Special User Sections > Site/Forum Features

I think we should close the Company Complaints and Compliments Section

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mouser:
Let's not make this about one author, although that's the thread that finally pushed this to the breaking point.

The point isn't that we can stop all such arguments by getting rid of that section -- we can't, and we're not going to try to.  Arguments happen, and we try to let them play out and keep them reasonable.

The main point is that the Complaints and Compliments section is like a honeypot for encouraging arguments with companies and company spam -- it gives such posts far more weight and attention than they deserve on our site.

Like i said, everyone should feel like they can voice their complaints and compliments in the normal forum areas -- and companies have to have the right to rebut accusations against them.  But i don't think we should highlight and "feature" these threads by giving them their own section, which is what i think in effect what we are doing now.

superboyac:
I don't agree or disagree with this. I'm very neutral about it.

I will just say that from what I've observed in discussion forums, whenever things like this start becoming issues, it's usually a bad sign.  What was/is great about this place was that it was never an issue before.  Why is it an issue now?  What would happen if we ignore this?  Did something change recently where this has become a problem now?

I know that doesn't help you make a decision, those are my thoughts though.  I guess it's a friendly warning.  To me, stuff like this always points to the beginning of bad breakup type situations.

Somewhat related:
I was recently banned from my Lakers forum.  The technical reason: because I went around the official "rule" of not bypassing the profanity filters (I typed "a-hole").  But the real reason was that I was posting topics that people didn't like to hear.  I never insulted anyone, yet they bashed me to death on a personal level.  I was always polite, and they continued to mock me and insult me.  But because I was asking questions that were uncomfortable, they banned me on a technicality.

Do we really want forums going this way?  I find that people who are usually pretty meek in real life become somewhat of bullies on forums.  The bullies tend to dominate and eventually win.  But the price we pay is the absence of healthy discussions where we get educated and learn interesting things.  Topics become arguments and everyone starts defending themselves and the original topic stops being discussed.  I hope we don't become like that here, because I always felt like DC was the best forum as far as the people here.

I know this is probably overkill, but whatever.

AndyM:
As this is to a large extent about allocating resources, I defer to Mouser, whose judgment in these matters is far better informed than mine.  Once he's heard the pros and cons, I'll go with what he thinks.

app103:
I agree with mouser.

Before we had this section, we posted our rants in the Living Room or the General Software Discussions sections. And we didn't have many threads like this.

When this section started, it was for complaints only, not for compliments.

But having a section for complaints seems to imply we need to have something to complain about, and that is a suggestion that tends to make people look for things to complain about, even when they normally might not. It was for this reason why I originally wasn't too keen on adding this section.

Then to balance things out, it was decided to add compliments to this section too. But it failed to give it balance. I guess the suggestion to complain is much stronger than the suggestion to compliment...or we were still posting our compliments in the other sections of the forum instead of here.

Removing the section and putting the existing threads in the correct remaining sections of the forum will remove the suggestion that we complain about something, and restore the balance that once existed, without stopping anyone from posting a complaint or compliment if they really have one.

It will also discourage anyone from unnecessarily dragging up an old complaint when they are visiting the section.

Right now, the older complaints do not get buried as easily as most other threads do. Having them in a section that isn't as active tends to make them hang around on the main page of the section much longer than would be considered healthy.

mouser:
But having a section for complaints seems to imply we need to have something to complain about, and that is a suggestion that tends to make people look for things to complain about, even when they normally might not
--- End quote ---

really excellent point.

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