BB TV recaps complaint department

The policy is simply this: comments on a post should be about that post’s subject. Complaints about the post itself–the salience of the subject matter, the quality of execution, etc–are often are on-topic enough to avoid derailing the thread. But in this case, it means that a discussion about the show’s content is effectively derailed by a discussion about whether or not people want those posts to exist, and what form they should take.

This is a thread that already exists to deal especially with that very subject, so this is where that comment ends up. It means that if we want to look at general criticism of recaps, we have it all in one place for easy reference.

Complaints about corrupt abuse of power and the censorship of dissent are now happening in reference to people’s opinions of Game of Thrones and Hannibal posts.

GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY.

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Fair enough. Your place, your policies. It just feels a bit more ‘keep your opinions to yourself, troublemaker, they’re not welcome here’ than I’m used to in years of generally friendly and incident-free BB lurking and occasional commenting.

Regarding creating a specific, separate discussion on the recaps themselves, do the authors read this thread? Do they even want feedback? It was strange to see comments after-the-jumped away from the main content a while ago, and this twice-removed-threading does give the impression that the less discussion the better.

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This does not make sense at all. It is like arguing that the Wikipedia “talk” page should be embedded inline within the Wikipedia article itself, because people love reading pedantic arguments about asphalt rather than learning about asphalt, right?

(I am also saying that pedantry about asphalt has its place and does move things forward, but these are two very different things that do not belong together. This is not the “you got your chocolate in my peanut butter” that makes a delicious candy.)

The Meta category exists here so we can discuss these very things. With the old world of Disqus there was no place for the meta discussion to go so it had to be deleted by definition! Having a well defined area for these kinds of discussions-about-the-discussion is exactly what helps build a stronger long term community.

This is completely a correct policy, and one that leads to a better community.

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If we delete off topic posts they shout “CENSORSHIP!”, if we move them to a place where they can be discussed, criticisms and all, they shout “CORRUPTION!” I think the old saw “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t” works better.

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Makes sense.

It did feel jarring to learn that apparently any and all discussion about the article itself (as opposed to talking about what the article was about) is not only tagged as ‘off-topic complaint’ and removed from the conversation, but it’s considered so aggressively disruptive that I should be thankful it’s not deleted outright. This is a first for me here or anywhere else: ‘feel free to discuss this article, BUT NEVER THE ACTUAL ARTICLE ITSELF THAT SHIT IS TOXIC WE ARE WATCHING YOU’.

As much as it’s hard to argue with the ‘we’re just filing things in their proper places because the constant whine of haters harms the conversation’ it’s hard in this context not to feel somewhat punished without provocation, unlike the targets of disembolwment of old. As far as I remember those were an effective and entertaining way to deflate truly hateful, dickish or moderator-annoying behavior. Apparently the lines in the ground have changed and I’m the asshole now.

I’m sure you guys have reason to be tired of complaining in general and have the experience to know what works best for all, but in the same way I personally like my articles enriched with digressions and personality as opposed to just the facts, I also feel conversations are more interesting when non-show-stopper digressions are allowed or even encouraged.

I’ve come to love BB’s comments as much as the articles over the years precisely because I never knew what sort of lateral thinking such a community of clever and knowledgeable happy mutants could come up with from the starting point. Often I didn’t even care about the original topic of the post, but the ebb and flow of discussion proved fun and educational nonetheless. If ‘stick to the point’ is the new law and it’s so strictly enforced, it’s hard for the character of the conversation not to evolve into something different. Maybe better in the end, but not the one I personally have come to expect here.

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Personally, I think disemvoweling is a bad idea.

But these aren’t interesting digressions, like “oh I noticed this actor also played in this other show”, then another person replies “I loved that show, here’s more detail on it” – these are meta digressions. Discussions about the discussion itself.

I think it’s important to understand this distinction, and realize it’s exactly the same reason you would be annoyed if you went to the Asphalt page on wikipedia and had to read a bunch of meta-discussion about the topic rather than what you came there for – information about Asphalt.

Another way to state it is, when watching a baseball game, do you want to hear commentary about how the game is broadcast, or commentary about the baseball game itself?

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When watching baseball, I want a beer and garlic fries.

And Fernando Rodney to put his damn hat on straight.

It’s raining. I’ll just watch some TV instead.

With this sudden interest in TV again I’m wondering why you and Jamie Frevele parted ways.

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What the heck are you doing!? I am a longtime boingboing fan and haven’t started GOT season 4! Why is the most unpredictable show being spoiled with a frontpage image!

While I’m here, I’m definitely tiring of the excessive Tv commentary that’s flooding boingboing too.

But please, don’t ruin shows with massively spoiling images. Anyone should be able to come here. Not just kids who’re up to date with every series they plan to watch.

Awww, man, I can’t erase that image!!! This is seriously annoying!!!

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This long time bb reader appreciates being given a BB perspective on the show and a place to discuss with fellow readers. Keep them coming.

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You could try to use whiteout on your screen.

Trying to avoid spoilers for the whole season! How do you even survive 10 minutes on the internet?

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One of the great things about boingboing is I don’t need to go trawling through much else on the internet. Boingboing is my directory of wonderful things. I’m happy to ignore most social media in order to dodge spoilers. But really, this is the first time boingboing has done this to me.

Thanks for changing the pic, now I’ll just white-out my brain.

I think that’s an excellent solution BTW, to have spoilers only accessable via ‘Read the rest’.

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You want spoilers?!? I got your spoilers right here: not only have I read all five books, I have a psychic connection with AA Milne I mean JJ Binks I mean wassisname with the capital letters…

No Not JRR…The other guy who writes great characters, gets them to a certain place and has them spin in place while he endlessly describes heraldry and juicy turkey legs.

So(!)…There are only four characters that matter: Jon Snow…who defeats the Wildings/Snow Zombies single handedly. And melts the Wall with Dragon fire…because guess what? Daenerys Targaryen invades Westros with a brilliant pincer maneuver: Unsullied demolish Dorne…Dragons flame KL. Of course Tyrion and Daenerys are an item at this point: and she’s Expecting!!! DragonFire for everyone: literally 90% of Westros and almost all ancillary characters are charred to ash. Sansa marries Tommon. Bran becomes a wolf and becomes Lord of the Wargs. Cercei and Brienne share Jaime in an open relationship. Arya kills everyone on her list and becomes Queen of The North. Daenerys is poisoned by Mayor Carcetti and a dragon bites off his head. The last scene is an aged, wasted Tyrion placing his baby son on the Iron Throne.

The End.

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Cercei –share?

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Obligatory

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Spoilers in the first line?? That’s the part that shows up in my news reader!
Seriously boingboing, enough with the TV recaps. It’s turning into the avclub over here.

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