General 420 Talk

[TheOldGuy]

Also (just thought of this), as people start posting in the right forums, we'll be able to do a better job at figuring out which members know more about which topics. This will make it easier to choose competent moderators for specific forums.

And with the future of 420Times, I think it would be a good idea to keep an eye out for those types of people. That will be much easy to do if the growers stay in the growing forums, the medicinal users stay in medical, the music experts stay in the music forums, etc. This isn't to say that you can only can't post in all the forums, of course.

It's just too damn hard to find those special people who might be of 420 value one day when they're all in the same forum.

 

[420]

there is an option to validate new members... this means they cannot do anything until an admin validates thier account... this would stop more children at the door, but slow down activity as most want to be vaildated right away as soon as they get here... it's so damned hard to please everyone... so far i am in favor of removing the general talk forum and validating new members... we could always leave the general forum live, just not visible from the forum, only by url... this way, the hardcore fans of this forum can still post in there for a while, meanwhile mods could be moving threads from it, to where they belong...so we don't lose all that meat and potatoes from our forums... still thinking

 

[420]

there's nothing i hate more than doing my research and development of my business in public... one day i hope to have a staff i can do this with.

 

[GODhelpUS]

ehhh, the sites always went well, why change now? There should always be a recess at school, i'd say the sites the school and General 420 Talk is the recess, talk about what you did today, how you love to smoke and lay on the beach by your house, talk about your favorite way of smoking, see what others are up to, so many different things, its the best place to do it. obviously its gonna be a bunch of mumbo jumbo and the stuff talked about will be all different but thats whats good, keeps are minds more opened then closed into going into every subforum finding something under a category. If you change general 420 talk you should change it to a Stoners Misc. subforum...atleast i think so.
I would have the moderators look over threads and make sure that in threads being made people are asking others ?'s, or tell some good info. Delete threads that someone just puts.. "I smoked a 5 gram blunt today, got toasted, got some fast food, and then assed out. It was awesome!" Nothing comes from that but replies like "Thats KICKASS! I smoked a fatty today too!"
There could be a more appropriate start to a thread like that and the thread can be kept though if people just put it in right context.

 

[TheOldGuy]

GODhelpUS, perhaps your question might best be answered in the following summarization of this forum:

The 420Times Forum is not for stoners. It is for activists.

By the way, someone just tagged "God Help Us" in red paint outside my base. Thought you'd like to know.

 

[old_smokey9483]

Could it be possible to not allow new users w/ maybe under 50 posts to even post or start a thread in the general420talk? Maybe in the registration you could require every new member who wants in an email to you first, explaining why and how they plan to help the cause and the site. That way you and the mods could rake out all undesirable members before they even come on the boards. Just an idea.

 

[CherryEyed]

we could always leave the general forum live, just not visible from the forum, only by url... this way, the hardcore fans of this forum can still post in there for a while, meanwhile mods could be moving threads from it, to where they belong...so we don't lose all that meat and potatoes from our forums... still thinking

I'm likeing this idea because most of the time I just type the URL to go directly to the 420 general forum, so that would deff work.

 

[GODhelpUS]

It wasn't me! Well i think it's for smokers and activists, both alike.

 

[umphfunk]

i think 420 times administrators should have it their way...they started it they can do w.e they like with their site...this is your site do as u please

 

[420]

yes, but we don't want to eliminate good people in the process...

 

[old_smokey9483]

well if they were decent people who came here to act like adults and promote cannabis awareness, then I wouldn't think they'd have a problem sending a short email on why they should be let in. For example, the wrong guy: "hey hey wudd up me and my friend skip skool all da time to smoke dank herb"

 

[Marianne]

Think about this though. If you have the "General" sub-forum, yes all the trash and stupid stuff goes there, but that means it stays out of other sub-forums as well and makes them free of the stupid threads.

Sorry if someone already said this, but we can't have any trash on our forums if we want to be taken seriously. Putting it in it's own forum doesn't help. Many people come to this site to find news and information about cannabis. We provide that- but who will take it seriously when they stumble into the general 420 talk forum and see people posting that they take other drugs (supports theory that it is a gateway drug, something we do NOT want to do) or talking about other members in a derogatory way or talking about how they smoked behind the bleachers at school. All seeing posts like that is going to do is convince people that stoners are a bunch of childish low lifes, and like it or not, we need a lot more support if we want to legalize, we need to be mature responsible citizans.
Take Ben Taylor-he does stuff to help the environment and improve democracy, and he has so much class. But he wrote burn one down, one of the greatest stoner songs ever, and you know he won't leave his roots. People take him seriously, and he's true to himself.

 

[Marianne]

By the way, I saw some members were making it a matter of free speech-I don't think that's so. No one's going to get mad at someone for expressing their views in an intellegent manner, but they will get mad at namecalling and childishness. 420, I think a requirement of membership should be wanting to help to legalize in some way, even by just getting educated by reading the facts we have up here. Why would we want anyone on here that doesn't care enough to at least do that? Maybe if we put something like that that poeple had to read when they signed up, they would realize that this site is to be taken seriously and not a place to goof off. I know you post something similar under rules, but I don't think most people read them unfortunatly, which is disrespectful to begin with. I understand why you're sick of it, it's just not cool when people do those things. I can't believe you've put up with it as long as you have.

 

[NoDirtWeed4Me]

Sorry if someone already said this, but we can't have any trash on our forums if we want to be taken seriously. Putting it in it's own forum doesn't help. Many people come to this site to find news and information about cannabis. We provide that- but who will take it seriously when they stumble into the general 420 talk forum and see people posting that they take other drugs (supports theory that it is a gateway drug, something we do NOT want to do) or talking about other members in a derogatory way or talking about how they smoked behind the bleachers at school. All seeing posts like that is going to do is convince people that stoners are a bunch of childish low lifes, and like it or not, we need a lot more support if we want to legalize, we need to be mature responsible citizans.
Take Ben Taylor-he does stuff to help the environment and improve democracy, and he has so much class. But he wrote burn one down, one of the greatest stoner songs ever, and you know he won't leave his roots. People take him seriously, and he's true to himself.

Well said HappyKid.

I disagree with the agument alot of people are bringing up that getting rid of the General Talk would just send the trash into the other subforums. It's alot easier to notice off topic threads when the area that it is posted in has a specific theme. It would be immediately recognized as not belonging and either deleted or moved to the appropriate section. The main source of our current problems in the General Talk forum is that it is general. Anything goes as long as it doesn't seriously break the rules. It is not salvageable in my opinion. It will constantly be a flow of headaches without end. As new users come in that are "18" *wink**wink**nudge**nudge* or are simply immature they will ignore the rules no matter how strictly enforced and we will continue to have this problem.

What I've noticed so far in this discussion is that most people agree that the problem exists, and I think all of us would agree that 90% of the problems generate themselves in this forum. So why keep the forum?

If you want to make a thread about weed+music, +politics, +art, +whatever, you can still do so, but you'll be more likely to do it in the right forum if we get rid of General 420.

I mean, go to the 420Times forum main page and compare threads per forum. General 420 is nearing 12,000 thread while the next closest is only at 2,000, and most of them are around just a couple hundred IF they even hit triple digits! There's no reason for that. Almost every thread in General 420 could have been made somewhere else, but the member who made it was too lazy to take two seconds to click on the right forum.

I say get rid of General 420 and let the members take the extra two seconds it takes to choose the right forum.

I couldn't agree with you more. It's just become a dumping ground for any type of thread; the useless threads as well as the threads that would be usefull if in the right area.

 

[winterpeggyeh]

The whole idea of having a general talk thread, is for general
talk.
Doesn't nessecarily have to be cannabis related.
Yeah there maybe alot of "garbage" here, but you are going
to get that when you have a "general" thread.

I personally don't want to talk about weed 24/7, that is why i come
in here. There are plenty of other threads, and besides, i haven't
seen a whole lot of trash talking due to our mods being on top
of things ect.

I just put my mouse over a subject to read a bit more of what is
in the thread.
If i doesn't look like something i am interested in, i don't click on the thread.

I guess if you want to get technical, this IS a general 420 thread.

Why don't you just combine the music, movies and general
threads together....since they kind of go together anyways,
and then get really strict.

Like for example...if it ain't 420 related you can't post it.

If that happened, i probly wouldn't post in here anymore, b/c
friends like to talk about other things besides weed.

I would still come here for the grow forum though.

 

[stikeegrnlf]

Why don't you have a trial period without the "general 420" forum, and see where the chips fall.

Everyone makes great points, and if we were the only ones who visited this site, this thread wouldn't even be an issue. However, stoners are like other goups of people, most are cool, some are jackasses. So I still think we, the users, can help regulate the threads. A small group of people who monitor threads and give "tokens" to those users who promote mj in a positive way or add something useful to the community, and subtract points or "tokens" for bad behavior. Points accrued for bad behavior equate to temporary or permanent loss of posting priviliges. I think there is a good core of members who can take on this responsibility, while at the same time keeping the shit from reaching the mods and 420. All inquiries on behavior or reporting of it will go to one or two people who can settle shit, so mods and 420 can focus on raising awareness and promoting the cannabis culture.
I'm here either way, Peace.

 

[zolar]

leave it in its entertaining but winnow out the newby crap by making new folk have a set minimun number of post and a waiting period [ 1 month? maybe ] before they can really be blunt smart reality dumb for our viewing pleasure ...... condolances on the e mail volume thing maybe you need to find some handicapped homebound 420'er to moderate who loves mail as its their social life [ my gramma was polio victum spent 1936 --1994 in a wheelchair had a very busy social life via postal service she would have loved the net!] but really some homebound 420'er might really enjoy it and be glad of the work....

perhaps the screen for writing posts and replys in general could have 2 lines of general ?'s

" is it 420? is it porn? should this be a private message?
is it kind? "

 

[MR sHibbZ]

I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said. I agree with TheOldGuy, stikeegrnlf, and others, but I say do what you want, I'll still be a regular visiter to this site. I like the General Talk forum, but most of the time there's nothing much worth reading or replying to. A lot of the threads made in the general forum are better off in the other forums anyway, especially all the questions that newbies always supply us with.

I like stikeegrnlf's idea, do a trial period without this forum and see how things go, and if you get flooded with requests to bring it back then you can. Personally, I don't care either way. I support whatever you decide 420.

 

[420]

bump

 

[Urdedpal]

Its your call now 420. I think we have gone full circle on this issue. Most people like it and alot of people offer to help moderate it to keep it. It is a useless forum but it is fun and attracts everybody(including underagers and spammers but also good members).
So lets pull it off the board or get some babysitters(LOL I mean lounge moderaters). I just hope that the people who ask to help work out and are serious. Sorry for being blunt but it makes me what who I am.