Anyone elses private topics just disappear? Yes. The category is gone. AnandTech Moderator

[aswedc]

In my opinion the forums here have always been secondary to the front page which Anandtech perceives to be its main business. Thus the heavy handed, uneven, and mostly explanation free moderation intended to keep the company out of legal trouble and the forums running with no concern for the health of the community. Recently its become even more apparent this is true, with the ending of the private topics section with no warning when it was specifically stated that they would not be moderated, and Zuni's announcement that forum suggestions/criticisms in Forum Issues would not even be read. This adds to other longstanding problems such as the lack of the promised subscriber features.

I honestly hope that I am wrong about the future of ATOT. These forums have been a great benefit to many, MANY people since their beginning. Think for a minute about all the threads we have seen where people were depressed and contemplating suicide. For some of them the anonymity the forums provide made them the only place they could discuss their problems. How many of us have seen those threads and how helpful they are to those in need?

Its interesting you brought that up as an example because last week I was reading the ArsTechnica Lounge and came across a depression thread there. Every post was very long, well thought out, and supportive to the individual who needed help, which reminded me just how far ATOT has deteriorated recently. If a similar thread was posted here today the average reply would probably be about two sentences and would include some smartass saying "kill yourself". Not to mention how useless Politics/News has become for serious discussion.

The moderators here need to realize that they aren't just "supervising" the forums and need to play an active role to keep the community working. The administrators of Anandtech need to realize a significant part of their site is dying, and if that doesn't matter to them they should realize that a lot of subscription revenue would be lost not to mention what draws many people to Anandtech in the first place. These nefs can nef anywhere, and they will. Without the long time more "serious" members who have been steadily leaving over the past years this place is worthless.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: aswedc
nefs can nef anywhere, and they will. Without the long time more "serious" members who have been steadily leaving over the past years this place is worthless.

Well said, well said.

 

[chin311]

Originally posted by: gotey
Yes ATOT has helped tons of people from everything from cars to cheeseburgers and depression, etc. But if you scroll thru the first 2 pages right now, I would guesstimate that over 50% of the threads are either spammed with "id hit it", "STFU", "pics", etc. or are about which way do you wipe, front to back or back to front......total garbage.

I realize it is Off-Topic, but that does not make it a free-for-all

i somewhat agree, but try and find a forum thats NOT like that these days :\, this one is actually one of the best...unless you are in a forum with a dedicated topic...but most off-topics are well, off-topic.

 

[aswedc]

Originally posted by: chin311

Originally posted by: gotey
Yes ATOT has helped tons of people from everything from cars to cheeseburgers and depression, etc. But if you scroll thru the first 2 pages right now, I would guesstimate that over 50% of the threads are either spammed with "id hit it", "STFU", "pics", etc. or are about which way do you wipe, front to back or back to front......total garbage.

I realize it is Off-Topic, but that does not make it a free-for-all

i somewhat agree, but try and find a forum thats NOT like that these days :\, this one is actually one of the best...unless you are in a forum with a dedicated topic...but most off-topics are well, off-topic.

ATOT has always been one of the best, that is why I came here and that is why this is the only forum account I have anywhere with more than 20 posts . All the more reason that if the people who run this fourm decide to take an active interest in helping it become more than the average off-topic, I think we could have great results, perhaps bringing back what ATOT used to be.

 

[chin311]

Originally posted by: aswedc

Originally posted by: chin311

Originally posted by: gotey
Yes ATOT has helped tons of people from everything from cars to cheeseburgers and depression, etc. But if you scroll thru the first 2 pages right now, I would guesstimate that over 50% of the threads are either spammed with "id hit it", "STFU", "pics", etc. or are about which way do you wipe, front to back or back to front......total garbage.

I realize it is Off-Topic, but that does not make it a free-for-all

i somewhat agree, but try and find a forum thats NOT like that these days :\, this one is actually one of the best...unless you are in a forum with a dedicated topic...but most off-topics are well, off-topic.

ATOT has always been one of the best, that is why I came here and that is why this is the only forum account I have anywhere with more than 20 posts . All the more reason that if the people who run this fourm decide to take an active interest in helping it become more than the average off-topic, I think we could have great results, perhaps bringing back what ATOT used to be.

this is true, and getting rid of warez/pr0n links is a good start...too bad 'private topics' had to go too :\.

like the people of ATOT of all people NEED links for that stuff, i think they could find it themselves

 

[rahvin]

Legal liability would have been eliminated had Anandtech enaged in a don't ask policy. If you make private threads available and only police the ones you recieve complaints about you are on firm legal ground. Your liability is only opened once you become aware of the existence of a thread and do nothing. This is rather simple, if you recieve a complaint or a moderator becomes aware of a private thread with inappropriate content then you delete it, there would be no additional moderator time because you would not actively police the threads because they are private and the sole responsiblity of the creator and as a result the sole legal responsibility of the creator.

But you choose the most restrictive route, your choice I guess.

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: guyver01
they probably finally figured out "private" topics are normally used for immoral or illegal material.

Defeats the purpose of something actually being private.

Just because it is private doesn't mean anandtech shouldn't still monitor those topics for material for which they could be held liable.

 

[gigapet]

Originally posted by: rahvin
Legal liability would have been eliminated had Anandtech enaged in a don't ask policy. If you make private threads available and only police the ones you recieve complaints about you are on firm legal ground. Your liability is only opened once you become aware of the existence of a thread and do nothing. This is rather simple, if you recieve a complaint or a moderator becomes aware of a private thread with inappropriate content then you delete it, there would be no additional moderator time because you would not actively police the threads because they are private and the sole responsiblity of the creator and as a result the sole legal responsibility of the creator.

But you choose the most restrictive route, your choice I guess.

i'm sure they could even recruit another fulltime mod just for policing private forums. From a legal standpoint though i can see it just not being worth the headache for them.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Wingznut

Originally posted by: RossMAN
It would have been nice to have some warning but I understand their reasoning behind it.

I agree on both points.

My Low Carb thread was nearing 450 posts... And unlike ATOT, they were all useful.

I would have loved to be a part of that helpful legal thread.

AT'ers were given a new featured and it was abused, there's really no reason crying over spilled milk.

The mods are probably already over-taxed as is and adding policing the private topics forum is stretching their resources even more thin.

 

[narzy]

if people had topics they wanted to discuss, that got canned, and they fallow these forums rules, LMK (cept for the BT Private thread, that was awsome ) I'll fire up PHPbb an create the topic.

 

[MaxDepth]

Originally posted by: RossMAN

Originally posted by: Wingznut

Originally posted by: RossMAN
It would have been nice to have some warning but I understand their reasoning behind it.

I agree on both points.

My Low Carb thread was nearing 450 posts... And unlike ATOT, they were all useful.

I would have loved to be a part of that helpful legal thread.

AT'ers were given a new featured and it was abused, there's really no reason crying over spilled milk.

The mods are probably already over-taxed as is and adding policing the private topics forum is stretching their resources even more thin.

I agree. Unlike the yesteryears of old when there were only distributed email forums, this forum is diverse and larger membership. When the web became more practical than email in distributing content, many people forgot to account for housekeeping duties. It is all right for someone to have a neat idea that involves the public good (like evaluating motherboards and CPUs) but it begins to drain on your own personal resources and become more and more of your life, intended or not.

Even if someone as wealthy as Bill Gates could work on someone like this every day for the rest of their life. And too, the web being 24/7, is "on" more than we are as humans.

I guess we all ave to realize that there isn't really one place where we can find everything we want. If we want a private topic to ourselves then we must go back to the email digest forums of old and invite those who either ask to join or we know as someone we want as a contributor. Or, we build our own website and go down that slow road that builds up to point where this AT forums is now. You might want to try this newly popular internet popular thingy (Friendster).

As to punks (or others) threadcrapping, I say you are going to get that any place where admission to the site is free and open.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

I don't understand why they weren't warned then banned like they would have been if they'd posted it in other forums like Off Topic. Instead, the entire topic gets removed and it's ruined for everyone. :frown:

 

[Beau]

Originally posted by: FFMCobalt
I don't understand why they weren't warned then banned like they would have been if they'd posted it in other forums like Off Topic. Instead, the entire topic gets removed and it's ruined for everyone. :frown:

Less effort. Less time taken.

 

[Dulanic]

There should have been warnings placed. Noone knew if thoose private threads were even against the rules since they were PRIVATE threads. Many people asked in the threads and noone really knew. Had the mods said something, I would have removed myself from thoose threads, but there was never ANY mention of what was against or within the rules in private topics.

 

[LordMaul]

They are private threads, not controlled by AT, yet you are scared of being liable for them. They are "private threads" yet they are obviously monitored, but are not going to be further monitored because it's too much work or something. They are "private threads" yet you can only talk about certain things that are otherwise allowed in any other forum already on AT.

How useful.

 

When whoever it may be sat down and thought up the concept of private threads did they even consider it would be used for warez and porn? Heck, that's the first thing that came to mind for me. Don't tell me the staff didn't know what would happen. If they locked it for warez and porn they never should have introduced it in the first place.

It was just an excuse to cram more feature-bloat into FT rather than improving the base code. Sorry, but lame, very lame.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: LordMaul
They are private threads, not controlled by AT, yet you are scared of being liable for them. They are "private threads" yet they are obviously monitored, but are not going to be further monitored because it's too much work or something. They are "private threads" yet you can only talk about certain things that are otherwise allowed in any other forum already on AT.

How useful.

They were private threads. The only way a Mod could read them was to be invited into them.
You seem confused about how things are done here. Have you ever read the description for OT?


"A public meeting place, a Pub, if you will... A place for computer junkies to boldly post Off Topic... Things you might want to tell everyone... Or things you wouldn't say to anyone else."

Does that seem accurate?

 

[MeanMeosh]

the AT moderator has more posts than me =/

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: dwell
When whoever it may be sat down and thought up the concept of private threads did they even consider it would be used for warez and porn? Heck, that's the first thing that came to mind for me. Don't tell me the staff didn't know what would happen. If they locked it for warez and porn they never should have introduced it in the first place.

It was just an excuse to cram more feature-bloat into FT rather than improving the base code. Sorry, but lame, very lame.

HAHAHAHA!

They should have known the members would break the rules! Yes, it's all their fault! They had an evil plot to offer private topics, wait for a while until the inevitable happened, and then gleefully yank the rug out from under the members and have a good laugh!

No chance that they might have thought the members would have enough common sense to follow the rules? That they might show enough respect to the members to offer private topics? No! They should have known the members are so lame that they could not help themselves! They would have to use them for warez and pr0n!

Oh, puh-leeze.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: Beau

Originally posted by: FFMCobalt
I don't understand why they weren't warned then banned like they would have been if they'd posted it in other forums like Off Topic. Instead, the entire topic gets removed and it's ruined for everyone. :frown:

Less effort. Less time taken.

Indeed. But I highly doubt the people who are Moderators got there because they found the easiest way out of a situation. It just seems so un-Anandtech-Moderator-ish to just wipe out an entire forum instead of finding another way to moderate it. Hell, I'm a legal nazi. I'd ban people left and right D

j/k

I understand it would have been a considerable task, but it can't possibly be any more considerable than Off Topic. It was bound to become another Off Topic anyway.

 

Originally posted by: kranky

They should have known the members would break the rules! Yes, it's all their fault! They had an evil plot to offer private topics, wait for a while until the inevitable happened, and then gleefully yank the rug out from under the members and have a good laugh!

No chance that they might have thought the members would have enough common sense to follow the rules? That they might show enough respect to the members to offer private topics? No! They should have known the members are so lame that they could not help themselves! They would have to use them for warez and pr0n!

Give me a f'ing break. They cannot even get the members to behave in the highly moderated open forums. Did they really expect them to behave in a closed forum? Of course they know the members would break the rules, they just needed another bullet for the FT4 feature list, something a little more substantial than new icons.

I am not saying it was an evil plot by the staff to yank the rug out from under people. Hell, I didn't even use the private topics. All I am saying is they knew damn well from the get-go that people were going to misbehave and never should have allowed private topics, rather than introducing them then throwing having a panic attack and deleting them.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: dwell

Originally posted by: kranky

They should have known the members would break the rules! Yes, it's all their fault! They had an evil plot to offer private topics, wait for a while until the inevitable happened, and then gleefully yank the rug out from under the members and have a good laugh!

No chance that they might have thought the members would have enough common sense to follow the rules? That they might show enough respect to the members to offer private topics? No! They should have known the members are so lame that they could not help themselves! They would have to use them for warez and pr0n!

Give me a f'ing break. They cannot even get the members to behave in the highly moderated open forums. Did they really expect them to behave in a closed forum? Of course they know the members would break the rules, they just needed another bullet for the FT4 feature list, something a little more substantial than new icons.

I am not saying it was an evil plot by the staff to yank the rug out from under people. Hell, I didn't even use the private topics. All I am saying is they knew damn well from the get-go that people were going to misbehave and never should have allowed private topics, rather than introducing them then throwing having a panic attack and deleting them.

Another solution, rather than simply not offering the private topics, would be to offer them heavily moderated. Hell, why are they offering Off Topic? There's no point to it and it simply detracts from the professionalism of Anandtech, steals bandwidth and probably much-needed disk space, etc. Now, I'm a huge member of OT and I love it. But still. It's possible to train people to learn to behave. Ever heard of children? You don't keep something from the child forever because you know he can't handle it, you teach them to handle it while giving them limited interaction with it. And, as they learn and progress, you give them ever-increasing access to it. Eventually, minimal parental hovering is needed.

Oh well.

 

[gwlam12]

too bad, i didnt even nkow how private topics worked

 

[Spac3d]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
"A public meeting place, a Pub, if you will... A place for computer junkies to boldly post Off Topic... Things you might want to tell everyone... Or things you wouldn't say to anyone else."

Does that seem accurate?

No, not at all.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: gwlam12
too bad, i didnt even nkow how private topics worked

It's basically a Off Topic. When you create a thread, you have to "invite" people to the thread. Only people who get "invited" can see that the thread even exists, go into and read it, and reply to it. It's kinda cool. Keeps f-tards out of your conversations.