Bill!, Edgar,
One of the weak characteristics of the YAHOO! Zen Forum is caused by the excess
liberty that some posters take with changing the title of a thread.
I see this as an extreme NEGATIVE.
It destroys the integrity of a thread, where by "integrity" I do not mean some
vague moral advantage, but the integral-completeness and dedication of a topic
as begun by the OP (original poster).
When the title of a thread keeps changing, so does the topic. This constant
morphing invites off-topic posting, because, well, there *IS* no topic, anymore.
Could you two Moderators, and Owner, please, in your draft of the policy for
behavior on Zen Forum, include some guideline(s) about thread-titles, and
please encourage members not to change them.
It's my feeling that, once a thread has begun under one title by the OP, it
should NEVER be changed. This encourages good and due concentration on the
topic of the thread, and helps to eliminate large swings away from the topic,
and of Zen, in general.
Too many posts are too chatty, and not devoted to ANY thread title, original,
or changed. One reason is the willy-nilly changing of thread titles: Leave
them alone!
Keeping the integrity of a thread also allows the thread to be researched
reliably on the Website, where all posts go to enjoy immortality.
Not on YAHOO!, but other "board" software makes it more obvious how this virtue
of thread integrity is actually valuable: you can see all the thread titles of
current activity, and can join or avoid certain ones. And you can be sure the
discussion will be on-topic, in any thread.
On our Zen Forum, here, it seems that "anything goes", in any thread, because
focus is *diffused* by posters obsessively/excessively/incessantly changing the
subject, AND changing the thread title.
What we get is "mush".
Mush in, mush out.
This is a major weakness thus far of this board, and a causative origin of some
of its wild meanderings, and incivilities. When threads become co-opted by
others and thus over-personalized, things become personal, and off-topic.
Let posters begin NEW threads if they like, and not sponge-off of concentrated,
dedicated ones.
I hope you can see a way to discourage the changing of thread titles in the
guidelines of any draft- and adopted-Posting/Replying policy.
thanks!
--Joe
> "Bill!" <BillSmart@...> wrote:
>
> This is the policy Edgar, Al and I have come up with regarding future Posts
> and Replies. Please review it and return comments preferably publicly or
> privately if you must to Edgar or me.
>
> ***************************
[snip]
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