Limiting thread spread

15 posts / 0 new

Sun, 2021-01-10 15:12

contrarianna

Moderators have limited time to monitor threads and it is not helped by numerous threads on the same topic. It also makes following any topic by any interested party with finite time discouraging.

As a discussion board, give and take of actual discussion should be a priority, rather than a narcissistic need to spam endless threads on the same topic.
These are often simply a link to another article with a yelp of approval or disapproval and no intention to engage in discussion.

This is a major departure from the relative health of the Rabble forum of earlier years.
Some moderator oversight in this area would be welcome.

Sun, 2021-01-10 15:42

Pondering

Meg has little time for the board. Perhaps we could start a thread posting the links to threads we think should be combined. We have to agree amongst ourselves not to chatter in it. We just list the links and leave it to Meg to decide.

Sun, 2021-01-10 17:54

eastnoireast

a per-poster per-day limit on thread starts (1) and posts (15) might also be a good place to start, and i'm guessing fairly easy to implement.

a technical solution to a meat problem, but here we are.

if ya can't say what ya need to say within those parameters...

Sun, 2021-01-10 17:58

cco

It might also be useful to prevent consecutive posts in a single thread by one poster, encouraging people to edit their previous post to add content instead. How technically feasible that would be, I can't say.

Mon, 2021-01-11 10:20

MegB

Well, Aristotleded24 is no long allowed to create more COVID threads, and I would welcome fewer leaner threads (much easier to moderate) but convincing people to do things differently is difficult. For instance, I have posted on more than one occasion the guidelines for thread title format and they have been routinely ignored. I do have better and more important things to do than edit thread titles, but my time is very limited. Looking forward to further discussion on these issues.

Mon, 2021-01-11 21:19

Ken Burch

Other websites are set up to force people to wait at least thirty seconds between posts. Could we get something like that here?

Mon, 2021-01-11 21:24

Paladin1

What if Rabble picked up another 1 or 2 moderators or assistant moderators to help out?

I check in and read the forums now and then, because you're all pretty interesting and I enjoy your points of view, but sometimes thread are like 15 or 20 posts in a row by the same person and it's just links.

I'd also recomend maybe considering making mega threads so all Trump related stuff goes in one thread instead of 10 different ones.

Mon, 2021-01-11 23:21

(Reply to #7) #8

Douglas Fir Premier

Paladin1 wrote:

sometimes thread are like 15 or 20 posts in a row by the same person and it's just links.

I am sympathetic to the concerns about thread proliferation, but IMO, this is the bigger impediment to thoughtful discussion. I always access babble via the Active Topics page, where I'll typically check to see who posted last in any given topic. If it's someone known for making post after post of hyperlinks, I don't even bother clicking.

Tue, 2021-01-12 13:22

(Reply to #8) #9

kropotkin1951

Douglas Fir Premier wrote:

Paladin1 wrote:

sometimes thread are like 15 or 20 posts in a row by the same person and it's just links.

I am sympathetic to the concerns about thread proliferation, but IMO, this is the bigger impediment to thoughtful discussion. I always access babble via the Active Topics page, where I'll typically check to see who posted last in any given topic. If it's someone known for making post after post of hyperlinks, I don't even bother clicking.

The insidious part is that "coincidentally" he often spams with a dozen MSM links immediately after an interesting point has been made by another babbler. Anyone avoiding his spam also misses some of the best points and then the discourse dies.

Tue, 2021-01-12 16:37

#10

JKR

I guess it would be inappropriate at this point for me to post a dozen articles by the National Post on the need for more tax cuts for millionaires and the necessity for more tax breaks for the oil industry?

Fri, 2021-01-15 11:27

(Reply to #10) #11

MegB

Ken Burch wrote:

Other websites are set up to force people to wait at least thirty seconds between posts. Could we get something like that here?

To my knowledge we do not have that technical capacity available to us on this platform.

Fri, 2021-01-15 11:31

(Reply to #11) #12

MegB

Paladin1 wrote:

What if Rabble picked up another 1 or 2 moderators or assistant moderators to help out?

I check in and read the forums now and then, because you're all pretty interesting and I enjoy your points of view, but sometimes thread are like 15 or 20 posts in a row by the same person and it's just links.

I'd also recomend maybe considering making mega threads so all Trump related stuff goes in one thread instead of 10 different ones.

We used to have two moderators. After Catchfire moved on he was not replaced, so there is just me. The organization cannot afford to pay more moderating hours at this point in time.

I cannot combine threads, but I can close ones deemed repetitive and non-productive in terms of discussion and promote one large thread on the topic.

Fri, 2021-01-15 12:31

#13

Pondering

I think it would work well if Meg creates obvious topics at her discretion or on request for major events. At that point no one else creates threads connected to that topic without running in by Meg and the membership.

As an example, it is valid for Covid-19 to generate multiple threads as the situation continues to develop. One thread entitled "Covid-19" doesn't cover it but we are all deciding individually whether our idea or information deserves a thread of it's own. The conversations get confusing. I would even be in favor of Covid 19 getting it's own forum rather than getting sprinkled in international news and canadian politics.

Threads could be called:

Covid-19 - Current conditions in Canada
Covid-19 - Studies and statistics
Covid-19 - Sceptics
Covid-19 - Vaccine development

I'm sure there could be many other titles and maybe the above are too broad or too narrow but the idea is to make it easier for us to have continued discussion with less thread drift and fragmentation. So, Meg takes over creating all the Covid 19 threads. A thread exists where we can ask meg for a new thread category and everyone can put their two cents in for consideration, or not, and Meg decides if it warrants another thread. A topic like Covid could require 10, 20 or 30 threads. I'm not saying it should be limited to a handful. Just not be so random.

Fri, 2021-01-15 23:32

(Reply to #13) #14

eastnoireast

Pondering wrote:

I think it would work well if Meg creates obvious topics at her discretion or on request for major events. At that point no one else creates threads connected to that topic without running in by Meg and the membership.

great. or even better, maybe rabble could just contract it out to goozle algorithms.

this doesn't seem complicated. a couple people have to adjust the spammy-ness of their threading and posting.

Sat, 2021-01-16 18:19

#15

Pondering

Let everyone start more threads but then make the main ones stickies.

As an example, an obvious list if an election is announced, Federal election 2021 Liberals, Federal election 2021 - Justin Trudeau, Federal election 2021, debates, polls, X insert whatever scandal pops up, etc. Then people at least have the choice to stay in the primary threads on those topics or go to a more specific user generated thread on a particular article.