One-Liners be Damned
 

This is not a new argument, but I'm been burned enough that now I'm on a crusade.

Outside of the Lounge and its associated sub-forums, there needs to be a minimum length for a post. Too many sub-15 post phantoms come in here, say "I like it" and vanish into the e-ther. Why do I care?

It kills threads.

If you look at this on paper, theres no reason threads can't survive bad posts, but they don't. In reality its a death sentence for anything that isn't a politically charged firecracker...which goes on in the lounge.

I'd like there to be some effort made to preserve discussion out there, even if its not executed in the manner I'm suggesting.

If your talking about having a minimum number of characters per post it doesn't work.

Instead of getting..
"I like it"

you'll just end up getting..

"I like it"

**********************************

I don't like it

And I don't like the either of you.

Sitting around doing nothing doesn't work, we chastize the furious few who outright attack these people, and we don't have any method of shunning.

Institute the minimum requirement, and all asterisk-junkies will be identified as spammers.

We're not sitting around doing nothing though.

Whenever a 15 post spammer comes along they're instantly banned & all their posts deleted. I know I do this when I see one , I'm pretty sure RT , Jackhammer , Piss Me Off , Ethan & Seltzer does this too.

Occasionally a few might get through or get left up for a while because there are no mods on to get rid of them.

If i'm going to be expected to go meticulously through every thread judging whether every post in it is worthy of staying then i'll hand in my resignation right now.

Big3 you were a moderator for a long time and you know the practicalities involved in realising your proposal.
The only way to institute a minimum length for a post is to encourage members to post more detailed replies outside of the Lounge area.
The one word spammers are a different animal that I believe are dealt with pretty swiftly.

I can't think of any other way to control post content other than to moderate every post in every thread and as Urban pointed out and as I suspect you already know...that'd be damn near impossible.

You should not have resigned Big3. For unpaid work I think we do a bloody fantastic job.

This is true.

(Likely to be banned..... back to zero :D)

Why do you say that? I think I know where I'm going with this.

Ego stroking is good for the soul. U should not have resigned. For all the crap we get, it sometimes can be a satisfying job. Crap pay though!

Hey speaking of mods, where's JJJ been?

It was rewarding for you. Everyone and their brother climbed up my ****ing ass left and right.

Hey, you remember when my avatar became 5,000 x 5,000 suddenly one day? Do ya? Cause I won't forget that.

Do you remember when i was backed up on a technicality and my principles left me shunned?

I do.

I'm not trying to dig up old skeletons but this was work for me. I did what i thought would fix these boards because for so long it was a refuge for me, musically. But I was coming here because of obligation only and thats not what I needed, and its not what other mods and these boards deserved.

I'm interested though, why do you think I left?

That's really quite an MC Escher-esque image.

I understand Big3's sentiment but the time it takes to expound upon a subject is usually enough to dissuade people from posting in the first place. The superfluity of short posts only really gets to be a problem in threads like Albums You're Digging where people are supposed to offer a brief description of whatever album they're touting.

The point is those people who are forced to post with some intrinsic thought process are the same ones who won't spend the fifteen seconds required to do so. In their minds there is virtually no motive to explain why they like a band, the mere fact that they do is sufficient enough.

There's just no simple way to promote intelligent discussion.

You forgot JJJ.

This.

That and when you add a time element to it, it seems even more disgusting that they can't take a quarter of a second to say anything.

Someone here made the point that we might as well abolish the Metal forum since there isn't enough people to uphold what its posters would need, and then they leave. I don't think we should get rid of it, but I do think theres a valid point there.

Add up all the one-liner posts in any controversial act and I bet they out number the 15 seconds+ posts.

And again. It kills debate. Generally people feed off of the last comment there, I can't know for sure, but nothing else explains it. If they look at the last quote and are trying to gauge whether or not to go back and read more, then we should want to have that final post be something more than "I liked them before they sold out."

I look at old posts from MB's begining and thier all like that. Its terrible.

Then is it progress, what's happening?

What if it could be so that, the mods could do less physical deleting of pointless one-line posts and pointless users... isn't there some kind of code or something, where you can enter in "min. character count of post-length in *such and such* forum"? Would that make things easier - or does no one want to do this because... why?

Boozy, no offense kid but thats what we've been talking about this entire thread.

I'll tell you the truth, posts longer than two or three paragraphs usually bore the ass off me. I look at conversations on a message board as being kind of like a verbal conversation where where it flows a lot better if there's a lot of back and forth volleying of conversation. Situations where you have one interminable monologue after another tend to kill the flow of the thread, IMHO. I understand why people get frustrated when there are too many short posts all in a row, but I think forcing everyone to make longer posts is counterproductive.

One of the thigns I'm working on personally in my lifetime is saying things without coming off like a major ass, because most times I'm not trying to be. This post is one such...

Would a 15 word requisite really translate to a novel?

While we're on the topic, I absolutly loathe when people quote something someone said and break it up into little sections, commenting on each.

I can't put my finger on it but it rips me apart.

I stopped doing that a few months ago because I realized it ruins the natural course of debate and rebuttal and replaces it with an organized attempt to "win an argument." Ethan, boobs and a few others still do it and it pisses the fuck off me too.

No, but if what someone has to say doesn't require fifteen words what's the benefit of forcing them?

I think that's a product of the conversational nature of message board discussion. It's more conversational to reply point by point than it is to write the equivalent of a letter-to-the-editor response.

Ha, your discrete jab has not escaped me, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't clever.

The problem with it is, you either follow suit or you "dodge points made" which is BS. I'm not calling for it to be removed or anything, I'm just saying I hate it.

To tell the truth it actually wasn't intentional, that's just how I post. But I did notice when I hit "preview" and I thought, "heh, that's kind of funny".

How so? Can't you do either of those things no matter how you choose to format your post?

On paper or in reality?

You can, but for ridiculous forum brawls its not possible.

You know those fights where the guy making some grand stupid point thats being attacked from all sides keeps changing the point, usually ending on grammar. Those guys, thats what sits in me.

So again, I'm not taking a stand against that, its just a peeve.

I missed this earlier. You know, you're alright sammy. At least in this thread. I agree with this statement and would like to add onto it that when we have an argument for every little point, you're not really arguing positions, you're end up arguing points, but never state your own.

What we tend to end up with is a neutral position, I've said something, you've tried to undo it...so where do we go from here.

I have to confess I'm not really sure what you're talking about here. What does someone changing the point have to do with the posting point-by-point vs posting in one big chunk issue?

Inherently nothing. Historically its the method they use to "never lose."

They usually end up banned.

Edit: If you're looking for a televised version of these posters, Youtube Chris Matthews debating Kevin James. I've never seen an almost picture-perfect enactment of a message board fight.

Its brilliant.

I'll say this, it does get annoying when someone breaks it down into a thousand little points. But I think it makes sense to break the post up into a couple different blocks when you're really talking about a couple different subjects in one post. That's why I split your "Would a 15 word requisite..." post into two parts, for example.

This is true. ^

Well if thats your example, by spliting things up we're perpetuation a digression. No?

I'm not sure if this was a reply to me or not because I never said anything about anything being inherent. But I'm pretty unclear on what you're talking about now. Who are "they"?

How so?

Oh man...say whats your real name again?

Anyway, they, being posters that break up parapgrahs into points so they can refute them without having to take into account the breadth of the point or even realize what their arguing against.

Because you're carrying on side points. not you, but you know...us.

Lee. :)

Ah. I guess I could see that. I'd say the same thing also happens when people don't split the reply up though. I've run into plenty of situations of people doing the solid block response to one of my posts where they completely ignore points that were raised. Also, at times with the solid block method it can become unclear exactly which comments are being directed at which point.

Ah well, that's how casual conversations go, you know? Asides and tangents are par for the course.

please don't ban me!

what?

if you guys start cracking down on people who make one liner jokes, then i will surely be the first to go.

I'll probably be up against the wall too.

outside the lounge