A question for the mods

[Liquid Shadow]

Can you define flamewar please, because I didn't see any insults or name calling, other than the term "closed minded" in the DT Identy Crisis thread. If you're going to lock a thread when people start debating opinions back and forth and there isn't even any actual flaming going on, then why are we here? To stir up the same "Hey, I like Jordan!" threads and posts over again?

For Christ's sake, Rosie's last big thread (the BIG one) had FAR worse stuff in it and that took way longer to get locked. If disagreements and the term "closed minded" constitutes a flamewar and a lock, then I have to say that this place has really gone to the shitter.


Edit: And I just saw that a thread was closed where some guy said he thought Octavarium is DT's worst album - the justification being that he didn't elaborate. Instead of asking him to elaborate, now we're just closing threads? Someone didn't like a DT album, says that, and the thread needs to be locked? It's not like this place has been horribly busy lately anyways to the point where threads like that are a common nuisance that get in the way of everything else. There's a daily average of maybe 8 threads in General Chat that have new posts...so we need to lock the ones that aren't Dream Theater asskisser threads?


I'm hoping you will actually take the time to reply to these and allow replies to yours, instead of a one liner comment and a lock.

[Farren]

I don't really understand why the forums here have to be so much softer and gentler than the ones at any other band's/artist's website. It's not like there's an abundance of 13-year-olds, and even if there were, it's not like they'd be offended by the concept of disagreement.

[Liquid Shadow]

True that. I mean, we've had a thread talking about transexuals and there was plenty of insanity going on there - I don't think that a disagreement on musical opinions is anywhere near that, nor is a thread voicing distaste with a band's latest offering. My thread that was taunting pmarafio should have been locked, I give them that...but the original thread had nothing lock-worthy in it at all.

[mlunapiena01]

Well if you have a disagreement with some decisions a mod or mods made, why not PM them instead of making it a public issue? Personally, I'm glad that this forum tends to be moderated more conservatively than liberally. Generally the threads here tend to be of higher quality than threads at other message boards (even the dreamtheater.net board comes to mind).

As for those particular threads you had a disagreement with over the locking... I think you're getting bogged down in details... the Octavarium=worst DT album yet goes along with the bigger concept of bashing the band/album, which I believe the rules or stickies have made quite clear isn't acceptable. The Identity Crisis thread had a lot of people criticizing semantics & making personal attacks (which is a general characteristic of flaming) against each other, so again, that fits with a larger theme..

On the other side of the coin however, I'm not a mod on this forum, so what I just said is basically speculation and nothing else.

[keys76]

OK, I'll answer your question, but I prefer to answer such questions in a PM.

So the next time, please send me a PM.

The thread of rudess1984 I closed:
I closed this thread because he only wrote that Octavarium was DT's worst album. I checked his posts. All 3 of them so to protect him I closed the thread.

The DT identity thread I closed:
All things were said in this thread. Everyone gave their opinion and discussed each others opinion and in my opinion it was inches away from moving into a flame war, which this Forum isn't the place for.

Hope you can understand my action in these.

Happy posting!

Jeroen

[Nick]

prevention is better than cure is the way it works i would guess in most cases.

[Liquid Shadow]

Ok, I understand the rationale for the Octavarium thread, considering his posting history. However, the other thread was just starting to get interesting for me...I hardly think that "everything was said." It could have gotten nasty, but it hadn'y yet. This thread could technically get real nasty too...any thread could. There were a couple things that I was really hoping to continue the discussion/debate on, but couldn't do so because it was locked.


Would it be ok if I were to start another thread to continue those topics (they're unrelated to the original poster's opinion)? I promise, no name calling. ;)


And I guess I probably should have PM'd the mods...I didn't even think of that, actually. I'll remember that if anything ever happens again.

[Luca_Capozzi]

Usually i don't reply to those kind of discussions but, this time, i've to express a little disappointment because, imho, our mods are too good sometimes. There are a lot of old, sometimes ancient, threads bumped or questions answered millions of times reposted.. expecially in Gear Talk. I don't want to be an ass and, when needed, I will reply to help new keyboarders with their questions.. but how many times we have to reply on threads about "is better kurz or triton extreme", "how to do JR lead on my motif" and so on? Yes, I can just don't reply but, imho, if we can educate new users to use search function, to don't bump ancient threads, we can benefit at all.

just my 2 cents :)

Luca

[keys76]

No problem man.

Happy posting.

Jeroen

[pmarafio]

It could have gotten nasty, but it hadn'y yet. This thread could technically get real nasty too...any thread could. There were a couple things that I was really hoping to continue the discussion/debate on, but couldn't do so because it was locked.


Just a little observation - for stating an opinion I was told to "act your age Grandpa", and called closed minded, ignorant and a moron several times. In addition, I was issued a challenge to study several bands and report back my findings to show that my opinion had been changed and I'd seen the light.

I seriously do not want to get into a war here but I'll just state my peace.

I over reacted to the opening bands at Gigantour. I was disappointed and I slammed the bands I saw, which I should not have done. We all have our days where we rant - it's human nature. I'm sorry that I offended others who feel differently. My approach was wrong. Live and learn.

I did not care for the music I saw that night. That does not make me closed minded. It merely means that I didn't like those bands. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, and that was mine. I could have stated gentler but it's my opinion and my thread was primarily questioning what the correlation between Dream THeater's music and the opening acts' music was. I did not see it. Obviously it is clearer to others, and I can respect that.

I'm far from closed minded. If you just check some of the music on my website, you'll see that I appreciate, record, and perform several different types of music. In my opinion there is only good and bad music and I find a lot of pleasure in listening to and performing several different styles. I'd be bored if I was confined to one style alone. Also, if you view my prior posts on this board, you'll see that I have defended different styles of music when others have expressed their opinions. I really don't agree with the closed minded accusation.

I apologize if my opnion offended others. Let's keep this board focused on discussing music and technology and move beyond this. There are some good people in this forum and the discussions are frequently interesting. I'll watch my tongue in the future when I express my opinions, but opinions should be stated and we all should accept that they are all unique.

[Enigma™]

I'll keep this short:

1 - If you have a problem with a mod/admin, PM me instead of making it public.

2 - Why? Because we can. We can do anything we want basically here that is in the best interest of the forum and it's members. I'm going to lock a thread before I give someone a vacation, and it's that simple. I've seen *TOO* many threads that just went crazy and they started that exact way...
Sometimes experience just knows...

3 - Uhh... Fucking smile people!!!