This kind of started as me being semi-snarky on Off-Topic, but seeing how it suscited more positive reactions than I imagined it would, I thought it could merit its own thread as a feature request.

Speeking of threads, they have been popping up everywhere. People make them to say or ask something that's been explained elsewhere, reposts of threads that already exist, or threads that are outright rude or bad. It'd also keep spambots out. To give you an idea of how bad exactly the problem is, every word of the last sentence is a link to a thread that could have been avoided by simply reading the forum more thoroughly, or asking a BAT or GMT. They're all from within the last month. The general amount of threads in the Abandoned Wasteland seems to go up, the quality of threads as a whole seems to slowly sink.

That's why I figured some slight moderation might be in place. Of course I'm not asking to put all threads on a mod queue before they can be made, that would be endlessly tedious and arduous. I would simply like to put this forward to the group: what about a minimum number of posts before you're allowed to start new threads? Of course, beatmap submissions fall out of that rule (though on the other hand the probability of first-post miracles seems quite low, and the percentage low enough to say "just do as the system says for a while") and the introduction forum should also be an exemption (unless of course introductions becomes the new abandoned wasteland because of this)

The general number seems to be something about 10, which is good enough to filter the least of the least, but low enough to allow people who're new to join in on the dscussion fast enough. I was also considering having the number be however many you need to no longer be a rhythm rookie, but I don't know the site's system so I can't judge on how high that number is.

So, the usual. Thoughts, corrections, perfections, support, et ceterea.

The idea in itself looks good, and it seems like something that can easily be done, but here's the thing, most users won't care about the limit and will just make 10 shitposts and then will be able to start a thread.

Also, quite a few of the shit threads in off-topic are not made by new members.
So yeah I don't really know what to do about off-topic, I like the idea, but it doesn't seem like it'd work out.

This idea isn't really centered around off-topic. The constant flow of shit threads will continue there, and there's nothing we can do about it apart from changing the mentality of an entire subforum's demographic. This feature is aiming more at purging general discussion from threads that fit in any of the categories above. Actually, not a lot of the threads I linked stemmed from off-topic to begin with.

Rregional forums would benefit too, obviously.

Community has grown a lot and is still growing exponentionally so the number of people who need to be forced into taking some time to lurk around has grown too.

I'd suggest around 25 posts though.

That's why I was putting the number up for debate. In retrospect, it should definitely be higher. If we get the limit higher up, surely a mod will notice 30 or even 50 posts of rapid-gear spamming. And I really don't think anyone after 30 posts will still be as ungreened as to post a thread asking for a beatmap request. This is really just there not to minimize the shit threads (as I said, every user makes a bad thread sometimes) but to minimize the number of threads we have to deport to the wasteland and leave with a single link to another topic. Bad content would also partially filtered if we up the number, since I doubt any troll would have the attention span to make 30 DECENT posts (I say decent so you don't go off thinking these posts are gonna be just like their threads they make now, because modqueue meets them long before that) and still make a shit thread after that. I think it would be effective, but the best way to find out is to implement it.

This isn't around to stop the purposeful trolls, they don't need to start a thread to get people unnerved. Thiis is about those people who just don't care to do the research. If we don't give them an outlet to outright fling their question into open air and hope someone pops around to answer it, they'll be sort of forced to contact someone who knows about it, or search on their own on the website.

There is a cure for ignorance, it's called nipping it in the bud before it has a chance to post a thread. Threads are redundant for such a large list of reasons, and giving them no option but to look for it themselves or ask on their own in my opinion beats making a box that covers all our bases with "go check the FAQ and the stickies everywhere and the languaage forum and the bug reports and the hacker list and general discussion and all of the forum games to see if anyone hasn't already said what you want to say."

After all, this type of fool proof was already proved helpful by lots of other forums all over the web.

Also mixing both ideas mentioned in this thread could make it even better.

I'm indifferent about this idea, however new people not being able to make intro threads until after some posts seems odd. Granted, if we let topics be made in intro forum, they may just use that as an outlet for their questions.

Well, I thought about that too, and the most obvious way to go is creating a thread in the introductions forum where people can post any question and get a decent answer from people without having to make a separate thread about it. MATs, BATs and GMTs have already proven helpful enough to send everyone with a question on their way, so if someone would just check that thread once every... day/two days or something, we'd get a lot of benefit from that.

I'm really just thinking aloud here, because I've seen it become an issue, and I want to get a solution that's best for both of the groups involved, newbies and oldbies.

Alright, this is a good idea. I think this could prove useful to keep the asshats out of an otherwise seemingly-intelligent forum.

+1970 Yes, I've been playing Touhou 8 a lot. Shut up.

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What about that place...