Actscelerate.com

Methocostal

Big Brother is watching ACTs posts now

Friendly Face Posts: 496 **10/9/15 9:12 am**

This may get me banned, but this topic needs to be discussed. I am very discouraged by the recent threat to ban topics deemed off track. I posted the response below on another thread, but perhaps it needs its own discussion.

I haven't read the offending post, however, this general attitude lends an air of big brother watching our every move. I'm ADD and have a very difficult time staying on topic - within my own posts. However, even for normal people, isn't being "off topic" in the eye of the beholder?

In my opinion, responding to posts are a form of artistic expression as literature is considered a form of art. Often, I have an off-beat approach to a lot of topics, thereby, am I always guilty of hijacking? IMO, hijacking would be interjection of some type of advertisement or something along those lines -- not by adding humor, or offbeat commentary on a serious thread.

The result of this censorship will be posts that may be "intellectual", but boring. If one wants pure intellectual discussion, then read your professional journals. Can't the humorless posters simply skip past the posts that interject humor to read the serious responses.

Seriously, I do think this heavy handed approach results in squelching response because we (or at least I) never know when the big brothers watching over me will consider my post to be hijacking. IMO, hijacking is in the eye of the beholder.

Is this REALLY where we want to go? We have enough political correctness in our everyday world. Why can we not have a forum where we have the freedom to be ourselves without the threat the censorship and banning.

GOOD GRIEF

Methocostal

Friendly Face Posts: 496 **10/9/15 9:25 am**

Brillant example of what, even I, can see as hijacking Smile

Good job! I liked it.

Ernie Long

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1050 **10/9/15 9:56 am**

I give my tithes and I don't drink alcohol

Dave Dorsey

Dave Dorsey · [Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 13654 **10/9/15 9:58 am**

The points you make are very fair. As a result, please understand that the rule will be enforced with an extremely light hand.

The enforcement of the rule is aimed at gratuitous hijacking of threads -- threads in which a poster submits something that is very off-topic and/or endeavors to turn a thread toward his or her pet topic. Humor, offbeat commentary, or anything else that is reasonably relevant to the thread at hand is not a violation of this rule. Taking a thread that someone posted about topic Y and trying to redirect it toward topic X is.

Thanks for your thoughtful remarks. If you have any other questions we would be glad to answer them, and if you have any other points we would be glad to consider them.

Quiet Wyatt

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 12802 **10/9/15 9:59 am**

Pretty sure only one poster in particular has any cause for much concern about this.

Aaron Scott

OTCP...read the above

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6032 **10/9/15 10:02 am**

Dave Dorsey

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 13654 **10/9/15 10:11 am**

I can assure you there was more than one poster in the discussion when we were talking about this.

The bottom line is that the forum has lost a tremendous percentage of its viewership year over year, as demonstrated by Google Analytics stats. We have heard the same complaints from many people in regard to board flooding by certain posters and posts from the same posters that derail other threads. Again, I can assure you there were multiple posters in this discussion.

As it stands, you have posted a thread worrying that mild enforcement of a rule that already exists will hurt the forum. The forum is already dying. We have lost many, many people who come here for serious discussion because they know their threads are going to be derailed by off-topic nonsense. Board flooding and derailed topics are not the only reason, but in my estimation they are a primary cause.

If anyone has a better idea about how to foster an environment that encourages those posters to return, please let me know. Otherwise, I guess just keep railing about us being asinine and childish, as the esteemed DrDuck chose to put it, for the way we are volunteering time to try to make this forum a better experience for everyone.

Old Time Country Preacher

Re: OTCP...read the above

Acts-pert Poster Posts: 15570 **10/9/15 10:29 am**

roughridercog

As a long time poster...

Acts Mod Posts: 25306 **10/9/15 11:11 am**

I've seen this coming. We hope this can help people post freely and perhaps posters who have left the board may return.
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Doctor of Bovinamodulation

c6thplayer1

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6385 **10/9/15 11:26 am**

I just hope it doesnt trickle down to proper punctuation or over use of periods......

JLarry

Metho

JLarry · Acts Mod Posts: 3346 **10/9/15 12:24 pm**

What if you posted a thread about, lets say about cooking with grease or olive oil and someone comes to your thread talking about some nonsense that has nothing to do with your thread and someone follows by responding to the poster then your thread leads to something that has nothing to do with what you intended.

The Admins and Mods are here to protect your thread as much as anyone else.

There is no fun in being an Admin or Mod. We are all volunteers who do not complain about our job or responsibility.

We do this because we believe discussion groups like Actscelerate can make a difference.
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No one who died without Christ is happy about their decision.

Eddie Robbins

Acts-pert Poster Posts: 16509 **10/9/15 1:18 pm**

DrDuck

Re: Metho

Acts-celerater Posts: 755 **10/9/15 1:20 pm**

Aaron Scott

That's not why Acts is dying...

Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology Posts: 6032 **10/10/15 1:57 pm**

I believe that the real reason is that, in an effort to push out those it didn't agree with, it continued to do this until it lost critical mass. This site used to be the most read "Church of God" website.

But banning (instead of suspension) sent many away.

Some, angered at their treatment, stayed away permanently.

Others toned it WAY DOWN to "fit" or not to reveal their true feelings.

Yes, the most egregious things needed to be dealt with, but few if any were worthy of the "death penalty" of banning. And many were just minor issues to begin with.

I don't know if we can ever get it back...but I'd like us to try.

Dave Dorsey

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 13654 **10/10/15 2:04 pm**

Aaron -- there have only been a small handful of people banned in the lifetime of Acts, and only a single poster in the past 3 or 4 years that I am aware of. In fact, I have been doing this since 2008 and I can only recall three posters that have been banned in the eight years I have been a moderator or administrator of this forum.

I really appreciate your input on this topic, but the basic assumption underlying your assessment is completely, 100% incorrect. Just an FYI.

roughridercog

Re: That's not why Acts is dying...

Acts Mod Posts: 25306 **10/10/15 3:25 pm**

Mark Ledbetter

This post reminded me of a story I read.

Golf Cart Mafia Associate Posts: 2109 **10/10/15 7:07 pm**

There was a she-bear with two cubs. She spend her time teaching her cubs how to forage but no matter how hard she tried one cub spent more time chasing butterflies, smelling flowers and frolicking with grubs it found under dead logs.

Finally it came time to shelter for winter hibernation. The she-bear and the cub who mastered foraging were prepared but the cub that failed to forage properly didn't have the nourishment needed to survive the winter and in the spring the she-bear found it dead.

I don't know why this post reminded me of this story but it did.

E pluribus unum.
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Cojak

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24282 **10/10/15 9:35 pm**

It doesn't take but two or three guys/gals who don't mind posting their minds to keep the posts alive. I do see some REAL hijacking, but usually it isn't a real hijack. But I don't read all the posts. I certainly miss some posters who were not afraid to speak their minds of several subjects, not just one.

I will admit that not being a pastor, many of the posts are above my pay grade unless they deal with history.

But I miss a few who knew how to stir a pot, and in doing so, not that they were 100% right, but they generated some wise retorts. I miss 'em. Embarassed

I have no insights of rejuvenation, I wish I did...... Question

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Methocostal

Friendly Face Posts: 496 **10/12/15 12:38 pm**

Thank you sir, I'm glad to see it isn't intended to be a heavy censorship attitude.

I can appreciate the difficulty of monitoring what is going on and I can understand it is a difficult, thankless, job.

I'm sorry if I overreacted as I think it just hit me wrong when I read the original post that gave rise to my comment. Being one that is prone to A D D, I truly worry that I could be interpreted of hijacking. In my weird little mind, I actually see the connection in my posts. However, I also know that in person to person conversations, people sometimes scratch their head to follow what I'm saying Smile

My wife laughs that I can digress in mid sentence, talk for 20 minutes and return precisely where I left the topic Smile

However, to me, everything during the 20 minutes made perfect sense Smile

I just march to a different drummer sometimes Smile

Thank you for responding to my post and for not banning me ! Smile

Methocostal

Re: Metho

Friendly Face Posts: 496 **10/12/15 12:41 pm**

JLarry
In the previous post, I just mentioned the difficulty the mods have and I appreciate your efforts. I am absolutely sure there is "no fun" in being a mod.

Thank you]
Meth (I almost signed my real name lol)