I’ve been seeing more and more topics go complete off the rails recently. Could we get a moderator or two to go through and clean house of all the off topic comments?
Well, I think the general attitude is not to interfere unless the arguments get ugly or personal… It’s kinda up to the thread participants to moderate themselves…
– Mitch
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i think that would be neither morally nor practically attractive. i have seen threads go off but they sooner or later align itself. its all adults here (mostly) and they all know how to behave, some are annoying, but hey nobody is perfect. also i think most of the crew is in the kitchen cooking, hopefully preparing some tasty meal for the hungry crowd.
generally i like how its being handled here, that means for the very most part of it that there are no overly eager egomaniac mods here who just cut everybody off because they failed the psychology test applying as a police officer.
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Is there a specific topic that needs moderation? We try to watch all of the threads but sometimes miss bad behavior
This is good example XNurbs releases a ground-breaking NURBS software I’m seeing more off topic comments and arguments these days. I don’t see this on other Cad forums I use. It makes it difficult to find the helpful info. It’s gotten embarrassing.
I will support @Stratosfear on these comments.
Posts in that particular thread would not be seen on other CAD Forums.
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Moderaters
Since the developers roam the threads it is also about customer relations. The problem is that people being corrected can have a bad trip and start spreading their dung about McNeel and the product on other forums. People can become very unpredictable, and moderation takes not only time but also energy (when individuals goes bananas).
For this reason it is probably a good idea to think twice about moderators, at least if the moderators would be McNeel staff.
A different take
Which lead me to think of something that doesn’t draw bad feelings towards McNeel staff while still addressing the problem of threads getting messy and unreable: One could have a few “trusted users” (old timers with a reputation) with the role of Raters, which can "rate down" individual posts in threads, which then can be filtered away, or greyed down, by a Discourse filter (And a user setting: “Hide downrated posts”).
In this way people won’t be as offended nor cut off, as long as they are not outright criminal, while threads can be pruned and so become more readable, containing mostly useful info in the posts shown after the filter has been applied (if the user choses to activate the “Hide downrated” filter)
That would also not tie up developers and also prevent customer relations from going sour (it will always be a problem if McNeel staff starts to have having opinions publically on their customers).
For all these reasons I imagine that it would be better if trusted users does the pruning “while at it” so to speak. A “Flag for pruning/down rating” could also be useful so all users can contribute to a “downrate filter” concept - Moderateion
At last, I think this forum is a fantastic forum, with people with fantastic attitudes and skills, and developers doing a fantastic job with customer relations. Absolutely impressing. With a little guarded pruning/downrating the “useful information density” of the threads would go up and not be a problem at all.
// Rolf
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All that you mentioned above is possible to implement with Discourse, but was fairly strongly disliked by the majority of long-time users, if you search Meta you will probably find some of those discussions. Personally I am against “pruning” of any sort by users, trusted or otherwise. Again, if it gets offensive/personal, one can flag messages for attention by McNeel staff.
This forum is not only about “information”, it’s also a community, and the community can be collectively responsible for limiting the OT IMO.
–Mitch
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Well, I agree on that. So when in “social mode”, just tick the option “Hide downrated posts” = OFF. 
But since this topic has already been discussed, so be it, I’m fine with that. I like this forum anyway.
// Rolf
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(transferred to Meta category)
I just think there needs to be a temporary crack down on the bad behavior. To re establish the rules. I don’t think anyone is intentionally trying to sabotage topics. They just need to be reminded that off topic, rude and antagonizing comments are not helpful. That wouldn’t impose on anyone’s freedom of expression.
That’s called Self Governance. Such may not work too well for drug companies or politicians, but might be suitable to a small cohort of CAD dorks occasionally off-the-rails???
You seem to have taken the lead on that one. Bravo! I nominate @Stratosfear Chief of Playground Enforcement. 
Self governance isn’t working here. The Xnurbs topic is proof of that. @RIL tried and all it did was further moody the conversation. That topic is completely lost now. I can’t imagine Kevin at xurbs is all that impressed.
Well, you win some and you loose some. Best to move on IMO. It’ll circle back.
XNurbs will be fine if it makes it to Rhino and performs, regardless of a forum semi-freak-out.
In fact, I’d contend that the 187 posts and 3.1k views in 18 days is indicative of interest, and a good thing, regardless of any individual annoyance.
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“Don’t feed the trolls” rule may help to relief some of the ‘problems’.
But honestly I don’t think it has gotten to the point it needs to be moderated.
Sometimes I appreciate the quirkiness and nerd humor over here and would miss it having a dry CAD-only tone.
I think most users here help a lot with setting the proper tone and keeping this forum as helpful and fun place to be a part of.
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Oh, may I ‘dry-CAD-!@#$’ you…
Only kidding. 
Totally agree on not feeding.
It should be quite clear what kind of response creates unnecessary replies. Not replying is sometimes the best way to end the breakdown.
I hope @XNurbs would create a new clean thread, I sure like to try it!
Yep.
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