Dealing with Discussions of Other Communities
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This has come up and I'll admit I'm as much a culprit as anyone so I'm probably a good one to kick off the discussion. We've always had pretty light moderation here in ML and that, I think, is for the best. But there do have to be rules and one that is sort of unique here due to the mostly obvious situation is that there is a lot of opportunity or desire or likelihood of talking about other communities. Obviously, to some degree, that is necessary or good but for the most part, that is bad. It's a very grey area. But I think that some mostly solidified moderation rules around that should probably exist or, at the very least, a policy of that not being allowed here before it really starts to happen.
We certainly don't want people running here to use this as a soap box for attacking other forums. (Every forum has this happen to some degree, and to some degree you have to be able to discuss, compare, learn from, etc.) Everything here is open and transparent, there are no secret groups or anything, so that is good and any forum being discussed can see that they are being discussed and participate. So that is good. But this is an IT forum, not a forum forum and in the spirit of good inter-relations we should probably take an official high road before anyone else does and state that something like... cross linking is encouraged, positive posts about other forums is good but negative posting about other communities is discouraged and while will be evaluated case by case (there are always needed exceptions) that in general this is not encouraged and mostly not allowed and will be, in the future, subject to moderation.
Anyone have thoughts? I'd like to make sure that this remains a neutral discussion and no specific other forum be considered, the communities that people want to discussion will change over time. We are our own community, not an offshoot of another and need to keep that mentality.
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My apologies if this doesn't make sense or seems like rambling, been a long day here.
I see the point & kind of why I steered clear of posting to those threads, especially as heated as they can get. I'm not going to lie & say I didn't read them though. Moderation is a good thing but only in Moderation. (sorry had to) I try to see things from both points of view, keyword try, I know I have been a part of a couple of other threads that probably wouldn't be looked at very highly. I love that community & I love this community, so to that effect these are two separate communities, & need to be treated that way. Especially when the majority of the active people in ML are also very active in SW (an prime example for this thread). I am glad to see something good come from something that seemed kind of going into a downward spiral. I don't blame anyone specifically, as people can get heated under the collar & need to vent/rant, it will just have to be a conscious effort to remember if it is really in need of a flamewar style thread or if it can just be passed with a good brew. -
I think your stance makes sense Scott. Always better to take the high road if possible, and any necessary ranting can always be taken offline somewhere
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@Nic said:
I think your stance makes sense Scott. Always better to take the high road if possible, and any necessary ranting can always be taken offline somewhere
I think if we just have the policy, it mostly fixes the issue. Lacking it it actually makes ML feel like the official "place to go rant" which it is not.
