New Topic Creation Limiting Feature

Hey guys- I've just added a new feature that will prevent members from creating a new topic for one week if the member has 2 or fewer reputation votes AND one of the following conditions is met:

1)the last topic created by the member had to be merged by a moderator

or

2)the rating of the topic is at -5 or lower

Note that for condition #2 to be met, the topic also has to be a non-news item. This is to prevent let's say a member who has 2 or fewer rep votes posting a news article of some writer ragging on the Lakers from getting hit. That topic will likely get a bad rating, but because it has a link in the opening post/the topic-staring post, the member who posted the news is not affected.

To prevent condition #1 from happening, please be sure to post trade ideas in the official trade thread and post your thoughts on the game in the official game thread.

Thanks everyone for your input and cooperation and I hope this feature will help reduce clutter on the main page and reduce the work load on the moderators and myself!

Dave

Love this Dave!

great idea to keep the front page uncluttered

I like it!

Thanks Dave, great idea.

this is stupid

lol

Thanks Dave.

Good idea. Lets keep this forum organized.

Decisions based on topic ratings always have me a bit iffy, because someone could have a legitimate, but unpopular opinion that would get downvoted to oblivion. I wish that could be left up to the moderators to decide, and not the general populace of LTB.

I disagree. If it's a quality topic/quality post, even if it's "unpopular", I doubt it be dropped to -5. This is more targeting topics like "The best trade ever" and "The game pissed me off", where they should have landed in the trade idea thread and the gameday thread, respectively, instead of a new thread being created.

Besides it's not like the "offending" person is banned from posting or anything. He just can't post a new topic for a week. And again this only affects members with 2 or fewer votes.

8)

LOL at the Ltb'rs that are against this lol. Quality over Quantity is better when it comes to posting. Dave is doin a good thing here, by not makein the the forum cluttered with topics that shud be discussed in their rightful threads. If you hav a problem with it, keep posting quality posts and get that rep up.

I just trust moderators more than mob mentality. If the ability to give a thumbs down was limited to posters with 2 votes, I would be more in favor of it, but as it stands, anyone has that ability, and anyone can just make 5 accounts to thumbs down a topic.

If I cared about reputation, I would just curry favor with other posters, because there are some people being given reputation for posts with no substance. I'm not speaking for myself when I disagree with this feature being implemented since I don't post new topics much myself, but for someone new who has legitimate topics that people just don't agree with and thumbs down.

Good idea Dave...but i get what thatguyoverthere is worried about. I just hope that second choice will not make things here more personal, you know what i mean; i f you don´t like what a guy thinks about, for example, Kobe, you could get that -5 really easy. I understando your point, trying to get the forum more organized. As i said, i just hope this new choice will not go back like a boomerang, against us.

Thats why there is a thing called read the guidlines before posting. Sum ppl dont read it, the newcomers usually make an acc, and then jus post new threads that already have their own topic, i feel sumtimes ppl make new threads jus to get repped. Mods seem sick of having to merge thread after thread, so implmenting this will make the forum cleaner and make the newcomers post on the relative topics. Also most of the threads being posted up by new comers are opinions and feelings. Like Dave said, for ex "im pissed at the game", or "wut do u guys think of this trade." All hav their own threads in gameday and trade idea. Sum ppl jus post new threads like up the assss. Like i said, mods are sick of it, and jus want to make forum cleaner

I mean if many ppl thumbs it down cuz its prolly takeing up too much space in the forum or its jus a low quality post, (im not sayin bad, jus becuz all post deserve sum recognition.) If ppl thumbs down for no reason, than thats jus messed up, but most of the time, its usually threads not relating to Lakers forum, or either redundant posts. Thats the only way i see threads being thumbs down

Put it this way, if a newcomer had written a blog post like SPQR's "Kobe on a Pau trade: He shows he's full of ****", he/she wouldn't be able to write another blog post for a week, since it's currently sitting at 6 thumbs down. I just want to prevent that from happening, but I do understand that the wave of newcomers posting the same thread is a problem. The issue isn't for me to decide, but I thought I'd just get my opinion out there.

This is a very good and well thought out idea, very much appreciated.

Hi guys- I have made a minor update to this feature. I have made it so that a member who is not a moderator AND has fewer than 50 positive votes who posts a thread with a -15 rating will not be able to post a new topic for one week. That doesn't mean he can't post, it just means he won't be able to create a new topic for 1 week, dated from the creation of the -15 or lower thread. -15 is a very low rating and very few (less than 0.1%) of the topics have every gotten that score, so chances of this being triggered will extremely rare. If the topic is a news article topic that contains a link, the topic poster will NOT be affected (as described in my original post of this thread).

If you run into any issues with this update please let me know- thanks guys!

Now THAT's what I was hoping for as soon as I saw the thread lol.

Either that or the mods deciding on whether the topic deserved to be there.

Great job Dave.

BTW, this applies for non-mods or for everyone in general?

Perfect. Also, banning that beans clown would be greatly appreciated. Lol.

Everyone except mods and of course Dave.

Yup pretty much everyone except members w/ 50+ positive votes or if they are mods.

Looks like it's time for me to start putting the +/- feature to good use. And I already know which people are going to dislike this feature.

Why don't we just call this new rule what it is and call it the Anti-MSDS/Anti-Lakerdude rule? Can we all just recognize it for a blatant attempt to censor certain site members?

Oh Lord lol

For some reason I don't have a problem with this. I'm tired of only having the option to talk about Andrew. Great job Dave.

Yup, I'm gonna go on a negging spree. LOL

good I hope i dont see anymore I love andrew bynum topics started.

The Andrew Bynum hate on this site is disgusting. It makes me not even wanna post here anymore. I'm out

Tailspin,

Just curious, why was that your only option? Does someone put a gun to your head and force you to talk about Bynum? Does someone put a gun to your head and force you to go to a Bynum thread? Read it? Participate in it?

Does someone put gun to your head and make you not go to other threads? Does someone put a gun to your head and force you to not start threads yourself about other topics, or to not post on threads about other topics?

What brings on this feeling of helplessness to control your own fate and decisions here?

I would ask that of all the others who endlessly flock to the pro Drew and anti Kobe threads- for lack of a better term- like lemmings jumping off a cliff? Why do you consistantly go to threads that will piss you off, read them, participate in them, respond to them, keep them current and going for days or weeks on end with your participation and posts, then complain about it?

You know what happens if you ignore a thread, right? It fades away.

I sure hope some of you guys have more control in real life, over your life, than you do on the net where one gets the impression some of you are totally helpless in your actions.

See, what I do is if I see a topic or thread I don't want be involved in, I don't go. I don't read it, I don't write about it. I go where interest draws me, I write about what interests me. I don't let others control me, because I am not a lemming. I have control of what I do here.

Why is that simple ability to control your own decisions here, seem so difficult for so many that you need Big Brother to start censorship so you can function ok here?

We are supposed to be living in the land of the free....

SPQR,

I guess I misrepresented myself. I don't participate on any Andrew threads, I'm sick of talking about him. Like you pointed out, I ignore those threads but it makes it hard to participate when half of the thread on the front page are about Andrew, or Kobe vs. Drew. I'm just saying personally, I'm done with the Andrew threads, if you like many other here enjoy talking about the same thing, then more power to you.

Tailspin,

I stay away from this endless Drew-Kobe thing. It has been done to death and does not interest me.

Its not that hard to particpate in other threads. I do it all the time. So why is it honestly so hard for you or anyone else? Lets be honest about this. Its not hard. Just some of you guys love the idea of censoring Drew threads or threads that question Kobe.

And censoring any threads sucks in my view.

When there were tons of anti Drew threads on here, I never once wanted or even mentioned to Dave or anyone else to limit or censor them.

Like I said, we all have the choice to attend the threads we want or create any threads we want, and any reason to rationalize censorship of someone elses thread is a lie. It is just a bald faced attempt to silence someone who some people don't agree with. We are free to go to any thread we want read any writer we want and ignore any writer or thread we want. Its very easy. I do it everyday. So do you. And so can anyone else, if they so choose.

There is no need at all to censor a member who does not break the rules. Well there is one, to silence him.

And we all know it.

Not necessarily, LSD.

They simply won't be allowed to make new threads everytime they believe Bynum has been slighted even if there are threads which are already present which discuss the exact same thing. But they can still air their views on the topics already present which already discuss about the same damn thing.

And we've talking about a -15 rating. That's almost impossible to get!

Remember the Drew injury thread which had about 1.3k posts or something???

Newer posts were appended to the thread and I never thought it was a problem for anybody.

So tell me LSD, how is it the anti-lakerdude or anti-MSDS rule???? MSDS never even starts a topic!!!

A certain thread reached (-15) votes with about (-7) negative votes in a matter of hours. It is now at -18. Heck, the Kobe vs. Bynum thread is sitting pretty at -22 which happened in like 3 days.

But the fact of the matter is that we aren't censoring anybody!!! This rule would let the post stand, if according to the mods, it deserves some merit and presents its case in a unique way and talks about new dynamics or suggestions.

This rule would also help the users air their views at an appropriate place.

The users won't be banned from posting.

@Dave, best take a poll among the mods about this issue. How about this :

When a new topic is posted, if any designated mod gets more than a fixed number of posts believing it's the same old hashed eggs in new packaging, then the mods would need to take a vote on that topic.

If the majority thinks it deserves to stay, so be it. If they don't, then append it.

In the meantime, the thread would be allowed to stay on the main page for probably 2-3 days ( since this is the POs and I'm pretty sure atleast 5 mods attend the site on every game day ) and that would give it time to let it run its course and see whether it branches into an entirely unique discussion which deserves to be present on the main page.

I know this is gonna make life more difficult for the mods. Also, I don't know the viability of making an exclusive poll for only the mods. But if it can be done, I believe it's worth a shot if people detest Dave's proposal.

What say?

Come one, KS V2, lets keep this real.

Someone said the same thing you did. That 15 would be very hard to get. I said it would happen easy because of the dynamics of the fans here. And it happened in a matter of an hour.

If were gonna talk about this, lets keep it real and not play games.

You know and I know and everyone knows why the 15 is easy to get because of the nature of the threads involved.

Okay then............the mods deciding sounds better I guess.

There's the probability of certain fans who do agree with the thread not being online to vote positively for that thread in a given time interval.

But anyways, you guys are probably right on this issue. Mods get to vote sounds better????

SPQR,

I know I'm going to sound like a total @ss but let me start with censoring is wrong. I guess I'm just selfish and I want to limit the number of threads that have no interest for me. I haven't said anything until this proposal from Dave. I guess I'm not the only one that is getting sick of limited options. More is more, and I want more. I like a variety of more options, and having half of my options eliminated, is not cool with me.

I don't have a problem with just letting anybody post-up any threads they want, just don't expect me to be happy about it. I will not deny anybody their rights, but if this keeps up, something has to be done. And clearly I'm not the only one that feels this way.

Tailspin,

I do understand. I know you are not alone in how you feel. I just practice my own brand of censorship by not getting involved or even reading posts that don't interest me. It is an easy thing to do. Just don't know why everyone can't just do that.

It appears people are putting my name on their posts in this thread. I suppose I will only get one thread a week from now on because not too many agree with my positions. It doesn't make them right, but they just don't agree. I guess I'm at a loss on this one. A lot of posters will see someones name on a thread they don't like, and will now fall in line to put a negative next to it. Are threaders, who most don't get along with, being pushed out?

Luckily for me I rarely make more than 2 threads a week, so it shouldn't be an issue for me, but this does seem to be a little unfair to posters who people don't agree with them on their issues. Maybe I should go back to praising Kobe all day like I used to, because that got me votes on this site. Maybe if I did enough of those old threads, I would eventually get past 50 votes and be free to talk about what I want to talk about without fear of being shutdown.

i totally agree on this...so we can have a sensible thread to discuss... "constructive and more knowledgeable" threads....

Very disappointed in this censorship rule and I think it's horrible that you are specifically being targeted, lakerdude. I feel bad for you, man and I really don't like this kind of unfairness. Very discouraging stuff.

Hopefully all the Drew fans can pool their resources and get you to 50 rep votes. I just gave you 1

Great idea Dave. I don't know what the big deal is, all the threads end up being about Kobe vs. Drew anyways.