[scoobs]

Originally Posted by habibko

we have always been reminded that this is not a democracy and that the rules of the site applied by mods' judgment is the arbitrator on this site, then why do you delete threads based on how a minority of fans react to it, bearing in mind that this happens many years after it was accepted by moderators as a valid thread?

in this case you now have posters who are offended by the fact that you have deleted a funny and light-hearted thread, why do you listen to the pleas of one side and completely ignore the other?

and finally, which rule are you following exactly when you delete a thread like this? and if such a rule exists, what is the set number of complaints needed to delete a thread? we need this rule cleared out so users can start lobbying against threads that we think should rightly be deleted.

The rules have been tightened since the thread was created, and it seems that resurrecting it proved that these threads just become magnets for flamewars and haters. We're following the rules about threads being worthy of discussion and the rules about threads being closed if they no longer generate useful discussion. The rules in this regard are quite flexible to allow them to cover all contingencies. It's not a question, either, of bowing to one side and completely ignoring the other - all voices are heard, doesn't mean that everyone is going to be happy with a particular decision, though.

Originally Posted by fabolous

scoobs, i sincerely ask you if you have a quiet moment of time, sit down and read your posts in here and also in the discussion about bad reps thread. because the way you are answering to posters lately has become very very poor.

Can you elaborate? I think I tend to give quite thorough answers - perhaps I can come off a bit rude and abrupt at times, but I'll work on that.

Originally Posted by Action Jackson

Hmm, Nadal vs. God thread got deleted, well because a minority of people aren't able to take a joke, that's not a surprise sadly. Problem is the actions of these crybabies and yes they are crybabies, especially when the Djokovic haha thread got closed. It was a sign a player made the grade and the match result threads were mostly talking about the respective matches.

The consequence of this is now the match threads are mostly flamewars, with hardly any discussion about the matches.

This is revisionist history - the match threads were seriously polluted with crap while those threads existed - the only ones who posted in these threads were those who liked to mock the player in question but in a gentle taste with a dash of humour - the usual haters, then, as now, went into the match thread and set up base camp there. Then the fantards invaded the threads, the haters responded, and they spiralled down into a mess, which was ultimately why they were closed down.

Originally Posted by Aenea

I totally back up the idea of a "Recycle bin" section to be created on this board. There are many posters who are never/rarely discussing tennis but are only here to gloat when a player loses a match or bash and insult those that they hate and I am not talking about pocking mild fun but posting hateful/mean comments. Now match threads which are not about Matosevic beating Mannarino have turned into ha-ha threads if you haven't noticed yet. I have to comb 15+ pages to find 5-6 posts about the match if I am lucky. What is the point in closing ha-ha threads and letting all ha-ha posts all over GM?

If this were a straight choice between "recycle bin" vs "pollution of GM with this crap" then I'd be much more likely to back the idea. Unfortunately it isn't - people will go rant in the "breakout room" and then go back into GM and rant in there as well. It seems to me that the problem here really isn't that people can't express themselves how they want to per se. The problem here is that there are many people on this site who want to be antagonistic, rude, offensive, crude, baiting, disruptive, malicious and insensitive to people who disagree with them, and are constantly looking for ways to get "official" approval to do that, often with well-argumented posts that they wouldn't dream of using in, for example, a GM match thread.

In the off-season I opened a thread in the feedback section asking members to feed back with suggestions on what we could do to improve the site. This idea about a no holds barred section was one of them, but like Slokid I don't think they really work and I've heard nothing to convince me it's worth giving it a go. Beyond that, the ideas were few and far between and limited in scope.

In fact, experience suggests that if you relax the rules in one area, that spreads out to other sections of the site - the ACC last year was case in point - people in there went to town on each other for weeks and weeks and did they all play nice when it was over? No - the silly nicknames and name-calling and general unpleasantness just transferred - to GM, to chat threads, to non-tennis. So to me it's a non-starter.

[safin-rules-no.1]

Moderation on this site is very good in my opinion Granted that RagingLamb loses control and goes berserk every now and then, but other than that it's just like most other internet forums.

[GlennMirnyi]

Chris, let's call a spade a spade. That thread was deleted because of whining and complaining from people without any sense of humour, envious that they could never make such a great thread. Instead of matching such a high grade of humour, they decided, out of pure spite, to whine and whine and whine until it got deleted.

[Action Jackson]

Originally Posted by scoobs

This is revisionist history - the match threads were seriously polluted with crap while those threads existed - the only ones who posted in these threads were those who liked to mock the player in question but in a gentle taste with a dash of humour - the usual haters, then, as now, went into the match thread and set up base camp there. Then the fantards invaded the threads, the haters responded, and they spiralled down into a mess, which was ultimately why they were closed down.

I never said the match threads weren't polluted, just nowhere to the point that they are now. There were threads you could actually talk about tennis albeit a very small amount which has now further reduced.

Yes the hahaha threads were juvenile and silly but had a place, it got the shit out of the system and concentrated in these places. The Djokovic one was the thing that set it off, it was those people who thought their family honour was insulted and overreacted to the extreme, yes the vocal minority has been catered for. Glenn is right that thread was only deleted because of a few humourless people. Racism, wishing injury, death, threats and shit like that have no place here, but there has to be a better balance.

So how are the pissing contests and flamewars going to be reduced?

[fabolous]

question: why was the "thread for those with no GOAT" deleted?

[Hewitt =Legend]

And also I see the "Did tennis exist before Nadal" thread got deleted as well... geez some people just need to relax..

[l_mac]

The "Forum Name Change Imminent" was moved first to off topic and now seems to be locked?

Why? It didn't have any bad posts/fighting in it at all. Another opportunity for light hearted banter lost

:retard:

[Cloudygirl]

Originally Posted by l_mac

The "Forum Name Change Imminent" was moved first to off topic and now seems to be locked?

Why? It didn't have any bad posts/fighting in it at all. Another opportunity for light hearted banter lost

:retard:

Sorry didn't see your post I started a thread to ask the same thing. It wasn't abusive at all.

If it's permanently locked it's a completely ridiculous decision especially since the thread originates from 2008, why acceptable then and not now?

[Sunset of Age]

Ridiculous indeed.

[Johnny Groove]

Originally Posted by scoobs

We're following the rules about threads being worthy of discussion and the rules about threads being closed if they no longer generate useful discussion.

Then surely 99% of the threads here should be closed?

[scoobs]

Originally Posted by Johnny Groove

Then surely 99% of the threads here should be closed?

I doubt you'd like it if we closed 99% of threads.

[scoobs]

Originally Posted by l_mac

The "Forum Name Change Imminent" was moved first to off topic and now seems to be locked?

Why? It didn't have any bad posts/fighting in it at all. Another opportunity for light hearted banter lost

:retard:

It's been left in Off Topic but I've checked it out and it's been reopened. If it descends into vileness it'll probably be closed and left closed though.

[scoobs]

Originally Posted by Action Jackson

I never said the match threads weren't polluted, just nowhere to the point that they are now. There were threads you could actually talk about tennis albeit a very small amount which has now further reduced.

Yes the hahaha threads were juvenile and silly but had a place, it got the shit out of the system and concentrated in these places. The Djokovic one was the thing that set it off, it was those people who thought their family honour was insulted and overreacted to the extreme, yes the vocal minority has been catered for. Glenn is right that thread was only deleted because of a few humourless people. Racism, wishing injury, death, threats and shit like that have no place here, but there has to be a better balance.

So how are the pissing contests and flamewars going to be reduced?

Rubbish - match threads were only slightly better then than they are now - difference was some posters, like myself for one example, used to attempt to discuss the match more in them and now I just don't bother.

Okay let me ask you this: What do you actually want?

Because I'm getting a lot of complaining but no clear indication of what you guys want to happen. So what do you want to happen, and if it does happen, what are you going to do to help make it work?

[ExcaliburII]

I want my TennisExperts thread back to were it belongs, thanks

[Johnny Groove]

Reopen the roasting threads, scoobs.

At least when we had roasting threads for all the top players, the vileness was kept in there and the match discussion could actually take place in (who would have thought?) the match result thread.

Now, the vileness has nowhere to outlet, and is spread all over GM, including of course match result threads.