Re: I wish we could do away with the 5-star poll

In article <aLOdna298vX3G7nVnZ2dnUVZ_oWdnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
PV <pv+usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>btm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Brad Templeton) writes:
>>Many people _do_ post as I suggest, they might use a title 
>>like "Tigh's hanger deck confrontation" or something else that
>
>In other words, a spoiler.

No, but that's another debate.  :-)
>
>Nobody is stopping anyone from starting those threads. It just doesn't
>happen much, mostly because nobody sees the need to. *

Actually, that's the point.   People clearly want to discuss the show,
people come to the newsgroup to read discussion of the show.  The
discussion isn't stopped -- not at all -  by the 5-star poll, but it is
diverted into
one mutli-topic thread, doing away entirely with the concept of a
subject line for threads, a concept I think it is an error to do
away with.

And it is this thought that I hoped the originator of the poll might
want to consider.   Is it creating discussion?  Is it diverting
discussion?   Is it stopping people from reading discussion? (because
people like me, needing more S/N, do not read the 5-star thread) 

These are reasonable questions to ask.  I erred in talking at the
start about the noise of posts with just a number in them.  They
are part of the reason I don't read the thread, but only part of
it, and the real issue is something else.

Topic drift happpens, and threads with multiple discussions under
the same subject happen.  We won't stop it.  But I would have hoped
most people considered that a bug, not a feature, and something to
be discouraged rather than deliberately stimulated.   

But it's up to George, the poster of the thread, to consider these
issues in his own mind and decide if the poll is doing good, harm
or is neutral.   Nothing world shaking, just some issues to
consider.
-- 
Sail up the Yangtse river into China in my photojournals
	http://www.templetons.com/brad/photo/china/