A word about the "Single Issue Mosh Pit" system...

TygrBright

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Mon Dec-29-08 01:37 AM
Original message

A word about the "Single Issue Mosh Pit" system...

Edited on Mon Dec-29-08 01:47 AM by TygrBright

I don't often pull out my "oldest inhabitant" chops and dust them off to prop up the ol' soapbox. (For one thing, I'm not sure but what there aren't one or two oldsters tottering about who signed on a day or two before me. But anyway.)

Back when we used to have to chain our own hamsters to little wheels to run the Intertubes, tramp fourteen and a half miles to school and back uphill both ways in a howling blizzard AND a hurricane, DU used to have just one big, happy Discussion Forum.

Yup, just one.

("Wow, really, Grannie? Tell us all about it!" --Surreptitiously pulling out the Wii controller and pretending to pay attention while playing "World of Goo"--)

You kids don't know how lucky you are to have topic forums. INCLUDING, and let me be very clear about this,

Single-Issue Mosh Pits

There are a couple of topics upon which gigatherms of heat simply canNOT be converted into any kind of light, not even a feeble, flickering, primitive one-LED VHS player power telltale.

In these areas, every argument has been made here on DU a MINIMUM (I am not making this up, nor exaggerating, I promise) of 7,326 times. EVERY argument. And the number of times those arguments have actually been effective in altering the viewpoint or position of anyone who holds a contrary viewpoint or opinion?

Zero.

Seriously.

I promise.

"But, but, but... new stuff happens all the time! What about breaking news! What about startling new developments!!"

On these particular topics, A) There is NO such thing as 'news' because the SAME SHIT KEEPS HAPPENING OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Only the names, dates, and geographic coordinates ever change, and not by much; and B) Even on the vanishingly rare occasions upon which some previously unheard-of or unimaginable event occurs in relation to the topic, THE SAME ARGUMENTS STILL GET ENDLESSLY RECYCLED and with the exact same effectiveness in changing anyone's mind.

And when the forums for people for whom these topics are not of primary, critical interest get hundreds and hundreds of posts over the course of a few days on one of these topics, people for whom these topics are not of primary, critical interest start getting cranky. The tone of overall discourse and discussion on DU passes the S-bend, people start leaving, a spiral of posts bitching about people bitching about people bitching about too many posts, flame wars, etc., on the topic starts escalating, granite pizzas start whizzing around and being a hazard to navigation, and the whole function of the site generally gets degraded.

Many years ago, the Admins in their semi-infinite wisdom noticed this and a protracted debate occurred about How To Handle It With The Least Infringement On User Enjoyment.

Thus were born the Single-Issue Mosh Pits.

Interestingly enough, they worked so well that even some people interested in more focused discussion on issues and topics that rarely generated flame wars asked for their very own Single-Issue Coffee Bars, and a whole new system of Discussion Board organization was born and grew and became the DU we know and love and gripe endlessly about today.

And I, for one, am glad of it.

Praise the Mods!

All hail the glorious Admins!

sycophantically,
Bright