Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[BIONIC]

Apparently there was a whole drama in constructive about closing the Zelda trans actress thread that I don’t think anyone posted here. Post dump:

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Seeing a thread where the responses are super positive about the hope or potential for a trans woman to be cast as the titular character for one of the most iconic franchises in gaming, where posters are having a good time and the mood is joyful, and swooping in to kill that mood dead and lock the thread because you deem it not thread-worthy is pretty damn sad tbh.

Asking what colour your belly button fluff is tho? Super important.

It also didn't seem to be a problem when Jamie Lee Curtis was doing it:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/jamie-lee-curtis-once-the-strike-is-over-i-will-lobby-along-with-all-the-fans-to-become-doctor-kureha-in-netflixs-one-piece.767288/

Odd isn't it.

The decision towards what is and isn't thread worthy are so inconsistent sometimes that its hard to figure out what goes into making them.  Like a majority of the threads made here are kinda dumb and useless and sort of "not thread worthy" so I don't get how, "Will Sony sell 25 million consoles here's a poll" or "Predict this games metacritic!"  is somehow more conducive to insightful or interesting discussion than the potential casting of a trans woman in a Zelda movie.

I think it's because we already have a cast prediction thread, but the thing about curtis had nothing close? Could 100% be wrong through.

The close message doesn't specify that the conversation should happen in the prediction thread, just that actors saying they would want a part is not thread worthy.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/hunter-schafer-euphoria-playing-princess-zelda-in-nintendo%E2%80%99s-live-action-the-legend-of-zelda-movie-would-be-so-cool.783617/post-114706985

Yeah, I really agree.  A big inconsistency in what really is valid.  Hunter openly saying she would want the role isn't a confirmation  but we have had like 10 threads about Nolan saying he wants to make James Bond.  Or even that Jaime Lee Curtis One Piece thread recently.

To say nothing of the Weekend Era threads, some of which have been literal nonsense humor at times yet have been allowed to remain open. Mind you, I like those kinds of threads because of how lighthearted they can be.

Is a thread about asking about cutting toe nails really important enough to be a topic?

I guess I don't understand why a thread like that (EDIT: not the toenails one, lmao) is subject to needing to be "thread-worthy" to begin with?

I more or less can understand considering that when it's a matter of like… "is it really worth holding up this specific random Twitter user or YouTuber the OP likes as having a valuable, authoritative take when people are arguing over it" (…though I suppose we also recently saw how that kind of judgement can backfire). But the only negative post in the thread I saw was just someone threadwhining. If it's just people nicely discussing something like that, I don't really get why we need to judge it?

Especially when you can just kinda slap together a shitpost and that's somehow more worthy of a thread.

This is literally the same thread premise but somehow fine. Like, there is no consistency here whatsoever. What makes these threads different? Why is one 'not thread worthy' but the other fine? Serious question.

This place has had hundreds, if not thousands of threads that really aren't 'thread worthy' but like, sometimes they make people smile/happy. One person out of everybody who posted in seemed the locked thread seemed to object to with what was nothing but a threadwhining post and that was that.

The Jamie Lee Curtis thread was also allowed to run it's natural course too - people cheering on the idea, some humor, and then it died off. This all happened within a day.

Given that this thread has some merit, if however minor, what was the reason for locking it instead of just letting it run it's natural course? We all know threads on trans related subjects die off super fast on Era anyhow.

yeah, i feel like over the past year or so the number of thread closures has increased by a dramatic amount, all with a very brazen "does this really need to be a thread?" type close message, which - yes, i would say a vast majority of them do. if they are not going to present issues for the mod staff wrt: overly heated discussion or otherwise cause burdens, then why not just hit the ignore button on the thread and let posters enjoy themselves? how do we allow a thread like "let's keep counting upwards until a mod locks the thread" while shutting down often fairly genuine or interesting discussion?

While I wouldn't want to see etcetera filled up with threads called "so and so to play jokers dad" or whatever, the Hunter Schafer thread seemed to be the first time a lot of posters had heard of her, and as Kyuuji mentioned, was filled with positivity. I think there's some much-needed nuance with thread closure decisions like this that isn't happening at the moment.

Generally speaking, whether a thread is worth having or not is based on a number of factors and is also done on a categorical basis. Which is why sometimes threads are locked for being "non-news" while WeekendEra shitpost threads are treated differently. The Hunter Schaefer thread that is the catalyst, or perhaps lighting rod, for all this feedback? That's not substantial news by a number of objective metrics, which I agree with in a bubble. When there's big news, such as a freaking The Legend of Zelda movie in the works, that has everyone talking about it we inherently try to limit less substantial threads and get people talking in established threads. That was the case here and everyone is entitled to their valid feelings, such as possibly seeing it as a microaggression against the trans community. I and other staff do want to convey that we do not keep tabs on our thread locking behaviors/patterns. We try to be consistent but some smaller threads just get locked while others don't. There is already so much on our plates that it's just not something we can feasibly keep track of other than using what guiding principles we do have to lock threads. That's all there is to it, there's no malice on our part there. Such arbitrariness just comes with moderation and we ask for your understanding.

Upon review, we will reopen the Hunter Schaefer thread as we can now see that there is a different kind of merit to the thread that was not considered at the time.

This is very appreciated. Thank you.

Appreciate the unlock and update. For what it's worth the issue was less that it was substantial news by any objective metric, and more that it was evidently of interest to the forum and received well. Read the first two pages of that thread and people are just happy. Maybe that should be considered in the worthiness of a thread in and of itself even if it isn't major major news.

Having threads that are majority positive in their responses is obviously a boon to the forum. Not least one where a trans woman is suggested to play an icon of a beloved gaming franchise lol. I know you don't disagree with that, so thanks for the unlock and allowing it to run its course.

Up front, I want to say I appreciate what was done in this case; thank y'all for listening and re-opening it.

But I also want to say that I'm a little surprised that there's not been introspection on the handling of thread locks. Purely because the way threads get locked (in general though, not necessarily with a consistent issue) feels like it comes up in this thread as a pain point pretty frequently?

It's not that there is no introspection, we have plenty of that. There are just an incredibly large amount of scenarios in which a thread might be made. We have some guidelines we generally adhere to, but they can't really account for every single topic.  For things that require more scrutiny - e.g., elections, world events, or even like, a gaming conference, etc. -  we choose to spend more effort there because it requires more.  For the rest, it's more like looking at it in the moment and making a decision on whether it seems worth having the discussion. This could be because maybe the topic isn't presented well (or purposefully skewed), or it's a random WeekendEra-type thread that is too over the top, or any number of factors.

Despite the guidelines, there's always going to be some level of arbitrary decision making when it comes to these smaller threads.  Perhaps there is currently a megathread that the info would be more suited. Maybe it's been a long day of handling Israel/Palestine reports and we really don't want to have to deal with yet another thread on The Last Jedi (only half joking here).

When I woke up this morning and saw that thread lock I was about to make a similar post myself but I had to go in a hurry and I was hoping that it would be you who put it more eloquently than I ever could. So thank you. It's fucked that we can have some kind of scatological joke thread every other week (which I honestly don't mind, for the record) and a thread where people are showing enthusiasm about trans representation gets shut down, just like that, for a bullshit reason. Extremely fucking disappointed, fucking read the room.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you Kyuuji ❤️

its understandable it could be seen as fragmentation. Zelda movie is big news and there will be potntially threads sprouting over the tiniest indirect connection. Considering its only one notice and we have no real details and its ages away, it makes sense to keep discussion in one thread like with many other early news threads.

Similarly understandable given the volume of threads that specific details can’t always be meaningfully absorbed before making such decisions.

Appreciate it being reconsidered though

The thread locking policy in general seems to skew towards "shoot first ask questions later never". It kind of contradicts the reality that a thread that mayyybe should've/could've been locked usually doesn't hurt anybody, while the opposite will often bother people. Even from a mod perspective it just seems to invite complaints for no real benefit.

Do these thread locks tend to happen because people are reporting the threads, or because mods see the thread and decide that it needs closed? Just wondering what the catalyst is for closing them if people are being civil and not causing trouble.

Either of those can happen.