In the order of "I think this is the best solution for long term forum health/survivability":
1. What Shell suggested in the hijacked "Newly Departed" thread - that forum rules be tightened across the board, and R'lyeh be the free-for-all (for lack of a better term) zone. Some members will hate it, of course, but it's a solution that's proven to work.
2. The suggestion Grandizer made to have something that automatically denotes a thread as operating under the aegis of whatever extra civility rules may be in place (some flair or something) when created, and will automatically notify staff of the thread's creation so everyone on the back end knows what's going on.
3. Neo's suggestion of broadening the scope of the debate area. Formal debates don't really happen, but given there's already an area denoted for serious conversation, why not use it? It's not that different than the other short lived section, however, which is why it's the lowest on my list. And threads being invite-only may be a PITA for whichever staff member(s) is/are responsible for handling/approving/tracking the invites.
Regarding specific rule changes, I think language that simply tells people to go away ("Fuck off and die (in a fire)/leave/play in traffic/etc.") is antithetical to the board's purpose. Passions run deep given the non-off-topic and/or slice-of-life subject matter featured on this forum, so it's natural for people to get pissed, but attempting to chase anyone off simply because you disagree with them isn't really any different than what so many of us blame theists for. And, really, there's ways of letting someone know exactly how reprehensible and vile you think their positions (or, them, personally) are without resorting to acting like some petulant child not getting their way in Fortnite. There's also the ignore button.
Speaking of ignore, is there any way to tweak it so it doesn't show an ignored member's post in a quote by someone that's not ignored? Or would that be too much of a deep dive/code hack with low ROI on the time spent on it?
1. What Shell suggested in the hijacked "Newly Departed" thread - that forum rules be tightened across the board, and R'lyeh be the free-for-all (for lack of a better term) zone. Some members will hate it, of course, but it's a solution that's proven to work.
2. The suggestion Grandizer made to have something that automatically denotes a thread as operating under the aegis of whatever extra civility rules may be in place (some flair or something) when created, and will automatically notify staff of the thread's creation so everyone on the back end knows what's going on.
3. Neo's suggestion of broadening the scope of the debate area. Formal debates don't really happen, but given there's already an area denoted for serious conversation, why not use it? It's not that different than the other short lived section, however, which is why it's the lowest on my list. And threads being invite-only may be a PITA for whichever staff member(s) is/are responsible for handling/approving/tracking the invites.
Regarding specific rule changes, I think language that simply tells people to go away ("Fuck off and die (in a fire)/leave/play in traffic/etc.") is antithetical to the board's purpose. Passions run deep given the non-off-topic and/or slice-of-life subject matter featured on this forum, so it's natural for people to get pissed, but attempting to chase anyone off simply because you disagree with them isn't really any different than what so many of us blame theists for. And, really, there's ways of letting someone know exactly how reprehensible and vile you think their positions (or, them, personally) are without resorting to acting like some petulant child not getting their way in Fortnite. There's also the ignore button.
Speaking of ignore, is there any way to tweak it so it doesn't show an ignored member's post in a quote by someone that's not ignored? Or would that be too much of a deep dive/code hack with low ROI on the time spent on it?
"I was thirsty for everything, but blood wasn't my style" - Live, "Voodoo Lady"