Warnings on threadshitting

Lol, only cranky 99% of the time. Soon enough buddy, soon enough.

 

I don't want to get in the middle of this, though I guess I am, but I had no idea we could change that setting either. I'm also self admittedly computer illiterate to the highest degree. I also like the way the default is set so have never looked into it, nor will I.

Learn something new every day and now I can understand part of the reason why comments in threads have the potential to draw that much more attention. Perhaps it would help to disable that feature? I'm not sure how many people edit the settings so it may not even put a dent in the commentary but perhaps it would help and therefore make mod'ing a bit easier.

 

You can also just click on the column header for 'last message' and it re-sorts - shows the thread in order of replies not original post.

I will admit I do this when bored at work just to see the threads with lots of replies - gotta love a good old KBBS shit-fest!

I appreciate @F2brewers point though as my own tendencies reinforce what he (she, they? not sure) is saying - posts with replies tend to get more clicks and reads, so the whole 'bump' and 'great trader' shit catches attention and pushes them up the list.

 

I think that comments are almost never helpful to be honest. The only feature I would miss would be the tag option as the board moves so quickly and it does help alert people to potential trades they may otherwise miss if they dont check the site several times a day.

 

The only issue I see with disabling comments is to see which offers actually end up closing. If the trading system was more robust, such as being able to enter in bottles in the transactions, that might be able to solve it.

 

I agree. Its like the 80/20 rule. 80% being unhelpful (homerism, trolling, hyping,etc). 20% actually bringing something to the table. Its not worth it in my book to have any comments with that ratio.

You don't really believe all trades that say *closed* actually get done?? I know I don't.

 

I agree with disabling comments but allowing us to close the thread. I don't really care if someone else says the trade is done and/or closed because a.) some people will say anything to hype up whatever beer their trading b.) just because the trader says it's closed doesn't mean it closed for exactly what was in the title and c.) it seems the new thing in the beer trade/help forum is to post completed trades for xyz beer. The only reason I would like some way to close an ISO is so my mailbox doesn't potentially continue to get bombarded with offers.

I agree with @brian4beer that tagging is helpful but I guess someone could always just pm the person a link to the thread if they're that concerned, it doesn't take that much longer.

 

I'd like to see a ban on discussions about disabling comments. The topic has already been beaten to death, mostly by the same few people. Either because the rules are being observed or the mods are doing a great job or both, if you actually go through and objectively count posts, comments in ISO:FT are very clearly a net positive.

 

Agree with first part, respectfully strongly disagree with being a net positive. After reading this thread last night I randomly clicked on about 10 comments and they were all BS with the exception of one which could have been handled privately.

Even if the mods are doing a great job I think part of the benefit of disabling comments is to make their jobs easier plus it will result in less to's and less bitching from violators.

 

Why is this such a problem now? What's wrong with some fun, good-natured ribbing? Most people engage in this sort of banter with their best of friends. Why does the ISO:FT forum have to be "strictly business"? To me, this affects the sense of "community".

When I first joined this site, it seemed like most of comments in the forum were not deleted. A lot of time you'd see interesting trade offers organically evolve into spirited and intriguing discussions regarding trading values and trading practices. And these discussions were always fun and entertaining to read. Yes, they were technically more appropriate for the "Trading Talk & Help" forum, but the trade offer in the ISO:FT forum is what sparked the discussion and it would not have happened in the other forum.

Now, it seems like most comments on ISO:FT get deleted. There was a Framboos/Black Tuesday 2009 trade offer thread recently that had a lot of good comments and they all got wiped out. I didn't understand why it was necessary, because it didn't get personal or anything like that.

I guess I'm mainly curious what sparked this significant increase in moderation of the ISO:FT forum.

 

Sure someone could lie, but I've got to believe the vast majority are actually closed.

When I decide I am ISO a new beer and I am trying to figure out its value and what I need to offer to get it, the first thing I do is search for it in the ISO:FT forum. You get get to see all the offers and the starts to give you some sense, but depending on the number of offers and it can't still be hard to pin down just from that alone. A lot of times, I can glean some good additional information from the comments on the offer.

For example, if an OP posts a thread "ISO: X FT: Y" and then 30 minutes later comments on the thread something like, "whoa, inbox explosion. this is probably closed", that's helpful information to me. It tells me that if you have Y, you can definitely get X. But based on the the number of responses the OP got in such a very short time, that you probably won't get Y if you just offer X.

 

While I agree with your thought and it wouldn't hurt anything, isn't it a solution in search of a problem?

How often does someone report a trade as closed?

1 out of 25x's? 50? 100?

Although it would be great if they would, it rarely happens and 90% of the time it does its bulls hit anyway, a troll iso or ft followed up by a phony CLOSED!!! post.

 

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/ft-west-ashley-iso-blackberry-cut.315455/

These comments are ALL helpful to the OP of this thread (inserts sarcasm). The *damage* is already done when the first person commented with "this is way off" with nothing helpful. Only to spark more comments after that from others.

 

@dmbforever I do not believe every "closed" trade thread has been actually completed. That's why I said a more robust trading system would solve that issue. Each trader puts beers into a pending trade, and then each side closes their side once they receive the beers. If the beers don't match the actual trade, then one side can leave it open until the other person corrects their beers. Once it's closed, it becomes a documented trade which people can view to see what bottles were swapped.

 

It looks to me like those comments were actually pretty helpful; in addition to useful hard facts (prices, bottle counts, etc), the OP revised his offer based on the feedback in that thread (e.g. other completed trades), which almost certainly means a successful trade is more likely to get done. The OP gets the bottle he wants, readers learn more about the beers so they're more likely to post a successful offer: win-win.