Please tighten up on threads in the various forums

[Cassiel]

Tight regulation doesn't sound good. A bit of 'life', a bit of passion and a bit of confusion - those things make a thread worth reading.

Guys and gals, just remember: this is not a hospital, kill all the germs and maybe it would smell like one, but, who wants to visit a hospital? You got to be sick. Do we want a sick forum? Lifeless, already turning yellow, smelling not that good either....you get my point.

As for those thoughts about giving power to people....well I'm afraid that doesn't work oh so well - history proves my point.

[Bigun]

It's probably more important to encourage people with real skills and experience to participate more often - we lost a number of extremely knowledgeable people a year or so ago and I felt that. I've benefited the most when the old hands chime in with pearls of wisdom. The benefit of regulating the threads is to avoid these people getting fed up and staying away.

[Cassiel]

The benefit of regulating the threads is to avoid these people getting fed up and staying away.

People get fed up no matter what you do. Marriages, friendships, nothing last forever. You can't change people and you can't keep all of them happy. I don't even know why I'm talking about this. I see no big problems to solve here. Sometimes it gets too boring, that's perhaps my biggest complaint. Anyway, I'm sure moderators know who is valuable and who is not and act accordingly. As long as Tubelab is around I'll be here.

[tomchr]

Aw, c'mon man... Subject drift is an art form found in its most pure form in online forums. On a related note, have you noticed that the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking real good this season?

~Tom

[pdul]

Aw, c'mon man... Subject drift is an art form found in its most pure form in online forums

and among politicians

[jamikl]

I think Bigun understood what I was speaking about. I also commend Pano on his file that has stayed very true to the Manzanita concept and if you want to build one it is easy to arrive at a setup that will work _ contrast that with most of the amplifier threads that have so much dross in them that as yet I have not found anything I feel confident in having a go at.

If you want to dispute a posters ideas or just get entertainment from a thread I guess that is fair enough. It is when you want to build something that it becomes a problem. It also seems that, particularly in the amplifier threads, that those who disrupt the simple thread assume that everybody has the knowledge they have and know how to add their cryptic alterations. A lot of us do not! I am fortunate enough to live on a large, sometimes beautiful bay and have plenty of other things to occupy my time as well as electronics. This is after all "DO" It Yourself Audio. When I seem something that is simple or nearly so I think that maybe I should have a crack at it but usually within days the simplicity has gone and the thread has become a major read. Yes, Bigun, I too have learned a lot from being here, particularly from people like Pano and GM as well as a few others.
jamikl

[tomchr]

I agree with with Bigun that it is important to keep the high-value contributors here. I can only speak for myself, obviously, but I'm actually not that bothered by a little subject drift as long as the original poster can moderate the discussion and not allow it to get completely out of hand. I have certainly allowed quite a bit of leeway on the threads I started, but also accept that in some cases the sidebar conversations which inject themselves into "my" thread actually do add value. What turns me off is when someone asks me to do their work for them. I'm always glad to help people help themselves, but the "please solve my homework" kinds of questions get old. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect posters on an electronics forum to know Ohm's law for example.

Also, who should be the ones ensuring that the topic of the thread stays true to the topic in the subject line? The moderators? I'm sure they have other things they'd rather be doing. On "my" threads, I've found it more productive to post something like "that's an interesting topic, however, I think it would be better served in a separate thread". It gets the message across in a way that hasn't seemed to scare anybody off.

~Tom

[KlipschKid]

Although it doesn't exactly help with noisy threads that become useless, I have just found this site has an ignore list. There doesn't seem to be any info about how it works though.

[Cassiel]

lol I don't need instructions on how to ignore somebody. It's a natural talent of mine. Anyway, I can tolerate a lot of crap if it's done in style. Devious characters showing some flashes of intelligence here and there are permissible

[KlipschKid]

The "ignore" hides all posts by that person. Useless really.