There is nothing that wrecks a good swimming related thread faster than getting into a discussion about message board etiquette. So here is a thread that people can use discuss topics related to what should and should not be posted on the message boards while allowing the other threads to stay on topic.
It seems to me that there is a spectrum of opinion on off-topic posting. On one end of the spectrum people think that threads are a mechanism specifically designed to allow people to carry on discussions on different topics and that we would all be well served if changes in topic were just done in new threads. On the other end of the spectrum people think that people should be able to post anything they want anywhere they want and that any suggestion to the contrary is censorship, a personal attack, or simply control freakish.
Pretty much everyone falls somewhere between these two extremes. Very few people object to a humorous quip inserted here and there in an otherwise serious discussion. Very few people would actually advocate that people be able to liberally sprinkle potentially offensive posts randomly through all the threads.
Have you ever been at a party where someone has decided that this is the right time and place to have a big argument or screaming match with someone? Has it ever contributed to the general enjoyment of the rest of the people there?
I would argue that posts that are essentially expressions of anger and/or are essentially personal attacks have no place on the board. They don't contribute anything positive and generally turn off 99% of the people reading the boards. Even if it seems that someone else has attacked you, does it really help anything to post an angry response?
I personally don't see the problem with starting a new thread when one wants to make an off-topic comment, a little cut and paste and/or a link makes it easy enough to carry the context into the new thread. Why is it essential to be able to carry on an unrelated discussion in a thread where some people are trying to carry on a discussion on a particular topic?
All,
As Rob has noted, we do not want to do anything that is too restrictive but we have struggled to deal with what the USMS leaderships sees as the forums possibly going down the slippery slope beyond our ability to recover it. Speaking for myself but suspecting that the others involved with watching the forums, I have no problem with a comment about the weather in the middle of a serious attempt to add to the swimming related post. What I find difficult to justify are posts that the poster is, in large part, simply telling us what they are having for lunch to take from the most recent posts on the swim camp thread.
Please understand why we have the discussion forum available. First is to provide our members and friends an opportunity to learn about and discuss the sport we love. It is also a marketing tool for USMS. If your first encounter to this board was to come in wanting to know about swim camps and you opened up the thread that is currently going on, would you think the value of reading that thread was enough to draw you back? I don't have the time to waste and I doubt most would. If you view this forum as a service as well as a marketing tool, does it make sense to continue to run it if it is not fulfilling its goal.
USMS spends a significant amount of both employee and volunteer time dealing with our web space including the forum. If you notice, we are pretty good at getting advertisements off of the forum in a short period of time. There are a number of us who are monitoring the forums at any given time so we could clean up things quickly if we have to but WE DO NOT WANT to be the big brother here. We are just asking those that use the forums to us them with respect.
So if you want to post on this forum, stay on topic. If you need to make an off-topic comment and you think it is important, start another topic. The topic need not be all that serious. Remember, I started the thread "you know you are a swimmer when ...". That wasn't really one to help people swim faster but it was something that we all enjoyed. We are all smart enough here to know what needs to be done to keep this a valuable tool for the swimming community. Looking at the monofin thread, it has started out OK. Lets keep it that way.
Regards,
Leo
All,
As Rob has noted, we do not want to do anything that is too restrictive but we have struggled to deal with what the USMS leaderships sees as the forums possibly going down the slippery slope beyond our ability to recover it. Speaking for myself but suspecting that the others involved with watching the forums, I have no problem with a comment about the weather in the middle of a serious attempt to add to the swimming related post. What I find difficult to justify are posts that the poster is, in large part, simply telling us what they are having for lunch to take from the most recent posts on the swim camp thread.
Please understand why we have the discussion forum available. First is to provide our members and friends an opportunity to learn about and discuss the sport we love. It is also a marketing tool for USMS. If your first encounter to this board was to come in wanting to know about swim camps and you opened up the thread that is currently going on, would you think the value of reading that thread was enough to draw you back? I don't have the time to waste and I doubt most would. If you view this forum as a service as well as a marketing tool, does it make sense to continue to run it if it is not fulfilling its goal.
USMS spends a significant amount of both employee and volunteer time dealing with our web space including the forum. If you notice, we are pretty good at getting advertisements off of the forum in a short period of time. There are a number of us who are monitoring the forums at any given time so we could clean up things quickly if we have to but WE DO NOT WANT to be the big brother here. We are just asking those that use the forums to us them with respect.
So if you want to post on this forum, stay on topic. If you need to make an off-topic comment and you think it is important, start another topic. The topic need not be all that serious. Remember, I started the thread "you know you are a swimmer when ...". That wasn't really one to help people swim faster but it was something that we all enjoyed. We are all smart enough here to know what needs to be done to keep this a valuable tool for the swimming community. Looking at the monofin thread, it has started out OK. Lets keep it that way.
Regards,
Leo
