For a distro so dedicated towards open source, why so many closed threads

[phaedora]

Mummy says it’s time to stop talking and go to bed. Wait a minute, that’s not Dan in drag?
Oops I meant dad I think.

[smr54]

Ok, as someone who has moderated on fairly busy forums, and still moderates a couple of not so busy mailing lists, perhaps, as someone with a non-vested interest, I can give you an answer.

Firstly, I should say that I think these guys do a heck of a job. I've seen stoat, for example, stick with someone asking the same question that has been asked 500 times about Broadcom cards, and simply marvel at his patience. (I'm just using stoat as an example--I've seen equal patience from all the mods here--Leigh, for example, always seems awfully brusque, but you note, he keeps answering questions and helping newcomers along where no one else is, or everyone else has given up.)

So, with that out of the way, and knowing that I'm coming from a standpoint of prejudice in favor of the mods, both in general, and the mods here:

Worst possible case---a mod is in a bad mood and closes a thread that possibly shouldn't be closed. That happens, they're human, and all volunteers. I've only seen that happen here on VERY rare occasions, and can't think of one off the top of my head.

Just about every time a thread gets closed here, I've seen a warning from the moderator prior to closing it, but people persist.

Religion and politics--they simply don't really have a place on what is, in theory at least, a technical forum. People have very strong feelings about them, and unfortunately, far too often, it degenerates into insult--really nasty insult.

Double posting. It's stated in the forum guidelines, which most people don't read (at least if the experience matches my own past, when I was a mod on a forum, and certainly matches my current experience with mailing list moderation), not to double post. People do it and a mod closes the post. This is actually helpful to the poster, as reponses to their questions will be in one place.

On these forums, it seems to me that things get closed for those reasons--crossing the line into religion and/or politics, or other nastiness--I've seen the mods close threads, which, were I a mod here, I would too, because people start getting nasty. A lot of these are Fedora is a piece of junk type threads--which are allowed, but people are expected to calm down. It's not as if threads are closed for criticizing Fedora--shucks, I'm always taking potshots at it. :)

These complaints happen frequently, and I only see them getting closed when someone goes on and on and on. Shucks, they even opened a sub forum for rants. :D

Non English posts. That's unfortunate, but it's simply not practical to have multi sub forums for each language. The post sometimes gets closed, or sometimes the mod posts to post in English and gives them another chance, and sometimes, I imagine when they have time, or one of them knows the language, tells them post in English. Remember, these folks also have lives, and are NOT paid--they sometimes may do things hastily because they feel they should do something but have to get back to work.

Criticizing the mods on forum--yeah, again, I admit my prejudices, but that's another that just wastes the time of everyone. They have said, frequently, if you have a criticism, take it to PM. I feel that's quite reasonable.

Frankly I feel the mods here, and on most forums, have a completely thankless job, (and unpaid of course), and all of them take their responsibility seriously, and try, really hard, to do a good job for the vast majority of members, keeping their calm when someone asks, for the nth time, a question that is answered all over the place. They protect members when things get out of hand.

So, hope this helps you understand, even if you don't agree.

[forkbomb]

Why so many closed threads?

Cause it's a conspiracy, man. :rolleyes:

[xuniltoor]

Bad behavior does not go unchecked here, hence there is less "noise" and more music. This is what sets this forum apart. For some reason people like to stray to religion, politics or grandstanding which invariably leads to hurt feelings (for lack of a better term). There are forums elsewhere for those topics. It does seem that we have been given just a little more rope lately which is a good thing. It is frustrating to see a good thread go downhill for those who enjoy reading the forum but its very well managed. P.S. smr54 praises for stoat are right on the money. You deserve a LOT of credit. Also there are many non admin folks that provide super support.

[bob]

Nobody likes closing threads, but there comes a time when the original thoughts on a subject have long-since been debated and it's just getting down to a war of words or if insults are being hurled. That's a time to shut things down and let tempers cool rather than taking action against otherwise good members.

We do reopen threads on occasion, if the subject's still worth exploring and the combatants are over the disputes.

As you know, "open source" does not mean wild-west or no-cost in every sense of the word. There's a price to be paid in any Forum and that price is congeniality and working within our minimal posting rules.

[Hlingler]

For a distro so dedicated towards open source, why so many closed threadsI don't see the connection, except perhaps to imply that a forum for open-source software should have no posting rules and hence no thread closures - which is of course absurd.

V

EDIT: I now see the catalyst that prompted the OP to start this thread, and find it inappropriate, for the exact reasons already stated above: this is nothing but trolling IMO. Thread closed.