Quote:
Originally Posted by OH&S
Or we could flat out ban any text only posts; making it mandatory to post a relevant image if continuing a conversation.
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Well, just as a side-note, the mods aren't stupid (not saying you were accusing of that of course). There were plenty of posts in that thread that were continuing a derail or off-topic tangent and then were like "oh lel on-topic <random image>". That's like the ultimate in token compliance, and doesn't really help other than maintaining some sort of image count.
Anyway, as was noted it's not that
no discussion is allowed, but that thread frequently got out of hand and branched off into all sorts of topics that really don't belong in the image thread, and some of them don't really belong on the forum in general (like shipping wars, etc.).
The truth is that
every member can report posts. You don't need to be given some sort of special power or authority by the staff. But that probably implies that the whole community understands what the expectations are and agree to abide by them. If people's preferred discussion format is anything goes/random chat, then there's a bit of a disconnect. To me, the whole point of a sub-forum having multiple threads is that each thread has one topic and people who go into that thread should expect to find conversations about that topic. They shouldn't have to "keep up with the chat" just to know whatever the latest thing people are talking about is, because that's what the topic is supposed to tell you. When threads get like this, the problem is that a lot of people
don't keep up with the chat, and so then you get repeated topics, cyclic discussion, and so on.
Sometimes I think we literally need some sort of embedded group chat sort of feature so that there can literally be a "running chat room" that gives you the ability to scroll back up and so on. Forums aren't IM/texts or Twitter, but I think some people are more used to that these days.
Anyway, I'll keep thinking about how we might approach it and listen for more ideas. I'll also consult with the rest of the staff to see if they have ideas too.