--Off Topic, One Liners and General Back Scratching Posts—

Over the last few weeks, I along with several other staff members have witnessed the increase in off topic replies, one liner posts, image only posts and a plethora of other posting behaviours that are simply not necessary.

There are a variety of tools at your disposal to show approval of a particular member’s posts and threads. These are the Flag and Star system. This has been said a million times but if you agree with what is said and have nothing else to add to the conversation please use these features as opposed to writing:

S&F for you
Agreed
Could not have said it better..etc.

Another nifty option you have is to send that member a U2U with a quick, “Hey that was an awesome post and I thought you should know I agree and gave you some stars and a flag!”

ATS is built around the fluid discussion of topics. This cannot be done effectively when members, are flooding the thread with page after page of one liner, off topics and as my title states “Back Scratching” posts.

Another area of concern are threads and posts where very little comments or content exist. These are posted videos, or images and even links with little to no member comment about them. This is also not something that is productive to the ATS community. When creating threads or posts that have media content or sourced material please give your take. We want to hear your opinion.

This forum was created to give you a voice, please choose to use it when bringing new content to the boards so that members may have an idea of what it is they are looking at and can respond in kind to your thoughts/opinions.

Moving forward there will be increased staff scrutiny in regards to these posts and they will be removed if they fall in the categories mentioned above.

Please review the following:

Please Stay On Topic – Please Review Link.

Mod Note: One Line Post – Please Review Link.

Mod Note: Starting A New Thread – Please Review Link

2nd Line Posts -- Please Review Link

We always strive to make this community better, as members, not as staff or owners or any other title given to us. As members we all have a responsibility to be the change we want to see. We can start by each doing our best to keep our threads clean, concise and ignorance free.

Regards,

~Keeper & ATS Staff

Thank You!!

I know I am getting tired of going thru pages of "nice thread" comments.

I also wonder about the new crop of members.

Do they not care about what they are posting and just post and move along? Or do they really just not know how to form a thread or a post? Could be one or the other or a mixture of both.


Thanks for this! I know many of us have been waiting for a thread like this to pop up.

Also I would like to say one thing about the "Gray Area" people need to remember what that area is for and stop attacking those who post in it. If you don't agree with it, don't reply. I like the gray area and yes some stories are out there but that forum is for personal stories or experiences and only the person posting will know their own experience be it fabricated or not so ease up on them.

Nice post, but there was one thing that I'm a little confused about in all honesty..

ATS is built around the fluid discussion of topics. This cannot be done effectively when members, are flooding the thread with page after page of one liner, [SNIP]

I'm a little bit confused as I always thought that one liner posts were allowed as long as they contributed to the thread in some way or another. So, I can understand that if for example all a post contained was a simple "Nice post. S+F for it" and It was then to be removed, but what about something which is actually on topic, is more than relevant to the discussion, but just so happens to be a one liner. Would they be allowed still or must be continue writing until we have at least more than one line?

Just curious and thought I'd ask as sometimes, IMO, all that needs to be said can fit into a single line and It seems necessary to write more than we feel we have to.

Thanks.

reply to post by Rising Against


You should read the link in the opening post titled, Mod Note: One Line Post – Please Review Link., as well as the other links in the opening post. If you still have a question, post it here.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


S&F for you
Agreed
Could not have said it better..etc.

To me the above seems like 'I" am in favour of that thread and the OP then knows who I am..
If I merely flag or star then how are they to know who are in favour?

Sometimes, though rarely. a thread or post needs no addition..

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Another area of concern are threads and posts where very little comments or content exist. These are posted videos, or images and even links with little to no member comment about them. This is also not something that is productive to the ATS community. When creating threads or posts that have media content or sourced material please give your take. We want to hear your opinion.

This is a real problem with some people who post long videos that they expect others to sit through, and then respond to. My favourites are the hour long YouTube documentaries, posted with nothing more than a "You've got to see this! It blew me away!"

I don't even bother with those threads any longer, and when people reply to me in other threads with "oh, you need to watch this video", I almost always ignore it, because not only do I want to hear the poster's opinion, not some talking head, but it's often a sign that the poster doesn't really HAVE an opinion, they just heard this person jabbering on and they sounded smart, so it must be right.

I saw one last week where the poster described a person, and insisted that I watch his video, not knowing that I knew that the person was not what he was being represented as, and that the video he posted actually refuted it.

reply to post by backinblack


As stated, a U2U to the member giving them a high five is always a good idea. That's what the U2U system is there for. For you guys to communicate off topic or kudos off the boards

~Keeper

I admit am guilty at times of short replies.. As my english is rusty and even in real world am rather quiet as believe in most cases actions say more than words thus usually make brief replies that are to the point..

Originally posted by Expat888
I admit am guilty at times of short replies.. As my english is rusty and even in real world am rather quiet as believe in most cases actions say more than words thus usually make brief replies that are to the point..

Not worries, short replies are OK, so long as they are on topic and are an addition to the material at hand.



Even I am guilty of the above posted things in the OP every now and then .

I have a thread going where all I ask for is a funny picture.

Hopefully this tightening of the rules won't shut it down?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Signals


BTS is a whole different ball game Signals.

Your fine

One of the best B&B threads I've read in awhile!

Which, BTW was an example of what NOT to do!

Great job Keeper! I am going to start including this thread in my welcome package for new members. This issue is that important!

~Heff

People want to be seen to be agreeing with someone. Anonymous stars might be your problem.

This is a problem in all forums.

You could probably control the degree by giving people the option of having the stars they give have their name on them. Much like the "Like" function on Facebook. For those who don't want to be identified, you could give the option of their star being Anonymous.

You can try to discourage the natural tendencies of the herd, or you can find a good way to manage it into something productive by acknowledging it and directing it.

i star and flag when i like something.

rarely do i reply with that type of banality and waste of bandwith.

i do admit i am antonymous in leaving s+f's


ya, spell check sucks.

I believe one problem is the mentality of post counts.
Many forums have a post count where members can compare epen*s sizes as to who can post the most and therefore have more credability.

another reason people may do it is that they feel as though the post needs more attention and without replies gets lost in the most recent posts and gets pushed off the recent post page, I have seen posters use this technique to keep it up there where they congradulate a poster for agreeing with them with little or nothing else to add.
or they reply to 15 posters in 15 seperate posts rather than put them all together

reply to post by tothetenthpower


I would much rather read a direct and relevant one liner than some boring post that goes on and on repeating the same thing over and over ad infinitum without really saying anything of relevance, just to hear the poster go over the same trite and hackneyed cliched information that we have heard so many times in so many post over the years and using as little punctuation as possible with no break in the boring rant that they think is so clever and witty when in reality it is just simply boring and going over the same old thing without ever really making a cognizant point about anything other than how some people like to see lots of words on the page and then they think it's clever to put lots of these guys in their goofy post to emphasize almost nothing; like I just demonstrated.

I agree.
S&F

reply to post by munkey66


I am guilty of posting to each post instead of all together. I only have internet access through my ppc/phone and it is impossible for me to combine all replies. That may be other people's reason as well. Everything I post here comes from my phone.

OT. I agree with this. Trying to view 10 pages of I agree takes a lot of time. I try to add more than one line at times just so I can let the op know I supported their opinion/fact.