Commanding Threads

There's not a lot of rules here, and I prefer to keep it that way. But I just want to throw this out there as a dormant rule that might need to come into effect further down the line if the situation calls for it.

There's a thing on doomworld that some people seem to do. I've done it. I'm not happy about it. I realize how frustrating it is when other people do it, so I've worked on myself not to do it. But if it happens too often here, I'll have to do something about it because it disrupts the civility of the forum and compromises useful discussions. People used to refer to it as flame wars or "flaming" but there's a workaround that most forum members seem to do that flies under the radar of that definition, so I'd like to make it a bit more clear here.

The act of commanding a thread varies in definition, but a warning sign is generally when someone posts many times in one thread. It usually happens when someone makes an opinion that they feel needs to be defended or needs some extra weight or substance, so they return to the thread multiple times to respond to every post in the thread to further their point. It also includes posting in a manner where you are responding to the same person over and over, usually in short sentences, sarcasm, or commenting on their decadence to provoke a reaction.

This kind of posting goes unenforced at doomworld and I wouldn't like it to go out of control here. This thread isn't a warning to anyone here in particular. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever seen it happen here. But I'd like to put this out there since we're pretty close to doomworld and wouldn't want that kind of stuff creeping into this forum unchecked.

If you feel you're at risk of getting in trouble for this rule, here's some info that might help:

Should a thread experience some heat, which generally means that you're engaging in a dialogue with one particular person in a thread, or a group that shares a similar opinion, I expect that you should be able to get a complete thought across in as few posts as possible. I kindly request that you take the time to write your posts eloquently, and reread them a few times before posting. Try your best to anticipate any questions that might come from your posts. It's not a matter of being right or wrong. If you are populating threads with incomplete thoughts that you're still working out in your head, or intentionally obscuring to be outrageous, I may have to take action. The rules don't apply to every situation, but I will refer people to this thread if I feel it is happening, and if it continues despite that, I'll have to take some sort of action that the participants may not like.