Forum Charter for discussion - Draft....

[colinjones]

Ray_N - yes, I understand that point, it is unfortunate. I think the general principle would be that if (read the criteria closely again) the thread has spiralled off topic, and as the rule says "without any new posts on the original or related subjects", then there is no further useful discussion, its just a flame-war. So we lock. It's no immediate block on the usefulness of the rest of the thread, as there are no further useful comments at that time.

At some point in the future (and I agree, this could be the next day!) if someone has got some useful content, I am perfectly comfortable with unlocking the thread at their request.... Hopefully there will be so few threads locked due to flame-wars that this won't be a burden. I would suggest the work practice would be for the mods to unlock the thread and then eliminate the offending posts, so that the new post can carry on seemlessly without the intervening, diverting posts.

We can't codify everything, that needs to be a judgement call - if the thread topic will benefit from being reopened to new contributions, and the clarity of the thread is improved by removing those offending posts, then do it... it improves the quality of the forum.

Seer - I agree. This was a suggestion, so I put it to the vote. The more we put out there for agreement, the more respect and mandate the final charter will have.

[Zaerc]

So which one of you "heroes" has been deleting my posts, but obviously hasn't got the guts to own up to it? 

And locking the thread just to avoid having to answer that seems a bit childish to me, but I guess that's the way it is under this recently developed dictatorship.  All hail our new emperor!

[dlewis]

So which one of you "heroes" has been deleting my posts, but obviously hasn't got the guts to own up to it? 

And locking the thread just to avoid having to answer that seems a bit childish to me, but I guess that's the way it is under this recently developed dictatorship.  All hail our new emperor!

Once the new rules are voted on, then the moderators will have more guidelines on how to proceed...

[Zaerc]

So which one of you "heroes" has been deleting my posts, but obviously hasn't got the guts to own up to it? 

And locking the thread just to avoid having to answer that seems a bit childish to me, but I guess that's the way it is under this recently developed dictatorship.  All hail our new emperor!

Once the new rules are voted on, then the moderators will have more guidelines on how to proceed...

That does not answer my question now does it?

[dlewis]

So which one of you "heroes" has been deleting my posts, but obviously hasn't got the guts to own up to it? 

And locking the thread just to avoid having to answer that seems a bit childish to me, but I guess that's the way it is under this recently developed dictatorship.  All hail our new emperor!

Once the new rules are voted on, then the moderators will have more guidelines on how to proceed...

That does not answer my question now does it?

Honestly, what will you gain by knowing the answer to your question...? It looks like the voting will be "no" to locking threads. Again, the moderators will have rules to follow and therefore will have to govern based on those rules.

[Zaerc]

So which one of you "heroes" has been deleting my posts, but obviously hasn't got the guts to own up to it? 

And locking the thread just to avoid having to answer that seems a bit childish to me, but I guess that's the way it is under this recently developed dictatorship.  All hail our new emperor!

Once the new rules are voted on, then the moderators will have more guidelines on how to proceed...

That does not answer my question now does it?

Honestly, what will you gain by knowing the answer to your question...? It looks like the voting will be "no" to locking threads. Again, the moderators will have rules to follow and therefore will have to govern based on those rules.

Just answer the fucking question.

[totallymaxed]

I fully agree with Colin.  Someone might step into the forum months or years later with the same issue that was discussed and the "resolution" that was mentioned on the forum no longer works.  That new user should be able to post a "I've tried all of the above stuff and I still get $ERROR_MSG".  Also, we might have a regression when people move to 0810 and some new library version (or some other non-pluto package) creates an error that seems similar to something that has been discussed in the forum. 

The question I have is this:  What is the advantage of closing a thread?  To stop a thread from "going on and on".  Well, if someone is still posting on the thread, at least they feel that there is something worth to contribute.

I also agree with Colin... but Seer you raise a very good point. What is the advantage of closing a thread? The more I think about it I would suggest an alternative is to just ignore threads that go that way...just 'tune them out'... don't respond, dont even go and look back there - just ignore them. Many threads spiral purely because the perpetrator(s) like the attention or fuss they cause.

Stand back and just let them fizzle out... if they have no 'audience' then they will 'die' all on their own.

Andrew

[Pnuts]

Looks very good. Are there plans to add the finalized version to a TOS taht is accepted when making a forum account? Would be a good way for new users to see the rules right off the bat.

[Nigle]

I am in strong favor of enacting this drafted charter now and if any revisions come to mind the community can vote on it.  The sooner the better in my mind.

The only thing I would like to add is that going off topic is not necessarily bad because it sparks creativity.  Punishing a thread for going off topic makes absolutely no sense to me.  When there are good discussions in one thread sometimes that keeps conversations going quicker.  I can understand starting a new thread if the off topic discussion becomes too overwhelming for the original discussion but by no means is a need to punish a member, the thread, or the community. 

[colinjones]

Pnuts - I agree, this is a good idea, and dlewis thinks so too. We just have to work out how to do that!

Nigle - We have now moved to voting on this charter, can you please go to the sticky topic and vote there?

I agree with you on the off-topic/creativity point. However, as I have said before (read further up this thread, here for your convenience http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=7748.msg49984#msg49984 ) there is no rule in the charter about threads going off-topic. The criteria requires the thread to go off-topic with continual posts/reposts AND those posts/reposts be argumentative, adversarial or negative.

I'm sure you will agree that if a topic goes off on a tangent flame-war, of hurling abuse, and nothing to do with the original point, then this is anything but creative, rather it is destructive!

[Steve]

I agree to some extent. People that are new to linux shouldnt even be tackling linuxmce because of the nature of getting things running right. but simply ignoring or closing threads is going to loose alot of new people to the community.