Do you think Dan's account

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

I doubt very much that you don't know the difference between a thread being "hijacked" and normal conversation.

I think I've been pretty respectful on this thread, and I would say that your post would count as a personal attack.

 

[robinb]

Learn something new everyday!


Thanks!

(ETA: Just tried that and it is really cool! You may have cut my DIS time significantly--I had no idea about that button!)

You're welcome! I usually catch up on the threads I posted to through my subscription list via my UserCP first. My set up automatically subscribes me (without emails) to any thread I post to. Then I read new posts using the "New Posys" button.

 

[Saffron]

You call THAT a personal attack?!?!? That's hystercial! It must have been the

And that's not a personal attack either, I just think that's funny.

I guess "pretty respectful" is a matter of opinion. I think your last post to Blondie was pretty condescending, attacking and disrespectful. Again, just an opinion, not an "attack".

You say tomato, I say tomato. The opinions of the powers-that-be are the only opinions that count about what's a personal attack and what's not. Both your post and my post seem to be okay with them.

 

[Feralpeg]

Wow... we have a lot of diverse opinions here. OH YEA it's a community board
Someone asked why Dan's threads were locked. Simple they were being posted in such a number and quantity as to constitute spamming.
First off the good old days were not always so good. We actually recieve far fewer reported posts, on a much busier board, than we did in the good old days.
That is not counting the debate board which was an absolute nightmare to moderate. I think everyone looks to the past with rose colored glasses.
As for the cliques I think that is a function of the bigger busier boards. I think people feel "lost" on such a big board and posting with a smaller group of people anchors them.
We have noticed this and we are working on some ideas that will directly address that issue.
The delay is beause we have once again maxxed out the servers we are on.
I was able to make some adjustments that seem to have helped the "server too busy problem" thank god. That was driving me nuts!
These servers are not close to powerful enough to do what we would like to do. We have some long range plans in the works to completely change the way we host these boards in order to be able to do the things we would like to do. That is, however, months away.

Thank you, Alex. I'll be very interested to see the changes when they occur. In the meantime, I think I'll start using the "new threads" button a bit more. I have nothing against anyone on these boards and certainly am not trying to come across as judgemental. Hey, I'm not as young as I used to be and I just want to use the time I have left on this old planet to the best. Reading through pages and pages of things that I, personally, find uninteresting isn't the best way to use my time. I want to hear about Disney and things happening in people's lives, but with discretion.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday! Moving on!

Peggy

 

[OceanAnnie]

Honestly ... the games threads, the personal threads, the post-count threads really don't bother me because of the way I read the DIS. I read all the boards at once using the "New Posts" link and I am adept at skipping threads that have no interest to me. I find this method more interesting since I read the CB one minute, the transporation board the next and then over to the restauant board. I don't get stuck on one board.

I've been doing the same thing for quite awhile.

 

[sha_lyn]

I've answered this, but will answer it again. He or she was commenting on how it used to be on the CB, but was new poster with 163 posts, so unless he/she was lurking for many years, how would they know how it used to be? I was just asking for clarification about that, which maybe has been answered and I just haven't gotten to it yet--trying to clean my house...

The person could have been here for yrs under another name.
There are several posters here who have changed their names over the years. Not always to "hide" who they are either. I can think of a couple who have either their old names, or old signatures.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I've been doing the same thing for quite awhile.

ETA- Maggie, thanks for breaking things down. I never read the threads you mentioned. It did shed some light on recent events.

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

You call THAT a personal attack?!?!? That's hystercial! It must have been the

And that's not a personal attack either, I just think that's funny.

I guess "pretty respectful" is a matter of opinion. I think your last post to Blondie was pretty condescending, attacking and disrespectful. Again, just an opinion, not an "attack".

You say tomato, I say tomato. The opinions of the powers-that-be are the only opinions that count about what's a personal attack and what's not. Both your post and my post seem to be okay with them.

There is a divide on this board, and it's obvious it's not going to be fixed by talking it out. You said early on that discussion was option #4.

What I did in response to Blondie's post is point out what I would consider talking points. What are the rules as to when a thread is hijacked? What is allowed to be OT, and how personal can you get in a post? I said it wasn't as simple as it seems. You can agree, disagree or say that I don't know what I'm talking about. People have pointed out a thread that Dan posts on himself that would be considered a clique thread. You can address my points or change the subject. But I think a conversation is where you discuss what you feel about the points I mentioned instead of saying that I don't know the difference between a conversation and a hijack. I actually have a job and am married. I am able to 'fool' people when I have to.

 

[need_a_Disney_fix]

I had to deal with so many cliques in high school (1972-76) to last me a lifetime. I am a newcomer to the CB after spending alot of time on the Cruising board. There are so many friendships (not cliques) there and I was hoping to find the same here. The jury is still out with CB, but I would love nothing more than to feel comfortable here. I already have a fondness here since I was first tagged here.

 

[Saffron]

Questions asked:

There are plenty of bottom lines. Are you and anyone that continues this conversation hijacking this thread? My responding to you and your last response are not related to the OP and could be considered OT. The answer to the first post was no. This thread should have then ended. Conversations flowed out of it, but it wasn't the question from the OP and so because it's interesting to some people, it's ok and relavent, but if a few people who pretended to drink had a conversation that continued to flow that wasn't exactly the question in the OP, that's hijacking a thread, and shouldn't be allowed?

Questions answered:

I doubt very much that you don't know the difference between a thread being "hijacked" and normal conversation.

And then you said I personally attacked you?!?!?!

Re-read my post. I never said "I don't know the difference between a conversation and a hijack.", I said just the opposite.

As for the last part of your post, sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about. It's not a personal attack, just the truth.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

What surprises me most about the CB board is how far away from Disney it has become. It is much more a generalized social board that has nothing to do with Disney anymore.
Dan is one of the few people on the CB who actually goes to WDW. (and me )

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought the reason the Community Board was established was to have a place for people to talk about things that are NOT Disney related - the topic/trip planning boards are for Disney topics.

 

[Poohbear123]

Hey Alex?

Since you got rid of Dan's posts because they were spam like, can't you use that same rule when people hijack threads with personal conversations that have nothing to do with the thread? Couldn't you just delete the interruption so the thread could get back on course? They're like mini spam.

This sounds like a good idea!

 

[robinb]

Noting that various posters have been sounding the gong over the demise of the Community Board for as long as I've been here, and I arrived in late 1998. Like the "good old days," people always mourn the present in comparison to the almighty past. I think that the CB is pretty terrific.

You mean the "Good old Days" of the Swan & Dolphin Cheerleaders threads? What about the Clip Art threads? I have been around for a long time and there have always been clique threads, personal discussion threads, nattering threads and shameless post count threads. Nothing has really changed, IMO except there seem to be more game threads.

 

[nuke]

Hey Alex?

Since you got rid of Dan's posts because they were spam like, can't you use that same rule when people hijack threads with personal conversations that have nothing to do with the thread? Couldn't you just delete the interruption so the thread could get back on course? They're like mini spam.

Wouldn't this also get a lot of posts off the server and maybe make the boards run a little smoother?

 

[Planogirl]

I think one problem is that we all define hijacking differently. I see it as people coming on a thread and totally taking over while chattering about things that have nothing to do with the OP's post. There was mention that the conversation would often flow into cyberdrinking or whatever but many of us don't have time to immediately answer a post and certainly don't want to when the thread has been hijacked into another subject. In the old days (that again!), people would be mindful of the subject and would try to have a conversation about that subject. Often the OP really needed some answers and I doubt that coming back to a hijacked thread is exactly helpful.

I see all of this as rude and some others don't apparently. The strange thing is that so often these threads turn into a series of personal messages which is STILL against the rules according to the guidelines. Maybe these upcoming changes that Alex mentioned will address this.

Oh by the way, a large number of posts doesn't necessarily equal lots of inane drivel. Some of us got most of those posts long ago researching trips and helping others research trips. There's still some great travel boards on the DIS.

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

Questions asked:



Questions answered:



And then you said I personally attacked you?!?!?!

Re-read my post. I never said "I don't know the difference between a conversation and a hijack.", I said just the opposite.

As for the last part of your post, sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about. It's not a personal attack, just the truth.

I appologize for my misunderstanding of your post with the double negative. I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong. I went right from reading the post below yours to your post which I thought was agreeing with yours when in fact it wasn't.

 

[SillyMe]

I had to deal with so many cliques in high school (1972-76) to last me a lifetime. I am a newcomer to the CB after spending alot of time on the Cruising board. There are so many friendships (not cliques) there and I was hoping to find the same here. The jury is still out with CB, but I would love nothing more than to feel comfortable here. I already have a fondness here since I was first tagged here.

See, that's the difference. Everyone refers to the threads on here as "cliques". Most of them are friendships. Friends that post together on a regular basis. What is so wrong with that? The hijacking, yes I agree, is wrong. I don't get why people have a problem with the so-called "clique" threads that continue on and on.

I wasn't in any cliques in high school. The term clique, to me, meant a group of people who shunned others and didn't let anyone from the outside in. I don't see that here at all...with any of those threads. One day I decided to jump in on T&B's PM thread. They all welcomed me. The Breast Cancer thread could be considered a clique as well...those women welcomed me and were & still are great support to me when I have questions or concerns. They have become friends with each other and chit-chat about personal issues, but they still take the time to help others and be kind to others who post there.

Again, if it's a thread that was started specifically for so called drivel, why have a problem with it? They're not hijacking other threads.

 

[KathyTX]

Hey Alex?

Since you got rid of Dan's posts because they were spam like, can't you use that same rule when people hijack threads with personal conversations that have nothing to do with the thread? Couldn't you just delete the interruption so the thread could get back on course? They're like mini spam.

I'm not Alex, but I'd like to jump in here.

That's exactly what we'd prefer to do, Maggie. Especially if the personal conversations/hijacking is intended to disrupt the thread. Any time it's practical, we prefer to remove the problem and save the thread. By practical, I mean the problems can be reasonably removed. When there are pages and pages of the problem posts being quoted by others, clean up becomes very difficult and time consuming.

We truly do try to allow as much freedom as possible on the community board, and generally only get involved with posts/threads that have gone way over the edge. Perhaps this is part of the problem here... minor problems might continue to fester, and we wait until the pressure has built to take action.

I'd like to talk about one thing that I keep hearing- complaints about consistency and favoritism.

We get a lot of comments about "inconsistency." I think there's a perception that we read every thread or post, and make rulings about each of them- what stays, what goes. That's really very far from the truth.

Think about this: We currently have over 100,000 registered members, and over 11 million posts. We have a pretty small number of moderators.

On a fully moderated board, new posts go into a queue and must be approved by the moderators before being added to the forums. This works for very small communities with a need for very rigid content. We're on the other end of the spectrum, a "free-for-all". Our moderation is by exception. We allow anything to be posted (from a technical perspective), and then rely on our wonderful and very involved posters to help keep things clean and on track by reporting posts or threads that are not appropriate.

It's a tough line. This means that some stuff that's not technically within the guidelines stays (and usually drops off the radar pretty quickly and harmlessly). Other stuff will annoy posters and get reported and dealt with.

But we still think this is a good model to use, with the community helping to police the content.

The Community Board is an interesting monster. It truly is a free-for-all. Some love it, some hate it, some long for the "good old days" when it was a small village rather than a big city. I think the guidelines are still good: no profanity, no fighting, no advertising, no personal messages. Does some (or even a lot) of that slip through? Sure! But just like running a stop sign, it might happen 8 times in a row without being caught, but that doesn't mean that if the rules are enforced on time #9 that the rules aren't consistent. And if there's a particular intersection that seems to have a high number of stop sign runners, watching it closer doesn't mean that the enforcement is unfair.

The Community Board is so big and so active, it's like we have a big traffic jam these days with people honking and giving each other the finger and complaining about the crowds... we're pondering several possible solutions.

 

[NoodlesTheRabbit]

I second that!

I don'y have a problem with the game/exchange/clique threads existing - it's more that I wish they had their own board. Oftentimes it's hard to find the, uh, regular threads among all the other stuff - usually those threads are at least half, sometimes 3/4s of the first page. It's not a matter of not clicking on them - there's just so many that other posts get lost very quickly.

I understand that it's a community and all are welcome to post -- but in real life, when cliques dominate an area/activity, I quickly lose interest in going there.

 

[darrose]

IMO the time for a clique thread to be closed is when its members tells someone else they cant post on it. But hey, obviously the mods on this forum dont agree with me so its on with the show.