OT talk

[kalle]

I think this is a very nice forum, but a few threads goes off topic, so that it is more difficult to read about the things the thread is supposed to talk about.
In some threads even moderators take part in OT talk, for example
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=20050
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18658
Personally, I think this is too much OT.

If there are many OT posts, or OT posts with several lines of OT talk, it disturbs my reading and I feel that there is a risk that the thread degenerates.
(This is not a big problem here, but it has occured in two of the 50 threads where I have posted so far.)

[ouch]

Since I'm the moderator in question regarding both of those threads, I'll comment.

I'm surprised that the "hijacking" of the first thread upset you, since it didn't offend the original poster. If the topic is about products that conform to a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle, how can a discussion of v/v-ism be considered off topic? How can anyone offer suggestions if the intent of the originator is not precisely known?

The second thread was yours, so I'm sorry if I helped to lead it off track. I was also remiss in not directly answering your question, so let me do so now- rinse your razor until you are satisfied.

[kalle]

Thank you for your reply. Since I haven't been a member here more than a few weeks, I don't know if this was something isolated, or if the policy here is more tolerant towards off topic discussions than my ideal?

Regarding my first example; while it wasn't my thread, I did find it interesting enough to post in, so I would prefer that it to be about the topic. (I find that jokes about vegetarianism is OT in a thread about soaps without animal products.)
Posts about potentially sensitive subjects (politics, religion, or animal rights in this case) is something i prefer to avoid, as it easily leads to OT, flamewars and is bad for a good atmosphere, such as the usual atmosphere on this forum.
If I should reply to your post in the "vegan soap" thread I would take the thread more off topic, and it would be difficult to reply without being unfriendly to you, and thereby disrupting the good atmosphere in this forum.

[Kyle]

kalle,

The policy here regarding OT comments is likely more tolerant than your ideal. Certainly there are occasions when the banter leads further away from the subject than it should, however, members' freedom to "visit" with each other is one of the things that makes B&B the close knit community that it is. We are kind of like a reference library with a personality. :biggrin:

[Jim]

Kalle,

I think that the way you have brought this up-with respect and thoughtfulness should be commended. The only point that I would disagree with is that humor can and has diffused some posts on this board that have started to veer wildly for the worse.

As a suggestion you may wish to post a "please comment/stay on topic" caveat to your threads.

Ultimately this is a board of opinion and eventually we all will disagree. I think that to some extant thats the point.

Thank you for your contributions and participation.

[paydepst]

Anybody got a cased President they want to sell me? I tell ya I've looked everywhere and no......uh...hmmm..oops!!

:biggrin:

Couldn't resist! Good ol' B&B mischief!!

[rtaylor61]

kalle,

Glad to have you hear, and I appreciate your input and thoughts. B&B is a pretty friendly and informal place. Yes, a number of threads do tend to get sidetracked. I know because I am a culprit from time to time. But within a limited scope, we do tend to allow it to happen. But remember. This is a forum about shaving. Think about it. Shaving. How silly is that? I have a co-worker who uses a DE, thanks to me. So I emailed him some instructions to print at home. And he printed them at work. Another co-worker found them on the printer and was heard "cackling" for quite some time. Unfortunately, it was my boss. He looked at me, literally with tears running down his face from laughing so hard, and said, "directions for shaving???" How stupid do you have to be to screw up a shave?" It is a limited number of men who take shaving seriously. I take my shave seriously. But as far as the topic...let's have some fun. Otherwise we could post stickies and have no participation.

Randy

Randy

[kalle]

Thanks a lot for the answers!

rtaylor61: I do not hope that this will become a completely serious forum where you are afraid to joke a little! On the other hand, there are some threads which maybe are more "silly", (like SOTD perhaps?), and other threads where someone is seeking information about something, and maybe will not get this information if the thread goes too much OT.
In the second example I had asked a question myself, but didn't think I would get an answer because the thread went OT. Luckily I got a good answer in the 14th post!

[rtaylor61]

kalle,

I'm glad you got the answer you were looking for. And please, don't think I am being disrespectful to you or any other forum members. But some things in life are hard to take seriously based on our own life's experience. I will use today as an example. I sell cars for a living. We are having an off-site sale in which over 70% of our staff is participating. We are extremely shorthanded at our store, and I have customers who are purchasing a new Honda Pilot EX-L. Since we are extremely short-handed, the wait for the business office to sign the purchasing documents will be about an hour. We are having food catered in, and I offer them their choice. A burrito. Beef, chicken or pork. The choose not to eat, because they are vegetarians. I excuse myself to go to another room to laugh out loud. Why? They are buying a Pilot EX-L. L stands for LEATHER! It is not PLEATHER! It's not VINYL! Now, no disrespect to any of our member vegans. But if you are going to commit, commit! So sometimes members will comment based on their own experiences. This is just an example. And for our members who are vegans and committed to the cause, I mean you no disrespect. I believe that we should all follow our own compass. But for those Charlie Brown folks (meaning wishy washy), make up your mind!

Randy

[kalle]

OT:

Ok, I will post an OT post here, regarding vegetarianism!
I have no idea why those Honda buyers were vegetarians. Personally, I don't eat meat because I don't like animals being treated cruel and being killed for my food when I can eat other stuff. But I still own some shoes with leather in and a badger brush!
I do the best I can, but I can't go to extremes in everything, because I live in this society! I have no intention of going to live in a hut in the forest and make my own clothes out of bark so that I can have a perfectly clean conscience!
As for this comment in the other thread:


There's always going to be that "line" which one sets, and it's different for different people. Why is plucking a fruit from a tree less invasive that shearing the wool from a sheep? Where do we stop? Monera? Protista?
...
When you eat a vegetable, you want to eat it when it's alive. If you listen very carefully, you can hear the tiny screams as their cell walls collapse.

Now vegetarians are quite common in Sweden, so I don't hear this as much as I did ten years ago, but I think most vegetarians have been in the situation that you are on a dinner or a lunch and someone looking for something to say sees that you have different food and want to discuss vegetarianism, and something which always comes up is this "plants have feelings too". I have heard this hundreds of times, and I think most vegetarians have, and I have answered this in hundreds of ways, with science, jokes, philosophy... (now I always take the conversation in another direction), so for me this is a bit hackneyed. But I might take the time to discuss hot topics such as "plants have feelings too" or "Hitler was a vegetarian", if there was a thread about vegetarianism.

(The main purpose of this thread was of course to investigate about OT policies, not to tell people not to pester vegetarians.)

[paydepst]

No problem with vegetarians here although I do like the occasional steak myself. However, I would have no problems buying a cased President from a vegetarian should they be so kind as to want to sell me one! :smile:

Kalle, who is that in your avatar? Looks familiar for some reason. :confused:

[kalle]

Kalle, who is that in your avatar? Looks familiar for some reason. :confused:

That is Hong Kong movie star Ku Feng, with a big loose beard for his part in "The Avenging Eagle"!

[ouch]

Since you've once again chosen to directly quote me, in addition to taking this thread off topic, allow me to respond-

I suspect that your initial problem was not that the threads were hijacked, rather that you just didn't like what it was that I said. If it's the former, we can certainly attempt to keep things on track. If it's the latter, that's something you'll have to deal with, just as I have to deal with opinions that I don't agree with.

[paydepst]

That is Hong Kong movie star Ku Feng, with a big loose beard for his part in "The Avenging Eagle"!

I think I saw him in a documentary on the Kill Bill disc. He was the inspiration for a character in that movie if I recall correctly.

[moses]

Personally, I don't see the harm in the level of OT that happens here. Sure, sometimes threads drift a bit. And that probably is rather frustrating for the original poster asking a question. But honestly, I don't think it actually changes the amount of useful feedback they get. I think most people, if they have an answer, will post it in addition to their off topic responses.

Also, the banter and general discussion just makes things more interesting. More like an actually conversation you'd have with some friends. I like that.

-Mo

[guenron]

Since you've once again chosen to directly quote me, in addition to taking this thread off topic, allow me to respond-

I suspect that your initial problem was not that the threads were hijacked, rather that you just didn't like what it was that I said. If it's the former, we can certainly attempt to keep things on track. If it's the latter, that's something you'll have to deal with, just as I have to deal with opinions that I don't agree with.

Stop ending sentences with prepositions... It is a blot upon the language that I will not put up with!:001_tt2:

[moses]

Stop ending sentences with prepositions... It is a blot upon the language that I will not put up with!:001_tt2:

And up with which I will not put!!!

-Mo

[Mottern Man]

Want to talk banter?

Start a Curry thread. :lol:

Ohhh sorry I went OT again.

[Wil]

I think this is a very nice forum, but a few threads goes off topic, so that it is more difficult to read about the things the thread is supposed to talk about.
In some threads even moderators take part in OT talk, for example
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=20050
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18658
Personally, I think this is too much OT.

If there are many OT posts, or OT posts with several lines of OT talk, it disturbs my reading and I feel that there is a risk that the thread degenerates.
(This is not a big problem here, but it has occured in two of the 50 threads where I have posted so far.)



Yes I am the guilty party, the most guilty party of the lot... the answer was 42 and still is 42-
Humour at times lets others enter into post, where they may not feel comfortable starting a conversation - and rather than take life too seriously and become Bergman-esque - we can just re-ask our original question to steer us back to what your are seeking.

Sorry that this has caused you undo sleep- This forum is unique in many ways and our humour is one of the outstanding qualities-

Wil

[ouch]

One of my favorite, lighthearted books on grammer is Patricia O'Connor's Woe Is I.

As for my obvious gaffe, I can explain. A number of years ago, one of my tasks at work was ghost writing letters for our functionally illiterate upper management. I used to joke that to maintain believability, I would require several blows to the head with a brick to bring my writing in line with the level of intelligibily expected from the "author". It quickly became obvious that some of our staff required more work than others, and I would routinely receive packages through our company mail that would include, along with an outline for the requested letter, the requisite number of bricks. My voice mail was rife with requests for "three brickers", and I accumulated a nice stash of clubs, bats, blackjacks, and lead pipes.

One day my partner and chief cohort arrived at my office wielding an enormous sledgehammer, as the boss was in town. Ever since then, I've been ending sentences with prepositions. (See? Did it again.) Hope you understand, and can forgive me.

[kalle]

Wil: We were joking about "the answer is 42" in school 15 years ago, and I see no reason why you shouldn't be allowed to joke about that too, but if there is too much jokes and without serious replies it's a bit disrespectful I think. In the other forums where I am a member people are joking too, and I think that contributes to a nice atmosphere.
I didn't have a bad sleep because of some forum thread which went astray, it's simply that I'm used to other forums where people can joke and where threads still don't go too much OT, and where moderators are more strict when threads start to detoriate. I like this forum, therefore I commented here on something I thought could be better.

[Wil]

Kalle,

I understand where you are coming from- That is the reason I am here at B&B and not at the other forum(s).

Sometimes we do get off topic- and sometimes we may need a nudge- or maybe a club- The Moderators seems to do quiet well keeping us in line, but again we do represent a wide swath of the shaving community- from many states and several countries- We also represent various age groups as well- thus probably the difference in responses to posted queries- some deep while other are humourous and other just out right nonsense.

If this problems occurs - maybe another string could be started as to the question and as posted before- just post that you would like to find serious answers to your question- humour not needed.

Wil

[jkroll]

I sympathize with your concerns, Kalle. I don't think there should be a general ban on jokes, but I do get irritated when banter reaches a point where the original occasion for the joke becomes obscured, i.e. the banter takes on a life of its own; or when the concern of the first poster is mocked. In the first instance, it's up to every member to exercise discretion. I don't think jokers should be ticked off (unless anyone says something really offensive) but I would find it appropriate if moderators - or anyone else - called the meeting to order (as it were) to re-focus attention on the issue at hand.

On the "inclusive" potential of humour, I'm less certain: Of course, it does sometimes help to lighten the mood, and a sense of irony is the last thing I'd want to miss in a forum whose subject carries the danger of lapsing into po-faced geekiness. But sometimes, I have noticed threads to become exchanges of in-jokes between some members in a manner which, far from being inclusive, seems to exclude anyone who isn't "in'.

[paydepst]

Yes, and I still can't get a cased President in mint for the life of me!

Oh the humanity!! :ohmy:

[ouch]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yRQAici7zU