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Yes, this has been discussed earlier, but the volume of posts on this board each day is becoming a serious problem. I've greatly enjoyed my six months of membership here, and I currently have no intentions of leaving, but the fact that there are upwards of 150 posts per day is scary. The majority of the content is interesting, it's unacceptable when it takes two hours to sift through all the posts. Yesterday, I was practically skimming all the posts and it took quite a long time. The ability to read at lightning speed and instantly grok everything written shouldn't be a prerequisite for enjoying the board.
Thusly, I have come up with a few recommended guidelines that I consider more than fair.
1. Please try to keep yourself to one major post per day. Other minor posts can be made, but use temperance. I don't want to point people out, but a certain upper-case citizen from the land of small, flightless birds has recently made 33 posts in a 24-hour period, the majority of which were quite long. Far be it from me to chide anyone, but I find this a little excessive.
2. Brevity is the soul of wit. Be concise and don't use circumlocution. I've noticed that it's mainly newer members who make the long posts, where those who have been around a bit longer (Tsuwm, Jackie, Anna, myself) tend to keep our posts short.
3. Don't dig up ancient, dead threads. Yes, it's sometimes nice to see what people have said in the past, but if the thread is obviously dormant, take extreme caution when deciding to post to it. The main problem with bringing up an old thread is that for anyone to understand what in the world you're talking about, they have to read through the whole thread, thus adding quite a bit more to what one has to read. If you want to talk about the issue again, be kind and just start a new thread. If you want to back up what you're saying, provide a link to the other thread or summarize it.
I would like to see the opinions of other experienced members on this subject. I don't want to sound mean, but I think we all agree that this is becoming a major problem. This will be my only long post of the day, thank you.
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Jazz, while I admit to feeling daunted by the number of new -- and, yes, from what I have seen so far, many lengthy -- posts that arrived during this past week when I was away from the board, I don't view its growth as a serious problem. My feeling is you can't place constraints on the product of what is inherently an anarchic means of communication (just ask AlGorethm - he invented it  ). If we don't want to spend hours reading through, then I guess we just have to pick and choose what to read and be glad this place even exists.
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Jazz, I agree entirely. I will do my bit for collective sanity by removing for the next fortnight, and will try to follow your points which I agree is the only way for this to stay a viable conversation.
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I am not sure that there is anything to be done about the volume of posts on the board. The more people join, the more posts we will get in a day. I know there are some people who have the opportunity of logging on during the day, so too many posts to you or me, might not be too many for someone else.
If you find that you are overloaded, maybe you should stick to one or two forums, like Q&A and Wordplay. This time of the year is REALLY busy for me so I generally skip Info&announcements and catch up to it on weekends.
I do not feel right about censoring anybody. We enjoy a pretty open forum, turning a subject that can be dry and pedantic into something enjoyable. Plus, I think the board is set up to be like a conversation and as such it can veer in many different directions. It is what makes this Board vibrant and interesting.
If we designate a forum, say Q&A as a "straight to the point / no fooling around" forum, this will only be apparent to the existing members. Any new member will not be aware of this decision.
You are right, in their enthusiasm, new members tend to do things that make the threads longer. Like feel the need to post in EVERY thread, under EACH sub-topic submitted since its inception, or reprint the post they are answering in its entirety, or bring up dead threads. It does make the read longer, but everybody settles down after a while. Everybody is faced with the same quantity of posts to read so the new members learn the ropes rather quickly. I think we should have a little patience with these people…we were new too.
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Jazz,
Believe me, yesterday was exceptional. And probably won't be repeated.
Not guilty of your point 3.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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... before, as you know, JazzO.
My opinion, for what it's worth - this place is open to all to do pretty much as they please - nobody forces anybody else to read all the posts. I don't care who posts how much or what (though I might object to personal criticisms of anybody, since I believe this forum has managed to avoid that superbly so far).
So this is the one place where I am, contrary to my liberal leanings, in favour of laissez faire
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Pooh-Bah
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Glad to see I'm not to be labelled as the only disciplinarian any more.
I did see a reference to summarising previous posts. I think it’s a good idea to provide a way in to one's post, but swiping thorough a whole previous post and dumping it at the beginning is a bit excessive. Even if I am sometimes guilty of this, I will try to avoid it.
On the subject of long posts, I have just had a very interesting couple of hours trying to catch up. There were some exceptionally interesting longer posts, so I'm not complaining. I’m just glad to see that there are a few people in the world with something interesting to say. I love ya all!
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Pooh-Bah
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"There are no problems - only challenges and solutions"  No idea what the solution is to this problem - but I have a definite sense of deja vue (should that be without an "e" at the end - it looks a little strange either way - serve me right for being pretentious!) Didn't we shred mav just a little bit for being prescriptive, a couple of months ago? I have to say that I agree with AnnaS on this one. My fear is that if we try to stop the flow a bit then it might dry up altogether, which would be disastrous. Not to be even considered! I guess I've missed quite a lot over this past three weeks when I've not had the time. Even so, I manage to look at a couple of threads most days and even put in the occasional assinine remark. Aesop's philosphy is helpful, here - "What can't be cured must be endured."
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just an addendum on rule 3; I think NicholasW has shown us the way with his reference to the previous 'begging the question' thread. metameta now has the option to LIU, if he is so inclined.
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Dear Jazz,
I did all that stuf when I joined and it was because I was so kindly recieved in spite of my fumblings that I knew this was the board for me. You are young and have many demands on your time. I am old and retired and still I have many demands on my time but I'd rather spend three hours in an evening or early morning reading this board than watching re-runs on TV! But I will try to remember your suggestions.
wow
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Jazz,
Here's my $.02...
If there are too many posts, don't read them all. On other message boards, they may have hundreds of new posts each day. The readers of the board sort through the posts by subject and read the interesting ones. Yes, that may take away from the homey feeling of the board somewhat, and you might miss out on a clever "in" joke. What can be done?
After having been away for 5 days, I'm home for 2 days before I leave again to go to my parents' home for Christmas. When I got back from my last voyage I found nearly 200 posts in Q&A alone. There's no way I have time right now to sort through all that. I read the subjects of the threads, and if there was one of particular interest, I read it.
I agree that dragging out old dead threads can be frustrating, but what if someone comes along who has something really interesting to say on the topic. Should we fuss at them because they bring up something that we (or someone at some time past) already talked about? Should we expect them not to express themselves because we don't want to have to reread some old posts? They might have something really interesting to say! I don't think we can just tell people not to post in a thread because it's been a while since anyone has looked at it. If you don't want to rehash the topic, don't read it.
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Xara's is the voice of reason tempered with humanity, of justice tempered with mercy, of order tempered with grace. But, what would you expect from someone from Carolina who likes to pet cats?
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This is posted in response to Xara's excellent statements. She says, basically, cull and read the threads that interest you. But there's something all of you can do, something that doesn't happen often enough.
When you are responding to a thread, the system automatically maes the subject of the post re: followed by the original subject. All too frequently people, including myself, are guilty of not changing the subject to one that gives an idea of what the new post is about. See what I've done with this one.
This might help all of us, as I suspect there are very few people who aren't pressed for time.
TEd
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Yes, xara echoed my earlier thoughts in a much more eloquent way. Message boards are such. And again, I'm glad this one exists.
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Another board I frequent allows for posts with no message, i.e., a post with subject line only and nothing in the body of the post. This is signalled to the masses by having [NM] in the subject line supplied by the board software if no text is included in the body of the post. I have already tried this on this board and it doesn't work but we can implement it ourselves by putting [NM] in the subject line and putting some trivial text in the body.
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[NM]
That makes no difference when you read it in flat mode except that there's a one line post.
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Forgive my ignorance, but why in the world would we want to
make a post that doesn't have anything in it? Excepting
Avy's superb Apropos of Nothing post, of course.
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Jackie asks (and well she might): Forgive my ignorance, but why in the world would we want to make a post that doesn't have anything in it?
If you have only a short comment on something and don't wish to require of the reader the overhead of waiting for the post to come up and the further overhead of waiting for the original thread to come back afterward and it all fits in the Subject line then why not?
On the other hand, JazzO remarks that That makes no difference when you read it in flat mode...
All I can say is that if you are reading in flat mode then this may not be any help to you. For the record the board from which this technique was derived has only flat mode. The moderators of the site have pointedly refused to allow threaded mode on the grounds that the habitués are too unruly in terms of the digressions and that threads would get too out of hand.
I understand on an intellectual level that there are advantages and disadvantages to both flat mode viewing and threaded mode viewing. For me, even irrespective (OK tsuwm?) of the [NM] proposal, threaded mode viewing is so far superior to flat mode viewing that I don't understand why anyone would want to view in flat mode. Perhaps some kind soul can disabuse me if this notion.
Unfortunately it seems as though the only way to change viewing modes is by editing your profile in Display Preferences. I had thought that there was an easier way but I can't seem to find it. Perhaps some savvy individual could disabuse me of this notion, too.
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Pooh-Bah
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>threaded mode viewing is so far superior to flat mode viewing ...
I use both. I start in threaded which loads quicker, then switch to flat if there are several posts in the same thread, I find it quicker. It involves less clicks and I don't have to keep scrolling up and down the screen. I can generally work out the jigsaw without threaded although sometimes have to switch back. I think it is "each to his/her/their(?!) own".
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Thank you, Jackie, I was going to ask the same question.(Forgive my ignorance, but why in the world would we want to make a post that doesn't have anything in it?
I find it hard enought to keep track in flat mode-- One of the tricks i learned in dealing with dsylexia, was keeping track of where i was on a page.. So much so, that i don't use bookmarks.. I have learned to remember which word, in which sentence, in which paragraph, on which page... I read methodicaly like this.. Right page or left, first, second, third paragraph, etc.... In my own writing, i love the "start each page with a new paragragh" feature, since i prefer not to turn pages mid paragraph..
reading the threads can be hard--but most every one includes a quote-- or something. referring back to the post to which they are replying...So sometimes i have to go back and forth-- and sometimes, its like being in a crowded room, after a show or lecture.. where everyone started talking about the same thing.. but as time goes by, the subjects digress.. There is cross talk..and unlike a crowded room, we are all privy to all the threads, and can break into any conversation at any time...
I am a bit slow in getting some of the "jokes"--i have to go back, and trace the thread-- and even then, you need to hid me on the head with it.. a case of he (she) who laughs last is the slowest (on the uptake!)
I suppose i could learn to read threaded mode-- and i might even like it.. but flat mode seems more natural.
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Jo says: I start in threaded which loads quicker, then switch to flat...
Is there then an easy way of switching? Or do you have to go into Profile/Viewing Preferences?
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Pooh-Bah
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>Is there then an easy way of switching?
Yep, top right of the thread bar (once you are in the thread)there are some icons, two bars for flat and a family tree thingy for threaded. Run your mouse over the icons, they tell you what they do.
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Yup, I prefer flat to threaded mode. I tend to view the Board as one big conversation so following the timeline makes more sense to me.
Answering in threaded mode also makes the entire thread longer since a person makes a separate entry for each post, whereas in flat mode people tend to put all their answers in one post. Most people will respond to other people's posts the same or the next day so it is not hard to follow.
On rare occasions, we might have a stranger who replies to a post from several months before, but that is rare.
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Or "It's D'oh!ja vu all over again".
I was looking for it one level too high.
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For the sake of order (borrowing ruler from JazzO) may I respectfully suggest we place our posts concerning A.W.A.D.s in the "Weeky Themes" forum, where they belong? Back to the chaos [returning-ruler-to-JazzO emoticon]
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