Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : SI Beta Site Launch - 7/01/99 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Biddle who wrote (1610)	8/9/1999 7:18:00 PM
From: jbe	Respond to of 2340

Good heavens, John, I would not be able to "impose" my "way of doing things" on everyone else, even if I wanted to -- and I don't want to. Let me repeat what I was trying to say in the post to which you have just responded. In fact, the terms of use you cited confirm what I said: that SI does not object to "off topic" posts as such. Most "off topic" posts are just that: "off topic," but entirely inoffensive. What SI does object to is insulting posts, which are usually perceived by those who post them as very much "on topic," even though they are really "off topic" because they focus on individual contributors to the thread, rather than on the subject of the thread. Now, as to the checkbox. How many checkboxes do we want? If we want one, then there will be competing ideas as to the best function it can serve. If more than one, there could be a problem with over-complicating the site. Perhaps not. jbe

To: John Biddle who wrote (1610)	8/9/1999 9:55:00 PM
From: RTev	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2340

re Off-topic button: Granted this idea is not of huge value, but who is hurt by it? There would be positive for some and no negative for others. The various negative consequences have been dealt with in a few upstream posts. The greatest negative is that a button like that would encourage off-topic posts. It would make it virtually impossible for the thread to maintain the kind of self-policing that's so common on SI. Let me restate one of the things I said up-topic: If such a button existed, the response to anyone who complained about the volume of OT posts would be something like, "Well, then, filter them out!" Some threads would probably become overwhelmed by the off-topic sub-thread. That would be an unfortunate turn of events for SI. Everyone would suffer. Those of us who enjoy an occasional flurry of off-topic posts would probably miss them because we'd have to filter out all the banter that would be encouraged by this button. Instead of starting a new thread in coffee-house for the sub-thread, posters would be more likely to keep it in unpredictable threads. That makes it difficult to find the kind of light banter that one can easily spot now by glancing at a few CoffeeHouse subjects. Such a button would in almost every way be a bad idea. If you don't like off-topic posts, then do what is so common: complain about them. The complaint will cause a flurry of responses about the complaint, but eventually, they'll usually die down. Here, to make it easier on you, are a few of the posts that deal with this issue: beta.siliconinvestor.com beta.siliconinvestor.com beta.siliconinvestor.com