Derailment

[redbaron]

Every time I've read a somewhat interesting OP lately, I simply lose interest in responding even semi-seriously.

Threads are being derailed at abominable rates by the vapid input of certain members, turning what were once potentially interesting discussions into pointless tirades over literacy - among other things. It's happened in probably five or more threads in the past week now.

Please, if you can't respond in the context of the OP, then just don't respond.

Fucking simpletons.

 

[Hawkeye]

Spoiler

 

[Hadoblado]

I prefer poison type pokemon personally.

 

[Duxwing]

Every time I've read a somewhat interesting OP lately, I simply lose interest in responding even semi-seriously.

Threads are being derailed at abominable rates by the vapid input of certain members, turning what were once potentially interesting discussions into pointless tirades over literacy - among other things. It's happened in probably five or more threads in the past week now.

Please, if you can't respond in the context of the OP, then just don't respond.

Fucking simpletons.

Maintain tense throughout a sentence.

-Duxwing

 

[Hawkeye]

Holy shit, this thread just went meta

Hilarious

 

[Etheri]

RedBaron has a point.

Even tho i frequently derail threads myself, it is somewhat annoying at times.

Then again, so are threads with an excessive number of rules attached to them.

 

[BigApplePi]

redbaron. Assuming what you say is true, how can one control it? Answer: is the cure worse than the disease? There are people with all kinds of interests. What made them say what they said?

When I read an OP I usually try to give my take on it precisely but haven't looked to see if I really do? What if I read on and an alternative path is taken? I can react to that, furthering what you call, "derailment."

One can always say, "Getting back to the OP, my response is such and such." That one can control.

Also you didn't name a particular thread so I can't go look at it to give an opinion.

Still every thread has a title. It helps to stick to the topic to honor that title.

 

[BigApplePi]

Is this a derailment or does it relate by making fun of the OP?

 

[BigApplePi]

RedBaron has a point.

Even tho i frequently derail threads myself, it is somewhat annoying at times.

Then again, so are threads with an excessive number of rules attached to them.

Getting back to the OP, my response is ...

see how easy it is to get back to the OP!

 

[redbaron]

Funny, I already knew which people would respond to this with unimaginative posts.

see how easy it is to get back to the OP!

Not really that simple, because there are several prolific posters on the forum who consistently make both long and also numerous posts, which aren't even relevant to the OP half the time.

The entire discussion by extension, ends up focussed on some irrelevant semantic debate, and even when people do respond to the OP - it's buried under yet more nonsense.

 

[TheScornedReflex]

Some guy is complaining about threads being derailed? So if we get rid of the dude complaining, there should be no more complaints, right?

PROBLEM SOLVED!

 

[Jennywocky]

Holy shit, this thread just went meta

Hilarious

I knew this forum could pull it off.




Hey, I'm eating Cheese-Its. Yum!

 

[patchtrix]

to me it seems like that is what intps are all about, considering this is an intp forum it should be expected. Idk about other intps, but whenever iI get into arguments with someone it almost always turns to the premise of the argument. It is necessary for (me) the premise to be clear to both sides before I get anywhere with the argument/discussion. Besides that, if a detail in fact is slightly off or even completely wrong I naturally want to correct that, usually frustrating the other unintentionally.

 

[Absurdity]

A lot of people here are conflating derailing with healthy topical meandering. Two very different things.

 

[redbaron]

redbaron. Assuming what you say is true, how can one control it?

Warnings, maybe temp bans. Reason being that there's already three forums for people to be as moronic and/or childish as they want. Siberia, The Arena and Fun. The content in every thread just degrades when certain members post.

is the cure worse than the disease?

No.

There are people with all kinds of interests. What made them say what they said?

Usually it just looks like a personal gripe is the source of most of the pointless semantic arguments.

 

[redbaron]

A lot of people here are conflating derailing with healthy topical meandering. Two very different things.

Yes, thanks for pointing this out.

I'm not saying people can't have fun, but when it gets to the point that people start making successive posts that don't contribute anything to the discussion, it ends any sort of serious discussion.

 

[BigApplePi]

Warnings, maybe temp bans. Reason being that there's already three forums for people to be as moronic and/or childish as they want. Siberia, The Arena and Fun. The content in every thread just degrades when certain members post.

Usually it just looks like a personal gripe is the source of most of the pointless semantic arguments.

A lot of people here are conflating derailing with healthy topical meandering. Two very different things.

I see this as a morality issue.* Although you redbaron have given a strict solution, is it not an objective action. Moronic and childish behavior can be addressed as such or it can be punished. Look at what Absurdity said. One can make a mistake in judgment. The strict solution has consequences: ostracism, fear may not change the person. Do we want to look at the person and change them or kill them? Eliminate them? I tend to either laugh at idiocy or ignore it. Maybe it should be addressed on a case-by-case basis occasionally. I assume some postures here are teens. Who knows? It's a big morality issue as it affects real people.

Here is a personal note: When I decided to bring out the issue of how Lyra was affecting the forum I was taking a chance. Today I realize I failed to explain myself ... my motives. I didn't want to hurt him. It turned out he thought I was. He was a person who took comments as negative by default. If I'd explained I might have done better. I have to do better if that kind of thing turns up again.
___________
*Note LOR.

 

[Hawkeye]

I was temp banned whilst trying to keep a thread on topic.

The thread still exists and I like how it has turned slightly satirical ^^

 

[BigApplePi]

I was temp banned whilst trying to keep a thread on topic.

The thread still exists and I like how it has turned slightly satirical ^^

Your crime Hawkeye? ... so we all can learn ... wo repeating the crime all over again.

 

[Hawkeye]

My crime was aggravating snafupants.

Initially, he called himself a genius in the "what is a genius..." thread. I said self-proclamation was nothing but arrogance. He couldn't take it and it escalated from there. Amazingly, it practically stayed on topic too.

I then posted the "I'm a genius" comment in the thread I linked. To be fair, my comment was relevant to the topic at hand, but someone took it a little too seriously ^^

I could have ended it in that thread, but I was having fun and chose to relate back to the topic in a more creative way.

[back on topic]

Why don't people speak up if they feel that a thread is being derailed? I find it utter rhubarb that this will have no effect in a thread.

Creating a derailment Moaning Minnie thread is pointless. If a thread is becoming too derailed, ask them to "get a room" and tag a mod into the post so they can assess the situation if you feel you must.

It's not hard - or do you feel this will create further tension between members? - "nobody likes a snitch" - lol

 

[BigApplePi]

My crime was aggravating snafupants.

Initially, he called himself a genius in the "what is a genius..." thread. I said self-proclamation was nothing but arrogance. He couldn't take it and it escalated from there. Amazingly, it practically stayed on topic too.

I then posted the "I'm a genius" comment in the thread I linked. To be fair, my comment was relevant to the topic at hand, but someone took it a little too seriously ^^

I could have ended it in that thread, but I was having fun and chose to relate back to the topic in a more creative way.

[back on topic]

Why don't people speak up if they feel that a thread is being derailed? I find it utter rhubarb that this will have no effect in a thread.

Creating a derailment Moaning Minnie thread is pointless. If a thread is becoming too derailed, ask them to "get a room" and tag a mod into the post so they can assess the situation if you feel you must.

It's not hard - or do you feel this will create further tension between members? - "nobody likes a snitch" - lol

This is a big issue and I have a lot of thoughts on it. Self-knowledge is an important thing. The question is, do we seek it for ourselves or do we serve it up to others?

What is the meaning of derailments? Sometime we want to stay on topic and othertimes have a creative bullsession.

 

[Hawkeye]

This is a big issue and I have a lot of thoughts on it. Self-knowledge is an important thing. The question is, do we seek it for ourselves or do we serve it up to others?

It's a bit of both and nobody is an expert.

What is the meaning of derailments? Sometime we want to stay on topic and othertimes have a creative bullsession.

I'm guessing the latter is what redbaron is referring to. When someone makes a post about a topic, rather than have it addressed, others voice their opinions on the OP him/her-self. This could be anything from semantics to bringing up a previous argument they had with the OP on some completely unrelated topic.

The other type of derailment isn't really a problem as topics are bound to create other related topics


Like I said earlier though, the remedy is simple. Tag a mod if you feel it's becoming too derailed. That's what mods are there for after all...

 

[BigApplePi]

Like I said earlier though, the remedy is simple. Tag a mod if you feel it's becoming too derailed. That's what mods are there for after all...

When such an issue arises I like to see posters first have a try at solving it themselves. Then something is learned (or not learned) on how to handle situations. When mods are drawn in they first see the complaint and there is a risk in reading things out of context. Mods may be more skilled at judging or more in a position to know what to do, but still they are human and if a thread contains hundreds of posts, it can be quite a challenge to get things right.

 

[Hawkeye]

Personally, I don't give a damn when a thread is derailed. I'd prefer to leave things to sort themselves out too.

I was merely pointing out that for those who believe themselves higher in intellectual conversation, they can simply ask the derailing to desist and tag a mod if they feel really irritated.

Most of my posts would probably be flagged given half the chance

 

[Montresor]

Apparently your crime was bringing it outside of that thread. You never mentioned that when you posted the link.

But I wasn't there.

 

[Hawkeye]

Apparently your crime was bringing it outside of that thread. You never mentioned that when you posted the link.

But I wasn't there.

The thing is, I didn't. I wasn't addressing snafupants in that thread. It was snafupants that derailed the thread and made it all about him and how smart he was.

Not once did he attempt to re-rail the thread. I did practically every post I made.

 

[redbaron]

It's not hard - or do you feel this will create further tension between members? - "nobody likes a snitch"

Ideally I'd agree with you, but the reason isn't really to do with the tension it might create - I don't really care about that.

It's more that if I don't feel like giving a response to the relevant OP as of yet, or simply don't have the time because I have other things to do, then my post is just going to be, 'stop derailing the thread', with no input towards the OP itself.

Which then instead of helping solve the issues, usually just ends up sparking even further derailment because the response is, "you didn't even reply yourself! Hurr durr you're just derailing this thread even more!"

I do report posts from time to time, but I don't really like the idea of a community that has to bring, 'mum and dad' into the equation every time there's a conflict of interest.

Which is why I'm asserting now that if people can't stay within the context of the OP, or their entire post is going to be over some semantic/arbitrary issue related to specific individuals, then they should take it to a PM.

 

[Hawkeye]

It's more that if I don't feel like giving a response to the relevant OP as of yet, or simply don't have the time because I have other things to do, then my post is just going to be, 'stop derailing the thread', with no input towards the OP itself.

Which then instead of helping solve the issues, usually just ends up sparking even further derailment because the response is, "you didn't even reply yourself! Hurr durr you're just derailing this thread even more!"

This doesn't actually make sense if you think about it. Asking folks nicely to stop derailing is usually met with compliance.

Those that are interested in a topic need not always provide novellas as a response. In fact, many have said that they are interested in a topic, but would like to mull over their ideas before responding. You'll find that the majority are fine with this too.

Also, lots of threads are necro'd for this very reason.

Which is why I'm asserting now that if people can't stay within the context of the OP, or their entire post is going to be over some semantic/arbitrary issue related to specific individuals, then they should take it to a PM.

These peeps need to be told at the time they are derailing. It's the only way to tackle it effectively.