CS Debate Thread

[Kyame]

I liked the thread as well, but for its sole purpose of posting something you found funny or entertaining not to reply to others posts with chatter. I mean its ok to give a short reply to them with these () but while also putting something you found amusing afterwards. I don't like that they locked it, but I understand why they had to shut it down.

Here is the difference between things that Annoy thread and things that amuse you thread.

Some Posts from the amuse thread of last 3 pages that were irrelevant, in total it was 11 out of 27 posts.

1."A chat thingy with fish fingers and custard ;3
But yeah, we really do o_o
I may be spamming but oh well.IT'S JUST TOO FUN T.T Anyway, I won't if someone creates us a chat thingy so all the TTAmY community can chat about anything and everything without having to worry about getting warned for spamming the thread o.o"
Oh, and I am Divergent and I cannot be controlled.
So yeah"
2."YEAH!
How do you make a chat thingy, eh?
DIVERGENT AHAHHAHAHAHHA "
3."actually a while ago i made a chat for us
nobody was there except for me and another person, though :p
http://xat.com/ChickenSmoothiee
we can draw, play games and watch youtube videos (yes, right in the chatroom) on there "
4."That's true actually...."
5."WHERE'D YOU GO ON XAT? NITRO?IT SIGNED ME OUT OF XAT! WHAT?"
6."Awww... why????"
7.I wanted to watch Attack on Titan! Or something.

Posts from the annoy thread that were irrelevant 1 out of 27

the only post out of topic of the last 27 posts, which I'm not really sure if it is off topic.
"I feel like i am going to be sick and cry, omg i am so scared ;v;"

I wish the thread was put back on. :\ Mayhaps the Mods will remake it someday. Maybe next time we can make sure there is a banned users section for those who keep going off topic.

^^^^
This post is not to say that the Things that annoy you thread does not have alot of spam. I am just saying that the ratio of it is lesser then that of the other thread.

[Shandelion.]

I don't believe that statement is true. The Things that Annoy you thread has so much spam and though I admit that the TTAmY thread did have quite a lot of content that could count as spam, but I don't think it's as much as or more than the TTAnY thread. We got the warnings we deserved, but how come the other thread seems to have no warnings?

[FOUND VERDICT]

I don't believe that statement is true. The Things that Annoy you thread has so much spam and though I admit that the TTAmY thread did have quite a lot of content that could count as spam, but I don't think it's as much as or more than the TTAnY thread. We got the warnings we deserved, but how come the other thread seems to have no warnings?

Who says the got no warnings?
If the warnings are given to the users who spammed through PM, you wouldn't know it.

[Kyame]

After that very first post, where they got in trouble by the Mods, they seem to be pretty good about keeping on topic. I think they don't get in trouble as much because the topic is way more flexible than the amuse thread. Yes, I agree they should get some warnings time to time but recently it has not been necessary . However its kind of hard to give warnings, when almost every post can be somewhat about what they are annoyed about. They word it in a way so that you can tell what they are annoyed about.

For instance, the most recent one, you can see that they are annoyed because they don't have a true friend here on CS.
The one before that, you can tell that they are annoyed by the voice overs Funimation is doing on an anime the person likes. The one before is about how he is annoyed how people call others monsters. The one before is off topic. The one before is annoyed about cramps. The one before is annoyed by her hip. The one before is annoyed by how their tooth and head hurts. The one before that is annoyed by how they feel that they will get sick soon. The one before is annoyed by boyfriend troubles. And so on....

Do you see how flexible it is?
So in the end I thing the amuse thread was just at a little disadvantage compared to that thread.

[Verdana]

It seems like a lot of you guys are really unhappy about me locking the Things That Amuse You thread. Since this is a source of such contention (and since there's a fair bit of dissatisfaction with my actions), I'd like to explain why I made the decision I did.

The first thing I want to say is that I did not make this decision lightly, or alone. I got feedback from multiple members of staff who agreed that this was the right action to take at the time.
We came to this decision for several reasons.
The first one is that 'random chat' threads are not allowed anywhere on the site. This is a site rule. It applies everywhere. We cannot make an exception with any thread, and when a thread is taken over by a select group of users chatting and establishing their own friendships, it is no longer a valid thread. I am fully supportive of the concept behind the Things That Amuse You thread. I have no problem with a thread in which members post funny things. What I start to have a problem with is when that same thread loses its original function. It's not fair to the users who follow the rules and do not spam, and it isn't fair to the users who were trying to use and gain from the thread properly.

Then we come to the subject of spam. What exactly is spam?
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1726807
The spam guidelines that the thread in question was violating were these three:

Random chat threads – All threads on CS must have a clear topic of discussion.
Making off-topic posts (e.g. posting “I love cheese!” in a thread about horses) or posts that have no relevant content (e.g. posting just “lol!” or a smiley).
Quoting or replying to spam posts - This does only add to the spam and makes us delete or edit even more posts.

Yes, things that amuse people have a broad range and can be hard to define. However, it should be pretty clear that posts responding or addressing a specific group, posts about hair colour which go on for pages and pages, are not what we would consider on-topic or relevant. The Things That Amuse You thread is not only for the group of users having a discussion. It's for posting funny things. People do not like having to search through pages of personal discussion to find something funny. When this sort of spam happens, it both inconveniences other users, and potentially, if it gets bad enough, it can slow down the site. If we let some people chat like this, we have to let everyone do it. And we have to be fair.

With regards to the Things That Annoy You thread, that too is under discussion. Believe me. Also know that users are contacted for violating the rules on that thread. Things That Amuse You was not unique. Every thread on CS is treated equally.

You may think that the thread wasn't harming anybody, but it was. The number of reports we were receiving about the thread can attest to that. It was not being used as it should have been.

And, of course, it was not a sudden decision. In fact, the thread as a whole was warned multiple times:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2292700&p=72745387&hilit=Things+That+Amuse+You#p72745387
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2292700&p=72748892&hilit=Things+That+Amuse+You#p72748892
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2292700&p=72971800&hilit=Things+That+Amuse+You#p72971800
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2292700&p=72756224&hilit=Things+That+Amuse+You#p72756224

Individual members were also contacted. You cannot accuse us of not giving you advanced warning. We gave you our ultimatum. Two of us did. You did not respond, so we followed through with what we had promised.

This thread has not always been a problem. In fact, I quite like the thread itself and have participated in it, as have many other staff members. Recently it has gotten out of hand. In future, we may reconsider and allow it to reopen. However, in order to do that, we have to know that the members who will be using it will use it responsibly and will set a good example. Right now, we cannot see that, and so the thread remains locked.

I hope that this has clarified some issues for everyone. I had no intention to be unfair or mean. I don't enjoy locking big threads, and I am always open to reason.

[Tea_Leaf]

I realize that there were posts that could be considered spam, and I realize we received warnings.

However, I don't believe that the thread should be locked - at least, not permanently.
The Things That Amuse You thread is a very large thread, and I feel that it's rather necessary.

(I'm going to get all philosophical and stuff)

See, I think there should be a sort of balance in the threads.
We already have at least three negative threads (ranting and such).
I'm not quite sure if this counts.

Right now, we only have one positive thread.

The TTAmY thread was created so people could share funny things, and, hopefully, to cheer people up with amusing photos, comments, and such. Sometimes, people who are feeling unhappy for whatever reason may go onto the thread, just to see what funny thing that was uncovered among the Internet.

Though the thread being locked may have been necessary, I don't find that it is necessary - or possible, really - to keep the thread locked for good. Without such a lighthearted thread, it's going to be significantly harder to let this game have one of it's biggest purposes - to be fun and make people laugh.

People can find more friends to chat with (through PM, I suppose) on such threads. I do believe I've actually had at least one lengthy conversation that began with a post I had made on the aforementioned thread. The conversation made me laugh, it amused me, and I got to be immature and happy. Isn't that what is aimed for on a game such as this?

The "Things That Made Your Day" thread is also positive, true, but it has a slightly different purpose than the TTAmY thread. One thread is about personal things, things that made that specific person laugh. The latter thread, however, is made for people to share out and make it known to everyone else, so that it can make more than just one person smile.

I truly believe that the TTAmY thread is not only a major thread, but is crucial for this website. Perhaps I'm exaggerating it a bit, but I really do think that!

You cannot have a game for little kids, then swarm it with negative threads.
You have to have a good amount of happy and positive threads, as well.

There's always those more serious problems, such as people being unhappy with their lives, or not being able to make too many friends in real life. The TTAmY thread actually allows that.
It cheers people up.

When negative people go to the positive places, they have a chance of lightening up.
But locking the thread only makes it so that those people (and all the positive ones, as well) end up in the negative places of the site.

I'm not going to say that we weren't spamming, and I'm not going to say anything about the Things That Annoy You thread having spam, either.
I'm trying to provide a logical point of view to what, I hope, many people are thinking: The thread perhaps should have been locked, but we know, for sure, that it should not stay locked.

Thank you for reading.

[Night Visions]

You have a point, but I'm still upset about the locking of the thread.
Because it was just a lot of fun, after all...
Maybe I contributed to the spam a little bit.
The one shown in Kyame's post at the top was me.
Oops.
Sorry.
I just wasn't considering it at the time, I wasn't thinking about the consequences.

[CroissantMoon]

thankyou, Verdana, for giving us a calm and nice explanation. i, myself, have not used that thread very much but having deleted it has made lots of people unhappy and i get that it was nescessary(not really actually..but anyway) may i ask you WHY there isnt allowed a specified thread for chatting? obviously people dnt just want one on one in pm, they want to make friends and talk. apparently, that is not very much likely on cs. this site is for fun and happiness, talking, being a COMMUNITY. no where else have i seen on cs the happiness and joy a thread could bring and how close these people were to each other.i see a lot of negativity, like rants (how is that even ALLOWED!) i really dont understand why those are there. 'oh you want to get it out of your system' i get that. i really do. but when your thread starts with "THIS THREAD HAS BEEN CONSTANTLY USED TO BREAK THE RULLES..." then maybe its time to rethink your attitude about having such a thing up. it literrally opens people to attacks from others "oh look how terrible this person was at trading hahaha". very inconsiderate thread and it has no real purpose. the people of the what amsues you thread were close and happy and really made an impact on certain individuals. i say, if i may have an opinion as an outsider, that we should have a corner, just one thread about nothing. simple talk. this will make us closer because it is actually hard to actually talk to people on cs and make friends, out of trades because you're being bashed by everyone for everything you do. its just not fair. thankyou.

[Kyame]

I think one of the main reason is that If they were to make a chat thread or a chat box, there would always have to have a chat mod all the time.

[Tea_Leaf]

In response to Kyame's post about comparison between the TTAnY thread and the TTAmY thread:

You may be pointing out that the TTAnY thread has a smaller ratio of spam than the other thread, but it's likely that your example isn't accurate.

It's very possible that the mods have been working harder to delete 'spam' posts on the TTAnY thread, since there is one less thread to moderate. Since there is no need to delete any more posts on the TTAmY thread, there are spam posts seen there.

However, since the Things That Annoy You thread is still very active, it's quite likely that most - if not all - of the spam posts were deleted before you made your post.

I was simply pointing it out.