Lately , it seems , the locks are a bit TOO freely slapped on threads here that really in my opinion shouldn't be closed . The "website for sale" thread is a great example , one poster behaving badly and BAM ! the thread is locked , whatever happened to moderating problem posters rather than just taking the easy way out and locking the thread ?

When problem posters get moderated , the problem poster gets corrected and the conversation continues . When problem posters are allowed to get threads locked due to their bad behavior , the problem behavior not only doesn't get corrected , it gets rewarded , because the entire conversation gets closed off to ALL posters which is exactly what the problem poster wants .

Tell me , if one person goes into a very popular thread , oh like let's say the "over 50" thread for example , and begins goading all the other posters are we gonna lock that one too , or are we gonna moderate the person who deserves the moderation while leaving the thread open , as should have been done with the "website for sale" thread ?

This is a discussion forum , or at least that's what I thought it was , when we are so free to squash discussion due to the misbehavior of one poster aren't we doing nothing but stifling the discussion for everyone ?

PS , everybody here's opinions , even those that counter mine , are of course most welcome . I really am curious if other folks here think threads are too quickly locked , and if the better course would be to moderate the posters instead of closing the discussion .

Double post , please disregard ....

I don't like the way you think.

You are far too well adjusted.

I agree 100% that closing a thread because of one persons actions is very unfair to the rest of the group.

And I will say sorry to you gents (Including moderator Andy) as I think I contributed to the reason why the moderator took the choice of action he did.

I have been all over the webernet, frequenting forums not viewed by me in a very long time and low and behold, I think I find out why the member who was stirring things up was coming across the way in which he was. Sounds like he was singled out on the site he didn't like.

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...0&postcount=10

Well you certainly don't owe me any apology jend, the only thing you were guilty of in my book was telling the truth. That particular person has a history of being very bellicose on this and other forums but somehow seems to get away with it. I do my best to just ignore him.

Well said toppers , Jend did nothing wrong here .

Thing is , whether it's the "website for sale" discussion or any other , or whether it's this particular poster or any other , the pattern of moderation activity here lately at RCU almost exclusively centers around closing the thread rather than moderating the poster whose causing problems in the thread . It's the forum equivalent of "Billy won't stop hitting the fellow baseball players with the bat , so I'm taking the bat away and NONE of you are gonna be playing baseball" , rather than giving Billy the corrective action required to ensure that the majority of those doing the right thing are allowed to continue doing the activity they have come here to participate in .

When the management of I.B. is here trying hard to figure out why so few post here anymore , maybe it should be considered that moderating problem posters will allow discussions to continue , whereas locking the thread in it's entirety because of the problem behavior of one poster is the forum equivalent of the host walking into the middle of a dinner party and screaming "EVERYBODY OUT , THE PARTY'S OVER !" , which action do you think is gonna result in folks wanting to come back here to post some more ?

Thank you both.
The point your identifying with Init, is very good and it would be nice to see an explanation from the Moderation team as to why they are doing it the way they are. Do you think that the moderators treat some members differently?

Hi Jend ,

No I do not think the mods treat some members differently , because that would be a pre planned favoritism and that's not what I think is going on here . I'm not gonna put words in the mod's mouths or say I know for sure why certain actions are taken , but I can offer my theory as follows ;

I believe the mods are trying to too hard to be TOO nice to the posters , even the problem ones , by not saying a negative thing to them directly , and just closing any thread where someone , anyone , behaves badly . My guess would be that they must think killing any thread that has even the slightest contention , rather than speaking directly to someone getting out of line , is gonna anger the least people and won't drive away yet another poster angry because they were spoken to . Thing is , sure they haven't offended the problem poster by calling out the bad behavior , but the net result is that every other participant of the thread gets offended because they are now locked out of a conversation they were having and not behaving badly in .

Somewhere , I think it may have been in the AMA subforum , RC Ken said he would not close threads , he'll moderate folks who make trouble in the threads instead . I'm just wondering whatever happened to that policy ?