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April Fool with a real message about off topic posting!

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IanXC

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As a result of a recent review carried out by forum staff regarding the structure and layout of RailUK Forums, we are today launching our most comprehensive revision to the forum since our launch in 2005.

Following an extensive review we have concluded that particularly the current rules with regard relevancy appear to be beyond the capability of many of our members. As a result we have taken the decision to merge all the content of each Forum into one Master thread for each subject area, as such these will be:
  • UK Railway Discussion thread
  • Infrastructure & Stations thread
  • Traction & Rolling Stock thread
  • Allocations, Diagrams & Timetables thread
  • Railway Jobs & Careers thread
  • Railtours & Preservation thread
  • Fares Advice & Policy thread
  • Disputes & Prosecutions thread
  • Railway History & Nostalgia thread
  • International Transport thread
  • Buses & Coaches thread
  • Other Public Transport thread
  • Photography Sites, Blogs & Videos thread
  • Memorabilia, Media & Publications thread
  • Modelling, Games & Simulations thread
  • Trip Planning & Reports thread
  • General Discussion thread

We are sure that you will agree that this new structure will enable us to avoid many off topic postings and thus reduce the number of occasions on which we need to move or amend your posts which we know from feedback many of you are not keen on.

We will, in due course, be making an update to the below section of the Forum Rules.

Forum Rules said:
Relevant
  • New threads should be given appropriate, descriptive titles and subsequent posts should remain relevant to the original topic.
  • If referring to an external source you should put the text in QUOTE tags, provide details of the source and make a relevant comment to promote discussion.
  • If posting a personal suggestion for changes to rail provision, you should make this position clear in the thread title so readers are clear it is not based on the work or aspirations of any recognised body.
  • If posting a thread requesting a list of examples of a specific, or combination of characteristics, you should start the thread title with "Trivia:".

Whilst this appears to be a significant set of changes to become accustomed to for some of you, we are aware that making off topic postings comes very easily to some of you; making us confident that the period of adjustment will be short.

Regards
The Staff Team
 
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RailUK Forums

EM2

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As someone admittedly guilty of the occasional OT posting, I think this is a very clever idea, streamlining all the content and making it easier to find, and to announce it today makes absolutely perfect sense...
 

driver_m

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Are you going to do a separate April Fool Thread for all the other dodgy things that the railway will do today? ;)
 

D365

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The Class 442 master thread will sure make for an interesting read.
 

Silver Cobra

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I admit, I got caught out initially. Thank goodness I remembered what the date was before thinking too deeply about it :p
Nice one nonetheless.
 

IanXC

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Glad you all enjoyed that, however there is a real message.

We are currently suffering from a vast amount of off topic posting across the forum. It would very much be appreciated if everyone can be aware of posting off topic discussions in existing threads and create a new thread instead. Also, if you see an off topic discussion beginning, please use the report function to let us know; it becomes exponentially harder to resolve the longer it has gone on!

Many thanks in advance.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Glad you all enjoyed that, however there is a real message. We are currently suffering from a vast amount of off topic posting across the forum. It would very much be appreciated if everyone can be aware of posting off topic discussions in existing threads and create a new thread instead. Also, if you see an off topic discussion beginning, please use the report function to let us know; it becomes exponentially harder to resolve the longer it has gone on! Many thanks in advance.

That matter of off-topic posting reporting does not always seem to bear fruit as there were two postings that I reported concerning a Universal Basic Income on the "RMT dispute on Merseyrail" thread which still are shown on the thread in their entirety.
 

IanXC

Emeritus Moderator
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That matter of off-topic posting reporting does not always seem to bear fruit as there were two postings that I reported concerning a Universal Basic Income on the "RMT dispute on Merseyrail" thread which still are shown on the thread in their entirety.

Unfortunately sometimes an off topic discussion gets so embedded within a thread that by the time we are alerted to it, it is just too difficult to remove it. This is of course why early reports are important.
 

GW43125

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It's taken me north of 48 hours to realise this was a massive April fool...
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Unfortunately sometimes an off topic discussion gets so embedded within a thread that by the time we are alerted to it, it is just too difficult to remove it. This is of course why early reports are important.

Was it not the case in the past that the forum staff on being notified of such matters caused a whole tranche of off-topic postings in a thread to be completely removed and a posting made by the forum staff stating what had been done?
 

ainsworth74

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Was it not the case in the past that the forum staff on being notified of such matters caused a whole tranche of off-topic postings in a thread to be completely removed and a posting made by the forum staff stating what had been done?

Yes and we still do. But it can take an awfully long time to do so. Even sorting out a thread that may only contain a dozen off-topic posting can take a quarter of an hour to deal with properly. There have been occasions when it's been far more than a dozen posts in which case it takes even longer.

You have to read what's been said to get the context, read the posts that are off topic, if some posts are part off-topic and part on-topic then you may need to edit them or copy them into a new thread and then edit them, you need to move posts, then post onto the original thread and create a mod note on the new thread.

It isn't as easy as just going "Oh here are some off topic posts" waving the magic Moderator wand and having it all fixed ;)

So yes, when possible, we'll still do what you describe but there are always going to be times when it just isn't possible as the time taken to do it would be so great.
 
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