TheBear
Hazard to Self
Posts: 78
Registered: 17-10-2002
Location: Sweden
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Mood: distilled
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Keeping the threads clean
First I want to say I like the atmosphere here and I don't want this place to have rules with instant ban penalties for not following them and
things like that.
But sometimes I feel threads degrades due to "dilution" of useful information.
One thing that annoy me is this constant posting of sources and prices even when discussing preparation and/or uses of a chemical. I mean: we already
have a section for aquistion. And furthermore, exact prices and shop/dealer names are often irrelevant to 80-95% of the members because they
don't live in the same country.
Offtopic:
This is just my point of view, and I want to point out that I'm fully aware of my status as a newcomer (looking a my postcount) so please
don't take this as criticism.
[Edited on 2-6-2004 by TheBear]
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vulture
Forum Gatekeeper
Posts: 3330
Registered: 25-5-2002
Location: France
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Mood: No Mood
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| Quote: |
First I want to say I like the atmosphere here and I don't want this place to have rules with instant ban penalties for not following them and
things like that.
But sometimes I feel threads degrades due to "dilution" of useful information.
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What you're saying here is, atleast, paradoxal.
If you want to prevent such things it would require constant and meticulous moderation work in those thread, effectively killing the atmosphere.
People will always veer ofcourse in their conversations. On a forum scale this is just more obvious because everything is being "logged".
Ofcourse, threads should be kept on topic as much as practically possible, going off topic into extreme extent will cause intervention by either me,
Polverone, Madscientist or Chemoleo.
One shouldn't accept or resort to the mutilation of science to appease the mentally impaired.
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chemoleo
Biochemicus Energeticus
Posts: 3005
Registered: 23-7-2003
Location: England Germany
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Mood: crystalline
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Hmm, I don't want to 'ruffle your feathers', but I believe it was your humble self who wrote this...
| Quote: |
Biltema is too far away for me, know any other sources?
You bought MEKB??
How did you extrakt it?
And where can I find MEK? |
Asking for sources and yet being annoyed if someone is so kind to post them? tststs 
Anyway, I agree on the 'dilution of threads', sometimes too much subsidary info or even totally irrelevant stuff is posted... or my
favourite 5 word posts (one-liners).... but that's just me  What can we do
about it? Nothing really... apart from giving a gentle nudge here or there. Bans are not a general policy here... which is definitely to be upheld.
Plus...streamlining everything to be 'perfect' would certainly make this forum less interesting, and would be a full time policing job...
not the way to go!
Personally, I think the overall balance of information/friendliness versus irrelevant stuff/tight policies is very good... much better in a lot of
forums I know
Edit: Oops, simultaneous posting
[Edited on 2-6-2004 by chemoleo]
Never Stop to Begin, and Never Begin to Stop...
Tolerance is good. But not with the intolerant! (Wilhelm Busch)
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BromicAcid
International Hazard
Posts: 3246
Registered: 13-7-2003
Location: Wisconsin
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Mood: Rock n' Roll
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Veering off course is one of the things that actually help me the most. I may be trying to work on one area of study but a slightly related/unrelated
subject may come up in a thread that I find quite interesting and may take to be my next challenge. We can't stay on topic all the time and if
you can work in a piece of interesting knowledge in a slightly related thread and disseminate it without starting a whole new topic it is always a
good thing as long as you don't go overboard, like the 4 or 5 posts in the phosphorus thread on sodium manufacture.
Personally I believe things run well just the way they are.
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TheBear
Hazard to Self
Posts: 78
Registered: 17-10-2002
Location: Sweden
Member Is Offline
Mood: distilled
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| Quote: |
| Quote: |
Biltema is too far away for me, know any other sources?
You bought MEKB??
How did you extrakt it?
And where can I find MEK?
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Asking for sources and yet being annoyed if someone is so kind to post them? tststs
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*Looking away in shame* Didn't even remember that, over a year ago, I was probably a bit ignorant back then 
I don't think moderation is the solution, I think users knowing where to post what is better (I really feel like a hypocrite with my earlier
posts in mind).
But I have another thought. I've been thinking and I've come to the conclusion that keeping threads ideal would cost to much in form of
atmosphere loss, no human touch to it. But what a about running a wiki parallel to the discussion board? Here one could concentrate information
learned from projects. For example, you could have "chlorine" as one entity, here you would write down everything good thats been
accumulated in all the chlorine threads. Responses? Good or bad idea?
Slightly off-topic:
But I'm afraid my PHP scripting qualities are somewhat limited, I've written a guestbook and so but making a wiki would probably be too much
work for me (would probably take me 6 months or someting, having to reread much programming)
Edit:
Keeping threads 100% on topic isn't exactly ideal, I agree with you BromicAcid. But it's more the dilution of some threads that become
tedious (This does _not_ include threads especially devoted to document a projects progress, I'm thinking of axehandles superb threads).
[Edited on 3-6-2004 by TheBear]
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I am a fish
undersea enforcer
Posts: 600
Registered: 16-1-2003
Location: Bath, United Kingdom
Member Is Offline
Mood: Ichthyoidal
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Thread Splitting
In my opinion, splitting large threads would greatly improve this discussion board.
Take the Sodium thread for example. It is essentially a tangled skein of two seperate topics (1. Construction of electrolytic cells to isolate sodium. 2.
Chemical methods of isolating sodium), which have little in common, besides the desired product. As the thread is so long, it is difficult to follow
one topic, without the other getting in the way. Therefore, I propose that such threads should be split into their component parts. Where necessary,
individual posts could be split, duplicated or modified, so that each of the new threads still forms a complete narrative. In order to preserve the
board's history, the old unsplit thread could be moved to a new "Archive" forum.
I have a lot of free time at the moment. Thefore, if you do decide to implement such a policy, I would volunteer to identify (and make a list of) the
individual posts that need moving.
1f `/0u (4|\\| |234d 7|-|15, `/0u |234||`/ |\\|33d 70 937 0u7 /\\/\\0|23.
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Polverone
Now celebrating 21 years of madness
Posts: 3186
Registered: 19-5-2002
Location: The Sunny Pacific Northwest
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Mood: Waiting for spring
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I have attempted to separate the hot electrochemical methods from more exotic methods, turning the Sodium! thread into two threads. What other
threads would you suggest splitting?
PGP Key and corresponding e-mail address
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I am a fish
undersea enforcer
Posts: 600
Registered: 16-1-2003
Location: Bath, United Kingdom
Member Is Offline
Mood: Ichthyoidal
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Thanks. However, there is still work to be done. The "Sodium!" thread now starts with the following text:
| Quote: | one little problem
Glass, fibrous or otherwise, is going to dissolve in molten NaOH. Are you an engineer by day, Orgy? You seem to have quite the love of Nifty
Apparatus. |
May I suggest two modifications:
1. The "Sodium!" thread be renamed, "Sodium isolation, without electroylsis of molten salts." (or similar).
2. All the posts in the "Sodium!" thread up to (but not including), Tacho's "Sodium Thermite" post (posted on 5-12-2003 at
04:41 PM), be moved to the electrolysis thread.
As for other threads that need splitting, the Sodium thread was the one that really stood out. However, I'm sure there are more and I'll
get back to you later.
1f `/0u (4|\\| |234d 7|-|15, `/0u |234||`/ |\\|33d 70 937 0u7 /\\/\\0|23.
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Polverone
Now celebrating 21 years of madness
Posts: 3186
Registered: 19-5-2002
Location: The Sunny Pacific Northwest
Member Is Offline
Mood: Waiting for spring
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Unfortunately, it turns out that dis-integrating threads is a lot easier than re-integrating them. I am afraid that the two sundered pieces of the
Sodium thread must forever stand as a silent monument to the hubris of man.
PGP Key and corresponding e-mail address
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chemoleo
Biochemicus Energeticus
Posts: 3005
Registered: 23-7-2003
Location: England Germany
Member Is Offline
Mood: crystalline
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TheBear - I didnt point out your source requests to embarass you, much rather, I thought it just goes to show that we all wonder/request, on occasion,
where things/chemicals come from. Even though it may annoy us if other people do it. I just thought it served as an example that most people are
interested in reagent acquisition, regardless where it is posted or what the idealised rules are - and you stood out as a prime example
Funny what XMB does - now there is a thread with -1 replies, yet 8000 something views ... while the split ones have none at all ...
Anyway - I personally was never that bothered by the Sodium! thread containing both chemical and electrochemical methods. What I liked about it, it
contains all the information in one BIG piece of work. Somehow I never seemed to suffer the confusion others did ....
which makes me wonder - in principle, we should therefore separate the 'Making Lithium Metal' thread, too - as it covers various angles of a
common goal (... making Li). But then, the thread is smaller... yet. You can see though that many threads should be, in principle separated.
I dont know what it is, but I always thought it's 'cool' to have sooo much information just regarding a single element, in a single
thread - and now the impact of this is somewhat lessened
I guess I am being devil's advocate once again... this being too late anyhow.
Those are just my thoughts, anyway.
Never Stop to Begin, and Never Begin to Stop...
Tolerance is good. But not with the intolerant! (Wilhelm Busch)
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Magpie
lab constructor
Posts: 5939
Registered: 1-11-2003
Location: USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Chemistry: the subtle science.
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thread mangement
I don't really mind the threads not being pure. If I'm really interested in something I can scan through the posts fairly quickly to find
what I want.
But, if someone has the time to purify some of the longer threads I wouldn't object either. It seems like a lot of work, but it would likely be
a "labor of love." And of course the administration would have to agree on what criteria were used for the separations.
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