I propose this idea...

Gingerbread Man on 24/6/2011 at 17:14

There is crap and there is gold in Commchat. Younger members won't remember the Überdonkey / dOom / Paz etc threads, but those are the things that many of us older heads find sorely missing. Of course they do pop up from time to time but certain members who will remain nameless tend to drag even the best threads into the mud for whatever stupid reason they find sufficient.

How do y'all feel about either of these two options? Remember, they will be Commchat exclusive and will not apply in any other forum at TTLG.

1. If someone makes a thread intended for serious discussion, they tag it with a special post icon. Anyone caught fagging up a thread with such an icon will be removed from Commchat (but still be able to participate on all other boards) for a period of time appropriate to the level of trolling.

2. A subforum for Commchat wherein serious and thoughtful discussion happens. I don't expect this kind of forum to hit the ground running, but I didn't think that the GenGaming forum would ever resurrect itself, so what do I know?

Comment and or vote.

Got a better idea to accomplish the same thing? Man, I'd love to hear it. All serious suggestions have merit.

june gloom on 24/6/2011 at 18:01

Why not just bar some of the more egregious fuckups (which I realize includes me on some peoples' lists, but just bear with me) from ever commenting on CommChat ever again? Problem solved. Fights will break out a lot less without the village idiots enraging everyone.

Gingerbread Man on 24/6/2011 at 18:11

That's already in place. It's called the Sluggs Train. :D

The real problem with such a plan is that it doesn't allow us to keep the insanity as well. There is loads of room in Commchat for idiocy and noise, but signal gets lost within threads a lot.

Anyway, I'll add the Sluggs Train concept to the poll, because it is a legit idea. That will end up being Dave's call more likely, as he will be the one who has to show me how it works again. :D

Sulphur on 24/6/2011 at 18:12

Even serious and thoughtful discussions tend to spend some time spinning their wheels and breaking out into CommChat's special brand of looney tuneage - not actual faggotry (okay maybe sometimes) but a sort of blowing off of steam to break from the main track for a short bit before the thread chugs back onto it.

Differentiating between the two / forcing a segregation between banter and seriousness sort of goes against the grain of the place, don't you think? At least, that's how I've interpreted the intent, feel free to correct me if that's not what we're talking about.

In any event, I think a special post icon wouldn't serve the purpose because it could be easily abused, but a community-led 'vote up' option for each thread in CommChat would serve to highlight the more prominent and interesting threads, and you could earmark these for low-level faggotry to be weeded out.

Gingerbread Man on 24/6/2011 at 18:22

Yeah, and these are also things I have thought. I really don't know how easy or hard it would be to implement that kind of thing (or a Karma system, though God knows they get abused constantly), however.

The idea isn't so much to stream the whimsy from the sombre as it is to provide a way that serious discussions can identify themselves as such and those who participate in them know what the intent is. They also know that they can expect rational argument against their opinions rather than a bunch of one-liners and table-breaking pictures.

Serious stuff would by no means be forbidden in CommChat Proper is a subforum were to be built. But there just wouldn't be any guarantee that the topic wouldn't get peed on.

All great stuff so far, even if it's only two. I'm glad that neither of the current ideas are the same as mine. This is why distributed processing works!

Nicker on 24/6/2011 at 18:29

I voted for a Troll Tag and so far everyone agrees. (Damn! I didn't post fast enough!)

By and large ComChat polices itself. Between the keen senses of the regulars and the occasional interventions of the mods, there is a good balance between lively discussion and utter chaos.

Dividing ComChat into the grownups table and the kids table sounds like a conversation killer and more work for the mods and I already contribute too much to their workload. And who is going to make sure the kids table doesn't have a thoughtful moment ("Why so serious, kids")?

The risk of a thoughtful thread getting derailed is worth the reward of a goofy thread producing a genius child. Often the heckling and cat calls make more salient points than the essays. And if a thread goes bad well, we can always try again, Honey.

There is always the comment rating system but that is just soooo YouTube. I say, give the Troll Patrol bigger guns and a bit more elbow room.

Renzatic on 24/6/2011 at 18:41

I dunno. I don't think splitting Commchat between Chat For The Discerning Individual and ololland is the best idea in the world. Sometimes, when a topic gets peed on, it's getting peed on for good reason. Sometimes the peeing on leads to better topics of conversations than the initial topic. It all depends on what happens, how it happens, who does it, and how pointless it was. Does this person usually do shit like this? Are Dethtoll, RBJ, and CCCToad gonna finally get around to that hardcore two-on-one grudgefuck we've all been expecting for about two years now? What do we think of Llama?

Splitting the board in two won't make much of a difference in the long run. Eventually, we'll have a board that'll mimic Commchat as it is now (after an initially promising start), and the extra COMMCHAT HERP-EH-DURP option for the crackhead contingency. Really, doing a little more moderation, and taking derails on a case by case basis would be the simpler choice here.

Phatose on 24/6/2011 at 18:44

How about a voluntary, per post "Serious/Non-Serious" flag and the option to hide all non-serious posts? Let's comm-chat retain the mix of discussion and insanity for those who accept it as part of the charm, while giving people trying to have an actual discussion a way to separate the signal from the noise.

Nicker on 24/6/2011 at 18:49

Whatever is decided, can we agree to keep zings! exempt?

june gloom on 24/6/2011 at 18:51

I tend to agree with Renz. But I also think the troll tags thing won't work because of the same principle. I mean, you're going to say OH THIS THREAD IS FOR BRANDY-SIPPERS ONLY, LOLLERS NEED NOT APPLY? That's just as much of a conversation-killer.

I think the Sluggs Train is the best idea. Put some of the turdsurfers on it and send it off to Shut Up Town. CC can keep its zany attitude without the awful people awfuling it up.

And if that still doesn't work, just put everyone On Notice. Hand out short (between 6 and 24 hours) bans (from CommChat only mind) when the nerd rage gets too DBZ-like. Like a Shut Up Town day trip :D