Hello Kevin, On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 11:27:04 -0700 GMT (27/07/2004, 01:27 +0700 GMT), Kevin Amazon wrote:
>> You'd better know what you are doing. KA> I'm sure I will be admonished and rightly so. Just responding to your KA> message makes me a contributing factor in the problem I would like to KA> solve. I meant it tongue-in-cheek, but it is up to the moderators to decide whether my reply to yours is still appropriate. >> Do you know a guy named Schroedinger, by the way? He once had a cat... KA> Too funny. This comment may be more true than I yet realize. You gave me an opening. I took it. That's the kind of guy I am. Cannot resist. :badguy: >> I don't know about forums, but this I learned on the Usenet: When >> changing the subject, repeat the old subject in parenthesis, preceeded >> by "was:". Whoever replies to it, will take the string with the >> parenthesis out and leave only the new subject intact. KA> To be honest, I don't frequent USENET as much as I used to but at the KA> time, changing subjects was considered a violation of "Netetiquette." It may well be that Nettiquete is understood differently across newsgroups (especially across countries, and most of the NGs I subscribe to are in German), but then, this isn't a newsgroup. KA> Perhaps that has changed. I used to mod on a couple of forums and KA> changing subject within a thread was just not allowed. No matter. >> What do you suggest instead? KA> You are pinning me down. Good for you. :-) I'm an MBA graduate! :graduate: :-) KA> To be honest, it is up to the mods to determine how they want to KA> run the group. My issue is simple. I am trying to justify rolling KA> out TB to multiple users and I have to assess the usability of TB KA> considering the fragmented and minimal documentation. KA> Consequently, I go to the archives to find out from other people's KA> experience how to better use the system. I am annoyed that when I KA> do a key word search, totally extraneous material comes up because KA> of the changed subject lines. My task is therefore made more KA> difficult. I don't follow. If the subject is changed, it won't show up in your search any more, would it? KA> If it were my board (which it isn't), I would not allow the changing KA> of subject lines. New topics should have new subjects in a new thread. We have experimented with deleting the references for new subjects on the OT list. The result was that the history of the thread was lost, and it was useless for those who wanted to go up the thread and see what the line of argument was. KA> Minor deviation of subject matter contained within a post to a thread KA> should definitely be allowed and monitored by the mods. What I am KA> seeing now appears to me to be mass "thread hijacking" under the guise KA> of "if I modify the subject, it will be OK." That is how I see it KA> anyway. Others will certainly have different opinions. It's not how I see it. Threads should not be hijacked, of course, but some threads develop different "arms", and it is a poster's responsable decision to change the subject or open a new thread. We should change the subject of this thread (again) if we continue, but now I have the feeling we should continue on TBOT anyway. -- Cheers, Thomas. Moderator der deutschen The Bat! Beginner Liste. Man: Hey baby, what's your sign? Woman: Do not enter. Message reply created with The Bat! 2.12.02 under Chinese Windows 98 4.10 Build 2222 A using a Pentium P4 1.7 GHz, 256MB RAM ________________________________________________________ Current beta is 2.12.03 | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html IMPORTANT: To register as a Beta tester, use this link first - http://www.ritlabs.com/en/partners/testers/
