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 Administrative / General / 11754
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Subject: 
Re: Bad news for NASA
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate, lugnet.admin.general
Followup-To: 
lugnet.admin.general
Date: 
Thu, 22 Jul 2004 18:21:11 GMT
Viewed: 
87 times
  
This is a reply to both Kelly and Steve (close by in the tree) and the FUT is set to just admin.general

In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
   In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
   In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek wrote:
   In lugnet.off-topic.geek, Kelly McKiernan wrote:

(snip)

I have forceFUTed your post (and am considering others in the tree as well) to .debate as it’s veering in that direction (discussions of the merits of funding are probably not nearly as well suited to geek). Note that you can always change the FUT back if you disagree with good reason or because you are going back on topic for .geek

Hmm, thought I was on topic for .geek, but you’re right, it was starting to become a debate. I agree the followup on this should go to .debate.

Had further thoughts about this - are there guidelines about recognizing at what point a thread should be rerouted into a different group? This particular thread, IMO, is pretty harmless (now), but I can see how threads can deteriorate. I’d like to understand what’s proper so I can do it correctly myself, rather than make the staff work harder.

I don’t know what’s proper. We’re experimenting. I hope people won’t get too upset about it, till we get it right.

I did an experiment (before we had this tool) where I asked everyone to cancel and repost and it was a horrific failure, the thread never got rebuilt properly and in hindsight I wish it hadn’t come out that way, but I don’t regret experimenting, we never would have known how poorly it worked without it.

Forcing the FUT is a very gentle tool in the first place compared to timeouts, banning, or cancellation (which is not even a tool available to the admin without permission from the poster) as the respondent can always point it back if they don’t agree... so I don’t think it’s too fierce to go ahead and act preemptively.

As to notice, I agree with Steve, I don’t think not giving any notice at all is a good thing by any means, but what I am struggling with is, is it appropriate to just mention it in passing on one post in the thread, or does every post changed need a tagalong reply, or does the forcer need to mail every poster? I think the latter are overkill, some notice somewhere in the thread ought to be enough.

As to the specific point when a thread veers, it’s a judgement call. I may be in the trap of “hey a new tool, I’m going to use it as soon as it seems slightly needed”, and not know it, but I hope not. Slap me around if so (do it here please, not in .debate). However I am severely compartmentalised, I tend to always think the thread has veered even if others don’t. Could be a character flaw, I dunno.

My experience with this particular (NASA/congress/shuttle) topic the several times it comes up is that sooner or later it always clearly belongs in .debate. I may have acted too early. But I already saw some of the codewords... (Shuttle eating everything else for example). Prove me wrong! Set the FUT back and stay out of debate areas... I’d like that because it meant that the thread stayed out of debatable stuff and there would be a teachable moment in there.

Also, I’d like to learn from this on a thread that maybe isn’t QUITE as incindeary as the color thread is, so that if a bigger flareup comes we know the tools and their effects better. Sorry about making a science project out of it!

Helps?



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Bad news for NASA
 
(...) The fact that past threads became debates doesn't mean that talking about NASA is OT for .geek. I'd recommend judging each thread by it's own contents, not by the history of the subject. (...) Regardless if anyone actually replies to the (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jul-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, lugnet.admin.general)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Bad news for NASA
 
(...) Had further thoughts about this - are there guidelines about recognizing at what point a thread should be rerouted into a different group? This particular thread, IMO, is pretty harmless (now), but I can see how (URL) threads can deteriorate>. (...) (20 years ago, 22-Jul-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, lugnet.admin.general, FTX)

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