# Foro para Consejos/Preguntas Generales?



## VivaReggaeton88

Hola.. He visto que se le quita del foro muchas preguntas sobre consejos, preguntas generales, opiniones, o sólo sobre un país/lenguaje y les sugiero a los moderatorios que debamos tener una sección del foro en que esas preguntas pueden ser preguntadas. Por ejemplo, he puesto un thread sobre cuál país sería mejor para aprender el español, y el thread fue quitado. No entiendo por qué no podemos tener un lugar para preguntar esas preguntas.

Gracias


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## brian

Well, one problem is that threads asking for such advice often lead to mentioning _specific _resources, such as books, CDs, DVDs, websites, etc., much of which, however useful they may be, would nevertheless violate our rules against advertisement and copyrighted material (even if unintentionally).

In my personal opinion, those kinds of threads are difficult to moderate, and having them moderated as such severely limits them anyway so that they simply become too frustrating, both for us mods as well as for the foreros.


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## avok

I agree with Vivareg...(sorry hard to spell). 

There should be a difference between "In which country should I learn Spanish" and "which book is better? X or Y?" even though both questions deal with personal opinions. This difference can be foreseen by the moderators before the related thread is open. One is about opinions and the other one violates the rules against advertisement and copyrighted material.


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## ampurdan

I don't think it would be a good idea to allow threads dealing with topics such as "which country is better to learn Spanish?". This question does not really have an answer. It will depend on what kind of Spanish do you want to learn. Other than that, it will most probably be an excuse for never-ending quarrels and struggles for "linguistic supremacy".


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## avok

Yes but which questions have answers in cultural forums? barely any. You are right about the never ending quarrels but thats what moderators are for.


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## Tagarela

Hi,

I think that the Cultural forum has somethings mmm 'strange'. 
For example, it is clearly forbidden to one creates topic related to steryotypes, prejudices etc - but there is one not banned there, about what nationality scares children in your country. Alright, it is not about 'personal' prejudices, but it is about steryotypes and prejudices for sure. So, in many cases, it is really hard to say wether this violates the rules or not. 

As for advertisement, it is not hard to find positive references about the Spanish dictionary by Real Academia Española - well, it is a resource of good quality that may help us (language learners). For sure that one may use topics such "What is the best Portuguese grammar?" to 'sell his fish" (as we say here), but when it is noticed the moderators could do something about it. 

Good bye.:


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## VivaReggaeton88

I don't think it would be that hard to moderate, and the questions don't need to have specific answers, which is precisely why I think this should be done, just for ADVICE.


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## Jana337

VivaReggaeton88 said:


> I don't think it would be that hard to moderate, and the questions don't need to have specific answers, which is precisely why I think this should be done, just for ADVICE.


When I need advice, I go to Yahoo Answers, Amazon customer reviews, Firefox support forum and similar places. Why can't you do the same?


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## VivaReggaeton88

Jana337 said:


> When I need advice, I go to Yahoo Answers, Amazon customer reviews, Firefox support forum and similar places. Why can't you do the same?



I absolutely understand that, but I think with the amount of members on WR and the fact that it _is_a language forum, there should definately be a place here. Besides, the people on WR are *much more intelligent* than those on Yahoo answers.


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## Tagarela

Hi,



Jana337 said:


> When I need advice, I go to Yahoo Answers, Amazon customer reviews, Firefox support forum and similar places. Why can't you do the same?



Well, not trying to be unpolite, but so we should do the same to ask what kind of bathsuit do you wear, if Spaniards have dinner late, if Mexican is part of North America, etc. No?

Good bye.:


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## JamesM

I'm contributing simply as a member of WordReference here, not as a moderator. 

Cultural Discussions is, by its nature, a problematic forum. I declined to moderate in that forum when asked, much as I was honored by the invitation, simply because I wasn't sure I knew how to keep a thread within the boundaries set forth by the forum's statement of purpose, which is, in part:

_This forum is where WordReference members *active in the other forums* can share ideas about topics that are not appropriate elsewhere._

_The purpose of this forum is to help participants and other readers learn about cultural aspects of different countries and groups of people. It is neither a chat board, nor a place to advocate or promote personal viewpoints about the way things ought to be; rather, it seeks to help us learn how things are, and how they are changing over time, and not what I think of things and how I would like them to go._

_Do not start threads by asking for any kind of personal opinions. _


The intent of the forum, as I understand it, is to discuss differences in cultures and cultural perceptions across the world. This is a difficult purpose to maintain and keep everyone on board with it. For example, "what is a typical time for dinner in your country" falls within the scope, in my opinion, while "do people eat late in Spain", to me, falls outside the scope. "What is typical beachwear in your country?" is within the scope, in my opinion; "Should men wear thongs" is not.  However, a thread can quickly shift from one focus to another with a single post. 

I don't envy the Cultural Discussions moderators. I think their job is ten times more difficult than being a moderator of a language forum here at WRF. I appreciate their time, attention and patience, but I honestly wonder what keeps them from burning out quickly on the job.

Although the statement of purpose is fairly narrow, opening it wide to asking anything about anything just creates another chat board on the internet. I'm sure that's not the intent of this board's founder. It ceases to be about language entirely at that point.

As much as I have enjoyed reading some of the threads in Cultural Discussions, I would be tempted to remove it if I were the founder of WRF. It generates more conflict, complaints, and difficulties for the moderators than ten of the other forums put together.

I think the only way to keep it in some semblance of peace and order is to restrict its purpose fairly narrowly, which has been done. I can certainly understand the reasoning behind it, having witnessed how quickly a thread can degenerate into heated arguments about personal opinions or points of view (and I've been guilty of posting in those threads as well, so I understand it from both points of view.)

There is no easy answer and there is no way to have it meet everyone's expectations. I think its current function is the best possible compromise for a discussion forum about cultures on a language board. I'm not even sure how a Cultural Discussions forum fits into a language board at all, so I think it's always going to be the anomalous forum here.

As I said, that's just my personal opinion and experience as a participant here, but it is colored by seeing all the work that goes on behind the scenes in an attempt to keep Cultural Discussions on track.


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## Tagarela

Hi,

JamesM, 
Yes, I understand you, as user and as moderator.
I agree that Cultural Forum cannot be so opened, but, there lays the problem. Since it is narrow, what may pass, althought there are many rules, always depending too much on the judges, and for that, too many people create threads which are removed or locked, while others that seem to have not much sense to be there, continue with five pages of 'discussions'.

The dinner thread for example - if the person asked about the whole world, probably he would not receive the wished information, but the question as it was made could be considered as to express some personal opinion or a 'prejudice' (not in the very bad meaning of the word), because of 'late' depends on who. These small details (or more than details) may decide if you are going to have your thread removed or not, I think that is why we (users and moderators) have som much problems in Cultural. 
The scarying nationatilities for children, as I see it, could be easily blocked by a moderator regarding it is about prejudices - and no one can say it is not. Perhaps, it is permitted because in some kind it is about language expressions "Blablabla are coming!" - a foreigner could not understand the expression well. However, althought it may bring problems, fortunatelly it has not I guess, it also can "teach" a little about relations between countries - and, no one can deny, sometimes it is a very important part of a country´s cultural heritage. 

I do not want to creat silly quarrels, I am only trying to comprehense better why something can be allowed and other not.

Thank you

Good bye.:


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## JamesM

No matter what rules you have or how complex they are, in the end it always boils down to someone making a judgment call. That is the nature of the beast. I have participated in many moderated and unmoderated forums over the years and I prefer a moderated forum any day of the week, even if I don't always agree with the decisions of the moderator. I've seen too many boards descend into total chaos to believe that people will adhere to rules and guidelines without moderation.  Self-rule on internet boards tends to end up looking more like Golding's "Lord of the Flies" than Huxley's "Utopia", in my experience. 

If you have a question about a particular decision, you are always welcome to send a private message to one of the moderators for that forum and ask about the decision. In every case that I have done so I've gotten a pleasant, reasonable answer. 

If you think a post is off-track or a breach of rules, the fastest way to get moderator attention is to use the Report-A-Post feature at the top right-hand corner of every post. It looks like a triangle with an exclamation mark in it. I can tell you that the Reported Posts for English Only are the first things I check whenever I login to WRF, and I continue to check frequently while I'm here.


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## VivaReggaeton88

This is exactly why I believe we need a forum for personal advice & general discussion. These things are forbidden in the cultural discussions forum but many of perfecty ok threads get deleted for no reason, without explanation/pm by the moderators. Advice by experienced people is a very important thing and a forum of this stature should have a dedicated place for it.


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## ampurdan

I. WordReference.com provides Forums for exchanges about translation, word usage, terminology equivalency and other linguistic topics.

Wordreference forums are specialized. "Translation, word usage, terminology equivalency and other linguistic topics" forums are what makes this forum what it is. I think that admitting "personal advice" would simply distort the purpose of these forums and "general discussion" would just make it lose all its strength. Besides, I don't see the point in creating a forum _just_ to do things that are forbidden in an existing one if they are forbidden because of sound reasons.


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## Tagarela

Hi,

I do not think that a so opened forum would be good as well. My complainings are about something that seem to be paradox to Cultural Forum itself as I have already pointed out in previous posts. 

And, by the way, many questions there are simple general questions, that also could be done in other chat rooms. 

Also, chatting is something usually not allowed here - althought no one can make a real mmm 'standard' to say whether something is chat or not. But there is a congrat forum for members who have a lot of poster, so, in order to have a lot of posts, one could not start to post unecessary things? 

Anyway, before I am misunderstood, I understand the general purposes and rules of Word Reference, and for sure, if it accepts some suggestions from users, it for sure will not work well. 

Good bye.:


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## RIU

Hola, 

No se que quereis que os diga, esto de las opiniones personales me parece una excusa de mal pagador. Preferiría que me hubieran hecho la estupenda reflexión de JamesM, que considero una exposición serena y muy bien defendida del problema. 

Otra cosa es que parezca que es imposible de cumplir: veamos un hilo al azar del foro solo español Podríamos hacer el ejercicio de contar cuantas contribuciones no son una opinion personal, y si las borramos, ¿Que nos queda? 

Tambien comentamos más arriba que es una forma de conocernos mejor, explicándonos nuestra cultura. En otros paises lo ignoro, pero en el estado español mejor no meterse demasiado con la cultura y tradición del vecino (y no me refiero ni a Francia ni a Portugal) porque, no es que se enciendan los ánimos, es que todavia no se han apagado. Con esto quiero decir que aún intentando dar una explicación a nuestra "cultura" vamos a dar una opinion personal, sesgada e interesada en la mayoria de los casos.

Ahora bien, como estoy aquí de invitado, por supuesto que acataré las decisiones que tome el anfitrión.


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