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Subject: Re: CCC Elections: Questions for the Nominees.

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 06:38:17 08/09/00

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On August 09, 2000 at 01:47:42, Michael Cummings wrote:

>On August 08, 2000 at 20:44:47, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On August 08, 2000 at 17:21:51, Steven Schwartz wrote:
>>
>>>Some questions for our Moderator nominees:
>>>
>>>1) On a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the most tolerant
>>>and 10 being the least tolerant, where would you place
>>>yourself when it comes to posts that are off topic?
>>>
>>
>>How is this to be interpreted?  IE I don't like the chessmaster questions/
>>threads.  So I don't read them.  Would I delete them or inject moderator
>>suggestions that they be stopped?  No.
>>
>>So if you mean "personally, how do you rate your tolerance for off-topic
>>posts and do you read them?"  I would call myself a 6.  If you mean "would
>>you delete posts...?" then I would call myself a 3.  I can live with stuff
>>I don't read.
>
>Maybe I am missing your point here in regard to the Chessmaster example. Now
>anything regarding chessmaster, or for that matter and other chess program. What
>would you consider off-topic.
>
>So when you say, "would I delete them or inject moderator suggestions that they
>be stopped ? No", why would this example even regard even thinking that kind of
>action to be taken ?
>
>To posting endless games between personalities or asking for settings for
>chessmaster, I consider this to be perfectly on topic for this forum.
>
>Maybe you are showing your point to the extreme to put across your view, if that
>is the case then I can understand that.

It was just an example.  Discussing chessmaster personalities is somewhat off-
topic for why CCC was originally formed.  It is off-topic enough that I don't
bother reading the threads.  But it isn't off-topic enough that I would delete
anything.  It is probably not off-topic enough to cause me to say anything
except for those cases where a thread between 2 people has 50 messages and
nobody else is contributing.

That makes it pretty obvious that most others also think it off-topic and that
it probably should go to private email.

That is why I added the "if you want to complain, do it via moderator email
as I am not going to read every post that shows up..."



>
>But just because someone does not like a post or thread regarding a certain
>topic, does not make that off-topic.


Of course not.  But I have two levels of off-topic detection.  The first is
"that is off-topic enough that I am not interested, but I won't get involved
in terminating it."  The second is "that is so far off-topic that I am going
to take action and notify the posters..."

There are also examples of on-topic but inappropriate posts.  "What size hash
tables do you use in Crafty if you have 1024mb of RAM?" ought to be done via
email to me or the crafty mailing list.  But it is barely interesting enough
to be left alone and answered.  "How can I select just GM games from the
enormous PGN game file?"  doesn't belong here.




>
>To me off-topic is anything not regarding computer chess. So I am just confused
>by your point you are trying to put across. Chessmaster is on topic, if not, can
>you explain any past posts which would differ in this opinion. No need to dig
>any up, just of what you remember would be fine.
>


Just because something is about computers, or about chess, or about computers
_and_ chess, does _not_ make it on-topic.  This message board was _never_
intended to be the conduit between end-users and program authors.  Except in
a general way.  IE "why can't Rebel solve this simple endgame?" is a reasonable
thing to ask here as it might be interesting to others.  But "How do I extract
the files necessary to make the enormous.pgn book for Crafty?" doesn't belong
here.  Email or the mailing list is the right place for non-general-interest
questions.



>Thanks



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