Hey people,

I've been noticing an increase in topic drift lately, and a lot of posts where it appears that a handful of people are simply posting for the sake of posting. This often derails threads and turns into personal attacks and disputes, so I'd simply like to ask that people make an effort to keep their posts on topic and to actually have some content and/or a point to their post. Posting dozens of one-liner posts that are only tangentially on topic every single day doesn't make the boards any more useful.

I'd ask everyone who's been doing this to take a more critical look at your posts before submitting them, and to the people responding to them to not respond publically/aggressively to such posts.

You are not your post count.

For the [majority] of you who have been posting responsibly, please accept my apologies for this public message -- I didn't want to spend all morning sending PMs to people.

You know what, I am very guilty.

I will make much efforts to change my ways.

Ya know Mr.P, you CAN edit posts....

nah don't want to.

On the topic of editing posts, I'd just like to post that a minor edit to correct a typo, or to make a sentence more clear or some other minor change with some reference to an edit having been done is great. It helps the thread.
People who edit their entire post to completely change their meaning, on the other hand, cause mass confusion and thread-killing. If you realize a previous post that you've made was stupid, or you've changed your mind, that's great. Say so proudly. But if there is not a conversation building off your stupid post, don't kill the thread by changing things so that people entering later can't follow the conversation.
The people who don't spend all day on dumpshock constantly hitting "refresh" will thank you, and forgive your initial stupid post.

I'd fall in to the category of posting goofy one liners, I'll do my best to keep it to a minimum.

Depends. If you've made an error (of the large, logical variety) or have a significant change pretty much immediately after posting, go for it and use the edit function. If meaningful time has passed, though, removing your old text just nukes the ability of the thread to be understood in the future.

~J

Do I do this?

I wonder how long until we manage to derail the please-don't-derail thread?


For my part, I always found thread derailments a welcome and even heartily enjoyed part of DS...

Me too; by the time it's derailed, the question's usually answered. The unexpected is always more fun than the engineered. Of course, the kernel of almost every conversation's engineered, but that's unavoidable, as is the delightful derailment.

*raises hand* Hi, my name is Shanshu, and I'm a derailer.






<3

edit: I'll stop.

fake edit: *shifty look*

fake edit 2: Thanks for putting up with us, Adam

I don't find derailments bad providing they go in a usefull and interesting direction,
reading some topics gives me ideas that, while similar, go in a slightly different direction. I haven't seen anyone flip out about derailment I caused, but then again, I don't read & post in every topic.

***insert large ammounts of....ah who the hell cares****

But... isn't derailment and off-topicness what Dumpshock all about?

BTW, this reminds me: We did not have our annual flamefest/postcount pump this year! No Horror/human debate! I feel postpump/flame withdrawal...

probably because the Drop Bear thread is just to big to beat.

look for the 'Can we beat the Horrors' thread then. 38 pages of New Year's Glory

good lord, the "post on topic" thread has been derailed. there is no more hope left.

well really, what more can be said on the topic of "don't go of topic". And people aren't going to leave it untouched! That's just unheard of !

Honestly, Adam should have locked it down back at the beginning.

Sorry Adam, apparently I'm a sinner too.

"Forgive me Adam, for I have SINned. It has been .... a long time since my last confession. I derailed a topic on Dumpshock last night. I didn't want to, really! But it was just so tempting! I'm weak, and I'm horrible, but I want to make things right. Please, grant me forgiveness for my wicked ways."

No, I don't think I should have locked it down to begin with.

However, I do think that people should leave threads untouched if they have nothing to say, and the idea that once a thread's question/topic is answered adequately the thread is fair game to hijacking is, quite frankly, complete bullshit and should be avoided at all costs. Topic drift is one thing, but giant changes in direction, "crapflooding/crapposting", and off-topic posting are other things entirely, and they raise the bar for newcomers to enter Dumpshock -- in a bad way.

I´m totaly with that!

Y´know I´m only participating in this forum for some days now. There are really some older threats, that would interest me, but I know, if i start reading them, it will be another night of sleap, cuz I´m really bad at stopping to read when derailment takes place. So I´m mostly just participating in threats, that aren´t this big yet ore that I know from the beginning.

If it´s interesting but off-topic, just post a new thread, allso makes more people aware of the new discussion.

I guess little jokes are ok, this isn´t school after all, but endless threats are just useless, if your not participating from the beginning. Just open chatterthreats for anybody whose interested.

At least thats MHO

Reading through Adam's original post, I'm pleased to note that his request does not address important but off-topic posts such as sudden Drop Bear conversions. All hail Adam, whose wisdom is truly boundless.