Dog piling

Hi panda,I have thought on this since I read it this morning and I agree that dog-piling is probably a little intimidating, it was for me when I said some wrong stuff.I often see people who will repeat what others have just got done saying/asking. I have done it more than once, often because I was failing to look at previous post, other times because I felt I could state a question better.Maybe when The same basic question is repeated by a number of people moderation could request that that people refrain from doing it, I think it is a rule. Also letting the person who faces the dog-pile know that he can choose to respond to the question in a group reply, not everyone needs to have their version of the same question answered individually.When the dog-pile consists of different valid questions I guess the person in question will just have to suck it up and choose where to start.

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"I hate to advocate the use of drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they always worked for me." - Hunter S. ThompsonAd astra per asperaNihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione.

Fair enough. Would you suggest a first come first serve basis or would you prefer the moderators select the best two dog pile responses and hide the rest?If the latter some of those who consider themselves to be the smartest guy in the room might have their delusions rudely interrupted. Maybe not such a bad thing...... I should probably pay more heed to such things. But as the smartest guy in the room I always think I have something of value to add.

I would suggest first come first served basis. I am not sure mods could (or would want to have to) judge posts.As fearandloathing suggested (above) it might be simpler to just hide repeats. Since you are actually the 2nd smartest guy in the room, it would be appreciated if you would stand back and let me through! I do know what you mean though.
But I have deleted a couple of my posts because they were too similar to the posts before them.
I will try and keep an eye open for more of this kind of thing.

That could work. I made it to second on your list huh?You only came third on mine.........

I have had the same experience.
But I am wondering if 'asking a question better' actually makes that much difference.
Sure, we could maybe get to an quicker answer by asking a better question, but by adding an extra person (ourselves) to the debate we instead slow things down. Something like that sounds like it could be workable. This does seem to be the most difficult to restrict.
It starts verging on censorship.

In different ways, topics can easily get badly out of control before an admin even sees it. Self moderation is needed. Look at how many replies have already happened, check them out, and honestly ask yourself "Do I have anything to add?".We do have a blanket method to limit how often a member can post control available, but it has never been used.There used to be a method for individually controlling how often a member could post, which was very rarely used, and is no longer available.What I would like to have available, and I have proposed this to Admin/Percy, is a way to limit a member to a certain number of posts per time period - Offhand, something like 10 a day, 30 a week, 50 a month. Such could be a blanket, applies to all type thing, with the possibility of making individual exceptions (such as for creationist members needing to do more messages).Or something like that.AdminnemooseusAdded by edit - On a related note, I would like to see evolution side members be more liberal on giving other evolution side members "1" message ratings for such things as trite messages, redundant replies, and in general, piling on. Pile on with unneeded or undesirable messages and you get hit in your member rating, etc.Added by edit #2 - My opinion is that moderator warning messages are pretty worthless. Members tend to not see them until too late, or perhaps see them and then ignore them, and they become just more topic clutter. That's why I tend to do "hardball moderation". Member being bad? - 24 hours suspension. Topic a mess? - Close it (it can be reopened later). Less extreme measures are ineffective.Edited by Adminnemooseus, : See above.Edited by Adminnemooseus, : See above.

I can see your point. My topic about the economy got derailed by a few trite off topic posts and thus you closed it. I wish we could delete the off topic posts and resume the topic before it went south...but of course, some would cry discrimination.{Added by edit - See here and upthread. 13 straight messages of irrelevant drool. - Adminnemooseus}Edited by Adminnemooseus, : See above.

I hope Percy does not include hard posting limits as a method of addressing dog piling. For one thing, even in the absence of dog piling, we want the OP to be able to post responses. In some cases posting limits would make threads drag out. We may also want one leading responder to be able to do most of the responding.I doubt there is a way to automate dog pile prevention.If it is decided that posting limits are needed, perhaps per thread per day limits would be better. If we are supposed to take our ratings seriously, I'd like to see evolution and creationist members not give out "1" ratings based on their lack of agreement with the message content.

Hi Panda,Just so you know, I have read through the whole thread so far (23 posts) to get an idea of the other responses before dogpiling on you here ... Even if you are an old poster but take a position that is contrary to a majority position you can get dogpiled - I've been there.The view from the bottom of the pile can be intimidating, yes, but also the feeling that each reasonable response needs a reasonable reply can be daunting, and for the newbie\noobs trying to explain their position, each of their responses getting many replies means that demands on their time and ability to explain keep mushrooming. see my response to Moose (Message 25).Enjoy.Edited by RAZD, : added link to moose reply

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Hi Moose,Would it be possible to limit the number of replies to a post? Say 5 posts in reply? Probably need to exception the first post of a thread, but that would put a no-moderator-needed control on massive dogpiling.Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
Rebel American Zen Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

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Hi purpledawn,Just a quick point: Most often newbies\noobs do not have any idea of the forum guidelines nor of ways to contact admin or where to ask for assistance.I try to provide some information when I post to newcomers, and will add now something to guide them to admin and complaint threadEnjoy

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
Rebel American Zen Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

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Hi Phat, Happens, has happened to me many times.Another way to handle this is to give the topic originator semi-moderator status, with the power to hide off-topic messages - they would still be available to read with peek, but would not be visible to new people reading the thread.And yes some people may abuse the power and some people may complain that their precious posts were hidden, but it could result in more readable threads.Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
Rebel American Zen Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

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Hi NoNukes, Good luck with that -- it's not just creo\evo it's done to try to influence others to toe your line of thought. To me there should be one and only one option: is this a good post. How so? Good idea, but how would you apply it? Have a "peanut gallery" for each newbie\noob and a discussion about each thread, and selection of a prime responder?Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
Rebel American Zen Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

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This seems to be a major response to a minor issue. This could potentially change the whole course of conversations. Maybe the 6th response is POTM quality an/or the best response.Any attempt to limit responses, whether it is done actively or passively, is a form of censorship.

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Facts don't lie or have an agenda. Facts are just facts

Hi Theodoric, Maybe that would encourage people to put a little MORE QUALITY into their posts rather than just post off the cuff remarks and snide comments? You get another chance when the first person posts again, PLUS you can see if they have taken any new information into account in the interim.Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
Rebel American Zen Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

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Join the effort to solve medical problems, AIDS/HIV, Cancer and more with Team EvC! (click)