How about the longer a thread grows, or the more heated it becomes, more time has to elapse before the same person can post again. This would defuse and allow for reflection. If the subject merits the wait it will be for the good. If not, it will die.
I know when I flame out it is because of too hasty a response to a perceived insult.
This might need to be moderator triggered based on reading rather than automatic, but one could build in a warning system when posts become too frequent in a thread (or something.) The moderator could have a closer look.
@chenille: Yeah, nobody reads the classics any more.
What a novel idea. I think youâd have to code it up and try it on a high volume site (like this one) before you could really know if it would work. Which would be an annoying waste of effort if it didnât⌠but novel ideas are usually like that.
This already happens, sort of, you get advisories above the editor when you post 3 or more times sequentially, or if you are creating 20% or more of all posts in a topic above a certain minimum size. We could also add one for posting too rapidly, meaning, a whole lot of replies in a short timespan, regardless of whether they are sequential or not â thatâs a very good idea.
*Let others join the conversation
This topic is clearly important to you â youâve posted more than 20% of the replies here.
Are you sure youâre providing adequate time for other people to share their points of view, too?
I get that all the time, cos I hate posting a scatty, going-in-three-directions-at-once reply full of quotes to people. Everyone gets their fair share of individually crafted Wham, whether they ask for it or not. It seems only fair, really.
There certainly suddenly seem to be a lot of assholes who want to muddy debate with tiresome internet pedantry and general bad faith. Antinous did squash that crap pretty quick. I kind of get it though, Antinous is a person, not a system, so the challenge is to find a system of moderation that maintains BBs character. I hope it works out.
Just for the record ⌠I was setting up a gag, rather than ⌠uh ⌠testing, and was indeed surprised at the message - never seen it, or anything like it! Sorry. Wonât do it again.
The Wham-Bar Effect (where everything has become smaller & meaner and sweeties have shrunk) is, in fact, one of my go-to metaphors for how fucked the world is.
Would you characterise Cowâs contributions as happy on the whole, orâŚ?
I used to wanna high-five the dude, then Occupy happened. I support the themes and ideas of Occupy and, if I were American, I would probably be equally as pissed as he is but I feel that around that time (and I know he was heavily into the movement) he started to be less interested in explaining his opinion to those he disagreed with and instead just working to offend them as much as possible. I am also that kind of guy, but I will usually first exhaust the possibility that a person wants to have a discussion or is capable of changing their mind and I will, even after a large flamewar, offer a commentary olive branch if the person still disagrees but has at least explained their ideas.
The thing that he started doing that really got under my skin was posting (supposedly hilarious) images to make his more trolly jabs which, for the record, makes any commentary appear more juvenile. Anyway⌠I will miss his commentary and Iâm sure if he cares to stow part of the troll in the overhead compartment then the mods would probably welcome him back.
Antinous generated a bunch of hate because he didnât take shit and made a mockery of people spouting gold-plated ignorance. I sincerely miss his commentary. He posted some of the best links and the most inappropriately offensive things.
@Antinous If youâre around and reading this dude (my guess is no) drop me a message via PM.
Perhaps if there were an ignore function then Cow and his opponents could have taken a break from each other instead of one of them getting early retirement.
You also split threads apart, move posts from one thread to another, and respond to auto-closed threads after theyâre locked to normal users. You can see why some folks are still confused as to your exact status around here, canât you?
