Heated Forum Topic Tools For Moderators - Time Out

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 10/16/2022 at 12:55 PM, Istelathis said:

It is in wingdings I suggested LL allow us to use them, it would prevent a lot of heated conversation in here.

It was more fun using smilies to converse/debate/argue back in the day. 

Most people were too busy having fun figuring out ways to say things to fight but there are always those who aren't happy unless they have something to gripe about. In this case, "spamming" our own posts with what people now call emojis.

We were having too much fun.

[PheebyKatz]

I actually got a message from a Mole telling me a post had been removed from a thread, and asking me to remember to stay on-topic.

It was a post with my usual, flippant disregart for the actual topic, for the sake of making a play on words, and I was actually slightly surprised to see it had garnered such a response from staff, but on reflection, they did it just right.

People had a real question, and wanted real help with it, and I basically just hopped in and farted my mouth off and left. If it had simply been removed I might never have even noticed, but being able to stop a moment and think about it, and having it brought to my attention like that, well, it actually gave me pause and showed me where I'd gone wrong.

My intent was hilarity, but my effect was discourtesy. I was asking for it, and didn't even see it myself.

As for heated discussions being closed to cool off, I really don't think there's a better way of handling it. Everyone can see what happened, and if it's reopened, and redirected back onto its original topic, or even just cooled off a bit, then the thread can continue to be of value and give people somewhere to discuss the topic. Naturally, some threads are just asking for lockage and "banishment", to borrow a coin from earlier.

TL;DR: I rather like things the way they are, and at the risk of suddenly becoming incredibly uncool to a lot of people here, I think the staff are doing an excellent job of herding all of these cats, myself included. Thanks, you guys~!

Edited October 22, 2022 by PheebyKatz