Do We Need ChitChat?

[arpoet]

When any topic is more than a couple of pages long I loose the will to live, so tend not to get involved in the "Chit Chat"
Maybe a thread limit could be imposed.

As VC states in the forum rules
"Remember that this is not a 'free speech' forum, but a lively gardening forum".

[veggiechicken]

meaningless guidance . . . what is the definition of 'near the knuckle' or "contentious" ? one persons contentious is anothers normal . . .

You may think its meaningless but these are the T&Cs that we're all expected to adhere to
Have a read of the rest of the T&Cs too - its always good to have a refresher of what we've signed up to when we joined the Forum

[AllInContainers]

Most newcomers to the Grapevine are here because they want to know about gardening - they've read the magazine or Goggled and found the answer is here. Great - that's why the Forum exists. We also have a reputation of being friendly, helpful and welcoming and I'm sure we live up to that!

Totally agree VC! 100%

However, it appears to me that many of those members stick around so long and accrue high post counts because of the community rather than just the gardening. If the chat was curtailed, how many of those members would still be here? If they'd gone how many valid gardening posts would have been lost, or even if they had would they have logged in as much or contributed as much?

what is the definition of 'near the knuckle' or "contentious" ? one persons contentious is anothers normal . . .

I think most of us here are able to discern what is appropriate for the forum or not. That said I have overstepped the boundary once or twice when I first arrived until I "calibrated" myself to the setting here, and no doubt I may unintentionally do so again in the future .... I'm as fallible as anyone else ..... but then that's why we have the mod team, and why we need to give them our trust. There's always the admin crew to moderate the moderators should the need ever arise.

Occasionally something unsavoury crops up ... and the mod team deals with it ... from what I can see it's working Do we really want to end up where we can't discuss our car breaking down this morning, or what garment the dog ate today, or a loved one coming to visit, or what award the child/grandchild won at school, or that promotion we just got ...? It's not why we initially come here, true, but it's what keeps many of us coming back day after day after day

[Bigmallly]

Do we really want to end up where we can't discuss our car breaking down this morning, or what garment the dog ate today, or a loved one coming to visit, or what award the child/grandchild won at school, or that promotion we just got ...?

I'd much rather read the above points on the Happy or Rant threads but that's just me being anti-social.

[Florence Fennel]

Do we really want to end up where we can't discuss our car breaking down this morning, or what garment the dog ate today, or a loved one coming to visit, or what award the child/grandchild won at school, or that promotion we just got ...? It's not why we initially come here, true, but it's what keeps many of us coming back day after day after day

I think most of us dip in and out of the gardening, I know I do, a lot of the time just reading, as good advice has already been given. I treat the grapes on the Chat Thread as my friends and I share all sorts of info with them including some specific questions about growing. That was a bit of a waffle, but I know what I mean I do think that any thread can become argumentative - it sometimes depends on the sensitivity of the grape!

[AllInContainers]

I'd much rather read the above points on the Happy or Rant threads but that's just me being anti-social.

Here's why I differ ...

If I don't log in for a while because I've lost internet connection, or been away on hols or with work, or been laid up in bed or whatever .... I'd rather skim through the thread titles and see what I want to catch up on and join in with, rather than wade through 72 pages of disorganised chat.

I'd also feel more comfortable "joining in" with that chat if it was in a separate thread and hadn't been commented on for 36 hours, rather than if it was now buried by 15 pages of other stuff I wasn't interested in ....

If everything was rolled into one (or a few) continually rolling threads, this would exclude members who can't get on here with any regularity from joining in the chat, as "the moment would have passed", and any attempts to hold conversations spread over huge blocks of other topics would descend into total chaos. I just don't think it would work ... sorry mate

[Bigmallly]

No need to be sorry AIC, that's what this thread was set up to do. I just think we somehow need to stop the recent "bad feeling" posts/threads that I have witnessed. When I see them it actually puts me off logging in to the vine until the thread eventually has been closed.

[pigletwillie]

I think the vine is a hugely successful forum because stuff other than gardening occurs. Gardening is what brings us to the forum to start with but its the idle chatter and non gardening related posts that form friendships in and away from the forum. I have over a dozen friends that I now socialise with or comnmunicate with regularly away from here and in the real world. I am fairly certain that these relationships would not have been formed if we just discussed the 23rd way of planting parsnips.

The vine is what it is because it is what it is. You can try to turn it into a dry gardening only forum but thern it has lost the thing that makes it special. I was one off the first to join the forum, have done my time as a mod and have seen people come and go and come back (myself included). The ones that hang around and become the spine of the vine do so because of the cameraraderie as well as the gardening.

Messing with the vine will spoil a wonderful thing. Its not perfect but because of that we all love it.

[taff]

If the magazine wants to have this site as purely a gardening forum with only on topic posts on each gardening topic and thread, there's no reason not to. But the imagine how many threads would have to be snipped/posts removed etc.

If you want a site where everything mostly stays on topic with an off topic area [which is the case with most forums] then keep it.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Whilst it can be problematic I would like this part of the forum to continue.

The gardening forums are great and do a wonderful job but this seems to give the Vine its heart. I learn a lot about the folks here from reading these pages and in my humble opinion the Vine would loose a lot of its character if these threads were not here.

If our mods (and notice I say OUR mods not the mods) are happy for it to continue under their supervision then for me that's the end of the story.

There will always be some who are to easily offended and some who offend to easily, both often without realising. But that's life, just as in the real world there are some folks you like and some you don't.

[Jeanied]

I think there are some good points being made on this thread BM. Thank you for starting it.
I personally think we need a few more MODs on the case - we have lost quite a few of our old experienced vine MODS and I am sure the ones who are currently MODding have got a lot on their plates as there are several topics raised recently which make a lot of people see red. That and fighting off spammers and such like.

It seems like allotment wars can go on in the virtual as well as the real world I know the fights on my site gets silly when the weather is warm, leading to people threatening to put other peoples' lights out, and brandishing airguns out of the backs of cars. Fortunately one or other of us can usually appeal to peoples' better natures.

[Glutton4...]

If only that were so,recently the was a "request" from a member to open a thread that was closed & under Admin scrutiny at the time so that they could add a response

You may well roll your eyes, BB, and I am more than happy for everyone to know it was me that asked VC to reopen the thread for comment. It was my intention to ignore the contentious comments, and to offer support to the original poster, who obviously had an issue that was troubling her and that she wanted help with. I would like to think that one of the Moderator team has sent a personal message to her, to explain that it was a contentious subject on the forum at the moment, in order that she doesn't feel she can't come back on here for advice in the future.

She may not be a regular poster at the moment, and her plight may seem a trivial matter to some people, but how do any of us know she wasn't at the end of her tether with it all, and just needing a little moral support? Either way, we have let her down.

I am also happy for people to know that I sent a message to you, expressing my feelings, and offering my opinion, for what it's worth, on the handling of the thread closure issue.

Yes, this is a lively forum, it is also a very broad-minded forum on the whole, and I think it's lovely that people feel they are able to discuss their issues with the rest of us. Everybody needs somebody sometimes!

Anyway, back on track; Keep the Chat thread? Yup - you bet!

[veggiechicken]

You may well roll your eyes, BB, and I am more than happy for everyone to know it was me that asked VC to reopen the thread for comment.

Asked?? It was an order............

[Kirk]

I tend to agree with Alison when she said:

To be honest I find majority of the posts on the chat thread to be pointless discussions about not much so I choose not to read them.

Also if I see a thread at page 5 or more I often ignore it (1 more to go here then). Either someone is ranting or the thread is 500% off what ever it started as. If not then whatever I may offer has likely been said and I am not going to wade through pages of posts to be sure.

The problem of removing this option is that they would/could appear elsewhere and so disrupt more meaningful sections and threads. Also I cannot think of a forum that does not have an off topic section, so they seem to be an integral, possibly necessary, part of a forum.

[Alison]

I tend to agree with Alison when she said:


Also if I see a thread at page 5 or more I often ignore it (1 more to go here then). Either someone is ranting or the thread is 500% off what ever it started as. If not then whatever I may offer has likely been said and I am not going to wade through pages of posts to be sure.

The problem of removing this option is that they would/could appear elsewhere and so disrupt more meaningful sections and threads. Also I cannot think of a forum that does not have an off topic section, so they seem to be an integral, possibly necessary, part of a forum.

Yes, that's what I meant, for somebody like myself who doesn't care what peoples dog / child or whatever have done (although can see why it's important to the person posting) it's easy to avoid if these posts are in a specific area, likewise easy to find for those who want to know. Guess there is a clue in the title