Personally? Most people on this board talk too much, from my perspective. But my personal opinion has no business, in this case, becoming board policy.
There's a pattern in a lot of posters of a rapid back and forth chatter that's more fitting for a real-time conversation like a chat room or an IM conversation. So that's one thing. Unfortunately, I am not in the business of running a real time chat service -- I've got no expertise on that, and I'd have no idea what to do if some sort of major security hole got introduced by running one other than "shut it down permanently". So I can't really fix that part of things.
This thread has also gone on for more pages than it had to. Much earlier, I recommendeded that people treat people like people when there's a problem, and ask them nicely to step back and give other folks a chance to chime in. That's as far as I think this topic needs to go, and that's why I'm going to be locking this thread after I'm done posting this.
Some folks have used the party metaphor, to talk about people who *don't* post as often being equivalent to the wallflowers who don't jump into the conversations that are happening. That's at least a little legitimate as a perspective on things, but it it's also a very *incomplete* metaphor. There are also folks at the party who conduct their "conversation" with the volume turned up to 11. Folks do want to jump in -- or have their own conversations nearby -- but they can't, because the loud guy is running his mouth too much and too loudly, holding court and paying no heed to the folks who would jump in but aren't getting *any* opening to do so.
So look at this conversation, here. If you're the one who thinks there are loud guys who need to turn down the volume, you're the wallflower. If you're the one who thinks that there are wallflowers who need to speak up, you're the loud guy. Both of you need to meet in the middle, at that place where the wallflower puts a kind hand on the loud guy's shoulder and says, "Hey, dude... look, you don't need to shout." And the loud guy, if he's not a dick, says "Oh, hey, sorry. I'll try to keep it down."
You know.
Like PEOPLE.
Thread locked.
