While I understand the frustration, what I can say as a mod is that it takes two to tango. People post their thoughts and some of those thoughts are not as civil as they should, so we have a back and forth between posters. That makes threads go off the rails with insults and tangents.
If there is an inflammatory post, please don't engage in it -- report it instead and we'll do our best to remove said posts, hand out warnings and so forth. Having three or four pages with scattered posts insulting one another is very difficult to moderate as there are usually quotes involved. Even if the response with a quote is a civil response, I cannot edit out the quote, so that means deleting it becomes pointless. That then invites another poster to engage in said back and forth and it becomes harder to manage.
The idea is to keep things civil and have varying thoughts and discussions take place without butting heads. I realize it's easier said than done, but having to play referee every time there is a squabble turns into people being unhappy with the results.
I agree to a point. That point is when someone is attacking others personally and viciously, and/or when the forum is being disrupted.
I disagree that the answer to someone refusing to stop highjacking a thread (Bailey Zappe) is to close the thread.
Also, no one is asking the mods to "play referee every time there is a squabble." But by the time things are so bad that the only solution is to lock a thread that UT asked be created, it's kinda more than a squabble.
I'll admit that internet forum users are a lot like children. We often behave like them. In this regard, moderators are pretty much surrogate parents, ruling with a laissez-faire attitude hoping that their kids will learn and grow.
But...if one of your kids were harassing and teasing your other children to the point of disrupting their playtime, would you stop playtime or give the unruly child a timeout?
The forum is getting bad. Bad enough that I went back to another Patriots fan forum, one I used to go to in the early 2000's, before I discovered Patriots Planet. My old account was still active, and I've been reading there more than here. There is a ton of complaining about draft picks there, as well, but disagreeing with draft picks there and here at the Planet isn't the issue. It is the antagonist posting of a very few who are spoiling this forum as a pleasurable place to go.
I'll drop this now and (do my honest best) not to bring it up again. As Patriots players keep reminding me, all I should worry about are things I can control. Trying to make
you do what
I want is pointless and frustrating.
