posted
...to create and maintain a thread more than 1 page long that does not stray from topic?
Of course, I recognize that this is providing a great temptation for some of you out there to post something on this thread that is completely irrelevant to the topic.
Can you resist? Posts: 684 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
It has been done. But pretty much only when the thread has a very clearly defined topic, and is shepherded by at least one person who is invested in keeping it on topic.
Since this thread lacks much in the way of a topic, I suspect it ain't gonna happen. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I wasn't clear enough. This means the thread cannot have even one post off topic, and this thread has already been disqualified by the second post. Posts: 684 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
The "Interesting, Space Related News" Thread has done a pretty good job of staying on topic. It may have meandered once or twice, but it's generally stayed pretty close to its intended subject. Of course, that's more of a link warehouse thread than anything else, so I don't know that it really counts.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
"I wasn't clear enough. This means the thread cannot have even one post off topic, and this thread has already been disqualified by the second post."
whoops, sorry my bad. I'll do better.....
hey, it IS a butterfly!
Posts: 870 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
Even the space thread has at least 2 posts off topic. One off-topic post disqualifies it, and this one has already been disqualified.
This post was not meant so much as a question or a challenge, more of an observation in the form of a question, if that makes sense.
Posts: 684 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
It's a good observation. I like that threads wander into new topics. Of course, sometimes it's annoying to read a 10 page thread, have something to add to the discussion on page 3, only to find out that the conversation on page 10 is completely different now.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Well, by definition none of the old Anything threads had any off-topic posts, since they were used to talk about any subject that struck the various posters' fancies.
The last post threads would be another example of a thread that can't be knocked off course, since by definition anything posted in them is, when posted, the last post, and so is on topic.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Bravissimo bras are available in the States as well, I think. Mostly through various online retailers, though.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I think threads are more interesting and fun when they wander whither they will. As Survivor once said, having a group is like having 4-wheel drive, the whole point is to go off track.
It was my observation, as well, that whenever anyone said "but that's a whole different topic, I'll make a new thread" both the old and the new thread tended promptly to die.
So freely allowing threads to wander all over the place is a longtime cultural tradition of hatrack. It's not just because we're all ADD, I promise. <halo smilie>
Just think if we didn't do this, we could treat ourselves to all those posts full of topic nazis berating people for wandering off topic, like they have on other forums. Those are so much fun! Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I have seen some that some of the longest threads stay squarely on topic: Last Post Thread (in all its incarnations) -- every single post on that has been the last one.
Begging the Question had been going for a while, don't you think?
Ask the Rebbitzen is a classic on-topic thread.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I prefer to have conversations with my friends. Conversations are fluid exchanges, and that is both cool and interesting, in my book.
I don't wish to restrict others from being rigid about imposing constraints on themselves and those with whom they chose to interact. Those exhanges just don't typically appeal to me as fascinating conversations, so I often turn my attention elsewhere. Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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quote:This means the thread cannot have even one post off topic
You're asking too much. This is a friendly conversation board, not a formalized debate board. We are under no obligation to make sure every single post is directly related to the first. Debates need to stay on topic, but friendly conversations do not. It just doesn't work that way.
Trust me, I know how irritating it can be to start a thread on one topic and have it drift into something completely unrelated with no hope of bringing it back to the original topic. But if some people are still discussing the topic at hand, then a few wandering posts here and there do not qualify as derailing. It's just the natural flow of conversation.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I didn't get the impression that Marlozhan was advocating rigidly on-topic threads, or saying that the fact that our threads meander was a bad thing, or I'd have said much the same thing as Tatiana and CT have. I thought he was just playing around, and challenging us to come up with a thread that had actually stayed on topic. I could be wrong though.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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And I didn't get the impression that CT or T felt that he was advocating anything, I just liked what they said.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Oh, yeah, I loved what they said--I couldn't agree more. It just occurred to me that other people seemed to be interpreting Marlozhan's intent differently than I was, and thought I'd say something.
Edit--my post was actually more in response to Verily's last post than to any other single post in the thread.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Nowadays we can edit the thread title, too, to indicate what direction things happen to be going. I think that's a nice feature, and it's turned out that I have checked out threads for the first time after they've gone through several parenthetical notes in the title, and seem to have morphed into something I want to know about.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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It's well within Hatrack's abilities to let a fluff thread turn into a discussion where Feelings are Hurt. :)
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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My intentions for starting this thread were purely for fun. I realize that there are some threads that never stray, such as Begging the Question, and I don't think it's a bad thing that they stray, at least most of the time I actually started this thread because I was reading the Christopher Walken thread and was interested in reading more opinions on the second page, only to find a long discussion on democratic nominations and the like.
Again, I'm not complaining, it just inspired me to start a thread on the subject
I do believe some of the best conversations start from off-topic comments.
That being said, I don't want to see another post on this thread that is off topic!! Posts: 684 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
For a classic example of a meandering thread, check out the walnut thread. There's history, crafts, puns, a few minor misunderstandings, a difficult but delicious-looking recipe, some pretend anger: it's got it all, I tell you!
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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