Enough of the stupid news threads.

[Kwanza]

Stop posting news threads consistently unless they have some sort of defining issue to be discussed. Nobody cares that you read CNN and Fark to see stupid news stories around the world, we can do it ourselves. To make it easy for you to understand, I've compiled a list of bad thread ideas revolving around news. The good ones I'll leave to your judgment, but if they're ridiculously bad, expect to be TO'd.


Posting a story about a murder in hopes of discussing rising crime rates is a bad thread.

Posting a stupid news story about how stupid people are is a bad thread.

Posting a news story in parody of another news story is a terrible thread.

Re-posting a news story in hopes of attaining a different angle of discussing is a horrible, horrible thread.

Posting a news story about stuff that happens everywhere, everyday is a bad thread.


KEY POINT: This isn't the Debate Zone and that was closed for a very good reason.

Note - This is all left to the mod's discretion, there is acceptable news threads still.

[OoooF4LiFe]

Any word on threads that get run over by circle-jerking? Granted alot of threads are crap to begin with, but most of them start off fine, and then just get run over by the same joke over and over.

Just wanted to get an answer visible, so maybe people will stop doing it. :argh:

[Quadros]

I'm going to stick my neck out and throw some examples of good and bad news threads. This isn't because my ego's fucking massive (Though it is), more to make sure I've got it straight in my own head.

'Man's face turns into lobster'; GOOD THREAD. Note the scientific, social and pun based issues that can be discussed. This a thread that will, with luck, involve great deals of interesting and thought provoking discussion.

'Father shot by crack dealer' BAD THREAD. Similar examples incluse 'person dies in moter accident' and 'kid gets beaten up/raped'. Sure it sucks. Boo fucking hoo, it happens every single fucking day, without fail. All that will happen is forty replies along the lines of 'That's so sad' and 'That guy should be locked up'. And Copyfag will mention how awesome it all is.

'Scientific Necromancy Achieved' GOOD THREAD. A massive leap forward and landmark news story worthy of fervent disscussion. Similarly shit that makes a massive splash like A celebrity's death or an attack/war on a country is thread worthy.

'Man attempts to hold up gun shop with knife' BAD THREAD. Wow, criminals are idiots. What a fucking suprise.

[jewishjosh]

KEY POINT: This isn't the Debate Zone and that was closed for a very good reason.

The examples you gave are an insult to the Debate Zone's good old days. :patriot:

Quadros' list seems pretty good. I agree with all of them except the first one, but that's only because we'll never see that thread, and so I have no idea how it would go down.

[Kenneh]

Kwanza was my inanimate object intercourse thread a good thread?

Oh wait, it was dumped.

[opn4bzns]

I assume really big stuff, like, say, a war starting, would be thread-worthy?

[Assassin]

Shut up and go to the fucking hospital :mad:

[Quadros]

On the subject of which 'Young Explorer Killed by Actual Fucking Ghosts' Is a worthy news thread, right?

[Raxo]

Birthday threads are fucking useless as well.

[Quadros]

You're just mad because you didn't get one. Mine made me feel all mushy inside.

[CharlieH]

My one in the spame that Quadros made was clearly the funniest of last year. :D

I agree. Keep Birthday threads to the spame. They are circle-jerking post boosters.

[Assassin]

No.

[Dauntasa]

Birthdays are fucking useless as well.

No more Birthdays. EVER.

[Kwanza]

I'm going to stick my neck out and throw some examples of good and bad news threads. This isn't because my ego's fucking massive (Though it is), more to make sure I've got it straight in my own head.

'Man's face turns into lobster'; GOOD THREAD. Note the scientific, social and pun based issues that can be discussed. This a thread that will, with luck, involve great deals of interesting and thought provoking discussion.

'Father shot by crack dealer' BAD THREAD. Similar examples incluse 'person dies in moter accident' and 'kid gets beaten up/raped'. Sure it sucks. Boo fucking hoo, it happens every single fucking day, without fail. All that will happen is forty replies along the lines of 'That's so sad' and 'That guy should be locked up'. And Copyfag will mention how awesome it all is.

'Scientific Necromancy Achieved' GOOD THREAD. A massive leap forward and landmark news story worthy of fervent disscussion. Similarly shit that makes a massive splash like A celebrity's death or an attack/war on a country is thread worthy.

'Man attempts to hold up gun shop with knife' BAD THREAD. Wow, criminals are idiots. What a fucking suprise.
You've got it pretty much right.

[Clerlic]

KEY POINT: This isn't the Debate Zone and that was closed for a very good reason.

How so? I find monthly religion debates really informative and educational!

[The Fetus]

I thought that the Debate Zone was closed and that the General Forum was just better for debates. I don't understand where any pressing issues would be debated at besides the GF if the DZ is gone. :confused:

[junglebunny]

Let's make threads about how gay Kwanza is!

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[OoooF4LiFe]

Let's make threads about how gay Kwanza is!

...unless they have some sort of defining issue to be discussed.

That would create a paradox junglebunny. As bad as the General forum is, I don't think we need to end the world.

[Jade]

KEY POINT: This isn't the Debate Zone and that was closed for a very good reason.

I'm guessing this has to do with my thread about capital punishment for rape. Was it really that bad?

[Kwanza]

Nah, if it was I would've closed it. It hasn't turned to shit yet.

[Rockon1015]

Let's make threads about how gay Kwanza is!
Good luck not getting permabanned.

Anyways, I've made some pretty bad threads myself. But I try hard not to. But I still don't see what's wrong with new threads.

[Idioteque]

I've just stopped posting in the GF because of all the shitty threads.
Those "Stupid things happen at school" or "Things happened to me" threads are pretty bad as well.

[tunacake]

Heh. My first thread god dumped. Thanks Kwanza.

[Audioslave]

The Debate Zone is coming back. Just give it a week or so.

[Kwanza]

Heh. My first thread god dumped. Thanks Kwanza.
"Let's discuss whether or not it was a good idea to move these kids"
Sorry, nothing really groundbreaking, interesting or something to discuss.

[jewishjosh]

The Debate Zone is coming back. Just give it a week or so.

Is this confirmed by the admins? Or wishful thinking?

[Kwanza]

No, it's definitely coming back shortly. We're revamping it.

[Assassin]

Good luck not getting permabanned.
Oh yeah that would totally give him a permaban mr. I-have-been-here-for-ages :indiff:

[tunacake]

"Let's discuss whether or not it was a good idea to move these kids"
Sorry, nothing really groundbreaking, interesting or something to discuss.

No worries. It's more of a debate zone topic.

[Kwanza]

What are you talking about? He should get permabanned, he hurt my feelings :(

[xkittenxsocksx]

he hurt my feelings :(

This would not be the case unless you're insecure about becoming a temptress, and know you've been wanting to dabble for quite some time. Although if this is the case, how about you come hither and subscribe to my infectious human waste.

http://a132.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/29/l_4fc99e4c6c1012af7f5493c50bae8e8b.jpg

Back on topic, I have witnessed these bad threads and agree that they're bad.

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[Allen]

Wonder what the next GF trend will be. It used to be the Games & Surveys, but we dealt with that (poorly). Then there was a brief stint of personal threads. Now it's news threads. Wonder what the 4th incarnation of uninteresting trend threads will be.

[Kwanza]

I'm placing bets on blog threads, where people tell us about their day and about how they scraped their knee.

[Jiggz]

I'm putting my money on the GF becoming the new Debate Forum.

[jewishjosh]

I thought DZ was coming back (see Kwanza's post above), but I've wondered what other use there could be for the GF. There's not much that falls between shit fad threads and solid discussable topics like the Olympic boycott thread, but if the latter moves back into the DZ I have no idea what this one will become. But I guess when the forum's at it's best, the GF never has that many threads anyway, and that's always part of the reason why things go so well.

[Kwanza]

What we strive for are interesting threads.
Enjoying Art (http://forums.explosm.net/showthread.php?t=27894) is a perfect example of this.

Threads that ask, allow for and encourage discussion and something different from each post. If a news thread is posted, and every single reply is a slightly differently modified version of:

Wow, that's horrible

Then it's utter shit. We could've said that to ourself and moved on with our day.

[Con-Con]

The threads I like the most in the GF are the ones where people share funny stories about things that happened to them. Like has your teacher ever done something stupid?

[tunacake]

The threads I like the most in the GF are the ones where people share funny stories about things that happened to them. Like has your teacher ever done something stupid?

I like personal experience threads too. Interesting people are cool.
Perfect example is Kwanza's visit to a creepy abandoned hospital. Although that one's replies were really repetitive.

By the way Kwanza you have lots of balls and don't forget batteries and sunscreen.

[Tweek]

The threads I like the most in the GF are the ones where people share funny stories about things that happened to them. Like has your teacher ever done something stupid?
Ugh those threads are easily the worst.
They stay alive forever, like G&S threads, and they are pretty shit quality.
Threads need to revolve around a central topic that can be discussed, rather than an ambiguous invitation to tell a shitty story nobody cares about.

[SladeMadeFilms]

Does anyone realize that this is and internet forum that gets most of its members from a stick man web comic? (By the way, I do love the comic.)

But seriously, I can see why they have rules for how to post, as far as grammar and aolisms go, but it seems that now there are just too many restrictions on what you can discuss.

What's the point in being part of a forum if you can't even discuss what you want to discuss? A bad thread, what the hell? If someone does not like the topic, why can they not simply ignore that thread? It's only taking up virtual space. It's not like threads that you think are shitty are slowing down traffic on the freeway or causing gas prices to go up.

If I don't think the thread topic is worth discussing, I just ignore it. I think the snobby nature of what's acceptable to post here is getting far out of hand. If a couple of ladies or gents want to talk about news that you consider trivial, why can't they? Why can't you just post in a different thread?

It's just getting silly.

"Hey, you better stop talking about that, or you'll get a TO"

"Holy shit, no, don't give me a TO! I'll talk about whatever you want me to talk about, sir"

"Yeah, that's what I thought, pwned!"

But what the hell do I know, right?

[Ikin]

Does anyone realize that this is and internet forum that gets most of its members from a stick man web comic? (By the way, I do love the comic.)

But seriously, I can see why they have rules for how to post, as far as grammar and aolisms go, but it seems that now there are just too many restrictions on what you can discuss.

What's the point in being part of a forum if you can't even discuss what you want to discuss? A bad thread, what the hell? If someone does not like the topic, why can they not simply ignore that thread? It's only taking up virtual space. It's not like threads that you think are shitty are slowing down traffic on the freeway or causing gas prices to go up.

If I don't think the thread topic is worth discussing, I just ignore it. I think the snobby nature of what's acceptable to post here is getting far out of hand. If a couple of ladies or gents want to talk about news that you consider trivial, why can't they? Why can't you just post in a different thread?

It's just getting silly.

"Hey, you better stop talking about that, or you'll get a TO"

"Holy shit, no, don't give me a TO! I'll talk about whatever you want me to talk about, sir"

"Yeah, that's what I thought, pwned!"

But what the hell do I know, right?

I agree with you 200%. The ironic part is that you'll probably get TO'd for this.

[OoooF4LiFe]

News threads suck. Period. If you want to talk about the topic in the news thread, then do that. But don't just post retarded news threads and expect something productive. They've been overdone in the past few months so much that if I notice in the description a link to a news article, I don't even read the topic.


It will be run over, backed over, and run over again.

[Quadros]

Does anyone realize that this is and internet forum that gets most of its members from a stick man web comic? (By the way, I do love the comic.)

But seriously, I can see why they have rules for how to post, as far as grammar and aolisms go, but it seems that now there are just too many restrictions on what you can discuss.

What's the point in being part of a forum if you can't even discuss what you want to discuss? A bad thread, what the hell? If someone does not like the topic, why can they not simply ignore that thread? It's only taking up virtual space. It's not like threads that you think are shitty are slowing down traffic on the freeway or causing gas prices to go up.

If I don't think the thread topic is worth discussing, I just ignore it. I think the snobby nature of what's acceptable to post here is getting far out of hand. If a couple of ladies or gents want to talk about news that you consider trivial, why can't they? Why can't you just post in a different thread?

It's just getting silly.

"Hey, you better stop talking about that, or you'll get a TO"

"Holy shit, no, don't give me a TO! I'll talk about whatever you want me to talk about, sir"

"Yeah, that's what I thought, pwned!"

But what the hell do I know, right?

If this forum goes from lively and active disscussion of interesting topics to a sea of 'Person dies in fatal accident' and 'how much do you hate YOUR middle class adolecence?' with the odd good thread then people will stop posting and new members won't join. The forums are defined by the threads in the acendency numerically, so if we have a bunch of shit threads then we'll have a load of shit posters who'll think they're amazing and funny and shit like that and start polluting the minority of good threads with their general shittiness. Now one of me we can put up with, but an entire forum?

[OoooF4LiFe]

Hey, Quadros posted in here 4 times before he made the topic all about him.

Thats got to be a record.

[jewishjosh]

^ Touche.

I say any topic with discussion potential should be fair game, and if you don't like it, don't post in it. The fact is that most news topics don't have discussion potential.

[10chris10]

didnt now where to ask this but.....rob are you ever gonna finish joe rombie?...ive waited like 3 years :(

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[fat-red-chicken]

didnt now where to ask this but.....rob are you ever gonna finish joe rombie?...ive waited like 3 years :(

People like you give newbs a bad name.

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[Rockon1015]

didnt now where to ask this but.....rob are you ever gonna finish joe rombie?...ive waited like 3 years :(

That's a little of topic don't you think?

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[Ox]

Seriously though, when is Rob going to finish Joe Rombie?!

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