. Although i feel the religion one should have been closed right from the start. This is deffinitly not the place to discus religion. I was actully shocked that the thread was even started.

:lol:

heh heh... mods rock... :cool:

I was also surpirised it came up, and I guess it was my judgement to allow it to continue, believing that the membership of the board could be trusted to act maturely about it (which everyone did, thank you). BUT, I think in the future we are going to officially ask (and enforce) a no religion or politcs policy. It's still under review, but it looks like that willl be the decision.
As for the subject of lounge threads needing a purpose, essentially we will allow what we think benefits the majority of the board, without insulting or offending any group or individual, subject to whatever the moderator feels at that moment.

you mean were going to have to talk about fish :mrgreen:

Steve

So could Beverly ask under this new policy ask a question like, "Does reefkeeping enhance your awareness of God, of a Creator?" Seems like she was "fishing" for more detailed responses, at least more specific ones anyways.

Not that there's anything wrong with that - not officially, not yet... :mrgreen:

I feel that as long as threads stay civil there is nothing wrong with 'risky' topics.

If anyone is offended by the topic they have the choice to not click on the link and participate.

Although if a mod feels a thread is taking a turn for the worse then it should be locked. No questions asked.

We are all privilaged to be a part of this great forum and, as the religion thread has shown, are quite capable of discussing even risky topics with maturity and respect for others' views.

My thoughts exactly.

A question for those who think that this entire site should be devoted to nothing but fish and coral talk; should this be enforced at frag swaps as well? Cause I did a whole lot of off-topic chatting at Jonathan's a while back. You know, getting to know each other.

Isn't that being a bit silly? However, since Canreef doesn't host any frag swaps, we don't have any authority to enforce such a rule. And we aren't suggesting that you can't talk about things other than fish or corals, only that there will be some limits on the topics allowed on the board. Pretty simple.

hmmmm..... :rolleyes:

It was a post of a funny video clip. That's it! Where the discussion went after the members clicked on the link was in the control of everyone who posted in the thread.

I started the thread to share a funny clip I came across and not to roast a few fickle peoples fellings!

People that get that easily offended should not even go on the net in the intrest of protecting their fragile psyche! :rolleyes:

If crossing the line is calling to question someone's false statistics and pointing out the inacuracy in their statements, then I guess it did.

If your talking about the thread that I posted with a funny video clip, are you just re-naming it to suit your purpose for this thread? If your talking about some other thread that was posted "americans are dumb", then my appoligies. (If I remember right it was called something like "Our nieghbours sometimes make me laugh". But since it's gone I can't quite be sure of that.)

Like I stated before, it was posted as a funny video clip and thats all it was.

But if re-naming it the "Americans are dumb" thread somehow gets you through the night, I'm happy for you. :mrgreen:

See? This is how it starts. The theme of your post became "americans are dumb", and yes, that is the one we should have deleted right away.

I realy don't care that the thread is locked or gone for that matter. What I can't understand is how you choose to rename it after it's gone. Fact remains that it was nothing more than a link to a humourous video clip. So without the clip itself being offensive, how could you possibly know that it should have been deleted in the first 2 seconds?

What the thread "Became" after the original post is not in my control.

This thread was more "not" suited for the lounge than these ones?

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14202

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14158

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=13687

Oh, and let's not have any politics either. :lol:

http://www.canreef.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9993

Right, but from experience, I knew it would turn into what it did. That was the basis for it needing to be gone immediately. Essentially though, if you're not happy with our decisions, I can recommend some other boards for you....

Your correct there Gary. Thats what got it shut down, along with a couple of other peoples post before that one.

Thats likely correct, however its our job to protect their fragile psyche on a privately owned, publicly viewed aquarium board.

Gary, as I said to Steve, I personally have no idea why those threads were allowed to run. I, in my view as a moderator here, would have shut them down at the start.

However, thats always been my view on lounges on reef boards. Perhaps its wrong but its my view. As a mod here, I try to stay within the ideas of the rest of the Canreef staff and its owner. If thats wrong, then perhaps I should step down and let Canreef select another staff member.

The online scraps and people banned is huge on reef boards with not to many lounge restrictions. Its even ruined a few boards. How can people argue the usual freedom of speech line when this happens.

I have never understood why an aquarium board has to have such threads that cause hard feelings. I assume thats why most aquarium boards have strict posting rules in their lounges. If one looks at the lounge threads, there are hundreds of good ones compared to one bad one, so it obvious there is lots to chat about besides flame topics.

Does everyone think we are not savy or offended, just because we are moderators. I have been around so long, it would be hard to post something that I could not handle. :lol:

Gary, your thread may have started as an innocent joke, but as you seen, it never stayed that way. Also, most of what I,m posting here, on this thread by Steve, is a general statement and not just regarding your thread alone. {although its the one I closed, :smile: }

The point again is, as always, it leads to this. What we are doing right now. Arguing amongst ourselves on a reefing board. Now thats sad. :sad:

Ok, that's it.

I have explained once before, and I will do so again, before closing this thread.

We, as the moderators, generally have only closed threads where tempers have flared. Whether appropriate or inappropriate hasn't so much entered into the equation because, as a rule, we have generally allowed the concept of free speech.

If you had a genuine concern with any previous threads, you were free to bring up those concerns, PRIVATELY, to a moderator within a timely manner. I'm sorry but that reasonable time period is up. To bring them up now, is only serving to further antagonize and polarize the board. So drop it. Now.

And as I said before. The moderators actions are not up for public debate.

This is my final warning: Drop it. Go look at your tanks and enjoy them instead.