Thunderdome?
 

OK, so this idea popped into my head and I have not thought it through but I'm going to expose you to it anyway in its unfiltered form.

From time to time we have members on the forum who simply can't seem to get along with one another. Sometimes it's 2 specific members who mix like oil and water. Sometimes it's just one member who seems at odds with the rest of the world. It tends to sidetrack threads with arguing and take them off topic when the thread itself is legitimate and doesn't deserve to be shat upon. It clutters a thread and calls upon the staff members to referee or arbitrate.

How about when members take it upon themselves to argue in legitimate threads (NOT legitimate differences of opinion or spirited debate), they are thrown into a myg37.com Thunderdome? For any of you who aren't familiar with Thunderdome, the premise is simple - "Two men enter, one man leaves". A thread is started and the two of them battle it out verbally for a specified time period. Whoever loses is forever banished form this forum. After a set time period the argument ends and the forum determines (by poll) who is the winner and who gets banished. It might cut down on the bickering by 1) discouraging it and 2) getting rid of 50% of the participants. I can think of at least a dozen instances in the past year or so that this could be applied to.

Does this have any merit whatsoever or did I just waste the last few minutes of my life spewing mental diarrhea onto your screens?

Discuss.

There was a bit of fecal splatter but could have merit. One of the problems is it could get real NSFW in a hurry and how to keep those not of suitable age away from the cockfighting. Maybe a "premium members only" bullring?
Would be pretty entertaining if you sent them to the bullring for a 10 minute countdown where they'd have to be on total turbo trash talk mode.
Warriors,
come out and playeeay :11:

That's the whole point. We're all adults here. Allegedly. You know the only rule in Thunderdome. "Two men enter. One man leaves." Gotta get all Snake Plissken on em.

I've been saying for the longest time how society has lost respect for each member. Things would be drastically different if there were "consequences" for being a douche bag to other people. Sometimes the fear of a severe @ss whoopin' would go far in stopping squabbles before they start. I say go for it.... Let's get caveman in this beotch! If you're a respectful member then you shouldn't have a thing to worry about. For the crotchety, thick headed, and down right rude / mean members WATCH OUT. The thunderdome and a "friendly" poll could be your swan song.

I actually think the poll is a great idea... I for one, don't think that the reason for being in the Dome will make me side one way or another. I think my vote will be based on seeing how the warriors have been interacting with others (playing nicely) while in the threads. This could cause a shift in how people behave while posting up.

Thanks for the input.

If it keeps the silly arguing out of the other threads I'm all for it.

BB,
Your original post certainly has an element of sarcasm and even some frustration concerning how some threads evolve, and I do understand that.

I have often been the object of personal insults due to my stance on illegal mods for example, and perhaps my age. I have tried, possibly not always successfully, to respond without returning a personal affront. Perhaps I should just let them go, but often cannot resist the urge to respond.

But in the long run, it’s our forum rules, rules that forbid such personal attacks, that should be in play here. Deleting such posts and/or closing threads that get out of control, as done by you in the past, should manage the problem, and no radical solutions like a thunderdome should be necessary.

I love the idea lets do it. You should make a poll and see who likes the idea

Sent from my LG-MS870 using IB AutoGroup

I rather enjoy the bickering sometimes. It can be quite entertaining watching other spew nonsense from their pieholes. With that said, I think there should be a requirement to read ALL of the stickies prior to making your first post. 95% of all questions can be answered by doing a search or reading a sticky. This will also filter new members creating an account just to make one post and not add to the community.

If a thunderdome is created. There must be a forum for public mockery afterwards for the loser.

Thanks all for you ideas. Another related idea that was put forth to me via PM is to have a "smackdown" forum where argumentative posts from legitimate threads can be moved and the participants in the argument have a forum where it is OK to argue with each other and get after it but its not crapping on someone's legit thread. They have a place where it's not hampering normal threads in the regular forum. When they're done, they're done and can come back around normal members once they've gotten it out of their systems.

That sounds reasonable, just detour them to a sidetrack thread and let them hammer it out.

My previous forum had a couple of methods of dealing with "problematic" members before slapping them with a ban.

One method is to move a ridiculous/out of hand thread into an off topic/nsfw thread that allows everyone to get it all out. Ex. Club3G Forum : Mitsubishi Eclipse 3G Forums

^^^ Well I guess you also have to be a member to see the threads. I'll leave the link in case someone is interested in the good stuff.

It's an interesting concept and the threads can get quite entertaining. Somewhat creates that arena for all the bickering to happen outside of the main content.

Def an entertaining thought. It would be fun to watch as two enter and talk sh!t for their forum rights. In fact a trash talking showdown of any type would be 2 min well spent IMO. Maybe it's bc I haven't read many of the troublesome thread posts or just that I'm not responsible for deleting/policing them; but total banishment seems a little harsh to me.
Other than that I say go for it.

Well, the severity of the punishment is meant to deter these arguments from occurring altogether. If the punishment is trivial, you could inadvertently trigger members to act ridiculous in order to be "selected" and receive the "glory" and attention, with no real consequence.

Point taken. If you want to take all the fun out of it. What's the use in having a THUNDERDOME (ahhhhh!!) if we only get to use it once. The people wanna see carnage and you gotta give the people what they want. Ill spitball a punishment...how bout a 2 month ban IF your a premier member.

Now set it up and put some heads on the block! Lol