May I humbly suggest a timer for individual posts...

June 14, 2000 4:30 PM

May I humbly suggest a timer for individual posts. Err, that isn't very clear. Lately there's been a rash of people posting 2 or three small items in a row which, imho, really thins out the collective attention on MF which leads to more sparse threads.

What if each user was only allowed to post one new topic per 20 minutes? Or any arbitrary time period really...

Perhaps this should be a feature request?
posted by bryanboyer to etiquette/policy at 4:30 PM (7 comments total)

The major thorny issue with that is limiting communication.

Although people certainly are capable of doing something that would permit them being limited, I can't really make a sweeping rule.

Unless people continue to abuse it, then of course, I'd institute it. I suppose it hasn't gone quite that far for me (yet: I'm thinking about it more and more)
posted by mathowie at 4:17 PM on June 15, 2000

Are we talking about posting topics on the front page, or the comments....?

Front page: Absolutely
Comments: Well, we tend to bring up points in the discussions that require rebuttals...

Just a thought...?
posted by EricBrooksDotCom at 12:40 AM on June 16, 2000

Sapphireblue's suggestion would obviate the need for this. If you're annoyed by a particular user's posting habits, you don't have to see their posts.

I'd be happier with that solution, anyway. There are maybe one or two users I don't need to hear from again, if that. And plenty of users who haven't steered me wrong yet, and as far as I'm concerned, should be allowed to post at will.
posted by lbergstr at 2:07 AM on June 16, 2000

What about people who do all their thinking, and then do their posting? I could totally see saving up a couple of good ideas for Metafilter, and then zipping over and putting them up during my lunch hour.

Of course, I seldom have a couple of good ideas, but in theory that would be the case... I think we should continue to use thuggish mob rule to discourage bad posting behaviour, and not build in a programmatic police state... I'd find that to be much more bummer-inducing than seeing 3 annoying posts in a row. At least when they're grouped like that, they're easy to skip over.

Oh, and since everyone seems to be all up about what Matt should do to make this place the way they like it, I'd just like to say that I LOVELOVELOVE MetaFilter, and think that Matt Rules.

NOTE: THE ABOVE WAS NOT MEANT TO BE CRITICAL OF BRYAN, AND IF HE THINKS IT WAS, HE CAN BITE ME.
posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 11:19 AM on June 16, 2000

Excuse me while I speak with a bloody chunk of Uncle Joe's ass in my mouth, but to clarify I meant front page topic posts only. That is, users would only be allowed to post a limited amount of topics to the front page every X minutes.

I agree that it would be best to have personal "shit lists" but I was trying to think of things that would be easier for Matt to code.
posted by bryanboyer at 11:16 PM on June 17, 2000

No, I agree with Uncle Joe. Having a choke on posting new topics does nothing but frustrate some of us who tend to post in spurts. The answer is really simple: think a user is posting too much? Send email. Hate a post? Send email. Like a post? Send email.

It's all about feedback.
posted by plinth at 12:08 PM on June 19, 2000

Dear Plinth,
...


posted by CrazyUncleJoe at 1:06 PM on June 19, 2000