Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m becoming ever more grumpy with each passing day but…
It seems that more and more threads are going completely off topic, the Jordan Henderson one is a good recent example.
I’m just wondering what the feeling amongst the Admin Team and the general users is on this subject? Are we happy for topics to go off on tangents or would we rather see tighter control on this?
I for one would like tighter control, but maybe that’s not the general feeling.
I ran a forum of similar size about for about 10 years (not LFC or football related). The general charter was that one or two posts (leading on from an on-topic post) was an acceptable bump on the track, but three or more was considered derailment and the posts were deleted or relocated to the relevant thread. The threshold of one or two off-topic posts was to avoid being overly militant and remember the purpose of a forum is discussion. To make this work, I averaged 1 Mod/Admin for every 15 “active” users (daily average unique visits), which this forum is pretty close to having, I think.
Example, let’s say it’s a player rumour thread about Liverpool’s interest in Player X.
Post 1: Liverpool eager to sign Player X from Club Y (on topic).
Post 2: Yes, Player X looks great, but anybody would in that Club Y side, sure they lost 3-0 to Club Z (on topic).
Post 3: Club Z are really good though, Player A was incredible for them last season (off-topic - nothing to do with the original player transfer rumour, but left in place).
Post 4: Player A was great for Club Z last year, I wish we we’re considering signing him. (definitely off-topic - nothing to do with the original player transfer rumour, but left in place)
Post 5: I don’t think Player A would be a good signing for us, he usually operates in a front two and we play a three. (off-topic - third post taking the thread in a completely new direction, thread has been “derailed” - all 3 posts either deleted or relocated to an appropriate topic).
I’ve had to take steps to get some threads back on track recently, other mods may have done likewise.
It depends on the thread and nature of the derailing to some extent… discussing wider SA issues within the Fab and Hendo transfer threads is more tolerated I think because a) it’s a side-tangent rather than a complete derailment and b) there’s absolutely fuck all else going on right now, with transfers generally and those in particular.
But talking about something completely unrelated will be clamped down on pretty quickly, assuming we see it
Fair play, I know it’s a thankless task. Most people never see nor notice the work that goes on in the background.
Slightly off-topic, but I’d personally love to see the discussions around the ills of SA moved to an SA topic… as they’re rehashed every time they’re mentioned.
They do a thankless task and never without so much as a grumble. But, to say there’s only so much they can do isn’t really a good argument, it’s all about scale. If the Mods are struggling then they could always recruit some additional help.
On my forum there was a topic called “The Graveyard”, the vast majority of off-topic posts (that didn’t fit elsewhere) were generally moved here (rather than deleted)… it was actually one of the most popular threads
All this reminds me of a time I was on holiday in Cornwall and we couldn’t find a decent Cornish pastie anywhere and the missus said ‘do you think that pasty faced people have been attacked with a mispronounced pastie?’ and just then it started raining and didn’t stop for three weeks. We didn’t have global warming then because it was the 1950s before I was born. None of those gender benders either those days. Speaking of which, the Saudis would just chop off their hands or something. Mind you, it’s not as if the UK is any better what with slavery and all that. Sorry, what were we talking about again?
I second this. I think the Fab and Henderson threads should be kept clean from any discussion about SA in general, which should all be directed to Ifti’s Saudi Sportswashing Pro League thread. Anything in those two player threads really should be about those players’ actual sales. Though I realise the limited man (or woman) hours available for mods to police this.
I am definitely not guilty of bringing tax residency and Domicile into those threads.
our mods/admin.
