As moderators we can encourage people to use “Reply in linked topic” much more, or to PM when that’s even better. I think we’ve not really tried that so everyone have a go now and see how it pans out!
Mods do also clean up threads by gathering together a bunch of replies and spinning them off new topics from time to time but this is time consuming, or just impractical because they are too mixed up with the OP to separate in a meaningful way. So it is still best if the community can help out as above - new folk then pick it up as they see others already doing so - so less work for mods, and less people feeling we’re police in a place that’s supposed to be about freeeeeeeeedom!
I;ve been thinking about the potential benefits of the “reply in new topic” category. as It not only has all the more obvious benefits of preventing people veering wildly off-topic and disrupting interesting conversation…but another personal benefit too . - It could potentially resolve all the major issues and concerns I have had whilst being on this forum actually and I think there will be an interesting emergent property too I think… anyway, we’ll see - you won’t hear an off-topic peep from me from now on anyway
I just wondered if others had thoughts around any of this, or how a proper de-centralised modding system based on reputation might possibly “evolve naturally”…in this or any other way?
See…I’m great aren’t I, always putting others before myself
You’ll see when my masterplan comes to fruition mwuah…ha…ha!
Really thanks for the idea - this was like all my Christmas’s come at once…erm…don’t say it!
Can you see the absolute genius at work here, or what?
…both parties happy as Larry…well mostly ,mwuah…ha.haaaa…!
Facebook is actually handling this correctly in their discussion threads … They are nested, and if the tangent thread gets too long, there is an inflatable “See More”
Really yesterday’s topic wasn’t “off topic” so much as “obsessing about a minor detail” If that had been nested facebook style, it wouldn’t be annoying at all. But because this forum displays chronologically you get what you get…
Reply as new topic is a fine idea - but I don’t think it would have been pushed yesterday as It never really broke off of the relevant branch…
Yes , I agree largely. What I would maybe suggest is that it was a break down in communication somehow.I don’t know the tech details,or read all the thread so would just ask really if there was an even simpler solution really - at some earlier point, could the nature of the fundamental communication difficulty have been identified?
What I’m saying is from my (quite little knowledge) about the situation it appeared that there was an underlying “something” that was being confused/misunderstood I mean from an observer position, it seemed you had a “not daft” person just not grasping something that everyone else grasped - what was the underlying “thing” I mean and wouldn’t everybody share part responsibility in that breakdown? - I’m just asking
I think I am the same here sometimes, but its also not too bad a thing - sometimes its an overlooked detail that causes problems. It’s also infuriating when you feel someone is not explaining something clearly to you in a way you can understand…
I;m not saying anything here, other than maybe other aspects to things…like I say I didn;t follow all the thread, so please don’t say “it wasn’t like that” anyone - I’m just saying I think there are other aspects to this kind of stuff…
I thought the conversation was productive in it’s own way. Somebody learned something he didn’t know. The rest of us learned better ways to explain it… It was a valid “why can’t you just do it this way”…
The greater topic of “how should we do it” had already be fairly well explored, and I don’t think the discussion progressed that topic, but it was still topical even though in bringing a straggler up to speed on where the rest of us where at…
A thread view would solve most of it… don’t know if Discourse has that in their timeline or not. The discussion are already threaded, just not displayed that way on the screen…
It was a saying whenever everything seems to be great. The saying means you get all your Christmas presents at once. Or you get all your wishes come true at once. Or Everything is going your way.
NO - it means what I said: “ALL your Christmases (plural) come at once” eg if you were going to live to age 120, it would be like having a 120 Christmases . . ie it is the best thing that could ever be (but it still sounds like HELL to me . .)
I differ, but only because to me what you are saying is simply repeating the saying using more words without explaining it to someone that does not understand the concept of
If members if the community prefer these kind of discussions there’s no amount of moderation that matters and we mods become superfluous, and might find better uses for our time. Just saying guys, what do you want in this forum? Please reply in linked topic unless it is on the OP
The problem is that you don’t know in advance if a side comment is going to develop into something bigger and take on a life of its own - if one was confident of that happening, then of course, do the linked topic thing - but if everyone did that for EVERY possible chance of a new viable topic, you would end up with thousands of one-post topics . . which is its own mess . .
I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say I didn’t “grasp” what was repeatedly said. I just wanted to see other arguments like Happybeing’s. He shot down the original idea then presented a possible solution with low certainty. I knew poison environments like foreign OS’s could yield toxic results. What I wanted was not reiterations but fresh ideas. I by the process of elimination worked through all the possibilities I could think of to make this work. A natural behavior among those not already pre-informed. If the observer felt as though the first iteration was the only answer they knew, then I would have preferred that they remained silent. Remember, my original idea was the yearly elected federate. The client variety deviation was but a small sub-topic that was inflated by needless reiterations. I would have preferred others who felt the same to simply say something like: I agree with so and so’s response, i know of no way to make your idea work (if anything were to be said at all). Anything else was extraneous in my opinion. Were there misunderstandings? Of course. They were not the main cause of my frustrations though. I believe I am mostly justified. I took responsibility for my end. Can’t say the same for everyone. I could go on and on about this but I still have lots of things I need to attend to. I just woke up not too long ago. I need smoke some meth, eat dog shit, pray to my god, and sky dive into the grand canyon. Wish me luck! My pet panda monkey awaits me
