Small talk...deleted?

[sabro]

I have had three recent inoccuous posts deleted that were not offensive, nor were they particularly off topic. They were simply a polite hello to the previous poster- an affirmation, and "haven't seen you around here for a bit."

Am I to understand that this sort of polite chit chat is no longer allowed or is there some other reason why these brief and innocuous posts were dumped?

Also is there any way we can be notified when and why a post is deleted? At least if we were informed of the nature of the offense, we could moderate our future behavior.

 

[Davey]

Goodmorning Sabro. Sorry, I should have let you know that I had deleted your post, because it had nothing to do with the thread, and it could have done by PM and I think you knew this already. This was about this post : "Hey Oliver! How is it going!"

If you would have said anything about the topic as well, I would not have changed it but with only this post I saw no reason to keep it.

and the other one was deleted by Admin1 with the message: "pls stay on topic and use the PM system for private msgs as requested. Thanks."

I think you have been here long enough to know where and how you can go off topic in posts.

Most of the times, when post get deleted the user will receive a PM why, so my excuse for that.

 

[sabro]

Thanks.
That is perfectly understandable. Uncle Frank sent me a PM and it makes good sense. Sometimes however it would be nice to know why your last post is suddenly gone. My previous history at JREF left me a bit paranoid about this sort of thing. I never did get that message from Admin 1 that you mentioned though.

Thanks for your hard work, vigilance and dedication. I think you guys are doing a great job.

 

[yukio_michael]

Speaking of PM's is there any way to increase the character limit? I've had to break up some PMs into 3 different parts to get around the 2000 word count limit... And I wasn't writing a chapter out of Moby Dick, it was something simple like explaining some text book recommendations.

 

[nice gaijin]

as diligent as it is, simply deleting seemingly off-topic posts seems awfully heavy-handed, where a PM or in-thread reminder to stay on topic would have sufficed. The forum isn't a bonsai tree that needs pruning whenever a twig is out of place.

Just my opinion, though. It's not like a huge censorship issue or anything.

 

[RockLee]

as diligent as it is, simply deleting seemingly off-topic posts seems awfully heavy-handed, where a PM or in-thread reminder to stay on topic would have sufficed. The forum isn't a bonsai tree that needs pruning whenever a twig is out of place.

Just my opinion, though. It's not like a huge censorship issue or anything.

So, you'd like to have a forum with nothing but offtopic posts, mixed with the normal posts and have to find your way and filter everything then ? I think it would make it quite hard to follow a certain thread.

 

[JimmySeal]

Unless you guys are deleting hundreds of offtopic posts every day that I don't know about, I don't think the chitchat wasteland you describe is much of a danger. Sabro has been here almost 3 years (joined the day after you did from the looks of it) and if this is the first time anything like this has happened with him I think it's pretty clear that he's not a rampant smalltalker. I don't think it's the end of the world if he says hello to someone who hasn't been around in a while in a place where everyone can see his comment, but if you want someone to stop posting off topic a simple reminder should suffice. I don't think there's a necessity to delete the posts that have already been made.
This is a friendly environment, and I think most people here are willing to tolerate an OT post or two.

 

[nice gaijin]

Well said, JimmySeal. The odd off-topic post doesn't exactly constitute a slippery slope into anarchy.

 

[Elizabeth]

Well said, JimmySeal. The odd off-topic post doesn't exactly constitute a slippery slope into anarchy.

I also don't like reading offtopic chitchat between two members that is better off in a PM or email. Topics that deviate but are still tangentially related to the initial discussion are a different story. That appears to be the working rule and the distinction Dutch was hinting at (which sabro also got, I think.)

 

[nice gaijin]

That's all well and fine, but it doesn't mean that all posts that don't seem related enough to the thread topic should be deleted on a whim. Especially if the offending member is not contacted and told what has happened to the post; how else does one expect to prevent these off-topic posts from popping up every so often? Or threads like this one, for that matter.

Since there are no links to the particular threads from which the posts were deleted, I'll refrain from speculating any further on the subject. I just wanted to cast my pennies to the wind. I don't care for off-topic posts either, but this was not handled well.

 

[sabro]

I get it... I think we can keep it cordial and still be reminded to keep on topic.

 

[Elizabeth]

I get it... I think we can keep it cordial and still be reminded to keep on topic.

There's a lot of miscellaneous 'welcome back' type stuff floating around like this to long absent members that aren't deleted I suppose because they are phrased more like generic greetings than anything requiring an actual response :

I can't help you with the question, but great to see you [soandso] back again ! Hey I love that new avatar ! Is that [XXYZ] ?!!!

 

[sabro]

I don't see a problem with that either. It seems perfectly acceptable to me, and I just needed to know what happened. I just don't like when my posts or entire threads were deleted because someone diagreed with my POV on the topic. That absolutely does not happen anymore.

 

[RockLee]

I just don't like when my posts or entire threads were deleted because someone diagreed with my POV on the topic. That absolutely does not happen anymore.

Yeh, thank god things have gotten a bit more friendly here over the past few months!

I do think we should have more chitchat threads though. As people easily go offtopic in threads.

 

[Seon-a Kim]

In a small community like this it is no biggie to leave a comment as to why a message was removed no? You indeed have to let the people know what they did wrong so they can know what not to do and where they went wrong.

But then again I come to this point: Can someone define the word/s "Chit Chat" for me? And I prefer someone who enforces the rules here.

 

[Davey]

The problem with chit-chat in threads is that a lot of people reply on the chitchats.

If person A says hello, welcome back to person B, person B will reply to this, and also person C will jump in, and probably a person D. After this a mod/adv/adm has to make a special thread for these posts (which the first poster could have done, make a new thread, or what could have been done by pm)

 

[sabro]

Thanks Dutch. I'm not going to argue with that at all. We have a chit chat room... and if the topic of the thread is basically chit chat, then small talk isn't off topic.

 

[leonmarino]

I just don't like when my posts or entire threads were deleted because someone diagreed with my POV on the topic. That absolutely does not happen anymore.

The bad old days..

I don't mind the chit-chatting in between serious subjects at all. Many people come here for fun, and a show of affection in between serious posts may take the edge of sometimes overly serious topics. And I'm pretty sure most of the more frequent posters are very well to the limits of this (hijacking a thread goes too far, for example).

I also think it's important to keep the open, informal structure here to encourage new posters to sign on; we don't wanna turn into an amalgation of strictly seperated topics do we? I remember in the past we had a row over topics about Europe being forbidden even in the chit-chat section, partly because this is a Japan-orientated forum.. I don't want to experience such strict display of authority again.

 

[Elizabeth]

The problem with chit-chat in threads is that a lot of people reply on the chitchats.
If person A says hello, welcome back to person B, person B will reply to this, and also person C will jump in, and probably a person D. After this a mod/adv/adm has to make a special thread for these posts (which the first poster could have done, make a new thread, or what could have been done by pm)

My impression was slightly different since I've never personally seen an off-topic thread made from excessive chit-chat or welcome back posts.

It just seems kind of exclusionary or rude to everyone else for one member to ask another member in particular how they are doing in a general thread and forum...Although that obviously wasn't the intention so sorry if it comes over as an overly harsh reaction.

 

[Davey]

I'll make a thread in the Staff section about how to handle chit chat.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Iron Chef]

From a mod's point of view, it's all about discretion. I'm pretty open-minded about such things and will let most of it slide limiting my editing and deleting to vulgarities, obscenities, and the otherwise obvious, etc. And if I do edit someone's post I try to leave a small msg everytime why I did so (although it should be self-evident imo...).

Recently though, the forum team has made concerted efforts to reign in the music section where threads have between 500-5k replies, a great majority of which would be considered useless spam (no offense kids, keep on rockin' in the free world!). I tend to think most of the community outside of the music section has better self-restraint so such strict moderation should not be necessary in most cases.

 

[JimmySeal]

Not too long ago I posted a message to a certain language learning message board requesting some recommendations for good beginners' books. When I checked back 5 minutes later my thread was gone! And a few minutes later I got a PM like this:

Hello and welcome,

As our forums have grown, we have begun to discourage questions which request lists or which do not deal with specific questions of language. However, I think you'll find this previous thread, and its own linked threads, very helpful: ----

The link I got was just what I was looking for, so I can't be that grouchy, but anyway, my point is that I'm glad JREF isn't run like that.

 

[dark_secrester]

Although it isn't Chit-Chat, it does get a bit annoying to open post after post where the more frequent posters have hijacked the thread. To me, this is as bad as going off-topic. No offence to the big posters, but when there is a grammar war going on when you are trying to dechipher the answer to your question, it is a bit annoying.

To follow on from Jimmyseal just above me here, I'm also glad Jref is run like this. I've been on numerous forums where you write a lengthy tread and someone comes in, has a go at you saying 'this thread has already been done'. The answer is 'I don't have time to go through the other threads', most of which are named 'HlpPlzzzzzzzz'. Then they have a go at you, saying about you should make time. Make time? To sift through 1000 inappropriatly named threads in a specific fora? right. Thank Belenus that Jref isn't run like that. A good point about the more frequent posters, is that they don't mind answering the same questions over and over, which levels out the annoyance for their thread hijacks, and makes them people to look up to.

After writing this lengthy post, I hope it isn't deleted