[d] Should we get rid of the megathreads?

[Caleonia]

NSG doesn't so much love beating dead horses as NSG loves mercilessly flaying piles of fossilized bonemeal that has been beaten so fine that its individual particles are subatomic at this point.

"Bone meal is a mixture of finely and coarsely ground animal bones and slaughter-house waste products.[1] It is used as an organic fertilizer for plants and as a nutritional supplement for animals. As a slow-release fertilizer, bone meal is primarily used as a source of phosphorus and protein."

I mean the fossilized animals could have been slaughtered....

But yeah NSG does like to throw stuff at each other. Containing it to one massive thread for a broad topic is the best for everyone.

[Farnhamia]

"Bone meal is a mixture of finely and coarsely ground animal bones and slaughter-house waste products.[1] It is used as an organic fertilizer for plants and as a nutritional supplement for animals. As a slow-release fertilizer, bone meal is primarily used as a source of phosphorus and protein."

I mean the fossilized animals could have been slaughtered....

But yeah NSG does like to throw stuff at each other. Containing it to one massive thread for a broad topic is the best for everyone.

That's brilliant! We'll make one giant megathread in NSG!

[Cekoviu]

I'm excited for this topic to become long enough that we can call it the Megathread Megathread. That'll really indicate how implausible the OP is.

[Nilrahrarfan]

Hello,

I'm the OP of the current iteration of one of the megathreads, however something has occurred to me.
The megathreads are now responsible for a vast amount of the discussion on nsg, around half of the threads on the top page of general are megathreads. Routinely, topics with a connection that might fit in one of them are merged into them for what I can see as pretty much no reason: if they're surviving as topics on their own, and one subject is clogging up the forums, then why merge them all together? Individual discussions from these merged threads have a tendency to get lost in the megathread they're merged into, resulting in an altogether less enriching debating experience for all. In the end this results in the discussion on a particular subject being dominated by a few posters, while previously when the topics were more individualised to smaller issues it was far easier for other posters to find something they were interesting.

For example, if the discussion was regarding 'Should assault weapons be banned?' that could go on for a very long time. If it gets merged into the gun control thread, however, it leads to that individual discussion being watered down and finally swamped by whatever else is going on in the megathread. I'm not seing a benefit to keeping the system going, but I am seing an enormous downside.

I don't see the downside to keeping Megathreads, as they keep discussion under control while also allowing it to be freely discussed to a certain degree.

[Bears Armed]

"Bone meal is a mixture of finely and coarsely ground animal bones and slaughter-house waste products.[1] It is used as an organic fertilizer for plants and as a nutritional supplement for animals. As a slow-release fertilizer, bone meal is primarily used as a source of phosphorus and protein."

I mean the fossilized animals could have been slaughtered....

But yeah NSG does like to throw stuff at each other. Containing it to one massive thread for a broad topic is the best for everyone.

Before shipping phosphates from the guano deposits around the Pacific to Europe for use as fertilizers became common, there was a district in England where deposits of coprolites (i.e. fossilized dung) were excavated for this purpose...

[Caleonia]

I mean the fossilized animals could have been slaughtered....

But yeah NSG does like to throw stuff at each other. Containing it to one massive thread for a broad topic is the best for everyone.

Before shipping phosphates from the guano deposits around the Pacific to Europe for use as fertilizers became common, there was a district in England where deposits of coprolites (i.e. fossilized dung) were excavated for this purpose...

That’s not what I meant... I was referring to megathreads as a whole when I meant “containing it to one massive thread”..

[Sverigesriket]

Personally, I am in favor of megathreads. They keep related conversation topics limited to one thread instead of many small and possibly one-off threads. And of course, if one subtopic grows too large to lumped into one megathread, you could always create another megathread.

[Zeritae]

Personally, I am in favor of megathreads. They keep related conversation topics limited to one thread instead of many small and possibly one-off threads. And of course, if one subtopic grows too large to lumped into one megathread, you could always create another megathread.

as am I. They aren't like "we are megathread. you will be assimilated. resistance is futile" and have actual purposes

[Mushet]

Megathreads are generally fine, ideological discussion threads on the other hand are echo-chamber cancer.

[Cekoviu]

Megathreads are generally fine, ideological discussion threads on the other hand are echo-chamber cancer.

I have to think at least a third of posts in the LWDT are made by right-wingers and centrists, and there is a heavy amount of internal disagreement as well. Can't speak for the RWDT.

[The Blaatschapen]

Personally, I am in favor of megathreads. They keep related conversation topics limited to one thread instead of many small and possibly one-off threads. And of course, if one subtopic grows too large to lumped into one megathread, you could always create another megathread.

This is not what happens, more that a one off thread gets merged into the megathread.

Which irks me because suddenly I have been posting in threads that I ignore on purpose. And can't find where the particular subdiscussion was again, lost in various amounts of other stuff that is unuseful to me.

[Forsher]

NSG used to have an absence of megathreads except for big sprawling events like elections and the Olympics. Literally none of the problems identified by the first page... all I have time to read... were true. And some of those posters are old enough to remember so.

The only possible exception is the few months in 2012 where there were a whole bunch of feminist threads but here's the thing... if a thread really is too similar to another... lock it and link where people should be. And so what if you have five threads where the same conversation ends up happening and then the thread dies until the next event? It's better than hiding away all the posts in a thread seven people look at. As I said when the Feminist Thread was unlocked, it's going to be reported for gravedigging next time it gets posted in. And the mods are going to either have to admit it's the one thread that gets a free pass from gravedigging or they'll have to lock it. It's already been more than 2 weeks.

NSG is for everyone. Not just the people in the megathread. And if you don't like a topic? I'm sorry, but what right do you have to control the ability of others to access that topic?

Megathreads are a disgrace.

[Katganistan]

Pointing out the obvious: no one has to post in a megathread. If there's "only seven people" in it, then it doesn't affect the majority of the forum, does it?

[Bombadil]

Pointing out the obvious: no one has to post in a megathread. If there's "only seven people" in it, then it doesn't affect the majority of the forum, does it?

Except it does, for reasons kind of given already. First, even right now, there's 11 out of 20 mega/discussion threads on the first page.. it just speaks to the lack of variety here. And a lack of variety leads to further lack of variety.

Second, if I want to have a discussion on some aspect of a discussion already covered by a discussion thread I might perhaps post in that discussion thread but, frankly, it's entirely ignored as the regular 7 or so posters continue whatever permutation or track they're in.

If i start a separate thread it's dropped into the discussion thread regardless.

There's good reasons for some mega/discussion threads - frankly I don't make much of a distinction - but there's simply too many swamping what could be greater variety of threads.

Hence major events, activities should be allowed.. Trump, Brexit, someone's died, another bunch of people shot in the US.. but for a lot of the rest they're not needed. Also, there should be some criteria around who can open such a thread.

I don't expect change here, I kind of feel this particular thread has run its course.. having said that, while you're here.. can someone edit the Trans Thread so it's not all MASSIVE CAPITAL LETTERS?

[United Muscovite Nations]

Megathreads are generally fine, ideological discussion threads on the other hand are echo-chamber cancer.

I have to think at least a third of posts in the LWDT are made by right-wingers and centrists, and there is a heavy amount of internal disagreement as well. Can't speak for the RWDT.

Most of our posters are RW, but there's a couple liberals. There just seems to be an unwillingness by non right wing people to participate in the RWDT for some reason.

As for the main topic, the megathreads serve an important purpose, both covering certain topics, and providing general discussion platforms for broad and sweeping topics that otherwise couldn't be discussed very often. For example, the RWDT and LWDT provide platforms for discussion of abstract ideology that otherwise would never be discussed on the site.

[Forsher]

I have to think at least a third of posts in the LWDT are made by right-wingers and centrists, and there is a heavy amount of internal disagreement as well. Can't speak for the RWDT.

Most of our posters are RW, but there's a couple liberals. There just seems to be an unwillingness by non right wing people to participate in the RWDT for some reason.

As for the main topic, the megathreads serve an important purpose, both covering certain topics, and providing general discussion platforms for broad and sweeping topics that otherwise couldn't be discussed very often. For example, the RWDT and LWDT provide platforms for discussion of abstract ideology that otherwise would never be discussed on the site.

Such as?

Right now the RWDT is doing psychoanalysis of each other and a single post about distributism. As you can see the contention that non-megathreads would ignore such topics is blatantly false. In fact, they probably mean only the select few willing to live in the RWDT or wherever get to enjoy these topics.

The LWDT is talking about refugee policy, the police and some other random things which are dime a dozen in NSG.

When you have to make shit up to defend the idea, it's probably not a good idea...

[Cekoviu]

Most of our posters are RW, but there's a couple liberals. There just seems to be an unwillingness by non right wing people to participate in the RWDT for some reason.

As for the main topic, the megathreads serve an important purpose, both covering certain topics, and providing general discussion platforms for broad and sweeping topics that otherwise couldn't be discussed very often. For example, the RWDT and LWDT provide platforms for discussion of abstract ideology that otherwise would never be discussed on the site.

Such as?

Right now the RWDT is doing psychoanalysis of each other and a single post about distributism. As you can see the contention that non-megathreads would ignore such topics is blatantly false. In fact, they probably mean only the select few willing to live in the RWDT or wherever get to enjoy these topics.

The LWDT is talking about refugee policy, the police and some other random things which are dime a dozen in NSG.

When you have to make shit up to defend the idea, it's probably not a good idea...

Man, you know your point is bad when you have to resort to eight posts from >=5 years ago to prove it (and two intended megathreads).

[United Muscovite Nations]

Most of our posters are RW, but there's a couple liberals. There just seems to be an unwillingness by non right wing people to participate in the RWDT for some reason.

As for the main topic, the megathreads serve an important purpose, both covering certain topics, and providing general discussion platforms for broad and sweeping topics that otherwise couldn't be discussed very often. For example, the RWDT and LWDT provide platforms for discussion of abstract ideology that otherwise would never be discussed on the site.

Such as?

Right now the RWDT is doing psychoanalysis of each other and a single post about distributism. As you can see the contention that non-megathreads would ignore such topics is blatantly false. In fact, they probably mean only the select few willing to live in the RWDT or wherever get to enjoy these topics.

The LWDT is talking about refugee policy, the police and some other random things which are dime a dozen in NSG.

When you have to make shit up to defend the idea, it's probably not a good idea...

There are lulls in discussion but if you watch the entire megathread you could easily see extremely varied topics on history, religion, and philosophy. Only five pages ago in the RWDT there was a discussion of ethics.

Just three days ago, there was a several-page discussion of ancient civilizations in the RWDT.

[Forsher]

Such as?

Right now the RWDT is doing psychoanalysis of each other and a single post about distributism. As you can see the contention that non-megathreads would ignore such topics is blatantly false. In fact, they probably mean only the select few willing to live in the RWDT or wherever get to enjoy these topics.

The LWDT is talking about refugee policy, the police and some other random things which are dime a dozen in NSG.

When you have to make shit up to defend the idea, it's probably not a good idea...

Man, you know your point is bad when you have to resort to eight posts from >=5 years ago to prove it (and two intended megathreads).

You should pay more attention to how long NSG has been subjected to the torment of megathreads. You should also pay more attention to the crudeness of the search term and the parameters of the search.

Note, also, that NSG used to work on the principle that if no-one wanted to talk about something, it wasn't worth talking about. Now if works on the principle that... no, wait, can't say that... it's "bad faith".

Such as?

Right now the RWDT is doing psychoanalysis of each other and a single post about distributism. As you can see the contention that non-megathreads would ignore such topics is blatantly false. In fact, they probably mean only the select few willing to live in the RWDT or wherever get to enjoy these topics.

The LWDT is talking about refugee policy, the police and some other random things which are dime a dozen in NSG.

When you have to make shit up to defend the idea, it's probably not a good idea...

There are lulls in discussion but if you watch the entire megathread you could easily see extremely varied topics on history, religion, and philosophy. Only five pages ago in the RWDT there was a discussion of ethics.

Just three days ago, there was a several-page discussion of ancient civilizations in the RWDT.

Which only people participating in the thread ever came to knew existed.

Either everyone should be posting in the RWDT... in which case it is NSG... or these topics belong outside the thread where everyone gets an opportunity to discuss them.

Or, of course, the benefits of these discussions should be restricted to the exclusive set of people willing to post in the RWDT...

Maybe I should start paying attention to the thread and report it for threadjacking...

[United Muscovite Nations]

Man, you know your point is bad when you have to resort to eight posts from >=5 years ago to prove it (and two intended megathreads).

You should pay more attention to how long NSG has been subjected to the torment of megathreads. You should also pay more attention to the crudeness of the search term and the parameters of the search.

Note, also, that NSG used to work on the principle that if no-one wanted to talk about something, it wasn't worth talking about. Now if works on the principle that... no, wait, can't say that... it's "bad faith".

There are lulls in discussion but if you watch the entire megathread you could easily see extremely varied topics on history, religion, and philosophy. Only five pages ago in the RWDT there was a discussion of ethics.

Just three days ago, there was a several-page discussion of ancient civilizations in the RWDT.

Which only people participating in the thread ever came to knew existed.

Either everyone should be posting in the RWDT... in which case it is NSG... or these topics belong outside the thread where everyone gets an opportunity to discuss them.

Or, of course, the benefits of these discussions should be restricted to the exclusive set of people willing to post in the RWDT...

Maybe I should start paying attention to the thread and report it for threadjacking...

Would you prefer us to start a thread on ancient history, specific right wing philosophies, ethics, and religion every few days? That's too much clutter.

Honestly I don't know why you're getting your panties in a wad over this.

[East Ustya]

Would be funny if THIS ONE became a megathread though....

[Forsher]

you prefer us to start a thread on ancient history, specific right wing philosophies, ethics, and religion every few days? That's too much clutter.

Remarkably NSG functioned perfectly well without the megathreads and managed to have these benefits you claim megathreads provide exclusively without "clutter".

Honestly I don't know why you're getting your panties in a wad over this.

Holy Fuck.

[United Muscovite Nations]

you prefer us to start a thread on ancient history, specific right wing philosophies, ethics, and religion every few days? That's too much clutter.

Remarkably NSG functioned perfectly well without the megathreads and managed to have these benefits you claim megathreads provide exclusively without "clutter".

Honestly I don't know why you're getting your panties in a wad over this.

Holy Fuck.

It's true, you're getting pissy and arguably using mods as weapons because megathreads exist.

[Forsher]

Remarkably NSG functioned perfectly well without the megathreads and managed to have these benefits you claim megathreads provide exclusively without "clutter".



Holy Fuck.

It's true, you're getting pissy and arguably using mods as weapons because megathreads exist.

Wow.

This is classic bad faith posting. I should know. I've been warned for bad faith posting. I know it when I see it. I have experience.

If you think I'm breaking rules, report me. Otherwise shut the fuck up about me and focus on the arguments.

[TURTLESHROOM II]

As long as we dump the TET/Eternal Thread into Forum Seven, I'm down with that. Also, I am glad we have a Trump Bashing Mega-Thread, so I don't have to see the echo chamber on the few occasions I stop in NSG-blr.