Sigh. I figured the wink emoji would signal that this is tongue in cheek.
The point is I won’t close these threads because they aren’t hard to moderate because people tend not to get into debates about politics in those contexts. Thanks for your help anyway. I’m sorry I added to your frustration. 
Ok. I see how I was unclear. I added a note at the top that I hope helps future readers.
And yes, one gigantic thread would be chaos and exactly the opposite of what I thought I was suggesting. I’ll try to be more clear in the future.
I am so appalled that your personal dislike for “ long threads” is shaping how things are done here. Many of us love long threads. Don’t like ‘em, don’t read ‘em.
It doesn’t seem like the issue for moderators is long threads so much as the speed with which hot topic threads move. They don’t have a flurry of back and forth followed by a respite; they barrel on with dozens of posts in a very short time, many of them repetitive. I can certainly understand the difficulty and frustration of figuring out if and when there was a true problem post. Most of the regular ongoing long threads are much more benign.
So it seems like these new monthly threads will have a lighter moderation. They don’t seem like the kinds of threads that people would want to go back to months or even weeks later for reference. And perhaps there’s a psychology of closing out and starting anew each month that will dampen the feuds, for lack of a better word.
I think the references to “long threads” may be throwing everybody off. Jon, are you really talking about “high volume” threads that arise when something like the COVID-19 crisis occurs? Length itself shouldn’t be a problem, and I’m not even sure why cutting up a high-volume thread into monthly increments will help the moderators. Are you suggesting this approach would be applied only to high-volume threads where there are a lot of flags posted? Can you explain?
I’m clearly in the minority here, outside the mods, about the super long and super active treads. Just long is fine with me if it’s a slow addition of posts. When I come back after working and there are 10 pages filled with new posts, I tend to not bother reading and skip it unless it’s a post I really really want to read.
I just about stopped reading the one covid thread that more interested me when it degraded into an argument between two posters. It didn’t get nasty but certainly didn’t adhere to the make your rebuttal once and move on rule. I didn’t flag it because I didn’t want the thread closed but, now I’m just mostly skipping over it.
I think breaking out these types of posts by month is worth a try for May. If it doesn’t work, we can say so and hopefully the admins will listen.
If you can’t hire moderators who care about your product, Jon, that’s a failing on the part of your management team. I don’t think the issue with hiring moderators is that you can’t find people (in a world of double digit inflation rates) who will care enough about their job to do it well. It seems very likely that usage numbers aren’t high enough to justify hiring additional staff. The way to increase usage is to encourage more traffic, not less.
The repeated reference to flagging and flaggers has me thinking this/they are part of the problem - over invigorated flaggers.
It’s so rare I flag something .
As a community maybe we need to do a personal check - are you flagging blatant issues - or just posters or comments you don’t agree with???
What does “lightly moderated” mean? Seems like if someone doesn’t like someone or a particular post, they get that poster slapped with a warning. Please do let us know which terms of TOS will be ignored now. I’ve heard that there are only 2 mods that actually review posts now. Is that true? Do you really think continuing to expect these 2 volunteers to moderate is realistic and fair?
You are only concerned with the general covid-19 thread? These are the covid-19 threads on CC right now that I could find.
The first three threads (and, to some extent, the 4th - Inside Medicine) contain a lot of overlapping information. So much so that I can’t remember which thread I’m actually reading. And there are debates going on. skieurope is no longer around to give the “CC is not a debating society” line. Please let us know if the “no debating” rule is still in effect.
Coronavirus May 2020 - Observations, information, discussion
Coronavirus & US Campus Issues
School in the fall & coronavirus
Inside Medicine. What are you seeing?
A Day in the Life of Social Distancing
Covid-19 Resources for small businesses - wading through all the info!
How do restaurants reopen in a covid-19 obsessed world?
Well, I’ve probably been here longer than 99% of the posters, I moderated for a few years, and I have weathered the various changes. But this might be the first time I feel personally insulted by the approach the forum has taken.
I really don’t like feeling schooled.
And, don’t tell ME about mega-threads that morphed! <insert winkie="" that’s="" sort="" of="" amused="" but="" mostly="" not.="">
Why did we lose a number of mods? Was it their choice because it was getting so hard to moderate? I miss skieurope.
I agree with @abasket I’ve never flagged anything on CC. I don’t get that worked up over a silly comment on a message board. I read, perhaps mumble something unpleasant under my breath, and move on. I don’t want to see this become the wild west, but I’m optimistic enough to think it wouldn’t.
Edited to add that I don’t see how the quickly moving threads will be any easier to moderate if they are limited to a month at a time. It’s the number of posts piling up in a short period of time that makes them hard to moderate not the number of posts (which I believe others have been saying on this thread). At least that’s what it seems like to me.
That’s not what I’m reading. I’m reading that the suggestion is to break up the long threads. Not close the Cafe.
Where did you see this?
@compmom no…because they would only be moderating the open newest thread. The others would be linked so folks could read them…but they would be closed.
@CCadmin_Jon please don’t close the current open Covid 19 thread the one about observations and what people are seeing. This is especially important now that things are changing in some places. I think it’s a huge mistake to close this thread. Huge.
Maybe the solution is to have an admin moderate that thread. Let your small group of moderators moderate the rest of the site.
Add me to the group that doesn’t see an issue with long threads.
@thumper1 the closed thread would have been moderated already. Then the new one. Same overall total.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding…but @compmom this would mean that the closed threads would be done…no need to go back and deal with them at all. Just moving forward with the May thread. And any new posts.
tl;dr.
I am reading Jon to say:
There seems to often be one contentious thread, the subject could change, but whilst other long or short subjects are not problematic, there is a thread that hits a nerve, has the rat-a-tat-tat machine gun posts of one after another after another, has some level of politics pop up, has lots of (Gladys Kravitz) style reporting of posts, some well-deserved, some with overly reactive easily offended reporters.
I am reading that rather than having moderators get sick and tired of the thread and want to close it (remember, we often don’t see the flaming posts as they are deleted) instead the entire group is agreeing to lighter moderation. The mods could tell the reporters, “hey, this is the one and only thread where we don’t care, so stop telling me Poster JoeBlo was rude” and, unless posts are egregious, the mods will mostly ignore that thread. The posters can choose to bicker a bit or not, the offended to learn to use the ignore button or skip that thread.
In other words, the part about one special thread each month is about officially telling the posters we and mods agree to chill out on the rules on that particular thread. Is this correct @CCadmin_Jon ?
I believe they are trying to find a way to allow us to have one rowdy thread that does not make them crazy, but also not lead the entire forum down a path of all rowdy threads. And yes, the parent cafe should be the place where maturity allows us more leeway, but some of our posters are less mature, both the ones who have to post the same inflammatory point over and over and over and the readers who take umbrage every single time and then begin searching out that poster to report.
I think @somemom hit the nail on the head. We will trust users to post civilly and won’t get involved unless they fail to do so in an egregious manner.
I appreciate @somemom ’s thoughts and potential explanation.
I think it is not accurate to think that the “only” threads that evoke strong opinions are a Covid like intensity thread.
What happens when April Covid thread closes but someone refers to April Covid thread #3210 post in the May thread? There will still be going back and forth. It’s not like the opinions or facts or thoughts in the April thread no longer exists.
It appears to be beyond my brain space to understand why starting monthly threads will be less moderation - partly because of the above - people on May 2 may certainly reciter back to a post on April 29.
Honestly, I find that pretty much never happens and I’m on a US Politics thread on Vol 13. These threads move too fast for people to go back. There is always a new point to be made based on new information/issues.
My only request would be to make sure the first post of the new thread contains links to the old threads on the same topic so that posters can go back and read them if they choose to.