Message to Jeff and Moderators

Hey guys, I know that we have alot of conversations here that overlap, and that we've talked about alot of the same things twice. But not everyone has been here for the duration of Costerbuzz and alot of folks are new to the forum. I know for a fact that some people feel quite alienated when they bring up a topic that's on their mind and one of the moderators comes in and closes it down because we talked about it a month ago. That may be the case, but they might not have been here a month ago.
I know that you're just trying to keep the discussions fresh and new, and trust me, we all appreciate it. But maybe there could be some slack given in that department. If it really is a dead topic, it will die out on it's own.

Thanks,
Jacob

Jacob,

Thanks for your input. You pretty much nailed it with "...trying to keep the discussions fresh and new..." which tends to be the reason that we do in fact close topics that have either been repetatively discussed to death, have no merit, or the intent of the topic is to spark a flame war (i.e., "Cedar Point has a space problem," "My park is better than your park..," "Park A sucks..." etc...) Other reasons that we will close topics are if the discussions begin to get out of hand and could spark a flame war, discussions begin to stray far from the topic at hand, the person who started the topic gave no regard to spelling or grammar (U shood not b doin this cuz itz hard 4 yinz 2 reed), or simply because the discussion has no merit (a 700 foot tall underwater coaster with 19 inversions is being built at...)

It is not our intent to alienate people in anyway shape or form. If you feel that you have been alienated, I encourage you to e-mail one of the moderators, or Jeff, himself.

I also encourage you to utilize this nifty little search function that could be found at the bottom of each page. Enter any key word, and bam! You have a list of all forum topics, news items and rumors with that key word! If you find a topic that you want to talk about, and has been discussed many months ago, feel free to resurrect that very topic!

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Neil
Pittsburgh, PA
www.geocities.com/neildeweese

*** This post was edited by Seven-of-9 on 8/11/2000. ***

Yes, the search function! You have no idea how much time I put in to implementing that thing for this very reason.

A true moderated forum isn't for everybody, and it takes some getting used to. Neil nailed it when he described what it is we nuke or close. Part of the reason I started this site was to foster discussion that wasn't like every other forum, namely the same tired "versus" debates and favorite lists. Also, as you know, respect for the language is important to me, and that means chat shorthand is not welcome.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Like I said, I know you guys have good intentions. I've just talked to some people who have put up a topic and then said "Why'd they close it? What did I do?" To tell you the truth, I had never realized the purpose of the search function. There are probably alot of other people who have never paid any attention to it either.

Thaks,
Jacob

P.S. Sorry about putting this on the General Discussion Board. I had forgotten that this was here.

By the way, don't the moderators include a link to where the question can be answered when they close a topic. That's a good practice and helps a lot when people post a heavily discussed topic that gets closed.

MFistheBEST,

Thanks for pointing that out. Moderators will be encouraged to do that on a topic that has been duplicated (e.g., insert a link to an already exising topic or news item.) But as far as topics lacking merit, grammar usage and sparks, our actions of closing the topic should be obvious.

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Neil
Pittsburgh, PA *** This post was edited by Seven-of-9 on 8/11/2000. ***