Hair-trigger?

[Bloomfield]

... I didn't want to give the impression that I disapprove of Dale's handling of this issue, but rather that I understand how difficult it is. ...

Wow. I am so out of touch.

[Blackwood]

What do you mean, "why?" There is a whole paragraph explaining why I think just ignoring political threads doesn't work when there is too many of them. Of course I can be wrong, or perhaps it doesn't make sense to you, but what do you mean by just asking me to give reasons after I just gave you my reasons? And without even responding to the reasons I gave

The reason I asked "why" is because your paragraph did not answer or address the premise of the question. In my view it is very easy to ignore threads you are not interested in. You simply stated it is not easy without providing a rationale for it. Is it because of a technical difficulty? Does the sheer number of threads overwhelm you? Is the reading of 20-30 thread headlines is too complicated and confusing?
Why would a thread you ignore be antagonizing to you? what physically is preventing you from ignoring a thread?
Get it?

[Dale]

Historically, and as recently as a week or two ago, I was largely sympathetic with the "just don't read the thread" idea. But, Bloomfield is right, it's not that simple. Among others, you look at a page of thread headings and you just see political posts taking up way too much space. I wouldn't hang out in a pub that had that much political debate around. I'd leave. Some have left and are leaving.

Even more to the point; and this has been pointed out already more than once; people often start threads that aren't political (or religious) and the threads turn into political threads by people who just can't resist putting the spin on. That's particularly ill-mannered. Common example: Someone posts a thread expressing concern or heartbreak about some tragedy. Sooner or later, someone pops in with why this is the fault of Political Force X and we're off to the races.

This poll, by the way, left off an obvious option: "Dale is not quick enough in deleting threads."



Dale

[SteveShaw]

If this was supposed to be a "fun thread" as you posited somewhwere back, why aren't people getting it? It's worth asking.

It was a fun way of presenting a serious topic. If I just started this topic without the Old West Allegory I doubt it would have made it this far.

"Fun way," eh? You are being disingenuous in the extreme now. Your "fun" poll starts with a leading question with pejorative undertones regarding the actions of a person we all have the greatest of respect for: "Does Dale have a hair-trigger on his delete button?". This was just snide. That's what I think anyway.

Steve

[Blackwood]

Tom, you've got that right. It's also funny that Blackwood seemed to have missed the meaning of the bit he quoted: "... the stuff you might chat about at a social gathering, which this kinda is"

Imagine everybody sitting around at a social gathering, say a family reunion

I didn't know the pub was comparable to a family reunion. Now the "Deliverance" tactics start making sense to me :roll:

Have you ever been to pubs in Europe? Often politics is all they talk about...

[Blackwood]

[GaryKelly]

In my view it is very easy to ignore threads you are not interested in.

No it isn't, unless of course you know the content of the thread before you open it. You claimed in the 'announcement' thread that the large number of views indicates great interest in political threads. It doesn't. It means a large number of people opened the thread. A great many may then see it's Merkan political stuff and simply close it. That's not a measure of interest (I'd say 400 views and only one reply is in fact a measure of complete disinterest).

Here's an example of how it happens... a thread entitled "Cuban Hurricane" caught my eye. I thought "Oh chud, don't say there's another one heading towards NO already!" But nope, it wasn't. That one got political (and boring) really quickly.

Nor is the number of replies any indication of the amount of board interest in a political thread. There could be 120 replies to one of them, but that doesn't mean diddly if it's just three or four of the usual suspects flaming each other. That just means three or four people out of thousands are interested. Except those who view it as a spectator sport of course. Those threads get a lot more views after they're locked.

[Nanohedron]

Hmm. Most of the time when someone waxes political in a pub, my eyes glaze over and I just nod my head, saying, "Yeah...yeah...". Funny how the other one never seems to notice.

[fiddleronvermouth]

I didn't vote because there's no "I don't give a toss what Dale deletes" button. Although I maybe should mention the reason I don't give a toss is that I don't bother coming here any more because I *liked* the political and religious threads, a billion times more than I like all these threads about how the political threads are ruining the atmoshpere of the Chiff & Fipple, which I had my doubts about to begin with, since the only reason I'm aware of its existence at all is due to a couple nasty threads started here (and NOT deleted, which is kind of interesting, I think) *entirely about me* and my comments at the session.org, with a clear focus on what an idiot I am (thank you toasty, you charmer you).

FYI, if anybody *does* go off and start a board for political / religious / philosophical discussion with other trad musicians, let me know. I like the mental exercise. I'm off to go back to talking to the taoists. They're way less cagey about what I can and can't talk about.

Thanks weeks, jack, blackwood, bloomfield, annie, lorenzo, and especially simon, plus the others whose names have slipped my mind at the moment, for some great conversations, broadening my horizons, giving me something interesting to think about at work. You're all very bright and I appreciate your skilful self-expression despite our different points of view.

[GaryKelly]

Have you ever been to pubs in Europe? Often politics is all they talk about...

Have you ever been to pubs in the UK? Occasionally politics is discussed when there's a General Election looming. US politics is discussed with about the same frequency as the exchange rate between the Zloty and the Butut.

[Blackwood]

Historically, and as recently as a week or two ago, I was largely sympathetic with the "just don't read the thread" idea.

Hm I wonder what happened....

(edited by moderator to delete overly LARGE image file depicting a violent uprising)

edit by poster: let me try smaller

[TomB]

[quote="GaryKelly US politics is discussed with about the same frequency as the exchange rate between the Zloty and the Butut.[/quote]


Hey now, I've got all my retirement $$ invested in Zlotys.

[SteveShaw]

Have you ever been to pubs in Europe? Often politics is all they talk about...

Blimey, if you started talking politics in the pubs round my way you wouldn't last five minutes!

Steve

[jGilder]

If this was supposed to be a "fun thread" as you posited somewhwere back, why aren't people getting it? It's worth asking.

It was a fun way of presenting a serious topic. If I just started this topic without the Old West Allegory I doubt it would have made it this far.

"Fun way," eh? You are being disingenuous in the extreme now. Your "fun" poll starts with a leading question with pejorative undertones regarding the actions of a person we all have the greatest of respect for: "Does Dale have a hair-trigger on his delete button?". This was just snide. That's what I think anyway.

That's your opinion... but I still know what my intentions were. You can speculate all you want... but it still won't change my intentions.

[amar]

Historically, and as recently as a week or two ago, I was largely sympathetic with the "just don't read the thread" idea.

Hm I wonder what happened....

dale stated what happened, i believe.