The usual suspects - closed thread(s) that is

Discussion in 'Forum Questions and Suggestions' started by Wynand N, Feb 22, 2012.

  1. Wynand N
    Joined: Oct 2004
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    Location: South Africa

    Wynand N Retired Steelboatbuilder

    Hi Jeff,

    See you had just closed the Israel thread for reasons given by you and the usual message about boating and a link. Luckily I did not participate on that one..;)

    If I may be so bold Jeff; We do not want to visit other forums to have our kicks or to vent frustrations. Some of us are members here for quite a long time standing and would like to keep it going.
    However, religion and politics are a fact of life and cannot be ignored and by "banning" this from the forum you will kill many a thread, especially in the Open Discussion department. Also worth mentioning is that these threads are usually the most popular one based on views and post replies and this must be indicative of the fact that this finds favour amongst some members, but sometimes not you. I agree that some posts and replies do irritate some or on religious grounds what is acceptable for one religion may be unacceptable for another religion.
    I also understand that you want to keep the Forum clean and family friendly and admire you for that, but having said that, the forum are the members and consists of the good, the bad and the ugly.

    Jeff, I have a suggestion; to keep everyone happy and to enjoy his/her poison, why not create a new sub forum where members are warned that the contents of this forum may be harmful, cause insults, especially religiously, etc and if sensitive, do not enter. Furthermore, to get access to the proposed forum, one must login to that and also declare you are at least 18 years of age to keep it family friendly.
    Posters can then vent their steam and should anyone be so stupid to participate in this cry wolf because his feelings are hurt, tough luck to him/her as they were warned of the content etc before login and participating. IOW, cowboys do not cry.

    If you agree to this I can suggest a couple of names for such a thread;

    1. The Bilge
    2. The Dungeon
    3. The Congress

    What do other members feel about this proposal to Jeff and if we can pursue him to accommodate the usual suspects, what name would you suggest for the proposed Forum?
     
  2. Boat Design Net Moderator
    Joined: Feb 2010
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    Location: www.boatdesign.net

    Boat Design Net Moderator Moderator

    The purpose of Boat Design Net is to provide a site where everyone interested in boats can enjoy coming to share the common interest in boat design, boatbuilding, and boats in general. There are innumerable sites and forums on the internet dedicated to heated political and religious debate already; the amount of bandwidth used on politicing each election (and noise generated) or on religion far surpasses what's dedicated to sharing knowledge on boats. The problem with allowing a "dirty bilge" where discussions become hostile is that members start to be offended by what's in the bilge and it becomes counterproductive to goal of the site.

    If you would like to create a politics and religion section on your http://5psi.net site Wynard, possibly members could enjoy heated arguments on religion and politics there on your http://5psi.net site. If you create a politics and/or religion section on http://5psi.net, this could be linked here as a place for members to have heated debates on religion and politics.

    There are also a large number of forums already dedicated to both religion and politics which members could easily keep open in a tab. Members could either choose the same username they have here, or could choose a different username if they don't want their political or religious arguments to impact how others regard them in engineering or design discussions.

    Here is a list of other forums where political topics would be welcome:
    https://www.google.com/search?q=politics forum

    Here is a list of other forums where religious topics would be welcome:
    https://www.google.com/search?q=religion forum

    The Boat Design Net site provides a place where people interested in designing and building boats, or boating in general, can enjoy visiting. It doesn't need to include *********** simply because *********** could generate the most clicks for example. Members are free to join political or religious sites as they desire to have discussions, but this site doesn't need to host every topic under the sun, especially once they start to offend other members.
    Creative and engineering threads, threads on destinations and ships, and topics loosely related to boats which everyone enjoys are great. But this site should be a place where everyone can enjoy the common interest in boats no matter what their diverse backgrounds or other beliefs.
     
    1 person likes this.
  3. Frosty

    Frosty Previous Member

    Knock knock --is this thread open ---.

    That is a very good Idea wynand but I dont think jeff read your suggestion certainly not properly, as you say your would need to log on and swear on your heart that you would not go crying to the admin if someone swore at you and you must not under any circumstances be insulted. Seams fare enough to me.


    I work on boats all day, I guess im sick of em by evening or tea time, I admit to enjoying a chin wag about something else.

    For me 99% of the threads are repeats cant be helped after being here 10 years so I don't feel like participating again.

    Im going to take a mosy on over to them there religious threads on the google search.
     
  4. Boston

    Boston Previous Member

    I gotta go with "don't do it its a trick"

    Once you let that cat out of the bag it could descend into chaos, I suppose we're all guilty of getting sarcastic. Its my only real response to proselytizing on the forum. But if we didn't have a referee so to speak, things would get ugly quick. I can't picture an unregulated spin off section remaining even remotely rational for more than a split second if left to its own devices. At least Frosty and I can disagree peacefully. But clearly it was escalating among other members. Not good.

    Seems best to consider ourselves guests and leave it at that. If I contributed to the demise of the thread in any way, my apologies

    Cheers
    B
     
  5. masalai
    Joined: Oct 2007
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    Location: cruising, Australia

    masalai masalai

    Hi Frosty, Wynand, and Boston,
    I tried this, but when I went for a cruise, NO ONE wanted the responsibility of moderator whilst I was out of contact... It required some careful vetting of membership and sometimes brutal banning because of spammers and those seeking to control a website for their own ends...
    - There was more than 1000 members when I killed the site...
    - The server cost was US$45 a year, the address cost some US$250 to set up with the Australian domain name 'xxxx'.com.au and the server was in Dallas Texas...

    The difficulty remains - - moderator and administrator to smooth out the system every so often...

    I agree with frosty of the need to be able to talk "non-ships-stuff" as shipping is part of the world and international discourse is important and needs a place where all topics may be available for sensible discussion...

    I would support the concept of a "senior sailors" patch that required additional password access or entry by invitation to post on a thread one started... Something like the originator of the thread has a "friends-list" and those "friends" may post also unless deleted from the "friends list"...
    - All who followed the additional 'registration and clearance' could read the entire board...
    - All could post on the administrators thread and announce their presence and desire to post on 'xyz thread', which would send an automatic alert as we now get for threads we are subscribed when someone posts on that thread...
    - The thread starter may consider and add that person to their "friends" list, or delete any post on their thread and remove any one from their "friends" list... -

    - - I feel this may almost be self managing...
     
  6. Wynand N
    Joined: Oct 2004
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    Location: South Africa

    Wynand N Retired Steelboatbuilder

    I agree Frosty. After a life of boats and my retirement in 2009 I rarely reply on a boat issues if any - just tired of boats and the reason Im active on the open threads. Funny though, all the disciplines of boating are covered by the relative forums right down to education, why an Open Discussion and keeping it subjected to boating?.

    Yes you are right again Frost. Most of the threads appearing have been dealt with in the past and posters just plain outright lazy to use the Search button. But then again in doing that, traffic would be slow...

    Jeff, my http://5psi.net/ site is a webpage and not a discussion forum. If it was a discussion forum, I would have catered for all.

    EDIT:

    I see your point Mas.
    But. such a forum can still be moderated but with much more leeway and only be closed when things really get out of hands.
    Currently a few religious or political remarks that are still in the "civilized" category get pruned when posters try to make a point or argue his/her views.

    I should have mentioned within reason in my first post. I for one would hate if one calls me a racist or another if Im insulting his family. But that said, some heated arguments can be given more leeway for posters to make a statement. If some really get dirty or hardcore and attack members personally, yes, cut the fuse. But let the discussion continue and let them rave about politics, religion and other issues as long as they do not insult a member directly in this regard.
     
  7. Frosty

    Frosty Previous Member

    Seems that unless you talk only boats and cough up for free all your experience at college or your life time experiences at work or sea your not welcome.

    I guess I shall once more be directed to a google search,--like my mother used to wrap my sandwiches in a map.
     
  8. Frosty

    Frosty Previous Member

    The search button doe'snt work --I tried to find the old old 'shaft thru the transom' the other day from 2002 , the search said it doesnt exist. Either that or you have to be sooo accurate with the tile.

    Your better off google-ing it

    Mas I only want to write on a forum not own it!
     
  9. Boat Design Net Moderator
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    Boat Design Net Moderator Moderator

    Well, if you do create a political and religious section, please let me know and I will post a link here to it.
     
  10. Boat Design Net Moderator
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    Boat Design Net Moderator Moderator

    One disadvantage of creating a "dirty bilge" section is that usernames are still shared, so hostility is more likely to spill over. A second disadvantage is that the off-topic arguments on religion or politics for example bloat the database and search database with information that contributes little knowledge on boat design, boatbuilding, or boating in general that is the purpose for the site. The third disadvantage is that no matter what people say, other members do become offended by some of the political and religious topics and this is counterproductive to building a place where everyone can come and share the common interest in boats.

    Instead of committing resources to creating an "anything goes politics & religion" forum under one roof, it seems more advantageous for people who are mostly interested in religion or politics to find one or more forums already dedicated to religion and politics, where they can either be amongst those who share common religious or political feelings, or enjoy heated fights without this spilling over to the site here. With a modern browser, it is easy to keep many tabs open.
     
  11. Frosty

    Frosty Previous Member

    You have point, and hey thanks for the links I an very interested in this one

    http://www.city-data.com/forum/religion-philosophy/

    I was particularly attracted to the thread "what if the world was full of athiests like me'

    and 'Ask a jew' thread.

    Im gonna go sign up,-- Oooh cant wait.

    EDIT--- Signed up now --user name' grim reaper'
     
  12. hoytedow
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    We should stick to boating related topics designing, building, sailing, motoring and sinkings.
     
  13. hoytedow
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    Location: Control Group

    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

  14. mydauphin
    Joined: Apr 2007
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    Location: Florida

    mydauphin Senior Member

    LOL... Concrete submarines, there is a classic. This is the olny fun blog I belong to. I love boating and boats, and the people here are special. I have disagree with almost everyone here at some point but most are friendly discussions. However like in any blog there are people trying to sell their wares or agenda. These get carried away, some people just go nuts, and like the real world there are bigots and all kinds of phobes. But this is a fun blog and well moderated, but it should stay boat centered. If you open religion and other topics like that the level of animosity will increase ten fold. I am sure that most of us can discuss these issues civilly but there will be others that will not. Look at how hybrid/electric boat people get all upset, it is like a religion to them. You imagine having a forum on politics, religion, 911 truthers, etc... May be I will start one. Jeff who give you the service?, email me and I will setup y own.
     
  15. michael pierzga
    Joined: Dec 2008
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    Location: spain

    michael pierzga Senior Member

    Looks like the usual suspects are ganging up on Frosty again.
     

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