Ignore Board feature

[summerdays]

The problem isn't that the threads don't interest me... its in the way that the people post ... hopefully we can have similar conversation about the same type of topics without the thread disintegrating into a complete slanging match.
I will pop in now and again ... for a start I'm still following the Ban Cheap MTB thread but lots of the other threads that suddenly disappeared were the ones I didn't want to see.

 

[Chuffy]

Thanks Shaun, neat idea.

 

[LLB]

I think you're mostly right mjones. The problem with having an unmoderated area, not publicly viewable, is that it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Build it and they will come, so to speak. I would have thought/hoped that you could have serious debate and casual chat within the same area, eg the Cafe. That's the way is used to be on C+ and it seemed to work, the serious threads were pretty much self-modding. Soapbox always had a reputation as a bit of a bear pit from the day of it's creation on C+ and it's got worse since. That's not intended as a knock at the way Shaun has set this place up, but maybe it's worth having a bit of a re-think. I don't think it adds anything of value beyond giving people who have little or no interest in anything else a venue to knock lumps out of each other (see the current Bunfight between Linford and Absinthe Minded for example...)

When you are being verbally abused in every thread, it is easy to become drawn into it and fire it back (thank you MrP for pulling me up on it).

As for swear filters, It is easy overcome them as AM does on a regular basis. The only way of dealing with this following an unheeded warning is a temporary ban or permanent if it is continually abused/ignored. This is the way I deal with it on the forums I moderate and admin on. You make the rules Shaun and we have to follow them. I have no issue with this.

As for my ongoing spat with AM, he comes across to me as overtly agressive, and a bit of a bully, I'll not allow him to browbeat me with this type of behaviour, so a defence of my position is always to be expected.

I offered him an olive branch to cool it down the other day as I could see he was losing it, but he knocked me back with another foul mouthed rant Why ??.

In repect to Shauns position which I fully appreciate, I will not respond to any of AMs abuse outside the soapbox, but I will ask if they can be moved, locked or deleted if they cause offence to those who don't want to see it.

LLB

 

[Tim Bennet.]

but he knocked me back with another foul mouthed rant Why ??.

Because you responded to him? Being pointlessly provocative or merely 'trying to get a rise' is only entertaining for someone if others are either provoked or rise to the challenge. Self restraint by the majority would go some way to neutralising a lot of the 'wind-up' merchants.

 

[ColinJ]

I've looked into this and there is no feature that allows specific fora to be ignored.

However there is a way of creating public user groups to control access to specific fora and that's what I've done.

To get access to Soapbox you will now need to be a member of the Soapbox Users public group.

You can join / leave the group, here:
http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/profile.php?do=editusergroups

If you are NOT a member of the Soapbox group you don't have access to it and you don't see any posts from it.

This should stop Soapbox overspilling into other areas of the forum and leave the door open for the Soapbox regulars and anyone who wants to join and see what goes on there.

Cheers,
Shaun

Shaun - for maximum flexibility, how about extending this concept to all parts of CC? Presumably you could set it up so that everyone defaulted to being members of all groups except Soapbox. That way nobody would even notice that anything had changed, but we'd have the option of customising CC to our own tastes.

As I mentioned above - I'd like to be able to opt in and out of Racing depending on whether I have race recordings to watch. I'm sure that there are other forum members who have no interest whatsoever in Racing at any time!

 

[Crackle]

Shaun - for maximum flexibility, how about extending this concept to all parts of CC? Presumably you could set it up so that everyone defaulted to being members of all groups except Soapbox. That way nobody would even notice that anything had changed, but we'd have the option of customising CC to our own tastes.

As I mentioned above - I'd like to be able to opt in and out of Racing depending on whether I have race recordings to watch. I'm sure that there are other forum members who have no interest whatsoever in Racing at any time!

Shaun would have to set the default to be 'included' for all boards (except Soapbox) if he did that otherwise it would be very confusing. Might be a bit of an admin nightmare as well, though potentially good. The same thing was running through my mind but I didn't want to push my luck as Shaun has already sorted out Soapbox for us

 

[Tetedelacourse]

Soapbox is distinct from the other sections of the forum because it's unmoderated and because of the different atmosphere in there. Forcing members to opt into it is appropriate IMO. You're not removing any rights, but segregating it more clearly. I think there is occassionally reasoned debate which presumably was what it was intended for, but there's no getting away from the fact that a lot of it cannot be described as such, and sooner or later descends into an exchange of unpleasantries.

I'm chuffed with what you've done Shaun (raising the discussion if the opt-in doesn't last is still worthwhile). Thanks.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

The problem now is that any thread that gets 'rude' in any way gets moved to Soapbox which only increases the impression that Soapbox is just defined by rudeness rather than by robust debate. ACF and now YACF has a seperate politics board where robust debate is encouraged but people don't seem to feel the need to be rude for the sake of it. I used to enjoy the political side of things on C+ but here it is getting overwhelmed by pointless insults (as opposed to insults with a point, which can be very effective)...

 

[jonesy]

The problem now is that any thread that gets 'rude' in any way gets moved to Soapbox which only increases the impression that Soapbox is just defined by rudeness rather than by robust debate. ACF and now YACF has a seperate politics board where robust debate is encouraged but people don't seem to feel the need to be rude for the sake of it. I used to enjoy the political side of things on C+ but here it is getting overwhelmed by pointless insults (as opposed to insults with a point, which can be very effective)...

I agree FM; you'll have seen that several of us have tried to point this out in various ways over the last few days, to little avail...

 

[Chuffy]

The problem now is that any thread that gets 'rude' in any way gets moved to Soapbox which only increases the impression that Soapbox is just defined by rudeness rather than by robust debate.

But that's a bit of a chicken/egg argument isn't it? Threads get put in there if they become 'Soapboxy', because that's the rep it already has.

ACF and now YACF has a seperate politics board where robust debate is encouraged but people don't seem to feel the need to be rude for the sake of it. I used to enjoy the political side of things on C+ but here it is getting overwhelmed by pointless insults (as opposed to insults with a point, which can be very effective)...

Perhaps the gradual change from the old days on C+ (and I always thought that the creation of Soapbox was a mistake) has acted like a centrifuge, spinning people out to whichever part of forumland their temperament and gravity are most suited to? Oh and don't forget that ACF was heavily modded.