Sometimes I hate zots

Free Republic ^ | Oct 19, 2011 | fightinJAG

[fightinJAG]

Sometimes I hate zots!

Yes, posts can be stupid and zot-worthy, but still end up generating very useful, substantive discussion.

A lot of freepers just invested a whole bunch of good discussion time in a thread that, yes, when first posted, was zot-worthy, but which morphed into an excellent and useful discussion on the 999 plan.

Pulling such a thread, after it has developed into a solid, substantive discussion of the issues, to me, is like letting the kitties win.

At least only lock the thread so it can still be read and the posts are not deleted from everyone's account.

Many people work hard on their posts, in terms of making the best arguments they can. Disappointing to see them go poof after a couple of hundred posts just because the OP may be a troll. Punish the trolls without wiping out a good discussion.

My first and only rant vanity on FR ever.

Good day.

[OKSooner]

IBTZ?

[SueRae]

Looks like I missed a good one. :-(

[fightinJAG]

Yes, you did.

And it was getting better.

Also there were more than the usual participating, which made it a really good discussion that had a few different points brought up.

[nerdwithagun]

I like the really off the wall ones made by people even most democrats would go, “that's crazy ****!” One I'm thinking of is some nutter saying we shouldn't mow laws, as grass is a “living being” or somesuch. If she wasn't zotted, she could still be making ridiculous posts of tree-huggery and we could still be making fun of her :(

[reagan_fanatic]

It is more fun when the mods let them hang around for a while so we can roast them. Some zots happen almost as soon as the thread was posted. How can we have fun with that?

[Bean Counter]

I know exactly what you mean, and part of the problem is who gets left with the keys to the kingdom at night. Some Admin Mods are a lot more reasonable than others, and at least one of them is an outright activist prude.

In the past few months a new paradigm about what is and what is not acceptable here has developed, and as usual, with no formal guidance being issued or announced we are all left to guess about exactly what that new paradigm really is.

Good luck.

[JRios1968]

IBTZ!

[newzjunkey]

I absolutely agree. That discussion was going some where important.

I'd just composed a lengthy reply only to find out the thread was pulled when I clicked "Post."

[Red Badger]

Sometimes the posts are moved to the black hole of Bloggers and Personal or General Chat...............I’ve never met General Chat, what’s he do?........................

[Red Badger]

...like letting the kitties win. ....

[New Jersey Realist]

The policy is “Please NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.” If someone violates that she/he should be kicked off but leave the thread so the rest of us can read it. This reeks of censorship to me and I’m a lot disappointed.

[MaryFromMichigan]

Perhaps you could ask to have it returned, if only to the smoky back room.

If it is reinstated, please ping me.

Sounds interesting.

[Responsibility2nd]

One thread I’m thinking of now was up for better than 12 hours. Had nearly 400 replies.

Jim Rob himself zotted the entire thread.

I’ve said it before - I’ll say it again. It’s either rudeness or laziness that they do these things again and again.

[USS Alaska]

I guess that I missed a barn burner.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

Generally, it’s a policy that has reduced my desire to post here - and I’ll bet that’s true of others who attempt to further substantive discussion beyond simple “talking points”.

[Darksheare]

In before the Undead.
Oh wait...

[fightinJAG]

If the thread is nothing but videos of Viking kitties and snarky remarks, okay.

But if the thread has developed into a real and useful discussion — the reason FR exists — and especially if it has gone on into the hundreds of replies, zotting it at that point is everything you said. It just makes me not want to put in all the work it takes to post well (as least as well as I can).

Again, if for some reason they want to lock the thread, that at least preserves the discussion, the replies that went out to freepers and so on.

[fightinJAG]

I will do so here.

Please reinstate the carmike thread on the 999 plan that was just zotted.

Thanks.

[fightinJAG]

It wasn’t so much that it was more of a barn-burner than usual, but that a good discussion had developed and there seemed to be no point in zotting it at that time.

Also, as I mentioned, it was the type of thread that attracted some people I don’t usually see on the Cain threads. They raised some different points and thus engendered some debate from new angles. That’s always a great thing to have going.