As one of the moderating team, Rob I personally agree with your point.

Me too!

Let the dead horses live!

May their bones never fossilize into peak oil, or any other sort of oil for that matter. Let the dead horses evolve into a new, silicon-based life form.

So, in regards to keeping the Dead Horse threads locked, I guess all you guys vote neigh…

Jeremy Halcrow - 13 October 2007 09:44 PM

As one of the moderating team, Rob I personally agree with your point.

But you’ve been out-voted?

Cheers,
Andrew

I think the mortified equines (flu perhaps?) deserve a chance at resurrection and perpetual motion.

Are the dead horses dead, or are they simply locked down until the quarantine gets lifted?

I suppose the tenor (now Pavaroti has gone) of this thread is to let the dead horses free. Close the stable door later when they7 have bolted, for we want to see the whining… sorry whinnying to begin again.

Let’s get 20,000 bumper stickers saying “set the dead horses free!”

Robert Denham - 14 October 2007 06:11 PM

Let’s get 20,000 bumper stickers saying “set the dead horses free!”

There was a movie, the name of which escapes me, in which Spike Milligan plays this crazy old man in a medieval gaol. The only thing that keeps him going is his birds, but because of his insanity, he hasn’t noticed that they have all died, probably long ago.

Anyway, at one point in the movie, he gets freedom. Obviously he is overjoyed, and casts his dead little friends out the window yelling “Fly! Be free!”. Your bumper sticker idea brought this image to mind.

Brilliant!

But you’ve been out-voted?

No.. striking the right balance in moderating these forums has proved fairly dynamic. We seen problems develop when we’ve been too ‘heavy-handed’ as well as been too ‘soft-handed’.

I do think there is a place for dead-horses in wrapping up a long-running thread, especially when things go a bit toxic. Its probably more healthy to allow discussion on that general topic to begin again with different players.

Firstly, I’m wondering if this thread is more appropriate to the “Suggestions & Feedback” forum???

Jeremy Halcrow - 15 October 2007 11:14 AM

I do think there is a place for dead-horses in wrapping up a long-running thread, especially when things go a bit toxic.

I agree but I’m just not sure what moving the carcass to a separate Dead Horse forum achieves beyond simply closing the thread (accept by overly discouraging any renewed debate as suggested by Rob C).

Greetings all,

You’ll notice that I’ve merged this thread with the previous discussion on the DH forum so that we don’t end up repeating ourselves in regard to our reasons for the way we structure our moderation. In any case, the Feedback forum is probably the best place for this, rather than General Discussion.

Now, to the meat of the matter…

For the long time followers of this issue, you’ll know that I’m not adverse to discussing the use of the DH forum. I’m also happy to consider how we can change it for the benefit of the site. I’ll admit that I’m not aware of any evidence of the DH forum stifling discussion; the topics some would like to confine there have continued periodically regardless. Any lessening on some has resulted from key people involved leaving for other sites where their interests are more popular. Further, I’ll reject yet again the idea that there are some topics that threaten to dominate our forums. So long as the moderators do their job correctly, they should be confined to a single thread or possibly two in our top 12. As I’ve said above, threads are moved to DH not because they are about ‘evolution’ or ‘peak oil’ etc. but because they have turned toxic, or circular etc. (see our policy) but still contain things we’d like to preserve. Moving them to DH is in that respect a disciplinary matter. However I note that there is in fact very little practical difference then from locking them wherever they are.

So, how to address the need for discipline without stifling debate? Let me suggest the following, for debate…

1. Your.sydneyanglicans.net continues to move threads to the DH forum as per its posted policy

2. Those threads stay open, but they will no longer appear in the ‘latest discussions’ parts of the site. (This allows us to show concern about circular discussions without stopping people from chewing gristle if they insist on doing so)

3. Any thread that turns toxic gets locked down wherever it it, as per our posted policy

Please note: this doesn’t mean that we will automatically move all Creationism or Peak-oil threads immediately to DH. As I’ve said, I’m happy for people to raise new issues in these areas so long as they in fact relate to something new, and aren’t just a stalking horse to resurrect old debates. Stalking horses will find they are dead horses in two shakes of a tail.

What do you think?

(There is only one caveat I will add - that what I am proposing is technically possible. I will get on to ascertaining this right away).

Mark Hadley - 15 October 2007 12:59 PM

2. Those threads stay open, but they will no longer appear in the ‘latest discussions’ parts of the site.

Preach it bro!

Please note: this doesn’t mean that we will automatically move all Creationism

d’oh!

or Peak-oil threads

double d’oh!!

lol - well, there was always going to be some disappointments ;)

Can I propose that all Chengologist topics have a maximum life of 2 days before being moved there? Each topic I’ve seen quickly devolves into a fierce shouting match about the good and bad of Chengology!

[What I would suggest is that we be able to select boards to ignore in our profile, with new members setting the option to ignore the dead horses board by default. Those of us who don’t mind the odd extinct proto-horse can unignore it.]