I wouldn’t mind just editing my posts if it triggered a notification so that people know that more information had been added to the thread. I rarely look at random threads or refresh threads I follow because I get an alert and/or activity shows up in my followed thread page. This would get rid of most of my frustration as would resetting the posting privileges after a day. I post to an infrequently updated thread that has thousands of subscribers. Once people post something it usually prompts discussion. My last post there was 9 days ago promising updates as I tested something. There’s no telling when I’ll be able to post there again and people notice.
I don't think that is a helpful take; I'm sure the reason behind this change is one of practical considerations, perhaps indeed to lighten the workload of moderators.
Sure, we all feel frustrated, but I would suggest trying to engage with the admins on a rational rather than an emotional basis. They may realise the change this makes to the forum and consider the benefits worth the aggravation to some, or they may have underestimated it, who knows.
And as an FYI, Head-Fi is far from the only forum with this guideline in place. But most forums with a guideline against double posting are forums of a debating/conversational nature, where such a guideline makes much more sense. Head-Fi on the other hand has many technical threads, DIY threads, review threads, and (surprise, Head-Fiers tend to listen to music a lot) niche music threads where this guideline makes little sense and can be quite damaging.
Would an automatic spoiler for 2nd & subsequent consecutive posts from the same user be a “middle-ground” option?
On one hand, a forum is for conversations, not monologues… But, when I look at AI assistants behavior, they have this “show more” or equivalent action: the additional content is hidden by default, and it’s up to the users to decide whether they want to see more—hence the spoiler analogy…
Would an automatic spoiler for 2nd & subsequent consecutive posts from the same user be a “middle-ground” option?
On one hand, a forum is for conversations, not monologues… But, when I look at AI assistants behavior, they have this “show more” or equivalent action: the additional content is hidden by default, and it’s up to the users to decide whether they want to see more—hence the spoiler analogy…
I doubt if the forum software is set up to do this. It's likely an off-the-shelf, probably open-source package. This sort of feature is non-standard in forum software and would likely require paying someone to code, debug, test etc. Not a likely thing to happen. This whole mess is about admin/mod convenience, not convenience for the product i.e. users.
While a notification of new content added to a thread in this way would be at least something, wouldn't this just end up, at least in many instances, creating inordinately long single posts that are edited ad infinitum? You'd have one post that is edited, re-edited, and so on and on...clearly that's not going to be an easy to read for most. Who wants to scrawl through long posts (we could even get to pages-long posts eventually!) to find the section where new info is added? The post would turn into a sloppy, discursive mess, no matter how carefully it was formatted in an attempt at clarity.
At least that's how I'm perceiving this alternative; it's entirely possible I'm missing something simple.
While a notification of new content added to a thread in this way would be at least something, wouldn't this just end up, at least in many instances, creating inordinately long single posts that are edited ad infinitum? You'd have one post that is edited, re-edited, and so on and on...clearly that's not going to be an easy to read for most. Who wants to scrawl through long posts (we could even get to pages-long posts eventually!) to find the section where new info is added? The post would turn into a sloppy, discursive mess, no matter how carefully it was formatted in an attempt at clarity.
At least that's how I'm perceiving this alternative; it's entirely possible I'm missing something simple.
Well, I suppose that could happen if nobody ever responded. I was assuming that adding something to the thread would spawn more conversation, that’s usually what happens. Somebody posts something and then there is a flurry of activity until it dies down again.
Well, I suppose that could happen if nobody ever responded. I was assuming that adding something to the thread would spawn more conversation, that’s usually what happens. Somebody posts something and then there is a flurry of activity until it dies down again.
In some threads yes, but in others, like certain low interaction/few posters music threads where there is not much to discuss and most people who view the thread never post in it, there's going to be long posts generated before others will reply/add their music to the thread.
I don't think that is a helpful take; I'm sure the reason behind this change is one of practical considerations, perhaps indeed to lighten the workload of moderators.
Sure, we all feel frustrated, but I would suggest trying to engage with the admins on a rational rather than an emotional basis. They may realise the change this makes to the forum and consider the benefits worth the aggravation to some, or they may have underestimated it, who knows.
And as an FYI, Head-Fi is far from the only forum with this guideline in place. But most forums with a guideline against double posting are forums of a debating/conversational nature, where such a guideline makes much more sense. Head-Fi on the other hand has many technical threads, DIY threads, review threads, and (surprise, Head-Fiers tend to listen to music a lot) niche music threads where this guideline makes little sense and can be quite damaging.
In some threads yes, but in others, like certain low interaction/few posters music threads where there is not much to discuss and most people who view the thread never post in it, there's going to be long posts generated before others will reply/add their music to the thread.
I agree, not all threads spark debate. There are threads with many interested consumers of new content, who themselves rarely if ever contribute content. This change can lead to very long unmanageable posts for those threads. Technically you can make a very long post, but it becomes an unmanageable read at some point.
But I have no idea how the admins look upon threads that get many views but only have few contributors. There is no explicit rule against threads like that, but the recent enforcement of the double posting guideline makes such threads pretty much infeasible going forward. I'm not sure whether that is an unintended consequence of this enforcement, or whether it was the actual objective.
Seeing the admins' response that contributing a post simply to allow another post could be seen as spam, makes me suspect they don't actually like threads with few contributors. But I could be reading that wrong, and maybe they don't see the problem with ever-expanding ginormous posts... .
I agree, not all threads spark debate. There are threads with many interested consumers of new content, who themselves rarely if ever contribute content. This change can lead to very long unmanageable posts for those threads. Technically you can make a very long post, but it becomes an unmanageable read at some point.
Yep, good way of putting it. There are plenty of threads where members, or even non-members, are content to just browse (look at the views to posts ratio of music threads!).
That's why, while I applaud the intent, I don't like the idea of thread notifications for edited posts being a compromise or solution we users should settle for. It might sort of work for some threads where members are more prone to reply to newly added comments in a post, but in less verbal threads (like the low poster count music oriented ones) you're going to still get long, messy posts that are just going to look silly and be frustrating to scroll through because notifications of new content won't prompt others to post any more often than they already are.
I'd rather not concede any ground on any of this, at least without a good reason for the sudden enforcement. Otherwise we're just using duct tape to jerry rig a problem (seemingly created for no real reason) instead of properly fixing it (going back to non-enforcement).
I won't be doing any more "rubbish" posts to enable someone else to post - mine were deleted by the powers that be so they are obviously not going to tolerate that.
As for the Prog thread, because I replied to someone else's post, I have been unable to add more content for coming up on two days. The thread almost died once but a small group of us resurrected it but now it seems that effort was in vain.
I won't be doing any more "rubbish" posts to enable someone else to post - mine were deleted by the powers that be so they are obviously not going to tolerate that.
As for the Prog thread, because I replied to someone else's post, I have been unable to add more content for coming up on two days. The thread almost died once but a small group of us resurrected it but now it seems that effort was in vain.
Some one on here helped me out on the feliks elise thread a few days ago so I could get past the double post rubbish & what do you know i see they have deleted it, how childish is that some people need to grow up.
Next thing they will start banning people for breaking ridiculous rules.
Some one on here helped me out on the feliks elise thread a few days ago so I could get past the double post rubbish & what do you know i see they have deleted it, how childish is that some people need to grow up.
Next thing they will start banning people for breaking ridiculous rules.
I've seen some weirdness in other forums over the years as they grow. After AccuWeather shuttered their forums a few years ago, most of the regulars migrated to a new forum and it went very well for a few years, until the head admin went so far off the rails with sudden random rules, sudden bans without explanation, and a demand that the forum conversations shift to climate change from storm forecasting that it collapsed. The next forum that arose also collapsed after a couple of years. I think the admins there were in way over their heads. My finger's are crossed for my current forecasting/storm-chasing forum home. So far, so good. Excellent moderation there - they're part of the community.
For comparison, an astronomy forum that is quite huge - far bigger than head-fi - has a much more even-handed approach and has been around for over 2 decades. They actually listen to the members and even recently relented when they were shown that their approach to the discussion of the sudden collapse of a major vendor + manufacturer was out of line (they shut down all speculation despite clear evidence that the vendor/manufacturer had abruptly shuttered the business with no intent of selling or resurrecting). Yeah, I was that guy that got them to relent by making a case to reverse the policy with clear evidence and showing my homework, this despite a firm rule that no discussion of admin decisions in the public forums are allowed. The admins also reach out to discuss any disputes or points of order and to diffuse any potential misunderstandings. Users are encouraged to reach out to admins if they dispute a rule/policy/decision/etc. It's an exemplar of how to manage a large and diverse global forum community.
Point being of the contrast above is that unreasonableness, capricious rule enforcement, disdain for the users, lack of meaningful communication, etc. can have negative impacts on the forum community, regardless of the intent behind the decisions. If we're treated as cattle or the product that they use to sell advertising and vendor sponsorships, then engagement will fall, dissatisfaction will rise, and people will go elsewhere. I've already seen a handful of long-timers move on for good over the past couple of weeks for the current reason under discussion, and other (i.e. politics, because of the geographic home of the forum. 2 members for that reason). That's 7 valuable members who I learned a lot from now gone.
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