Quote:
Originally Posted by
Douglas 
I'd be sad if the CE and DT fora were gone. I came for the clothes, but now I rarely venture into MC, for a whole variety of reasons both forum-related and otherwise. Just my $.02.
I agree though that it is extremely difficult to get to the best clothing information out there, which contributes to the noob issue in MC. Perhaps if there were a "Hall of Fame" independently searchable microsite (or subforum), with the best threads (e.g. Manton's Business Casual masterpiece) posted there, it would be a good place for noobs to start. Then you'd just have to come up with good criteria for nominating and electing HOF threads.
One thing I wouldn't mind seeing - some sort of punishment level that allowed a member to stay and post but no longer start threads. I doubt this is possible, but if, say, 5 members have you on ignore you automatically lose new thread-making abilities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Piobaire 
Doug, great idea, but how hard would it be to get five members to collude for a joke or spite?
I think the solution, if there is one (which presupposes there's actually a problem), would be both member driven and mod driven. For instance, the socks. I have to say the increased socks has made me snarkier. As I said in trans-mod, I feel like I'm answering the same questions (which will get argued with), from the same guy(s) a million times. Could be just my innate

but we all know socks/trolls have done this repeatedly to most of us.
So member and mod driven. Mods set the priority, i.e. eliminate/minimize harmful socks, members pitch in and just report a suspected sock vs. reacting to it (yes, I'm guilty of this).
I like Douglas's idea regarding the ignore statistics and think that there's a reasonable number above which a member gets disappeared for stupidity/annoyance.
I'm not quite sure how this will play, but if you took such a statistic from your senior member base (or perhaps a base of posters above a certain postcount) then you'd probably have a reasonable idea of who is largely detracting from the site. It would almost amount to a sort of membership review of sorts.
Socks, though, have got to go, and the puppetmasters probably get a week off or so. Probably time for an amnesty drive where we turn in our socks.
As for DT - I was talking with another member (a fellow pioneer of the surreal) who was lamenting the sad state of affairs - and neither of us have much of an answer for it. One of the ironies (brought up by foodguy - iirc) of DT's is that you never quite know what thread will have legs and start running. Some of the most entertaining threads have been about the stupidest things - but someone gets in a good comment and it builds from there. Take the pwnage thread from a year or so back - it started out so, so stupidly, but was good-natured and had a lot of support from the stalwarts of the forum.
I do think that the DT-regs have the brain power to not just bang out stupid thread titles (parodies, in particular) without substance behind them, and that probably ought to be something we self-enforce. The grab for quick yuks tends to make us all come down to that level, and it just pollutes the forum.