Apologies for the slight briefness of this post, I’ve just got in and am absolutely knackered, but had to log on to check for an important e-mail and so thought I’d zoom on here briefly!
A habit of one of our Forum members, Patricia a.k.a. catspat, is to back-to-back post - I’ve had to edit together several of her posts in threads. Now, in this thread she’s done it again:
However, she has gone back some time after the previous post. Should I edit together her posts or leave them be?
I must admit I’ve been rather reluctant to say anything to her about this, for several reasons - firstly, I really like her and think her enthusiasm and passion for TCats adds a lot to our Boards, which are, let’s face it, somewhat on the quiet side, and so I’m rather reluctant to hack her off for the sake of just editing some posts together. Also, she is without question the oldest TCats fan I’ve ever come across - born in 1953, she’s only two years younger than my mother! :yikes: So, she may not be so hot with Internet-type stuff as us young guns!
Please can you guys LMK what you think about this? Many thanks!
I noticed this habit of hers, too. On other boards, she has the same habit and can even triple or quadruple post sometimes as she’ll make seperate posts to address seperate posts preceding hers, rather than just reply to everyone in one post, for example.
While this can be a breach of technical message board etiquette - and actually directly against the rules here - I tend to be lax myself on these matters. There are worse message board ‘crimes’ and to me, double posting is a mild annoyance and in the end, not really hurting anything. I don’t even bother bringing it up as a rule on my own boards…tis the least of my personal modding worries.
That, coupled with this mod on the official Voltron board being a damn Nazi about the matter, really turns me off to making a big deal of it. He took the issue way too far >.<
However, since you have a rule against it, you can either PM her kindly about it (the route I would take, just so she won’t be embarrassed on the board) or simply keep doggedly ‘fixing’ her posts. Chris, you make a good point about her age. I’ve run into one other fan that even comes close in age to her, so it’s interesting and rare to have someone like her along and indeed her posts do add a lot to the boards. Hate to scare her off, perhaps, by what may be seen as nitpicking her, you know? She may very well not be that hip to the finer points of board etiquette like us slick young’uns are So in short, I would cut her a little slack, so long as nobody else is complaining. Hopefully, other members will understand - but this would mean if we give her a break, we can’t really bust anyone else’s stones about it either.
In conclusion - guess it’s up to the team how dire double posting needs to be discouraged and what letting her ‘get away with it’ might mean for other members that see it and think it must be ‘ok’. Or how much time we really want to spend chasing her around to merge her posts…
Angie, as always you make some extremely valid and well thought out points - mad props as ever to the Goddess of ThunderFandom! (Yes, more than Cheezey! )
I think what I’ll probably do is just keep editing her posts together when I see them posted back-to-back - I’m rather reluctant to make a big thing about it with her, for the reasons that you state. However, I do feel it’s necessary to discreetly merge her posts together, as otherwise if we let her do it too much (even making allowances for her age) we are kind-of making a mockery of having the forum rule in the first place…
Does anyone else have any thoughts on this? Needless to say that advice/input is always welcomed, I need as much help as I can get, LOL!
EDIT: Just to add too, Angie, I hear what you say about the Mod on the Voltron board - over at www.he-man.org they are very strict about this too. I’m not knocking the Mods over there (especially not Neil & Martin! ) because they’re only following the instructions of Val Staples, He-Man.Org’s webmaster, but over there if you back-to-back post, your post will be edited with bright red text instructing you not to do it - which, I think is rather harsh and very embarrassing for people!
Sounds good to me, although I do wish to point out that sometimes I find double posting even necessary. No, I don’t think in most cases with catspat that this is true, but at times on my own boards I find editing won’t do as it doesn’t bump the thread…and sometimes if you’re the last one to post in a thread, and yet a bump is called for so that people notice your new information you wanted to go back and add, it can be necessary. It’s a fine line.
I also want to point out that just because I view things or do things a certain way, doesn’t mean I think you all here should adopt those methods without question. I hope I don’t come across as some know-it-all whose ways are best and I try to, anymore, only offer my two cents of grand wisdom when asked. And Chris, you asked I totally understand that we at times have different goals and ideas about tone for our sites, so it’s all good. Figured since I have a couple boards, I’d offer my viewpoint on the dreaded topic of double posting.
But yeah, I’m good with the rule either way and glad you guys aren’t into humiliating or annoying methods of enforcing it, though. Good, happy medium imho as indeed there are worse threats to a posting community’s flow!
Oh, absolutely I agree - heck, even I do it myself, LOL! I think the rule we have here is that double-posting is cool if there are 24 hours between the two posts, which if that is the case I think is excellent - my biggest question about editing together (or not) these two posts of Catspat’s is that they were actually spaced quite a ways apart, so, although not 24 hours, it could be argued that she was just bumping the thread!
It’s all cool by me, like I’ve said to you before I always enjoy hearing what you have to say and think there’s a lot to be learned - there will always be instances where we have differing viewpoints, but as far as I’m concerned you should never be afraid to voice an opinion, offer a viewpoint, state a fact or offer advice on this Board, it’s here for the team here at TCL to discuss things and you’re part of that team!
And, as far as I’m concerned you definitely don’t come over as a know all - to me you come over as an experienced Internetter with a balanced POV, offering intelligent, well thought-out comments. If my posts were half as insightful as yours, I’d be a happy man!
I agree with you Chris, I don’t see a big problem with back to back posting. I recall Jack Olesker used to do it all the time on the .org when he first registered. Although the org now has the ‘automerge doublepost’ feature which just edits back to back posts together automatically! Can we get that?
Oh, that reminds me. Some software can be configured to not allow a user to post back-to-back for a set period of time. So if you do indeed have a 24 hour rule and the software can allow it, that might be a time saver for mods.
Be nice if you can exclude some forums, though. Being that back-to-back posting closer together is quite the norm for art and fic sections - as is also pointed out as allowable in the rules
That’s some food for thought, along with wacky’s fine suggestion, for the admins to chew!
If we were able to find some sort of automatic merge feature, then IMO that would definitely be a good way to go - a) because it would be a timesaver for us, but b) because it would actually be a non-confrontational way of resolving the problem. Catspat couldn’t be upset, because it would just be a feature of the Board software, which applied to everyone!
I agree with Angie, though, that it would be good if there could be some forums that this didn’t apply to - all the fan art/fan fic boards for one, and also I’d say this Team Board should also be exempt if possible. Plus, I’d also say that if possible someone should be able to back-to-back post if bumping back up an old thread with new information for example - so, the software may not be perfect. But, IMO it would be worth looking into!
Failing that, I like the concept Angie referenced of some software preventing back-to-back posting for a specific time frame (and also agree with her suggestions for exemptions to this). Again, maybe this might be something worth investigating…?
I love how a simple thread like this can become so insightful and constructive - damn, I love working with you guys!!
Yep Chris, depsite all rumors there is civility in this fandom! 8)
If auto-merging isn’t possible, then yeah the time restriction would still enforce the rules nicely with perhaps a gentle, polite explanation popping up for the ‘offender’ that they may either wait 24 hours to bump the thread or feel free to use the edit option on their prior post. This would ideally be a message only the poster can see of course. Either way, the team’s job would be made easier. It’s not like we all don’t have enough to do
I’m sure this software has got to have something along those lines that we can use, if not exactly but similar to either option. And if not, more software should come with it. Double posting is an issue one way or the other on any forum I’ve ever been a part of!
Thanks for looking into it, Manny. Keep us updated.
(Yes, more than Cheezey! 