No offense meth I don't see why locking the thread for a week is gonna solve anything, your just catering to one side of the argument at hand when you yourself has stated that this thread isn't effecting general.
I've stated that it hasn't resulted in less overall posting activity.
We don't know yet what the impact will be on topic creation, etc.
Let's be honest: there ARE some real problems with this thread. It was almost locked a month or so back when people tried to take it on a porn tangent. It's a real resource drag to sort through 3,000 pages to find inappropriate tangents whereas it IS very easy to remove an inappropriate thread from the forums.
That stuff needs to be fixed.
Removing the thread for a week will hopefully achieve the following:
1) Users opposed to the thread can shut up for awhile, which we'll all enjoy.
2) Users who support the thread will hopefully appreciate it more, so they'll be willing to accept some responsibility for its upkeep.
3) Hopefully users who frequent this thread will spend some time outside of it and will make better use of the WHOLE site. Using this thread to discuss music, sports, and shoes is not acceptable, honestly. The rules still apply.
If new topic creation occurs, GREAT. I'm not going to hold that AGAINST this thread, however. Quite the contrary. If those who frequent this thread use the time proving that they just want to make POSITIVE contributions to our forums, then you're even better poised to help resolve the source of the complaints about this thread and repair it. It's about balance. If "thread about nothing" users are perceived as being "elitist," that they can't/won't play nice with others, then you're just feeding that us vs. them mentality. Proving that we're all in this together is a step in the right direction.
If I leave the thread as is, there's no incentive or imperative to fix it.
Users who hate this thread don't get to "have their way" just because it's down for a week. They want it gone for good. Their only argument, at this point, is that it's "draining" the forum of quality threads. As long as the thread exists, they can keep on saying that. There's no way to isolate the actual problem unless we suspend the thread.
When we regroup, we can work on revising the way this thread works so as to retain whatever benefits people observed during its absence. Maybe that involves laying down some clearer guidelines regarding what is/isn't appropriate for this post. Maybe some users who participate in this thread and find something topic-worthy will choose to share it with the forum in general and can link to that thread to better distribute the discussion. Whatever the case may be, we'll have the opportunity to solve the problem.
If we DON'T take that one week break first, however, no changes you make will satisfy the critics because they'll always claim that things could be better still if the thread were removed entirely.
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