Brendan Burgess
Founder
- Messages
- 52,115
First of all, I think that there is less acrimony and tedious debate on askaboutmoney than there is on most other discussions boards.
But even still, interesting discussions often go way off topic and end up in bitter debates between two people which turns everyone else off.
I would put these into three classes
1) Factual questions where someone wants advice or an answer.
The mods take a fairly interventionist approach to these. If I want to know about the CGT implications of something, I don't want a long debate on the merits of CGT or whether Sinn Féin will be in government in a few years.
2) Letting Off Steam - no need for action.
If you want to enter this forum, you do so at your own risk. Obviously, the normal Posting Guidelines apply - no offensive posts, etc.
The forum was designed to take the non-financial stuff out of the main forums and I think it achieves this objective fairly well.
3) The serious issues
Steven raised an interesting issue here:
But it was reported as yet another boring argument between Tommy and Purple which turns everyone else off . And the reporter wanted the mods to split out their debate into a separate thread.
I just closed the thread, as it would require a huge amount of work to split it. If we get in early on a thread, it can be split off, but it's still work. But there is no way we can split a 7 page thread.
It's hard for the moderators to get the balance right. We don't like deleting posts but will do so if they are off topic. People take offence, but we have to live with that. The worst is probably when someone makes a valid point early in thread but then makes an off-topic aside which we know will wreck the thread. We deleted the entire post. The Poster complains that we should have edited their post but that is too much work.
My own approach as a reader
I rarely read a thread past the second page. There is usually nothing new.
Unless I find it entertaining which the Duke vs. tecate on Bitcoin sometimes are.
Of course, if I have started a thread or it's something I am involved in, I will stay past the second page, but then maybe I am arguing with someone and boring everyone else.
But even still, interesting discussions often go way off topic and end up in bitter debates between two people which turns everyone else off.
I would put these into three classes
1) Factual questions where someone wants advice or an answer.
The mods take a fairly interventionist approach to these. If I want to know about the CGT implications of something, I don't want a long debate on the merits of CGT or whether Sinn Féin will be in government in a few years.
2) Letting Off Steam - no need for action.
If you want to enter this forum, you do so at your own risk. Obviously, the normal Posting Guidelines apply - no offensive posts, etc.
The forum was designed to take the non-financial stuff out of the main forums and I think it achieves this objective fairly well.
3) The serious issues
Steven raised an interesting issue here:
New houses should not have to meet high BER requirements
A mate of mine is a builder and he said the cost of meeting BER requirements adds a massive cost to the price of building houses. He thinks that they should be allowed to build houses with a lower BER rating that is more affordable for people, but they obviously have higher ongoing heating...
www.askaboutmoney.com
But it was reported as yet another boring argument between Tommy and Purple which turns everyone else off . And the reporter wanted the mods to split out their debate into a separate thread.
I just closed the thread, as it would require a huge amount of work to split it. If we get in early on a thread, it can be split off, but it's still work. But there is no way we can split a 7 page thread.
It's hard for the moderators to get the balance right. We don't like deleting posts but will do so if they are off topic. People take offence, but we have to live with that. The worst is probably when someone makes a valid point early in thread but then makes an off-topic aside which we know will wreck the thread. We deleted the entire post. The Poster complains that we should have edited their post but that is too much work.
My own approach as a reader
I rarely read a thread past the second page. There is usually nothing new.
Unless I find it entertaining which the Duke vs. tecate on Bitcoin sometimes are.
Of course, if I have started a thread or it's something I am involved in, I will stay past the second page, but then maybe I am arguing with someone and boring everyone else.
