I have an idea about offtopic posts, extreme TC violation etc.

I was thinking, this might improve the board if it was possible to do. When someone's comment is removed and replaced with a graphic, perhaps the whole thing can be made to be auto removed in say 24 hours? The warning stays up for a bit to remind people to be civil and such for a period of time, then is outright removed after a period of time. It would make threads a lot better I think, rather than having to go through a few pages of mostly removed comment graphics, if the offending posts were removed completely after some time. Make sense? Doable?

Would be interesting to see if its possible and/or practical for our coding-team-extraordinaires to do such.

Personally I'd certainly appreciate that...some thread, wow, they've been blown through with so many warning holes a swiss cheese would look more solid...

reply to post by alien


Yeah I have seen some pretty bad ones. A few people losing their cool and E-fighting can make a thread look like crap

Pages upon pages of off-topic, maybe three or four comments on topic in the whole mess.

Originally posted by TKDRL
I was thinking, this might improve the board if it was possible to do. When someone's comment is removed and replaced with a graphic, perhaps the whole thing can be made to be auto removed in say 24 hours? The warning stays up for a bit to remind people to be civil and such for a period of time, then is outright removed after a period of time. It would make threads a lot better I think, rather than having to go through a few pages of mostly removed comment graphics, if the offending posts were removed completely after some time. Make sense? Doable?

But in that twenty four hours it would still there. It would be cluttering up the thread space, also, i fail to see the reason why these posts should stay up, i dont get what leavint them there would achieve, OR am i missing the point here, cos im very tired and cant concentrate.
Also, there are those who love to repond to off topic post (obviously before theyre edited, it just produces a climate of off-topicness, (im sure thats not a word)

reply to post by TKDRL


I'd agree, it would be nice to see a "collapse" feature, similar to those found in some forums/blogs, that allow a moderator to minimize a post deemed off-topic. If it's removed entirely then it looks too much like censorship, and it can throw the other posts in the topic out of sequence since there may be replies to the 'vanished' post.

reply to post by TKDRL


I have to agree with you on this, but only in regards to posts that are not agregious T&C violations, like pr0n (etc).

There are some posts which don't deserve 1 second of time, but the vast majority of harmless OT posts might be educational if they 'faded' from view over a period of time.

The devil, as they say, is always in the details and coding based on severity, even split two ways, would be hard to do (I think, says the flashing twelve).

reply to post by TKDRL


...heck...sounds like the average weekend spent with my family...

...maybe two or three things said worth saying, the rest is just an alcohol induced shyte-fight half the time...

very good idea. great way to clean up the threads and consolidate. Would make them much more streamlined.
SHouldn't be hard for the guys writing code over at ATS either.

excellent idea and thread.

reply to post by thedoctorswife


It already clutters up the space now. I am trying to locate the thread I stumbled upon last night that gave me the idea lol. It was a doozie. I am thinking more for archive purposes I suppose. If someone comes across an old thread, they can get all the real meat, with none of the graphical filler. Might help free up some valuable server space too.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


The comment itself is removed either way. So it is censorship in a way, but it is censorship we signed up and agreed to.

reply to post by masqua


The only way it could really be educational, is if the offending comment was not removed, and the mod who disagreed with such comment gave a short explaination of the offense. Hmmmm, maybe that could be a new idea.

reply to post by alien


Hahaha yeah I hear that! It's all fun and games till it comes to blows in the backyard :p

Originally posted by TKDRL
It's all fun and games till it comes to blows in the backyard :p

...and in the hallway, kitchen, lounge, games-room, driveway...or jack-knife powerbombing your brother through the garage roof (....long story...)

...but ya get that when every single of us have been near lifelong practitioners of various Martial Arts and other fighting/weapons forms....

I also have a suggestion for removed posts and this thread seems like an ideal place to post it.

Recently I got my first 'Off Topic' ever (shock horror) in the BTS 'post a funny pic' thread. Due to the nature of my crazy life I can go for a week or so without internet access so when I finally logged in today I noticed the automated message in my inbox.Trouble is, I can't remember what I posted in the first place that was actually off topic.

So my suggestion is that maybe the automated message that accompanies an 'Off Topic' or 'Extreme T&C Violation' notice should actually come with some sort of snap shot or quote of the particular post in question.

That way people with poor memories such as myself can actually learn from their mistakes and keep on contributing to ATS in a meaningful way without bugging the particular mod in question that removed the post in the first place.

reply to post by TKDRL


How 'bout sending/banishing the offending posts to temporary ATS purgatory; essentially telling them to "take it outside" where the combatants can battle it out for a limited time of, say, 24 hours...and, hopefully cool off?
This could be akin to 'a time out', which has often worked well with screaming infants.

After that time, all offending posts would be deleted.

I think it's a good idea OP. I personally always want to read what people say even if it's an extreme T&C violation (they usually amuse me) but they don't need to be there. The individual gets warned, and staff can just throw in a post reminding people to stay on topic. A staff post has as much chance as being seen as one of the T&C markers.

Personally I kinda like seeing the 'Off Topic' or 'Extreme T&C Violation' notices as if I see one or too posters with a few pages of Off Topics ending in 1 or too Extreme T&Cs it gives me a few clues as to what that particular poster is really like.

It's probably also good as its a reminder to those who can get a little carried away in the heat of the moment that these threads are actually being monitored by the mods and serves as a warning to others to stay on topic.

Also I too find it somewhat amusing.... especially when you get to see little snippets of what they've said in other posts which quoted them prior to the post in question being removed.

here , is an idea , the team should work on ! , when a comment is removed , it does not remove the comment if its "quoted" by another member , so you can still see what the removed comment was , we all knew about this of course ! i think they should start their pernaps ?


ya what he said above me their ^

Originally posted by LightningStrikesHere
here , is an idea , the team should work on ! , when a comment is removed , it does not remove the comment if its "quoted" by another member , so you can still see what the removed comment was

, we all knew about this of course !

i think they should start their pernaps ?

ya what he said above me their ^

edit on 6-6-2012 by LightningStrikesHere because: (no reason given)

Well there goes all the fun.....

Plus I could see it getting a little tricky if the reply to an 'off topic' post is actually 'on topic'. It would make that on topic post look kinda stupid as you wouldn't know where on earth that poster was coming from....

reply to post by 1littlewolf


agreed ! indeed , how about to hell with the , write some code to where the poster would not be able to even write an off topic post in the near future i am sure of it !!