How off topic can the off topic go?

[dishley]

Have you ever seen the movie scanners?
Where the dudes head just explodes?....................

garth.jpg (7.21 KiB) Viewed 670 times

Sorry a Waynes world quote i am suddenly reminded of...

So the question is how radical does my off topic thread have to be to get deleted?
I am literally going grey here people, i am only 28, this is my one relaxing outlet and it continually has non related political threads.
So can we shamelessly canvass the site asking all to support our causes? or should we leave these sort of threads to another forum?
I would personally like to see the off topic thread have a few restrictions. This is something i am willing to leave up to the infinite wisdom of our moderators.

Ahh if you look at my survey score you will see how i loathe to do this.

[Shufoy]

LAND RIGHT'S FOR GAY WHALES!!!!!!!!!!

[dishley]

That is what i needed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome.

[YakN00b]

I think the words Off Topic say it all.


RAISE THE SPEED LIMITS

[Dodge]

It is Off Topic dishley, so just ignore the topics you don't like....the existing level of moderations is good with still plenty of freedom to comment.

[dishley]

Lets ignore it huh? That's your solution? Each to their own? Yeah right, til it interferes with your way of life then you'll squash it quick smart.
I tend to believe that the lack of personal responsibility people feel these days is one of the things that is contributing to our social decay.

Screw it i'm out.
You either stand for something, or live life on your knees.
Bye!

[Snoskred]

Forum moderation is no easy thing.. I am the admin of an American Politics forum, so you can guess how often discussions turn into arguments there.

Our rules are a little bit stricter than the rules here, but the most important one is this and I would suggest it might be worth adding to any forum rules.

Forum members must treat fellow members, moderators and administrators with respect and politeness. We embrace the spirit of civil disagreement. We agree to agree and to disagree - as strongly as need be - without crossing the boundaries into personal attack, rudeness or disrespect for each other.

Unfortunately if that rule were in place, I think Dishley would have been considered to have broken it in the dog thread. It is one thing to tell people that you don't agree with something they are doing, but it seemed to me that a line was crossed between argument and outright attacking someone for their perfectly legal actions.

There really are not many forums in Australia where one can discuss politics without it turning into complete kaos and I would expect this would be no exception.

If it were me, I would say politics are not on the list of things it is ok to discuss, but then that has ramifications which would possibly not work out here - eg nsw govt reconsidering the life jackets rules, a council changing the rules about where yaks can launch, all that stuff would be things you would have to delete.

Government is a part of our yakking/fishing lives no matter how much we would like it to be otherwise. I think the important thing is for everyone to agree to keep it civil and discuss the issues, not attack each other for where we stand on the issues.

That's just my 2 cents - I have not been a member here for long, I think the mod/admin team do a brilliant job and that is coming from someone who knows just how much work it can be.

[Snoskred]

Actually having just read through another sign the petition thread, maybe sign the petition threads are something we don't need here on the forums. They seem to cause major arguments.

[koich]

Lets ignore it huh? That's your solution? Each to their own? Yeah right, til it interferes with your way of life then you'll squash it quick smart.
I tend to believe that the lack of personal responsibility people feel these days is one of the things that is contributing to our social decay.

Screw it i'm out.
You either stand for something, or life life on your knees.
Bye!

You missed his point Dishley.

If something posted on here is going to rile you up to the point where you have grey hairs; turn your computer off and watch tv.

Ps: Don't mess with the offtopic section, it's the last bastion of free speech on this forum. You just get yourself into trouble because you're overly emotive. Seperate debate from emotion and you'll be fine.

[blahger]

Sometimes you can't help but watch the soap opera that is the sexual tension between some of the members of the site. All camouflaged as a debate around deepsea fishing......

If your like me and hit the "Show new posts" link constantly, then the lively discussions are at the top all the time, it's kind of hard to ignore the firey off topic topics

[kraley]

Actually having just read through another sign the petition thread, maybe sign the petition threads are something we don't need here on the forums. They seem to cause major arguments.

Good idea. Maybe you should start a petition about this.

[Buff]

I would personally like to see the off topic thread have a few restrictions.

And it Does its called the "AKFF Acceptable Use Policy" viewtopic.php?f=37&t=26458
Within it is one of the best suggestions I have seen on a forum

Act like a reasonable human being

This is something we may all need to be reminded of from time to time (I know I have on occasion), as not everyone belief's in the same things and overlooking this golden rule can lead to people forgetting that others have a right to there opinion and beliefs too .

[occy]

Buffs and my post were obviously going down at the same time (great minds think alike mate ), but he has said it more succinctly I fear. Anyway here it is again, albeit a little more long winded.

Good suggestion Snoskred, although our current "Acceptable Use policy" (relevant parts in abridged form below) hopefully have that covered fairly well:
Act like a reasonable human being:
# Please don't use your membership to Spam, harass, or exploit other members in any way.
# Please don't use Vulgar, Abusive, Racist, or Sexist Language. This applies to what type, and also any images you may post or link to – including avatars. Our test is that if a reasonable person may be offended by any material, then we consider it to be offensive and it is not welcome.
# Please don't mass post or flood the boards.
# Please make a genuine and reasonable effort to ensure correct spelling and grammar in all of your posts. While the occasional typo or error is understandable, posts in SMS/TXT speak are not welcomed, and continued poor grammar, punctuation and spelling are annoying for other users to read and interpret. There are a number of free on-line tools and spellcheckers that make this requirement quite easy to meet.
# Please don't go overboard with signature lines. While at present there are no hard and fast rules, please don't use signature lines to link to sponsor or product websites, and please don't include tall images that take up a lot of vertical space on the screen. If your signature line is outside what we consider to be reasonable, you may be directed to modify it to suit.
# Please make a genuine effort at contributing to the core areas of the forum. Kayaks and kayak fishing are our core reason for existence – hence the name, and as such, it is expected that a members posts will consist of a minimum of 75% of posts being dedicated to these areas. Disproportionate use of other areas of the forum, such as “Off Topic” is not welcomed.
# AKFF is not a place where you are judged by the number of posts you have made. A user shouldn't feel it necessary to 'run up' their post count – either to obtain credibility amongst members, or to qualify for full membership, or for other reasons. We'd rather see how good you are with a fishing rod than a keyboard.
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Respect Others:
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To summarise: Forum members must treat fellow members, moderators and administrators with respect and politeness. We embrace the spirit of civil disagreement. We agree to agree and to disagree - as strongly as need be - without crossing the boundaries into personal attack, rudeness or disrespect for each other.

[Alster99]

Lets ignore it huh? That's your solution? Each to their own? Yeah right, til it interferes with your way of life then you'll squash it quick smart.
I tend to believe that the lack of personal responsibility people feel these days is one of the things that is contributing to our social decay.

Screw it i'm out.
You either stand for something, or life life on your knees.
Bye!

Anyone seen "Falling Down"?..

[Ranger]

I would personally like to see the off topic thread have a few restrictions.

Yeah me too!

When anyone starts throwing unjustified accusations, and turns a sensible and well handled discussion/debate into an emotive slinging match and attack on another forum member, they should be shut down or removed!

This would also serve to prevent them having to go back in the sobering light of day to delete all their outbursts!

I was disgusted with some of the emotive and abusive drivel I saw directed at an innocent site member in that dog thread last night, and I was surprised that staff allowed it to continue.

Screw it i'm out.
You either stand for something, or life life on your knees.
Bye!

I recon if we stand for something, how about things like respect, civility, integrity, honour and sensibility?

Bye!