Quote from: rebuilder on June 21, 2011, 05:18:04 PM

I don't mind moderation, when done in, well, moderation. I do mind when I cant judge whether the mods are doing their jobs well or not. I can't judge for myself if I agree a thread was out of line if it's been deleted.

Mods, if you feel you need to shut a thread down, why not just lock it? Some other forums feature a "trash bin" section where "deleted" threads go, still available to read, but not cluttering the main forums. Maybe this would be something to look into here?

Can anyone give a good reason why deleting a thread would be preferable to just locking it, absent legal reasons and other force majeure?

A lot of times, deleting threads rather than moving them is harder on the database as well. So there's that benefit.

However, I think the idea of just moving threads that you and others have suggested is great. But a trash bin is just as bad as deleting. People post bullshit so that others will read it. Nobody reads threads in the trash bin.

Having a specific "no rules" subforum has worked for a lot of big forums, and ones much rowdier than this one (Somethingawful has FYAD, 4chan has /b/, Offtopic has, well, I guess the main forum). If you give the idiots a specific place to play and call their own, they won't make irritating posts in other forums as often. Just make a forum with no rules except what is obviously illegal and let people post to their heart's content.

Or, wait, did I just describe the newbie forum?