geeogree : If you don't like it, disallow it. Simple as that. Some people on here actually think its fun to do. I could care less about it. But don't say they have "no purpose" just because YOU don't like it. I actually think it serves a purpose, especially to the newcomers to the site. If some newbies see a certain elimination thread and participate in it, they may think that this site and/or forum is fun to be a part of (and it is). I completely agree with what Surgiac said. Its also sounds like to me that you don't understand or like them. If you ban them that's fine, but stop complaining and do something about it.

The bottom line is, as I said before, if you don't like it then get rid of it as a whole. I don't know what else I can tell you.

Kruzer : I'm leaning towards your idea. We have limited ask anything threads in the main forums to 3 I think (me, David, Jordan) and I think that is a good number. Mine is going away soon so there might be room for a new permanent one soon.

I think that is the best solution though. Allowing just a few to exist so that they are available to post in but they aren't at the top of as many forums as they are now.

I also think they shouldn't be stickied threads.... no need to put a game thread as stickied if there is a group that strongly supports them.

I'll probably have a decision about this very soon that hopefully appeases both sides.

I dislike them. I don't think they really have much to offer. I prefer threads that actually go into some sort of conversation or sharing things they like, not just the same droning thing over and over again.

I consider those type of threads borderline spam personally.

geeogree :

I don't know.

I actually think there's a noted difference between AA's and Elimination threads. AA's don't have set results, and can prompt deep and meaningful conversations. For example, I've been known to answer questions with 1,000 word replies, simply because the question one asks of you is deep enough to deserve a thoughtful well, and well crafted answer.

With an elimination thread, no matter how much effort you put into a post, it's going to be 99% what the previous post was, with only 1% being content you yourself add, or edit. At that point, it goes beyond spam into just awful posting, plain and simple.

I'm of the opinion that the best thing that can be done is moving all elimination threads, period, to Crazy House. That forum is already 99% spam, and if I recall, gives out less Viz and such to people who post in there. If they are really doing it for the fun (I think, honestly, it's a combination of that, and inflating meaningless word count/word average), then they won't mind the lessened Viz payouts. This solves a few issues, I feel. First and foremost, it moves the "spammy" threads to the "spammy" forum, which should please any elitist members who are openly complaining about elimination threads (like myself ). On the other hand, however, it keeps the threads around (even if there's a limit on them), so the users can still post in them for fun.

If there was a way to code Elimination threads to be worth 0 words, then I think they'd be seen as a less of an issue. Like it or not, there's a stigma around users who participate in those threads heavily. Just another case of people being people.

I get why the elimination threads are spread out on site. MLB/NBA/NHL elimination threads make sense in the sports forum, for example. But I feel it also lowers the quality of those forums, simply by allowing something that provides literally nothing of real value to the forum, and provokes no actual thought or discussion. The point of forums, I thought, was to discuss things. The point of Crazy House, I thought, was to give people a place to dump their mind farts, so it wouldn't get in the way of the people who wanted actual discussion.

legacyme3 : that's why I figure we allow only a few and probably have them in a place like the crazy house or video game crazyness and maybe polls and questions rather than the more serious forums. That's sort of what I had in mind. That way the spam is contained in those places. People can still play the elimination style games but they can easily be avoided by those of us who don't want to see it.

geeogree :

Sure, but I think it has to be noted that the word spam is real.

They are literally copying 99% of the previous person's post.

For example, this recent post in the sports elimination thread, is close to half completed, but the user gained 90 words as a result of their post.

While I think post experience is silly, and so is "average post experience", it does kind of take the point out of the system, if people can game the system so easily.

legacyme3 : I completely agree that they shouldn't count.... and I have some reason to believe that there is something about at least the crazy house that discounts either Viz gain or something from these posts.... I know that's not much but it is something. Still, to get 100 words per post from copying and pasting is ridiculous. It's taken me a minute or 2 to type out this post (I'm assuming by the time I'm done) but it would take me 5 seconds to copy and paste and change the numbers in a few places.

However, I also don't want to eliminate something completely that is popular among at least some members of the board. The face that I don't like it doesn't make it all bad.

geeogree :

Right, which is why I wish it was possible for David to code something into the board for thread creators/mods, where you simply toggle a box, and all the words in that thread simply don't count.

So if you want to make an elimination thread, all you have to do is check a box, and viola, no issue from anyone. And if they conveniently forget, a mod, can check the box.

It would be like ignoring the words in each individual post, but quicker, and better.

legacyme3 : that would be awesome but I doubt it would be high on his priority list at any point. Doesn't seem like an overly useful option compared to other things he's working on. I feel like I say that about a lot of ideas lately. They would be nice to have but not really urgent or a high priority.

Oh well. I have somebody on the job of listing out the restricted threads again so we should get them back under control soon.

I honestly haven't updated these since 2014. I was kinda just hoping they'd eventually die out, which did happen for the ones I was running.

But yeah they're a pretty stupid forum game that was always about people taking out things they didn't know about or just playing it to mess with the numbers. It's a shame people didn't use them for their intended purpose (a fun way for the community to decide what their collective favorites are) but at least they're mostly gone.

I made them before Post Exp and I found people have just been abusing them for the word count, which I really wanted to go through each thread and ignore words for each person while I was a mod, but I never got to it.

I'm guilty of replying to a few of them a long time ago. They really don't serve much of a purpose other than taking away points from a bunch of options that share a similar topic. It's pretty mindless and it doesn't require a lot of thought or effort. For the most part, they don't contribute a whole lot to the forums. It's ridiculous that they used to count as posts/points towards the TDV (at least I think they get closed during TDV months now along with hangman threads right?).

Nonetheless, I'm not a huge fan of them. 

well, we've already sort of dealt with this issue.

We have limited the number of each type of thread in the main forums to 3 and limited most forums to a max of 2 of any type at one time.

Hopefully this keeps them from getting out of hand again. I don't mind having a few here and there but when each forum has it's own ABC or elimination thread it gets pretty tedious. Same with the ask anything threads. If there are more than a few then they become redundant.

I shall see if it is popular since I created such a thread regarding video game music. In general I think these threads are interesting, depending on the subject.

I think I meant to close this thread the last time I posted in it.... I shall rectify that this time