I pretty much agree with everything you've stated here. Except for the no one gets your jokes. I do. But your humor is a little off like mine. ;)

To clarify :

I dont intend to stop posting (thats why its a youtoo-light - another joke I'm sure no-one got :) ), just cut back on my activities in the other forum a bit.

Not to save Geoff costs - I'm sure it wont even show on the bandwith bill if I post my 6 posts a day or not.

All is well, and I'm not making a grand stage-exit-left here, just saying its less fun than it used to be. And yet - recent changes
might help. I think the right moderator policy and attitude will
make the place fun again.

In any case - I'm sticking around, but with different priorities.

I'm so glad that other people are getting as annoyed by this as I am. I think that this has become a big problem lately and has rendered so many threads useless (pointless) that it is making the other forum horrible to read. The problem is not only that people hijack threads, it's that they post so often in their hijacked threads that it keeps most of them on the front page.

I know the Mods have their jobs cut out for them with this, but I don't think it is as bad as it seems in that only a very small number (I can think of 3 off the top of my head) of people do this on a regular (nearly all-the-time) basis.

Perhaps warnings and suspensions could be given out to excessive "offenders"? I realize that this would probably never happen because apparently making "friends" with the right people gives you free reign to hijack threads.

As far reporting posts, I can see reporting posts when there is a stray personal attack, but I think it is rather apparent to most people who go to the other forum, much less moderate it, who the problem-makers are.

Anyway, that's just my .02

Keep up the good work mods!

Ebb and flow...ebb and flow.

And in my opinion, we are seeing a positive trend already. Please give it some time. I welcome the comments, but I do think things are getting better in this regard and will continue to do so without anyone taking drastic action.

Ok, well, I guess I'd like to add my .02 to this..

first of all, when I first joined this forum, I was more of a lurker, but the people in the OTHER forum seemed to all get along, and there <b>WAS</b> hijacking, but it wasn't done as often as it is now.

In my honest opinion, and feel free to read this as you may, <b>EVERYONE</b> in the other forum, from mods to the "New Members" are guilty at one time or another of hijacking a thread.
Whether there is a reference to an Other " in joke ", or a statement that you interpret differently, an offtopic comment is often made, which results in the spiraling hijack.

I do it from time to time, and so do many others. However, there are at least 3 pairs of people I can think of, that do this WAAAAAY too often. The forum is for a community discussion, not a personal playground. I understand "love" and wanting to be with someone all day....but the phone, email, and IM are great ways to express that.

I applaud the mods for doing what they can to keep this "in-check", but I don't think anything short of suspensions for repeat violators will work.

One last comment on this rant of mine :) ...........
I've made more friends on this forum than I've made on the 'net EVER. I consider some of the people here "good" friends, and others "great" friends. I just wish everyone would bring their maturity level up a notch.

Hello DVDTALKERS,

Your resident padder here. :p
In any case, i would like to add some comments about all these registered complaints

1.) The whole factor of Hijacking threads, well there is a major different between a thread getting thrown off course in the bad sense (chit chat between two people or more in a thread totally unrelated) and then theres the hijacking where the thread itself leads itself to another point from where it started. The second isn't so bad. as long as the thread starter is satisfied with it. Say for example he had a question, once it is answered or so forth.

2.) Online relationships. I never came to the forum for any sort of that. I came on to enjoy myself and have a good time, the last thing i ever thought about was meeting someone on here who i would relate to very well. Now, as for the cute stuff. I really try to keep it down. I always figure I could say it on AIM or on the phone. But to say that people who come here for a relationship need to get out more often? Well this is being used as a tool to get to know someone through personalities. if a relationship sparks up, then it sparks up. Hell, my relationship with Hotaru(Carrie) started in the other forum, and then jumped to AIM and then to hours and hours of a phone conversation. Now we live accross the U.S. me in california, and she is located in florida. Now that is a difficult situation. but never the less, why call it something silly? I have plane tickets and i will be visiting and spending thanksgiving with her this year. :) So in a sense, is a online relationship so bad? It really shouldn't matter how you met, aslong as you find that one person you are very happy with.

3.) Quote Editting, I know it wasn't discussed, i just feel the need to rant about how crappy QUOTE EDITTING is. :p

4.) Next thing.. Old schoolers vs. New Schoolers.. Ok, now i can say myself that back in the old days it was much better, blah blah blah. its pointless If you feel that you have out lived the forum, by all means no one is keeping you here. this is for your enjoyment, if you stop, then simply walk away. there is millions of other forums out there to try out. I was part of the New Vs. Old when i showed up around here last year. it was pretty bad, At some point you just have to drop all that and enjoy your time here. So the topics change, thats what happens. deal with it. Life changes. :) there will always be new new folks and older old timers.








http://www.ciudadfutura.com/arcade/a...k_victoria.gif

It isn't just thread hijacking, it is padding.

Like some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried, padding stalks our Other forum once again, frightening the people wanting to actually have a good time....Most of the mods seem to care but little gets done to stop it. It is as if Geoff never posted the message about the end of padding. Hopefully it can be killed again and hopefully it has a limit of nine lifes, because I can't handle it too much longer.

There is an absense of following the guidelines. Some days padding is alright and then others it is not. There really needs to be more consistency. I could look for a pleathora of threads to back up this assertion, but I am sure that everyone has a few good ones in their mind right now. It just gets to the point where I don't even know what is appropriate to post and what is not appropriate.

are online realtionships bad?
no, but I think they should be kept off the forums

I agree with you here randy. I don't like out of control padding or hijacks, but I think the steps the mods have taken are starting to work. A lot of people seem to be calling for a hard line mentality on this. I don't think that will help. None of these things are problems when done in moderation. If the mods took to strict enforcement of certain rules, the entire feel of the forum would change dramatically for the worse. I trust their discretion. We have moderators, not enforcers.