[Discussion] SLAM guidelines replacement feedback

[Surlethe]

Proposal: replace the existing "SLAM Me-Tooing Guidelines" thread in SLAM with this when I get back from school. I'd like some feedback from the Senate (and other staff): are these sufficient? Any other rules that ought to be added? General thoughts?

Why was my post/thread/comment oppressed?

Probably because your post was deemed to be off-topic or lack meaningful content by a SLAM mod, a passing supermod, or an admin. The staff has become more aggressive in pruning discussions of spam as part of a recent board-wide crackdown.

What is spam?

Spam posts are worthless posts. Spamming is the practice of worthless posting, as measured by how much a post advances the discussion in a given thread (this is also known as a post's "signal to noise ratio"). Any throwaway comments, wiseass one-liners, cute but content-free jokes, or chatty bullshit are considered spam. (Note that this is not a rigid definition; whether your post is spam is up to staff discretion.)

How can I not spam?

When you post, make sure you are adding a new thought to the thread. Try to take a few minutes to elaborate on the reasoning supporting your claim, or expand illuminating commentary on the thread topic. The longer your post, the less likely it is to be considered spam. As a general rule of thumb, if your post contains more than three lines of text, it's probably not spam; if it contains one, it's probably spam; and if it contains between one and three, it's probably borderline.

Note that this is not a hard-and-fast rule; we have had stunningly insightful one-line posts in the past, and we have had pages of hot-air pontification. Nonetheless, if you're about to post a short comment, sit on your hands and think long and hard about whether it really contributes meaningfully to a discussion.

[Lagmonster]

It's probably worth mentioning *where* spammy posts will be split to in case people return to threads to find their posts missing, specifically, the HoS in general in the case of hijack discussions, and the HoS' Bottom of the Barrel in the case of one-liners and spam.

[Surlethe]

Good point. Any other comments, Senate?

[CmdrWilkens]

You probably don't need the bit about board wide spam crackdown. I think it be clearer to say that tolerance for spam is low and it is particularly low in SLAM.

[Surlethe]

I modified based on the suggestions above, and added a few sentences about the Hall of Shame and moving threads. Any other comments?

What happened to my post/thread/comment?

It was probably moved to the Bottom of the Barrel thread in the Hall of Shame. The Bottom of the Barrel thread serves as a repository and gruesome example of low-content posts.

Off-topic threads or bad flamewars go to the appropriate forums (in the latter case, the Hall of Shame). We leave shadow topics in place so you can find them after they have moved.

Why was my post/thread/comment oppressed?

Probably because your post was deemed to be off-topic or lack meaningful content by a SLAM mod, a passing supermod, or an admin. Bear in mind that while the board in general frowns upon low-content posting, SLAM has higher standards because it is a forum for the discussion of meaty topics such as science, mathematics, ethics, and philosophy.

If you were posting substantial arguments, your thread or posts may have been moved to the Hall of Shame because you or your opponent (or, in rare cases, both) violated posting or debating rules, or were just plain stupid. You may continue to post in that thread until or unless an administrator or moderator deems the thread has run its course and locks it.

What is spam?

Spam posts are worthless posts. Spamming is the practice of worthless posting, as measured by how much a post advances the discussion in a given thread (this is also known as a post's "signal to noise ratio"). Any throwaway comments, wiseass one-liners, cute but content-free jokes, or chatty bullshit are considered spam. (Note that this is not a rigid definition; whether your post is spam is up to staff discretion.)

How can I not spam?

When you post, make sure you are adding a new thought to the thread. Try to take a few minutes to elaborate on the reasoning supporting your claim, or expand illuminating commentary on the thread topic. The longer your post, the less likely it is to be considered spam. As a general rule of thumb, if your post contains more than three lines of text, it's probably not spam; if it contains one, it's probably spam; and if it contains between one and three, it's probably borderline.

Note that this is not a hard-and-fast rule; we have had stunningly insightful one-line posts in the past, and we have had pages of hot-air pontification. Nonetheless, if you're about to post a short comment, sit on your hands and think long and hard about whether it really contributes meaningfully to a discussion.

[CmdrWilkens]

If you were posting substantial arguments, your thread or posts may have been moved to the because you or your opponent (or, in rare cases, both) violated posting or debating rules, or were just plain stupid. You may continue to post in that thread until or unless an administrator or moderator deems the thread has run its course and locks it.

It looks like something is missing but I'm not entirely sure if you wanted to just repeat the BoB comment from above or had another link you were gonna throw in there.

[Surlethe]

Hah, fixed it. Thanks.

[Surlethe]

If there's no more feedback, I'll change SLAM policies later tonight or tomorrow morning.

[Coyote]

I think it looks good. Go for it.