Rob Beckers
18th October 2014, 12:50
We seem to have collected a few members that are in the habit of posting what amounts to 'empty' comments. That either have no bearing on the thread they respond to, or are so overly vague and general as to constitute "non-content". I can only guess as to the reasons why anyone would post those things, what comes to mind is an attempt to create back-links to sites for SEO purposes (where content does not matter, just links from authoritative sites, to increase the standing in Google searches). While it is not quite as obvious, or obnoxious as out-right "trolling", it still falls in the same category, where such posts detract from the actual content.
I've been pretty hands-off so far when it comes to editing/moderating posts, but the realization is that a forum is only as good as its content, and allowing these empty posts to continue only serves to drag the level of discourse of the forum as a whole down, in the process driving away those members that are interested in good content.
With that in mind I will from now on simply delete vacuous posts. If there is no content, it will get deleted without warning. I'm not talking about responses that are part of an ongoing conversation in a thread; such as "that is a great project", or "well done Jim". Those things are fine when used in context. What I mean are replies that vaguely comment on someone's commitment to green energy, while at the same time managing to be out-of-context.
If anyone feels that they have been deleted unfairly, send me a PM and I'll review. Meanwhile, let's get back to making this a great place to be on the Internet!
-RoB-
I've been pretty hands-off so far when it comes to editing/moderating posts, but the realization is that a forum is only as good as its content, and allowing these empty posts to continue only serves to drag the level of discourse of the forum as a whole down, in the process driving away those members that are interested in good content.
With that in mind I will from now on simply delete vacuous posts. If there is no content, it will get deleted without warning. I'm not talking about responses that are part of an ongoing conversation in a thread; such as "that is a great project", or "well done Jim". Those things are fine when used in context. What I mean are replies that vaguely comment on someone's commitment to green energy, while at the same time managing to be out-of-context.
If anyone feels that they have been deleted unfairly, send me a PM and I'll review. Meanwhile, let's get back to making this a great place to be on the Internet!
-RoB-