Can we get a moratorium on bait threads and shitposting?

[Lightwysh]

It's getting out of hand. Folks trying to claim bait thread of the day with extreme over the top topics and responses. You can usually find the same usual culprits in Gen-OT making the same bait threads(tipping, pit bulls, race-bait, circumcision, guns etc) not so much to start a discussion but to rather stir up people. The topics have been beat to death and they never turn into discussion but rather shit slinging from opposing sides. It's really making GenOT a horrible experience.

I'm not asking to stop all the threads like this, but better moderation and closing of obvious bait threads.

On the topic of shitposting: people responding to threads with no intention of contribution but rather just trying to show how edgy they can be. Sure we've always had those people, but now it seems these threads are more and more trying to be like Reddit and the snarkiest comment gets the most attention.

I know mods can't be everywhere, I know it can't all be fixed, but can we do something to keep the crap to a minimum? can we add shitposting to the list of reportable items? Please?

[Septik]

how do you (or who does) decide what is and isnt? is it a bait thread because you think it is? or because endus thinks it is? is it lockable if it wasnt a bait thread but becomes one? i know what you are getting at but im sure it would just be a shit storm.

[kalaratic]

how do we know this isn't a bait thread

[Tziva]

We do our best to keep these threads to a minimum by closing them when we see them. You can help us do that by reporting those threads when you see them and explaining in the note why you feel they should be closed.

Keep in mind that we are probably not going to close a thread just because the topic has been beat to death; if people have a frequent desire to talk about something, than having those threads be available is serving the discussion needs of the community. However, that doesn't mean we're okay with baity or inflammatory threads. If in doubt, please report it.

In an ideal world, we'd see these threads on our own and reports would be unnecessary but unfortunately that isn't realistic and we often have to rely on reports to notice some of these things, particularly in extremely busy forums like GenOT.