To lock or not to lock, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the spams and rants of outrageous posters or to take moderator stance against a sea of drivel? To kill, to lock, to lock perchance to stop the weariness of spam and preclude it's useless nature? Aye, there be the rub, for what posts may come when we have shuffled off this thread coil? That we suffer the ills of discontent'd posts rather than fly to other threads we know not of. For fear of locking makes arses of us all and to delete is most unfavoured, bringing rude temperment and censorship to our forums.

Hope that answers your question.

Sir S

Edited by - Sir Spectre on 4/3/2004 3:40:08 PM

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Mods, please do not lock this for sheer ironic value.

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Kinda wish I was a moderator right about now...
Locking is generally useful, for a number of reasons that you wont understand until you start getting wishes like the one I stated above
Deleting posts would (in most cases) result in a "posting war" until a considerable number of people get their asses ip-banned.



Careful what you wish... You just might get it.

The benefit is, it's hard to argue with the Mods once your thread has been locked!

k i will put it from a former spammers point of view

if the thread doesnt get locked and his posts r deleted, he will just go back and post again. and if those are deleted, he will go back and start flaming the moderator. so it is not pointless to lock

*i removed the chain letter from my sig*

Locks are full of some gray areas by design due to the different timing and profile of the lock-ers themselves. There's certain quirks that bug the bejesus out of me that others couldn't care less about. Certain topics are off limits regardless of who locks them of course.

Although we admit it's not an exact science, the alternative is much worse.

Indeed! Chaos would reign supreme over TLR if we didn't have *click*-happy Mods!

I dunno, I think in some threads people need to get a warning, then some action after it if it isn't complied with. Some just need to be locked, and quickly.

Unfortunatly, most mods go for the latter action straight-away.
I don't know ...........





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"There's no such thing as miracles or the supernatural, only cutting-edge technology" - Ocelot
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Although we admit it's not an exact science, the alternative is much worse

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If it were an exact science, we could have a program to do it!

Although, it might be beneficial to delete the digging posts to make the threa die again instantaniously

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I think in some threads people need to get a warning, then some action after it if it isn't complied with.

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We do try to do that, but it's not always the best course of action. Some posters shouldn't need to be warned (ie they've been around long enough to know right from wrong) and two, some posters are so moronic a warning would be like pissing on a bushfire.

But if I come across someone who is new and is inadvertantly causing grief, I will gently push in the right direction, if they don't seem to get the gist then i'll start watching them like a hawk.

Warning schmarning I've seen a tendancy of those being warned to take issue with the warning and flame away anyway. Locking doesn't necessarily prevent flaming in a new thread but it at least keeps one tiresome thread from
growing. Click away Mods!

At least I caused one mod to covert from the usual routine ......

I'm in total agreement with my twin bro Stinger on this. There are grey areas at times, and there are things that simply bug the bejesus out of me, but don't necessarily cause me to lock a thread unless it' violating our rules. Sometimes there are threads which begin just fine, but then we get to the third or fourth page of it and the posts go to "screw you" "wtf" "yo moma" and the like. Those get locked because they've become a waste of time. If you want to continue the intelligent conversation that began the thread, simply start a new one.

Deleting offending posts and leaving the ones surrounding it makes no sense. Then someone reads the thread and wonders what is going on. We'll edit spamming nonsense, then lock, explaining our reasons, and leave it there for others to see what we don't put up with.

As for moving to different forums. C'mon, the forums are so clearly marked as to what should be said there that the idea of moving threads is a waste of our time. As for spoilers in the discussion forum, I'll edit and lock every time. THAT bugs the bejesus out of me, and is a clear violation of our policies.

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The Next Thing I Say To You Will Be True
The Last Thing I Said Was False

Edited by - Boscoe on 4/8/2004 8:01:19 PM

Also what i see it as is that people who but "cheating sites up" or something to that effect, the mods change it so say no your dont or something to that effect, and type their explanations then close it for an example to the other people who might do the same thing. This effectly cuts down on people putting cheating tips or sites and even cloak people from posting the same questions over and over again.

Just a thought...

It may be a thought, but it requires some deciphering!