Ways to get people to debate more and post less articles

Yusuf

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This news posting thing has always been a thorn for me since day one. I think i have an announcement in this regard too.
One thing that i had suggested then is that any news posts should accompany a view from the poster too.
That will make sure others know what the poster intends to say when he posts and article.

On the news thingy, what i suggest is that the person updating the thread with something should PM mods what the news is and if it is something of good nature, we can update the thread title as we are doing with some sticky threads like the 26/11 thread. Doing something like that will let the other members know what has been posted and if it interests him then he would surely go there..................
 

AkhandBharat

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This news posting thing has always been a thorn for me since day one. I think i have an announcement in this regard too.
One thing that i had suggested then is that any news posts should accompany a view from the poster too.
That will make sure others know what the poster intends to say when he posts and article.

On the news thingy, what i suggest is that the person updating the thread with something should PM mods what the news is and if it is something of good nature, we can update the thread title as we are doing with some sticky threads like the 26/11 thread. Doing something like that will let the other members know what has been posted and if it interests him then he would surely go there..................
That's kinda cumbersome Yusuf, probably, every section in DFI should have a news area, and every thread should have a title (which should remain constant throughout the lifetime of the thread) and a sub-title (which will be the title of the last news entry in the thread). I don't know if this can be done, but it would be an ideal thing.
 

Daredevil

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My Ideas

1) Consolidate threads and stop posting statistics like Top Poster, Top Thread Starter etc. If these statistics show up on the home page, it will only naturally be used by members to reach those statistics and that is not helping.
We do the consolidation of threads time to time but sometimes things slip through without getting Staff's attention. And yes, I agree top poster, top thread starter etc should go. It has no value.

2) Stop or close threads like Swine flu news, news across India etc which have either no relevance in today's context or which nobody reads. This forum is not a news service IIRC and articles should be posted only in the context in which it can be discussed from either a defence POV or a current affairs POV.
We let threads die on their own rather than closing, we never know if things such as Swine flu repeat again in future. I also feel that some members get carried away in posting articles without highlighting the important points that the poster feels is relevant to the discussion or debate. Nobody has time to go through 100s of articles posted in a thread and in fact thread become uninteresting and irrelevant. We need to discuss this further and take steps to discourage posters on a article posting spree.

3) Encourage senior members to reply to threads and post their POV in as many threads as possible, because I've seen that the junior members start posting their POV only when an active discussion is already going on.
I think each member irrespective of seniority should post their views and we cannot force people junior or senior to do so but we can surely encourage them to do so.

4) Close or lock threads when there is no active debate going on in it for months. This is a discussion forum not a news network, so topics that have no discussions going on are just zombie threads that nobody is interested in and will discourage posters to start posting news that nobody intends to discuss anyway.
Let the threads die their own death. You never know if a poster has a new point of view at some point in the future.
 

Yusuf

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Instead if posting using the quick reply option, anyone wanting to post news should use the "Go Advanced" option and there is a title line there where the title of the article can be posted. Maybe the software can be tweaked a bit to show the latest post title below the main title of the thread.
 

AkhandBharat

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Instead if posting using the quick reply option, anyone wanting to post news should use the "Go Advanced" option and there is a title line there where the title of the article can be posted. Maybe the software can be tweaked a bit to show the latest post title below the main title of the thread.
Yes, that would be mighty nice!
 

SHASH2K2

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personally I feel that its very difficult to search for any particular thread by search option in advance search option. if search option works better hopefully there will not be multiple posts and hopefully people will be able to concentrate on less number of discussions.
 

Yusuf

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going to relevant forums and also using the whats new button will let you know the latest threads around. so posting of duplicate threads should not arise.
Most of the time people also post for the sake of posting without reading what has gone on in the thread. Its entirely possible that the same news article has already been posted. Members need to be in sync with the thread by reading what has been posted there already.
 

SHASH2K2

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Yusuf I have been in to this forum for enough number of days to know this. say if a similar article was posted around 10 days back and is Idle . there is no way you can manually search it in relevent section as well because there are many . What I am suggesting that there should be a search option using which we can search any post with certain keyword in its subject line.
 

johnee

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Maybe software can be tweaked to give an option to the thread starter to categorize his thread as "news", "info", or "discussion". I had seen such facility in a certain forum. Such categorisation helps later when someone else wants to retrieve the information through search.
Some people like to visit the forum to stay in touch with the latest updates on a certain topic which these "zombie" news or info threads provide. Some others may be interested in only debates. To each one, his own. Any thread classified as 'discussion', can be closed if it remains inactive for a certain period(may be 2/3 months), whereas 'news' and 'info' threads can be allowed to die on their own.

About religious discussions:
Purely religious discussions, do not harm anyone and are frankly implicitly tolerated in our forum. For example, if I start a new thread about the sufism and its glory, there is a greater chance of it being tolerated and allowed.
But those topics where religion influences the society are not tolerated and disallowed. Religion and its influence on politics, language, behaviour, beliefs, economics, culture, .....etc are implicitly and explicitly not tolerated. For example, if I were to a start a thread about political islam, there are greater chances of it being closed.

This is an interesting phenomenon!! Because, from an absolute point, a secular atheist forum(the forum as an organisation is secular and atheist because it allows people or ideas from all religions but does not adhere to or sponsor any particular religion or god) should be discussing only those social, political, cultural, linguistic....etc topics where religion has influence and should be avoiding any purely spiritual topics. To the contrary, we see that a religion's spiritual side is allowed and its other parts which have a direct bearing on our society's functioning are ignored, even though they are the elephant in the room.

Now to the topic, here is my humble suggestion to increase debates: I think the forum is over-moderated. Thread deletion and post deletion seem to happen far too frequently on the forum. Every post is expected to be of the high quality with some purpose. Every poster is expected to be lucid, knowledgable and polite. I sure, the mods have the right intentions, but what it leads to is an uncreative, boring, symmetric discussions which lead to neither solutions, nor excitements. Thus, I feel the mods need to chill down a bit!! Its just a forum, people have to exchange ideas for the forum to serve its purpose, otherwise its futile. The rules need to be minimal. Mods need to be invisible.

Lastly, mods should not be allowed to participate in discussion on a certain thread and simultaneously moderate the thread. Its a clear conflict of interest. Its like an attorney is allowed to be the jury. For the poster who debates in this kind of situation, its like arguing with god.

PS: Agree with suggestion that stats like top poster should go.
 
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thakur_ritesh

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Lastly, mods should not be allowed to participate in discussion on a certain thread and simultaneously moderate the thread. Its a clear conflict of interest. Its like an attorney is allowed to be the jury. For the poster who debates in this kind of situation, its like arguing with god.
this point has already been put into place for quite some time now.

no mod who is debating in a thread is allowed to moderate. such a mod like any other member is only allowed to report such a post and it is left for the other mods to take up the role of moderation if need be and rest assured the criteria even here is not on any sympathetic grounds towards that mod, if its found logical to intervene do we otherwise no action is taken, and i see a lot of times no action gets taken on such reported posts.
 

A.V.

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Maybe software can be tweaked to give an option to the thread starter to categorize his thread as "news", "info", or "discussion". I had seen such facility in a certain forum. Such categorisation helps later when someone else wants to retrieve the information through search.

will do it today its easy
 

Yusuf

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http://www.defenceforum.in/forum/showthread.php/9854-Important-Announcements

DFI Staff has always tried to be liberal in its approach and also tolerant. It is our endeavor to see that any Staff member engaging in any debate in any thread does not use his mod powers and debates as any other member on this forum, off course with the respect he deserves as a member and a mod. If any member has any issue with regards to any post that he feels is not right even if it is by a mod, please use the report post button even if it is by a mod and do not get into an ugly exchange in the thread. DFI believes in being neutral and unbiased. Any such matter will be resolved amicably by other staff members so that no one is aggrieved.
Johnee, That would help
 

johnee

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this point has already been put into place for quite some time now.

no mod who is debating in a thread is allowed to moderate. such a mod like any other member is only allowed to report such a post and it is left for the other mods to take up the role of moderation if need be and rest assured the criteria even here is not on any sympathetic grounds towards that mod, if its found logical to intervene do we otherwise no action is taken, and i see a lot of times no action gets taken on such reported posts.
Very glad to know..... : )

PS: A.V., you are cool mate. :D
 

Soham

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As has been stated before. There's quite a simple solution to this, and it works brilliantly at most other places.

Everytime you start a thread/post an article, end it with a question or a thought. That will be what the initial discussion will kick off upon.
 

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