Dealing with tedious private arguments in threads

Brendan Burgess

Founder
Messages
51,911
Thanks for all the feedback in the other post. I want to separate out the two issues of private arguments and off-topic posts. They are separate issues but obviously a tedious private off-topic argument is worst of all.

Tedious private arguments can deter other people from posting. In fact, they can deter people from Askaboutmoney completely. While we don't like intrusive moderation, we do want Askaboutmoney to be a useful and enjoyable experience for everyone.

What users can do

Avoiding them in the first place
1) Please avoid tedious private arguments.
2) Acknowledge that you will have to agree to disagree.
3) After a few exchanges, summarise your position and mark it as your final argument
4) If your opponent has made a final argument, please accept that and make your own summary and then stop it.
5) Do not badger or tempt your opponent into reopening the discussion

Reporting private arguments
1) If you see a private argument, don't comment on it. Use the Report Post button.
2) But don't make vexatious reports because you disagree with a point of view or dislike a poster.

Moderation approach
1) We don't want to strangle honest debate - but tedious private arguments do deter people.
2)We may close the thread temporarily to let people calm down.
3) We will moderate posts based on the following criteria
  • We are more likely to intervene if it's in the first two pages of a thread.
  • We are more likely to intervene if the thread is a specific question seeking an answer rather than a discursive type thread.
  • We are more likely to intervene if the thread starter reports it.
4) In general, we intervene a lot less in Letting Off Steam and Shooting the Breeze
 
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