Threads here were not intended to be mere conversations. Some of us assumed they were to help us answer the "Which State" question with research and other answers. Some that were supposed to be "comprehensive research archives" were hijacked by irrelevant conversations or other posts. Other threads were "conversations" and flame wars masquerading as "research" or "information".
The medium may not be the message. But it certainly shapes the message. In our case we are constrained by what YaBB SE does. Obviously, it is egalitarian in the sense that a substantial, quality post is not treated any differently than a flame, woof, or bump. Therefore, de facto, what the forums are is conversation. It is futile to expect them to be anything else, unless the group of people involved is practically unanimous in what they want.
how can research threads or sections be moderated to prevent them from devolving into "chat rooms", flame wars, and trivial irrelevant posts.
It's worth pointing out that the FSP as a whole did have a "research area" where casual bystanders couldn't "talk" - this was the main site
State Reports area. But it's certainly true that there was a pretty big jump from the permanence and prominance of that area to the forums Which State area. It would be nice to have something in between.
When you add YaBB SE + moderator, more things are possible, as Jason's experiment shows. I find the thread-lumping confusing. Still, I think it shows that if someone had been willing/able to exert tight control, things other than usenet-style back-and-forth conversation might be possible.
If we were to do it again, I would suggest having a main, conversational Which State area for the majority of people to come to for community, conversation, a good argument, flaming, woofing, etc. This should be loosely moderated as was done for us until recently. But there should have been a research oriented Which State area that was more tightly moderated, including having one or more moderators that would remove posts and whole threads to keep the focus on just data and a certain amount of discussion about the data. Threads deemed unsuitable could be moved to the "conversational" Which State.
Anyway, at this point, water under the bridge. But perhaps a similar sort of structure would be in order once the Free State is chosen - we'll want to have research ongoing into what laws need changing and other such things about the state.
Incidentally, another thing worth pondering is ditching WaBB SE, at least for the research, and getting some other BB type system that is more systematically supportive of moderation. I.e. consider a slashdot type of arrangement.
