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Question/statement for mods about closing threads due to incorrect thread titles

Discussion in 'Safety valve' started by chris4160, Jan 6, 2010.

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  1. chris4160

    chris4160 Guest

    What is the point of closing threads that have incorrect titles? It just creates muiltiple thread posts and clogs the front page. Most of the people that threads are closed are new members asking for help, closing their threads pretty much guaruntees them never coming back. Simply telling them to change their title would be sufficient.

    (I usually stay in the Xbox 360 General Discussion so I am not sure if this happens in every forum).
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 6, 2010
    chris4160, Jan 6, 2010
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  2. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    because it states in forum rules about proper title
    7. Describe your problem specifically -- including the thread topic, because this helps people who are willing to answer to you.
     
    ddp, Jan 6, 2010
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  3. rikdee

    rikdee Regular member

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    it makes it easier for people to find threads when searching for an answer, rather then just starting a new thread they can type in their problem at the top of the page and maybe an answer will come up whereas if the original thread said Help!!! blah blah it wont come up.
     
    rikdee, Jan 6, 2010
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  4. scum101

    scum101 Guest

    don't think anybody ever does that.. never.. they find it easier to try to get spoonfed and never ever whatever they do use that lump of grey mush inside their heads
     
    scum101, Jan 6, 2010
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  5. chris4160

    chris4160 Guest

    I understand that, but my problem is that there has been muiltiple cases where I am helping a new member and a mod comes in and closes the thread (I should have said that in the original post). I don't see the point of closing the thread if people are already helping the OP. When this happens the mods actually make the forums harder to use.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 6, 2010
    chris4160, Jan 6, 2010
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  6. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Do you (for instance) want your inbox flooded with pages of "please help", and look down forum pages seeing the same ?. Didn't think so.

    Anyways, it's also about educating people. As to threads being closed once they've received some help, of course i see your point, and i used to rename obscene amounts of thread titles in the past. But enough was enough, it's just like people constantly drop-posting in obscure and irrelevant forums. I used to 'teleport' them all instead of closing. Then i just started closing them due to the amount and frequency of them. Now i teleport most of them again, my way of conceding to people who should know better.

    Don't even get me started on the amount of threads (daily) that lazy xbox 360 people post in the OLD type xbox forums.

    Yes of course most of the people doing these things are not techie or whatever, but part of the reason for us doing things in this way is to educate them. Any time i receive a PM from someone due to a thread title or whatever, i always oblige, these are the people who can learn from our 'lesson' for want of a better word, or genuinely can think for themselves, but if people don't come back again they probably won't be missed as are probably the same people who don't even have the decency to come back and tell us that their problem is resolved. I'm over generalising i know but hey.

    'makes the forums harder to use' - is it our fault that people get as far as this site then leave their brain at the door ?, how simple can these things be ?. Tell you what, you spend 5 years moving endless threads, renaming endless threads, editing out endless email addresses, sorting out endless childish behaviour and foul language/flaming, endless spammers, endless regulars who are here just to pimp their own services, oh and spend said time participating in the forums as a normal poster too. Most days i wonder why i still bother, no matter how many people we educate, the more that arrive without a scrap of common sense, it's obviously a symptom of today's dumbed down tv-addled society :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2010
    creaky, Jan 7, 2010
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  7. rikdee

    rikdee Regular member

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    I think it is more a case of computers now being so commonplace and easy to use that people start typing before engaging brain like its a second nature, they have a problem and want immediate answers so rather then search they start a thread with a stupid title expecting help but fail to realise that a lot of users ignore them due to the obtuse title.

    If you do give them answers they see no wrong in what they have done and next time start yet another thread with yet another stupid title and so the cycle continues.
     
    rikdee, Jan 7, 2010
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  8. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Well said, it's not even so much about computers or lack of knowledge of computers, it's all about breaking the cycle. We do like to give them answers and educate them in other ways, but when it's relentless we have to say enough's enough sometimes. Maybe if the site wasn't so large/busy we could accommodate all these things but it's just relentless, i know i for one used to move all threads i came across, rename stupid amounts of thread titles etc etc etc, there's just no let up, the downside of being so well known is that we attract too many lazy people :p
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2010
    creaky, Jan 7, 2010
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  9. scum101

    scum101 Guest

    scum101, Jan 7, 2010
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  10. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    It's not fair that some of you (you, ddp, to name but two) can illustrate things in a few words when it takes me paragraphs :eek:
    As i say, it's today's dumbed down society, people have to be told even though the answers are right in front of them. I live in an alternate reality in which i help people with said paragraphs, even though i know most of it is wasted breath.

    I should charge by the word, or at least go into journalism :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2010
    creaky, Jan 7, 2010
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  11. scum101

    scum101 Guest

    Journalism sounds good.. as a holder of 2 NUS national journalism awards,(I used to write articles about college funding and other equally gripping subjects) I guess I can see writing skills.. anyway. You need some other way to keep those fingers warm during the big freeze ;)

    I do agree tho that we seem to spend so much time wasting our breath on the subhumans we see so many of. Don't they teach reading comprehension skills in schools any more? My daughter could read and understand before she started.. I wasn't having any lazy school excuses for my kid turning out an uneducated retard because some teacher couldn't be bothered doing their highly paid job. I guess that's my penalty for being the child of a civil servant and an aircraft engineer.

    Few words or many. I believe it's all down to a matter of personal style. I like to rabbit on when I think it helps the person I am communicating with. When I'm short and sweet it's because I have picked up they aren't worth the effort.

    This has been a public service announcement. Translations into grunts of less than one syllable are available upon request XD
     
    scum101, Jan 7, 2010
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  12. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Maybe i should become a TV presenter, am only 2 minutes into this ~ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/8443687.stm but that's warmed me up more than the cup of coffee i just had. I would love to be sat there putting that Met Office boss in his place the way Andrew Neil is doing, i'd tear apart the liars and fraudsters.

    My daughters stood out at nursery due to their hand/eye co-ordination from being exposed to computers at home (i blame their father), and at 12 and 9 now they are exceptionally bright (i blame their mother), they are unfortunately in the minority, too many other kids are TV slaves and games console slaves etc etc. They certainly won't be hoodwinked by false whoppers such as man-made global warming (for instance) as (like their dad) they have brains and are not afraid to use them. It really disturbs me how today's society is do dumbed down and unable to think for themselves. Why (for example) do people not even read previous threads for themselves and at least be able to ask relevant questions ?, that's nothing to do with (lack of) computer profiency or whatever, it's just basic common sense. I'd best give up before i write another half a page, sometimes i can't help myself.

    On topic (even though we're in the Safety Valve), thread titles are indeed a forum rule, but it should be absolute basic common sense to use proper thread titles, in fact i don't even know why this thread even exists as this has all been discussed to death in the main Thread Title thread.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2010
    creaky, Jan 7, 2010
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  13. scum101

    scum101 Guest

    I can answer that.. it's from one of the "usual places" .. i.e .. one of the mob of 360 "hackers" (makes me laugh that) who were calling me a liar and a n00b and demanding I publicly hand out industrial secrets a while back. Never going to happen.. 20 years in a US nick for a little bit of inside info about the 360 that won't help anybody? .. I think not ;) Anybody who has the slightest knowledge of where I have been and what I have done will know I'm exactly the person who will know those kinds of things. I guess like everything else they don't know that harassing somebody and attempting to force them to hand out industrial secrets is (under the dcma and other industrial protection laws) a crime in itself? I have dropped enough around the houses hints about such matters for a few people to work out how it's done... but I guess again that takes use of that grey lump of stuff that sits unused by most for 2+2=4 to happen XD

    Tell you what .. just stop doing anything in the 360 forum for 48 hours and wait for it being full of "help" and "360" threads.. I would say 4 pages in 48 hours at a guess?? That should stop the whining and we can return to "business as usual".

    reminds me.. where did I put that cd?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 7, 2010
    scum101, Jan 7, 2010
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  14. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    The funny thing is i'm not here as much as i normally would be. I got a life LOL. Well i found topics that i'd hitherto been ignorant/indifferent to. Why ?, because it's stuff that affects me and will affect my kids. I 'woke up' (well strictly speaking i had been quite open minded for many years, but 9/11 was the thing that switched something on in the old grey matter), then when the media hype surrounding swine flu started a few months back, something else triggered in my head and i decided to start spending my time on constructive things such as researching serious issues, this now occupies me all day every day.
    Stuff like The economy, global 'warming', swine flu vaccinations, 911 and similar topics, the underpants bomber and the naked body scanners, stuff like that. Am still not interested in politics, only the aspects of it that interact with the things i just mentioned, things that are obviously not within the remit of this site, so i spend most of my time on another site, where i have found my 'voice' so to speak, and am able to collate & discuss my thoughts and findings on said subjects. Then overnight i listen to a 4 hour podcast of a certain American show. Then i sleep for probably 3 or 4 hours. There's just never enough time in a day.
    Maybe i should have been a journo or public speaker in another life.

    Anyways, just explaining why i'm not here as much as i would normally be. Anyone is free to google 'creaky swine flu adjuvants' or whatever if they are interested in serious topics, i just prefer to spend my time gaining/passing on real world knowledge instead of debating why people feel the need to advertise reflow services or feel victimised because their thread got closed due to a thread title or multiposting or whatever. There's more important things in life. Sorry to go on, i always over explain things, as i say "i have a brain and am not afraid to use it", it rarely switches off, and nor does my keyboard :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2010
    creaky, Jan 7, 2010
    #14
  15. chris4160

    chris4160 Guest

    In most cases simply asking them (via a generic statement) would be enough. Then if they do not change the title when they next reply then close the thread. That would teach them about thread titles and still get help.

    And yeah I have seen the amount of threads you teleport out of the old xbox forums, if it were me I would just close them and focus on other things.

    I did look through a few pages but I couldn't find anything related to what I was looking for (I should have looked harder but tbh it's full of noobs flaming mods, not that interesting as it happens in just about every thread).

    I do realise how incredibly repetitive being a mod would be, but if the current mods can't handle the work load then why don't they (admin) employ/create more mods? There's atleast two regulars that I know of that would be really good mods (not including me :p).

    WARNING: Below is off-topic, if you do not wish to waste 5 minutes of your life reading crap then do not continue reading.

    Lol, still going on with that I see. I thought that I shut you up about it in the news discussion: http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/20163.cfm. Firstly, I did not "force" you, I stated that if you cannot say anything about it then don't mention it and keep giving "hints". Obviously you are too arrogant to resist that so I realise that this was invaine. Secondly, if it is such an "industrial secret" and you could get "20 years in a US nick" for it, then why do keep you go around saying stuff about it:

    If you signed a contract not say anything about it, then why do you keep saying that you know stuff about it, but you can't say the stuff you know about it, but then you do say the stuff you know about it???

    Lol, it makes me laugh too as you claim to know "a million times more about 360 modding than any of you".

    Also, you implied that you were going to quit afterdawn when you were a member, obviously another lie.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 8, 2010
    chris4160, Jan 7, 2010
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  16. aldan

    aldan Active member

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    you are starting to sound like you are going for the incoherent thread of the week.simply put,when this site was started,some ground rules were put in place.it is in the rules in black and white and if people dont take the time to read it,it is no ones fault but their own.i took a couple of knocks myself early on.i also learned to use the search on this site as well as google.its not real hard to understand.cheers,Al
     
    aldan, Jan 8, 2010
    #16
  17. chris4160

    chris4160 Guest

    Just so you understand it is not my threads that have been closed, but people that I have been helping. I understand that there rules againt incorrect thread titles. But when a user is already replying to the OP then I simply ask that the mods do not close it, instead rename/ask for it to be renamed. It's really not that difficult.

    Anyway creaky has already justified it so there's no point in this thread continuing.
     
    chris4160, Jan 8, 2010
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  18. creaky

    creaky Moderator Staff Member

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    Indeed, this one's past it's sell by date.
    Closed.

    edit- chris4160 - I don't need to comment on anyone else's behalf, suffice it to say that it's rich that you label other peoples' replies as crap, yet you're the one who argues the tiniest detail for pages upon pages.
     
    Last edited: Jan 8, 2010
    creaky, Jan 8, 2010
    #18
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