I have very mixed feelings about GD. Without a doubt half the posts* in here don't contribute anything and wouldn't be missed. Indeed, a lot of threads as a whole are really rather pointless.
On the other hand you have people asking for advice and getting genuinely helpful comments from people with expertise in the subject matter. A couple of examples being Sequoia and his impartial views on legal matters concerning tenancy agreements, and AJUK's recent posts in one of my threads which were appreciated by both myself and my parents. There are many more examples I could cite from other members.
This kind of quick, easy access to advice is priceless and although no substitute for paid for advice from a solicitor, is a good starting point to get a feel for many problems.
If General Discussion were to be closed, it is these kinds of threads and the help they provide that would be the biggest loss to the community. I suspect we'd also perhaps end up losing several of the more respected members who only post in this section of the forum.
I think perhaps a slightly more zero tollerance approach to moderation is what is in need. However, I appreciate that this may not be feasible due to the increased workload it would place on the moderation team. It would also perhaps make the forums seem more intimidating to new members.
The way threads are often derailed is that people are very quick to point out that a thread is against the rules in some way and this continually bumps it up to the top of the page and gives the thread more attention. I must admit I am not immune to doing this myself, often seeing poor posts is frustrating and it's all too easy to hit reply and blast the thread starter for it.
We all need to think a lot more carefully before replying to a topic, and think even harder before starting new topics.
There is a fine line between what is and isn't spam, and a little common sense needs to be applied. The application of this should be left to the moderation team (with perhaps an RTM from a forum member in doubt). For instance.....
"What shall I have for dinner?
If this were posted as a thread it would obviously be worthy of deletion. Rather than reply with "spam tbh" etc, all that other members should do is hit the RTM button, and then ignore it.
"My girlfriends mum is a vegetarian and I am meant to be cooking for her tonight. As a meat-eater I rarely cook vegetarian dishes and wonder if there are any other vegtarians here who could offer some suggestions on something that will be quick and easy but also suitable to impress".
If the above were posted, despite really not being that dissimilar, to the first example, I would say it was fine. Thought has obviously gone into the post and it doesn't seem an unreasonable request for information. In this case any member who makes a comment about the quality in the post would be wrong in my opinion.
Obviously the quality of posts is very subjective, and this is where the moderators need to lead by example and make very clear what is and isn't acceptible.
If this meant that just for one evening every other thread in GD got locked by means of setting an example, then so be it.
I also like Sequoia's idea of having another member group that can view GD, but not post in it. Perhaps new forum members should go into this group automatically (say < 100 posts) and only then be given GD access. People who ignore the general posting standards that we'd like to them to stick to could then also be added to this usergroup (is it possible to for instance limit a particular usergroup to a certain number of posts per day?)
*Finger in the air figure!
