Staying on topic idea/feature?

[SparkyJJO]

Maybe we could just ask ChatGPT if every thread is still on topic.. if it says no, lock it down.

Now bow to your AI overlords, lest skynet be angered and destroy thee!

 

[cs1234]

At least we couldn't blame any single person when our thread gets locked. It's just the AI, no point getting all upset at an inanimate object.

 

[SparkyJJO]

At least we couldn't blame any single person when our thread gets locked. It's just the AI, no point getting all upset at an inanimate object.

Are you kidding? How many computer screens have been screamed at due to a program error or a BSOD?

....... or am I alone in doing that.

 

[cs1234]

Are you kidding? How many computer screens have been screamed at due to a program error or a BSOD?

....... or am I alone in doing that.

I merely said there is no point, you aren't going to change it's mind or hurt it's feelings.

 

[Bob B]

Maybe we could just ask ChatGPT if every thread is still on topic.. if it says no, lock it down.

AI will be deployed to do those kind of things soon enough .... no need to help it along .... There will still be bias injected by those doing the programming.

 

[cs1234]

AI will be deployed to do those kind of things soon enough .... no need to help it along .... There will still be bias injected by those doing the programming.

I wish there was an AI moderating this thread right now. It could boot you out of here!

 

[Bob B]

I wish there was an AI moderating this thread right now. It could boot you out of here!

It's hard to tell if your thoughts about AI are serious or just for fun .... Do you really think censoring those you disagree with is the way to go?

 

[Hedges]

Maybe we could just ask ChatGPT if every thread is still on topic.. if it says no, lock it down.

If we are talking about Chat GPT, can we trust it to moderate discussion of pulling its plug?

 

[cs1234]

Personally, the off topic posts don't bother me. But I'm one of the offenders, and it's not my board.

It's hard to tell if your thoughts about AI are serious or just for fun .... Do you really think censoring those you disagree with is the way to go?

I don't want to censor anybody I disagree with. Kick em in the butt, sure, but not censor em.

 

[cs1234]

If we are talking about Chat GPT, can we trust it to moderate discussion of pulling its plug?

We let certain professions/industries regulate themselves, why not Chat GPT?

 

[OffGridForGood]

Today that forum has about roughly 50 Posts in the last 24 hours and most are from the same small group of people.

Do they "stay on topic" now?

 

[cs1234]

Do they "stay on topic" now?

Probably, the only ones left would be the ones that like that sort of thing.

 

[timselectric]

Do they "stay on topic" now?

Yes
The topic is death. lol

 

[gotbeans]

I don't know if if it's on that list but it's reefcentral.com
All of those old users are now on reef2reef after the RC owner started to get involved and eventually banned one particular Member who then decided to start his own Reef Aquarium Forum to get revenge. The reefcentral owner then stupidly helped fuel the growth of the other Forum by getting even more paranoid with members and by Locking even more Threads and Banning even more members for the slightest thing.
His worst mistake was getting completely involved in the daily activity and posts on the Forum. It soon felt like being at your Parents House.
You could not talk freely without knowing he would jump in if you came close to the rails.
He kept on going until it went into a free fall. It's pretty Amazing how quickly a forum can go from Thousands of Posts per day to Hundreds. It is an exponential process when people start to get a bad vibe about a place and leave.

Today it's the new Forum guy is the one making Six figures and hosting a Ton of Sponsors. He got them because he uses a much more relaxed hands off approach.
The Owner Revtree does not get into it with the members, he has the Mods do it and they are instructed to have a light touch and keep things friendly.
Yeah threads derail all the time but people usually have their answer long before that happens.

Looks like a good amount of knowledge there, at least the forum is still up.
Yea I've seen that on plenty of forums, a lot of them aren't hosted anymore. I have the database of one random forum dead 15 years ago with 2 mill posts lol. Pretty big for then

Yeah threads derail all the time but people usually have their answer long before that happens.

yep very true. A lot of situations where the person asking doesn't even return after the first answer or so too lol
People take it so overly serious in forums, yet spoken topics are identical to this, which is why it occurs in forums.

You start a topic and an hour later it's completely unrelated. Almost guaranteed unless it's some moderated debate on something specific.

Are you kidding? How many computer screens have been screamed at due to a program error or a BSOD?

....... or am I alone in doing that.

alone ?

 

[45North]

But we digress ...

 

[Crowz]

The only problem is if it gets really bad forcing on topic it will hurt the forum in the long run. Newbies go postal easy enough as it is now without clamping down to much on them.

In my opinion if the original poster complains about things going off topic then it matters.

If someone joins the thread they really don't have control on what is acceptable topic wise since the one that started it decides what is or isn't on topic in my opinion.

 

[gotbeans]

The only problem is if it gets really bad forcing on topic it will hurt the forum in the long run. Newbies go postal easy enough as it is now without clamping down to much on them.

In my opinion if the original poster complains about things going off topic then it matters.

If someone joins the thread they really don't have control on what is acceptable topic wise since the one that started it decides what is or isn't on topic in my opinion.

oh yea that's an idea make every topic creator a moderator of their own topic ?
never seen a forum do that, either

 

[Crowz]

oh yea that's an idea make every topic creator a moderator of their own topic ?
never seen a forum do that, either

I wasn't necessarily advocating giving them actual moderator powers but they should be the ones deciding it

 

[Crowz]

To me if its all "on topic" or all facts then a wiki page with facts and figures could replace the forum all together. But wiki pages don't innovate they just reference.

 

[OffGridForGood]

Many of the side discussions are either interesting or funny and add to the forum experience.
I think the idea the OP 'has the option' to rein in or pull a discussion back from too long a side track makes sense. Let them decide to comment on where the discussion is going, or not.
If a discussion goes completely off the rails, the mods will comment.
No additional measures seem necessary.