A rule of thumb is this: effort in, effort out - and we expect some effort. That 'know thyself' is a classic topic (for instance) is not enough for it to be a thread. That a topic merely 'is of interest' is not good enough. We don't need a hundred threads saying "Plato: discuss" - even if Plato is a giant of philosophy. A thread ought to provide some meat for people chew on, perhaps and ideally a line of reasoning, a elaboration of confusion (if any), some explanation of position, etc. If you don't write a thread with at least a little bit of substance, you can expect it to be deleted or moved. It's not much to ask for. The standards on this forum are lax.

Again, much of this has been dealt with before, and is linked to in the site guidelines. @Baden's https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/7110/how-to-write-an-op is an excellent reference point.

Another wrinkle to the puzzle is @Baden's [url=http://classic]https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/7110/how-to-write-an-op[/url]

This is incredible textbook stuff, but if a layman wants to vomit up some thoughts, which might be pretty interesting, but don't conform to such a useful model, can't he do it? If he does, and it's profound, but too woo-woo, he'll be smashed into the trash compactor of the dreaded Lounge, will he not?

This is incredible textbook stuff, but if a layman wants to vomit up some thoughts, which might be pretty interesting, but don't conform to such a useful model, can't he do it? If he does, and it's profound, but too woo-woo, he'll be smashed into the trash compactor of the dreaded Lounge, will he not? — Noble Dust

Yes. No vomit thoughts here, and no woo-woo. I don't know why anyone would even want that sort of stuff here.

All I do is vomit up woo-woo thoughts. 24/7. Even on Christmas.

I think the idea behind the forum moderation is that we have basically some of the worst posters on the forum given moderator status. I feel quite confident that if something doesn't meet their standards that it must be quite awful and fully support that thread getting closed.

I don’t think @StreetlightX wants to be your friend.

Well, you know what to expect then.

But to be real here, I'm not accusing you mods of not going by the rules that you go by. I'm just questioning the rubric of what makes something worthy of the trash bin, and maybe more importantly, I'm annoyed that The Lounge is essentially the trash bin. Can you comment on that? Am I missing something?

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/8591/least-favorite-moderators

Earlier in the week @StreetlightX dumped a thread I started on Imaginary numbers - thrice, which gave me the shits at the time. But he was right, the thread was not suitable.

There are a lot of really shit posts on this forum. And a few gems. I would like to see more folk get the boot for being shite, but that's why i won't do the moderator's job.

If you don't like the forum, bugger off. Something I indeed do, periodically, but for some reason I find myself back here, periodically.

And if you don't like that, go watch The Cain Mutiny.

There are a lot of really shit posts on this forum. And a few gems. — Banno

So should the majority of threads be in The Lounge then? Not readable on the main page? Since most of them are shit, per you.

If you don't like the forum, bugger off. Something I indeed do, periodically, but for some reason I find myself back here, periodically. — Banno

Trust me, I mostly bugger off.

So should the majority of threads be in The Lounge then? — Noble Dust

Roughly half.

Tell that to @StreetlightX, I guess. If you mean it.

The Lounge sucks. It's current existence is indeed a kind of pragmatic compromise. I don't like it, but it's better than having tens of people a week whine about why their (poor quality) thread was deleted. The old forum had a dedicated place for actually terrible threads - I think it was called the black hole or something - and it was an absolute clusterfuck, like, it made me nauseous even skim reading it. If not that, and if not outright deletion, the lounge atm serves as a kind of purgatory whose existence is necessary for keeping the main page at least somewhat of OK quality.

Lucky for you the site guidelines don’t mention anything about being mean.

There's a reason for that.

That's helpful to hear that aspect of the old experience (saying that honestly). I do feel as if a push for heavier moderation has come in the past year or so, but maybe that's my own perception. But, along with that perception, is the sense on my end that some decent threads have gotten pushed aside that could have yielded beneficial discussion otherwise. Again, I think of my own early threads a few years ago that I'd be embarrassed to even re-read, but yet they still stand, not in the lounge; and I learned something from them, and I don't doubt others learned something not from me by reading them. So it's not just a question of how smart the thread or the OP is, but also a question of the quality of the discussion that follows the OP.

Should roughly half of threads be moved to The Abyss (er sorry) The Lounge?

I’ll keep that in mind.

I do feel as if a push for heavier moderation has come in the past year or so, but maybe that's my own perception. — Noble Dust

That’s an anecdote!

Yes, but we - mods - can't follow every thread with a fine toothcomb and curate them that way. Decent OPs generally make for decent discussion, and its a rule of thumb that has been proven mostly effective. We probably lose some good stuff because of it, but again, it's a balanced compromise we have to make.

There's a reason for that. — Banno

Low post quality. Too few words.

So are you saying that mods aren't able to read all replies to all threads? That seems totally reasonable, but then the question becomes "how does a thread get relegated to either The Lounge or to deletion?" Surely all comments should be read in the thread before it's tossed somewhere? No?

it’s not an OP and you are not a Mod.

Fair enough. I'll stop the chit chat now before the cranky users (and mods) get annoyed.

I could be wrong, but I think that would be...a phrase categorized properly as a...joake? ghoke? jaoc?

Yes, it was.

Good job !!

I pretty much agree with @StreetlightX and @Banno. I think we're too lenient. There's too much low quality stuff on the forum, because the mods are busy dealing with flaming and trolling.

@Noble Dust In my view, Baden's post on how to write an OP lays out an ideal, and casual discussion topics are sometimes all right so long as they're not stupid. Banno divides opinion, but I think his topics are examples of OPs that haven't taken a lot of effort but which are not stupid.

I do feel as if a push for heavier moderation has come in the past year or so, but maybe that's my own perception. — Noble Dust

There hasn't really been a concerted push for heavier moderation of low-quality posts. Every so often one of the staff might say to the others, "let's get rid of all this X crap", or "can we stop X from posting all this Y", but very often we don't see it through strictly, and we've been doing that from the start anyway.

What has changed is that we've become less tolerant of racism and sexism, but that doesn't apply to most of your examples.