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Author Topic: Things that go poof in the night  (Read 986 times)
silicon_rain
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« on: July 29, 2007, 01:16:09 PM »

I seem to remember reading several threads by a new poster last night that weren't there when I got up this morning. 

Did I wake in a parallel and slightly different universe from the one I fell asleep in?

Insights?
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mirandaf
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« Reply #1 on: July 29, 2007, 01:19:35 PM »

There were some threads - many of them, actually - from someone in Saudia Arabia, I believe. They were there around 8am today, and then gone an hour later. Is that what you're thinking of? I assumed the moderators removed them.
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silicon_rain
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« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2007, 01:27:38 PM »

There were some threads - many of them, actually - from someone in Saudia Arabia, I believe. They were there around 8am today, and then gone an hour later. Is that what you're thinking of? I assumed the moderators removed them.


Thanks.  Those (at least the few present when I logged off last night) were the ones.  They didn't seem particularly objectionable.  I guess things can get pretty mean pretty fast around here.
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qrypt
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« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2007, 01:36:14 PM »

I guess things can get pretty mean pretty fast around here.


Not at all!  Well, if you believe that Noah took dinosaur eggs onto the ark with him, you might get some flak.  But I think in general it's a very friendly place.

"Bestfriends" just didn't understand the notion of a discussion board - all he did was start threads - many threads - and then disappear. 
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fiona
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« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2007, 01:36:40 PM »

Vendors of genital warts often appear on these threads late at night, in the guise of spammers.

I often comment on that, and my comments and the spam are removed by the next day.

This comment may not last long.

The Fiona
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The Fiona or perhaps La Fiona
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larryc
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« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2007, 01:43:06 PM »

The poster was some young Saudi with very limited English skills looking basically for pen pals. It was hard to make much sense of his posts but basically he wanted to chat to improve his English. 
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silicon_rain
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« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2007, 02:45:29 PM »

The poster was some young Saudi with very limited English skills looking basically for pen pals. It was hard to make much sense of his posts but basically he wanted to chat to improve his English. 

Thanks to all.  "Bestfriends" didn't seem to be a bad sort and the thread on mud castles was kind of funny.

Bestfriends,  if you are still reading, good luck.

Thanks again.

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yellowtractor
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« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2007, 03:31:45 PM »

I confess I miss the part about "inserting the heaven."

OP, the Mods have a variety of reasons for nixing threads.  Sometimes the thread was a bad or nasty idea to start with and degenerated further.  Sometimes the thread was spamming or astroturf--ads or other gimmicky posts, to which the regulars responded gleefully.  Sometimes, as in the case of BestFriends, the thread was started by somebody who really didn't understand the purpose or protocols of the forum.

The last time I saw BestFriends' threads--late last night--there was nothing "mean" on them.  LarryC summarizes why the threads really weren't appropriate for this forum.  I assume the Mods decided to delete them out of a sense of kindness and discretion, as they did with the person who posted her original song lyrics (looking for "feedback" (and got more than she bargained for)) a few weeks back.

My inner archivist always twitches when a thread gets summarily deleted, rather than simply cut off, but then my inner archivist has Issues of his own.
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« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2007, 05:32:37 PM »

I assume the Mods decided to delete them out of a sense of kindness and discretion, as they did with the person who posted her original song lyrics (looking for "feedback" (and got more than she bargained for)) a few weeks back.

I must have missed this one.  <pout>  What was the thread called, and who was the OP?
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daniel_von_flanagan
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« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2007, 06:14:29 PM »

The last time I saw BestFriends' threads--late last night--there was nothing "mean" on them.  LarryC summarizes why the threads really weren't appropriate for this forum.  I assume the Mods decided to delete them out of a sense of kindness and discretion, as they did with the person who posted her original song lyrics (looking for "feedback" (and got more than she bargained for)) a few weeks back.

I'm probably the meanie here.  Early this AM his threads started appearing at a tremendous rate, about as fast as I could look at them.  He started to cut-and-paste articles from other websites and just dump them here (for example, his articles on the history of TV and computers were simply lifted from elsewhere).  I  pointed this out to the mods.  Had they not stopped him, Meet and Greet would soon have become nothing but bestfriends posts.

That said, I'm not sure that the threads which had actual content (like the mudcastle one) should have been removed. - DvF
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fiona
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« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2007, 06:36:01 PM »

I think ya did the right thing, DanielVF.

The Fiona
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The Fiona or perhaps La Fiona
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larryc
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« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2007, 06:40:49 PM »

I think ya did the right thing, DanielVF.

The Fiona

Absolutely. He meant well but this was not the place.
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daniel_von_flanagan
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« Reply #12 on: July 29, 2007, 09:19:21 PM »

I think ya did the right thing, DanielVF.

The Fiona

Absolutely. He meant well but this was not the place.
Thanks.  While I've been reading the forum for a long time, I've only been active a few weeks, and I was very conflicted about whether it was really appropriate to interfere this way. - DvF
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« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2007, 10:21:31 PM »

Yeah, I'm on the fence about those threads too.  The guy was trying to communicate.  Nothing bad really.  But the English was whoo bad.

That enough to kill a post?

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