should we make the lounge an unmoderated forum? Options

[micron]

hi all,

i was browing through my old site before i made cb... and it had a forums, where the equivalent of cb's "the lounge" wasn't moderated. i thought that was a good idea, and leaning towards implementing it here.

dont get me wrong. moderating is good and all, but sometimes it can really discourage members from participating. for example, there seems to be a trend where staff members close topics if the topic was talked about before, even if it's been over a year. this might be good in that it promotes organization, but in reality, it really kills the participitory aspect of the forums. sometimes things need to be revisted and retalked. its part of everyday life.

if we continue on like this, where topics get closed because it revists an older topic, sooner or later, there will be nothing to talk about. period.

so. what do you think? should we let the lounge be completely unmoderated by staff members? or should be do a compromise, where staff members are only allowed to move topics elsewhere, but cannot close the topics here?

let me hear from you. staff members may also contribute. =)

[*mipadi*]

I do get tired of threads being closed because they are too long, or because there is some thread, somewhere, buried deep in the annals of the forum, that covered the same topic a year and a half ago.

I also get tired of every thread having to have a "point". There are so many threads were a person posts something interesting but, out of necessity, has to end it with a dumb question like "Has this ever happened to you?" And then no one discusses the original point--everyone just posts their own anecdotes. Sometimes I just feel like posting an observation about my own life or experiences without feeling the need to elicit a similar observation from others--it's perfectly acceptable to post something, not ask a question per se, and just let discussion flow.

I do think some moderating needs to be done--moving topics to more appropriate places, closing inappropriate topics, even closing threads that are clearly duplicates of recent topics. Also, sometimes people need to be nudged back on topic--for instance, if there's a thread about a specific topic, and someone comes in and starts posting something clearly irrelevant to the discussion, it does ruin the discussion for everyone else.

In general, I think a good rule of thumb would be for The Lounge to promote general discussion, and any moderating should seek to achieve that end. I think The Lounge would be much cooler if there were actual discussions, rather than an poster simply asking a basic question and a bunch of people responding to it. In other words, threads should utilize active listening and talking, rather than passive discussion. I think any moderating actions should seek to achieve that goal.

Plus, sometimes going off-task helps us learn more about each other. People on cB are so locked into sticking to the topic expressed in the first post of the thread, that it becomes very hard to truly learn something about each other.