Just a suggestion re: thread drift and side conversations
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    The weird and meandering direction of discussion threads here is a feature, not a bug.

    However, I think some of us are too quick to derail, too quick to soapbox, too quick to make jokes, too quick to send conversations off on wild moose chases.

    I do not want to suggest a rule or policy. I want to suggest an personal choice each of us can make:
    Wait. Please wait until the Original Poster's question is actually answered at least most of the way.

    If someone asks where to buy an electronic organ, which David Haas Mass setting is the best, how to incorporate more banjo into Solemn Vespers, or which style of Cope would be most visually stimulating, could we all just wait until someone has at least answered the question (maybe YOU) before explaining that people shouldn't like things that we don't like.

    And I mean - YOU, IN PARTICULAR. Not just other people. YOU. I know you think that your opinion is more valid, your jokes are more funny, you soapbox is more important. In fact, it probably is. There are a lot of really smart people on this board. But even YOU, could you just wait for like two or three relevant responses before descending into utter chaos?

    Especially if it is a new poster.
    Especially if the topic is something you want to complain about.
    Especially if you want to make a point you have made dozens of times on the board already.
    Especially if the poster is seeking specific information that does actually have a potentially valid answer.
    Especially if it is clear that the poster is young, or inexperienced, or a bit timid, or isn't especially fluent in English.
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  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,365
    I am probably one of the worst offenders. Sometimes we are drawn down 'off-topic' paths by as little as a word dropped by someone else, even a germane word, which has the effect of shaking the kaleidoscope just enough to reveal a fascinating new train of thought, even though it is but distantly related to the original topic. Actually, this doesn't bother me at all. It's what happens with any evening's conversation on any topic and can be very stimuilating; and, I must say that I have gleaned much of value from it. But, here I am, already meandering from Adam's sage advice. We all might be better off, better ladies and gentlemen, better scholars, better persons, more conscientious, more respectful, and so on, if we followed it. Perhaps, even, Richard could immediately make a new thread out of any comment that had too feeble a kinship to the original. (On the other hand, this would likely lead to an intolerable multiplicity of threads.) Adam's proposals are sound. Let us hope that following them does not result in stunted creativity in our comments.

    (We could use some similar proposals on ressurecting from the dead threads that are years and years old. This is, with very few notable exceptions, far more infelicitous than off-topic evolutions.)
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  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    However, I think some of us are too quick to derail, too quick to soapbox, too quick to make jokes, too quick to send conversations off on wild moose chases.


    Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black? LOL.

    We do digress easily which adds interest to discussions. We are more like friends sitting around discussing topics with the conversation going wherever it leads. I don't see anything wrong with that. Answering questions is a good thing, assuming there even are answers to some of those questions - not always clear.
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  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Let he who is without Meme Generator cast the first stone.
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  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    You know how those self-appointed nannies are. LOL. Perhaps it would make a good PBS series - The Proper (and improper) Nannies of Solesmes. Likely as interesting as many other of the PBS docudramas. I am waiting for a series on the history of mud and chant - with implications for climate change. ;-)

    Here's one for Jackson. The Moral and Cultural Consequences of the Simulacrum in Catholic Worship, and How It Affects Global Warming.

    This could even have a poll associated with it. Don't we all want to know how the pew sitters feel?

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  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    now wait! about the simulacrum!

    good point adam
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Ben
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Adam isn't calling for anything surprising or revolutionary -- although I confess some amusement that he's calling for it. It is a good idea: be polite. Be un-combox-ish.

    Yes, even though I'm late to the party, I second Adam's motion wholeheartedly.
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  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    I feel guilty.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    I am fully guilty of this.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,940
    mi 2
    12hrcr.jpg
    500 x 617 - 65K
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  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    I feel guilty.


    I try to never feel guilty. Guilt is such a Latin thing!

    Thanked by 5Liam Ben CHGiffen Olivier Casavant Organist
  • EugeneLavery
    Posts: 5
    Many threads here do seem to end up having the same discussion.
    Thanked by 1EMH
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,933
    Many threads here do seem to end up having the same discussion.


    Time marches on, as the narrator in the cartoons watched during my childhood used to say. Most of us probably don't remember some of the earlier discussions and don't re-read everything here to find them. Too much stuff to sort through.
  • EMH
    Posts: 47
    Thank you for this!
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Feeling guilty is a guilty pleasure for Latins, Charles!
    Thanked by 2Liam CharlesW
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,940
    Shaaaaaayme!
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • Spriggo
    Posts: 122
    I love applesauce.
    Thanked by 2melofluent CharlesW
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,365
    ...applesauce.

    There, you see!
    That's a perfect opening for topic drift (TD).
    And it happens so naturally.

    Um, what kind of apples are best for really fine applesauce?
    (Oh! and while we're at it, which edition of 'Johnny Appleseed' is the best?)
    And, applesauce looks very much like mashed turnips:
    how many of your grandmothers continue to serve mashed turnips at Thanksgiving?
    Did someone say 'Thanksgiving'? Who knows what Indian tribes were at the first Thanksgiving?
    Indians? For India ink I always thought Pelican was the best.
    India? (or [scented] ink?) How many have read Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone?
    Etc....
    Anyone for roast pelican?
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Spriggo
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjP7cVqz5Uw

    i gotta get me one of these!
    Thanked by 3CharlesW Spriggo Adam Wood
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Apples? No......Samsung!
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Spriggo
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,940
    I practice a spirituality of distractions. I didn't realize it was contemplative until a spiritual direction surprised me with that intelligence. I was gobsmacked.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    uhhhh . . .

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y
    Thanked by 2Spriggo CharlesW
  • Casavant Organist
    Posts: 800
    Well would you look at where this thread has drifted...
    I am probably quite guilty of this sometimes too...
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