Re: Getting Further OT

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2003 18:41:17 -0700

Viktor Haag <vhaag_at_...> wrote:
>
> As far as I can tell there's two kinds of 'Off Topic' here:
>
> (a) Beyond the Scope of This Group, under which the topic about
> playing a Taraltaran presumably falls
>
> (b) Off Topic here, and on the digest, because it has absolutely
> nothing to do with Glorantha at all
>
> It may seem odd, but the current practice seems to be more
> hard-line with a-topics than b-topics...

That's my understanding. (And I freely grant that I'm the leading b-topic offender.)

FWIW, I think one reason for this is that b-topics are more self-limiting than a-topics, in my experience. A b-thread may arise from time to time, people let off a little steam, then it dies down--it rarely goes so far that the moderators need to step in. (Also, the emails are usually short, which helps.)

a-topics, on the other hand, tend to snowball, producing ever-longer and ever-more-intricate-and-obscure emails as the select few delve deeper into Gloranthan arcana. They are less likely to stop on their own, so we see moderator action (and the moderators are a bit quicker to step in).

And, yes, if a newbie wanders in during a Kangaroo Thread, the worst that'll happen is he'll say "Okay, now they're getting silly". The deepest into Arcana that that thread got was, "Are there kangaroos in Glorantha?" "Yeah, probably down south somewhere".

On the other hand, if a newby wandered in and saw a 500-line-email on the topic "Argrath's Bar-Mitzvah: Reform or Orthodox?", well, we might never see him again...

I think the main thing is to not take it personally when a topic gets squelched. I've been kicked over to the digest a few times, and sometimes I thought the thread was still suitable here--but the moderators are doing their best.