Threads should be locked after 3 pages

[shamsael]

Every thread I've seen (at least in the D&D forums) tends to go off topic at about 4 or 5 pages, and degenerates into mean spirited public argument after about 6 pages.

 

[the Jester]

Uh... no.

There are tons and tons of long threads that don't degenerate, not to even mention things like play by posts, story hours and campaign rogues' galleries.

No offense, but this is a horrible idea.

 

[Piratecat]

If you're finding this is the case, one solution may be "stop reading them after 3 pages" -- but as the Jester said, I definitely don't agree with you on this.

 

[Morrus]

There's nothing wrong with a conversation going off-topic. Conversation isn't defined by rigid rules - it goes where it goes.

I'd agree that the odds of an argument are higher in a long thread than in a shorter thread just due to the mathematics of probability. But I feel the way to handle that is to deal with the problem if it happens, not ban the conversation pre-emptively just-in-case. Plus there are thousands of fantastic threads with thousands of posts in them which are perfectly cordial.

 

[Scott DeWar]

If i may too a horn or two, the misbegotten waif thread and the hive thread, though they wander *ahem* a wee bit, never have mean spirited comments that i have seen, as does the 'land of off topica' , however, i have seen what you are talking about and if they get disturbing to you , you might want to discuss the sentiment with one of the mods, quoting to the mod in a privet message. If the post is blatantly being vile, crude, rude, anti granda rule and causing a great disruption, then there is an icon to report a post, and it gets dealt with methodically.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Every thread I've seen (at least in the D&D forums) tends to go off topic at about 4 or 5 pages, and degenerates into mean spirited public argument after about 6 pages.

You obviously never played in an PBP so placing a 3-5 page lock would be a disservice to those threads. Also, 3-5 pages mean nothing when you set up your page to display 20 posts+.

But in terms of General Discussion, part of the problem is that no one forks* a discussion. Instead of starting a new thread to talk about Subject B it's kept within the thread of Subject A. That unfortunately derails everything.

That of course is not mentioning the subtle flamewars that often appear between two people. Sometimes, its just better to leave a thread once you start noticing hostility.


* I know the functionality may have vanished or have become obscured, but it shouldn't be too difficult for people to manually quote, copy, then start a new thread.

 

[Lanefan]

Count me as another vote to leave it as is. Sometimes it takes 125 posts for a discussion to get interesting.

Lanefan

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Only 117 to go, then!

 

[Scott DeWar]

you mean 116 more posts to go.

 

[Rhun]

Every thread I've seen (at least in the D&D forums) tends to go off topic at about 4 or 5 pages, and degenerates into mean spirited public argument after about 6 pages.

My game threads certainly stay on-topic for a lot more than 4 or 5 pages. Having to start a new "In Character" thread after every three pages would be a game killer for certain.