I know I’ve given a lot of people here a hard time but I truly do hope that everyone is doing okay and keeping their wits about them during this crazy time.
One of the things that I think we should do as a collective group is start breaking out the COVID-19 news into separate threads.
Like many of you, I have been incredibly busy at home taking care of family and entertaining kids that aren’t in school right now. That’s decreased my ability to participate here but I have been relying on the summary emails that I have turned on to come in daily.
One of the things that’s really hard to follow is all of the COVID-19 information that’s getting posted in the general thread. I think the thread was good when this thing first started but there is so much news coming out right now that is worthy of discussion it’s hard to keep track of. It would also be helpful if these topics were broken out into separate threads because those of us who can’t spend a lot of time on the site right now can at least reply to a thread via email relatively quickly.
I know this will create a lot of work for our few moderators who are also very busy taking care of their families, but I think it’s worth it for the overall sanity of the board and for participation. Even if the threads get a bit messy for a little while I think that’s okay. When this is all over maybe we can just lock them or clean them up (of course when I say “we” I mean @Patriot@KVN@Tyfoon).
Since what I’m asking for will require a lot of additional work, I am happy to donate and would encourage others to do the same. I am fortunate enough that I can maintain my employment during this pandemic. I know many others aren’t so lucky so this isn’t peer pressure to spend what little resources you have. I’m simply just trying to acknowledge that if we are asking people to do more work for us that we should offer them some compensation to help them through these tough times as well. Since I work in the technology field, I know how much work is required just to keep a site this sophisticated up and running without breaking. That’s something that I have not been good about recognizing and praising publicly but would like to do a better job in the future.
I also want to propose unhiding a few of the members-only categories. I know this is super controversial because a lot of what is posted in those categories is not advertiser friendly. At a minimum, I would like to see Page 3 opened up. I’m generally against degeneracy but having a little eye candy in a time like this isn’t a bad thing. If anyone doesn’t want to see what’s in Page 3 they can just go into their settings and mute it. Because of how Page 3 is configured now, those of us who are members can’t see the updates because it is buried in privacy settings. I know that Ty was very busy a few weeks ago cleaning up and culling a lot of the inappropriate stuff that crept out of the GC and into Page 3. Thanks for that.
I agree that there is way too much going on in the Coronavirus general. There is a lot of good info in there but it’s all over the place…because that’s what tends to happen with general threads. I didn’t log in for a week because I was getting my house set up for remote work and I was 800 replies behind the most recent reply. At that point, people just scroll right to the bottom and start posting.
Ty really cleaned up Page 3 to the point that he only left a few threads. It was getting insane so I think if Page 3 were opened up a lot of moderation would be needed because of the content. Or, we just need to be much better about following the rules. That might be too much to ask right now.
If it is decide to do this, perhaps make only limited topics such as:
Coronavirus and the Economy: This would include how this is affecting on a macro and micro bais (as well as a personal basis)
Coronavirus Political: Such as how the news is handling reports, politicians and business that are helping or hurting the country such as 3M…AOC wanting reparations, etc.
Coronavirus Non-Political: Facts and updates, such as study results on treatments, number of cases/deaths/recovery rates.
I think this is a good approach. It seems like the only news stories available right now are covid 19 related which could totally overwhelm this board. There needs to be a way to smartly categorize things and I think this is it.
If we have a bunch of separate COVID threads then I think what @DMK is saying is the best way to go about it. If we do that then I’m going to lock the existing COVID threads. If anyone makes separate COVID threads that aren’t the official ones then they are just going to get deleted or locked. I don’t have a lot of time to mess around with the threads right now as I have sick and elderly family to take care of.
If we open up Page 3 then I will need to come up with instructions for people to mute it. I don’t know if this is a smart move or not because of the content. Personally, it doesn’t bother me any because it’s not any worse than what we see on TV but I’m sure others wouldn’t want anything to do with it. Especially the ladies. Just sayin.
Great idea! Quite frankly some just want the facts and useful information and not the stupid conspiracies of Gates and the ■■■■ that blew up the official thread.
What the hell is your problem? You have your thread to participate in, which BTW you turned into your own conspiracy sh*thole. Not every one wants to read and sift through your garbage every day when trying to stay informed about important matters relating to this Coronavirus!
Quick question - now that there are additional “official” categories independently started by @Dr_Manhattan - why are there so many additional Coronavirus threads being created and not being put in those categories?
That was what I was worried about when this discussion started. Generally, the only people who should be starting official threads are me, Kelly, or Patriot so that users see it was created by a moderator. That alone sends a signal to the users to follow the rules of the official threads. Considering that we are a small business, without many paying customers at the moment, we have had to spend more time than usual away from the site taking care of our families. This makes moderating these new official threads and related content more of a challenge than usual (and it’s already hard based on our commitment to free speech).
The problem with threads being created related to COVID-19 and not being categorized appropriately or posted in existing threads is user discipline. People like starting their own threads and don’t want to necessarily be boxed in by someone else’s. It’s a constant challenge.
Really, it’s just a matter of me finding the time to sit down for a few hours, go through all of the threads that have been created, and organize things appropriately. I just haven’t had a few hours to do that recently for obvious reasons.
Sorry Tyfoon I was just trying to help out and couldn’t wait instead of posting Radom stuff in another rabbit hole where it’s just all over the place in terms of its focus.
