Why are things the way they are?

[Larry Fitz]

I'm curious about something, I'm not trying to be facetious here, but why do threads get closed? I'm not asking what's wrong with personal attacks, profanity, politics, religion or any of that being in these threads. I'm more curious as to why the offending posts can't be deleted and the offending posters blocked from posting? The boards are moderated after the fact anyway, the offending posts actually remain on the site, it's only attrition that knocks the thread off the front page and that can sometimes result in hundreds of views before the offending post(s) go away. Why not just delete and block and then let the more responsible posters continue?

 

[Morrus]

Well, banning is something I try to avoid as much as possible. Since I started running the boards, I've only banned two people, and both of those were allowed to come back (one has had to be banned again, but hey...). Before that, Eric banned very few people in his time - only 3 or 4. It is reserved for extreme cases where people really aren't going to play nice.

Leaving the thread there allows people to see why it was closed, and helps to inform people of how things work here.

 

[seasong]

It also helps prevent claims of "my post was reasonable until the mods deleted it!"

 

[Piratecat]

Larry, we generally don't like to babysit threads. When a thread gets to that point - that people aren't listening to warnings, are persisting in attacks, and we don't feel that we can leave it alone without problems - it will get closed. A moderator will also close a thread that he feels is only going to degenerate.

 

[Fenris]

I can atest to one thing: no friendlier place can be found.

I especially would'nt know what I would do without Eric's avatar...

help me!

Yeah, and ENWorld has ruined me. Eric's old page was the first message board of any kind I even looked at. And now with ENWorld, I just can't go anywhere else on the web. It just doesn't feel right. The people are horrible to each other. Well at least I have ENWorld, there is no place like home, especially if you don't want to leave. Thanks to all the mods who make this such a pleasant place to come and whittle away one's time.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It is amazing the differents of EN World and other forums. We as a group seem to be better behaved but a lot has to go to mods for their time and work.

It could also be that there is that relationship to Nutkinland.

 

[Tiefling]

I keep wanting to post over there, but I'm afraid someone will beat me up and take my lunch money!

To be more precise, they'll kick you in the junk and take your wallet.

 

[EricNoah]

I think the end result of the way we do it here is that people end up moderating themselves. There's a group dynamic that leads people to act the way they need to act when they're here, and with hundreds of great folks setting good examples by their posting styles it becomes very clear how one should post.

 

[jdavis]

A lot of times people get caught up in threads and run their mouth without thinking, but you will see a lot of self editing going on so people do try around here. I find that there are a lot of people here that I absolutely disagree with in one thread and get along with in another, I 'd hate to see somebody banned becuase they got a little crazy on one topic, people do have bad days.

Leaving the closed threads up doesn't really hurt anyone and it makes a good example of what will happen if you go overboard in your responses, besides the closed threads are the funnest ones to go back and read, you can normally see it coming and figure out what went wrong, sort of like a accident investigation. The last thing I'd like to see is a change with how threads are dealt, this place is great as it is, it's why I don't post anywhere else, people are friendlier and more aware of others feelings around here.

 

[tleilaxu]

its because of all those jack chick pamphlets. they make people more aware of morality.

or something