Here's an example of a silly remark in a
troubleshooting serious thread which not only doesn't detract from the purpose of the thread, but actually adds personality to it.
What is extremely frustrating to the other moderators is when someone replies to such a remark with a gratuitous post, i.e. a post whose
only purpose is to continue the silliness. Like left-turners continuing through the intersection after the light's turned red, multiple posters will often follow up with multiple additional silly remarks, on the theory that "he did it, so I can too."
This is unfair:
- to the original poster.
- to other serious participants in the thread, whose contributions may get lost amidst the revelry.
- to new posters who may feel uncomfortable with the clubbish atmosphere that pervades such threads and therefore be intimidated about posting at all.
- to members who make a point of keeping up with threads of interest and find that a bunch of new posts in a troubleshooting thread may turn out not to indicate additional relevant content after all.
- to future readers who search for threads dealing with an issue they're experiencing, only to have to wade through the silliness in order to (hopefully) not miss any of the relevant content.
And, lo and behold! In the course of the time it took me to compose this reply, the thread I linked to devolved into a discussion of rutabagas.
Yes, the thread in question is in the Lounge, where "anything goes," but the phenomenon can be found in numerous troubleshooting threads as well.
