I had a zoo-related dream tonight so as soon as I waked up I went straight to post it in one of the best threads that this forum ever had, the Literal Dream Zoos one: https://www.zoochat.com/community/threads/literal-dream-zoos.471155/ . Shockingly, this thread was CLOSED FOR NEW REPLIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is an alternative thread about this still open or somewhat else that I missed? Otherwise, closing this thread would be an insane unforgivable atrocity!
We locked it along with the rest of the Fantasy Zoo forum as a) we suspected some people were using it to post fantasy zoos that came from their conscious imaginations and not dreams and b) knew that were it left open, it would soon become rife with people using it as a backdoor to continue posting fantasy zoos unsuitable for the new SpecZoo rules. If you have any further questions or issues I suggest you direct them to @Simon Hampel .
I was unaware of a "new SpecZoo rules", that I suppose is what is shown in the Simon's link. I will read it when I had more time, but meanwhile, closing a thread (or taking any other action) based on just a suspicion is unacepptable in my opinion. The correct way would have been prove this fact, warn the members that do it in case they continue, and if not effective, just deleting those posts that don't fit with the thread, previous warning that to the posters, so the thread keep its purpose.
OK, readed it now, I understadn that the massive amount of threads with simplistic purposes that don't contribute in very much to the forum, must be controlled somehow. However I'm not so sure if the Literal Dream Zoos are inadequate for the new forum, maybe it cannot be in Speculative Zoo Design and Planning since it was not about that, but rather in ZooCommunity or other more adequate section. Certainly this thread was not educational, however is a form of share experiences in like-minded people that was the third point in your "goals of the forum". This thread was not a: hypothetical discussions about developments or exhibits in existing zoos ideas for specific theoretical collections - such as geographical or species themes speculation about extinct species and how they might be exhibited in zoos individual designs for a fictional zoo where you have thought out how you might design exhibits, choose species to keep and encourage visitors - where other members may critique your design and make suggestions for improvement. The key word here is "design" - we expect some thought and detail, not simply listing species of animals. ... But also is not a: role playing games where participants assume the roles of zookeepers or characters in a fictional scenario and act out their decisions in the thread animal breeding and exchange games where participants pretend to run a fictional zoo and breed/swap animals between their facilities any other type of challenge which involves creating fictional exhibits or zoos It's just people sharing what they dreamed if the dream is zoo-related, and certainly is not a game nor a challenge, and you said: "For example: "What species would you include in a walk-through-aviary based on {some geography or theme}" ? Or perhaps: "How would you design an exhibit to showcase kangaroos?" Or even: "List your top-10 animals that you would choose for a section of a zoo based on {some geography or theme or similar}" ... just don't make it into a game or challenge. The point is for discussion and education." I think you try to keep those threads that could be interesting from the point of view of zoo staff, such as these thread that could be readed by a zoo keeper and used as ideas for a real zoo, while people sharing what they dreamed is certainly not useful for a real zookeeper. I agree that while this thread was adequate for Fantasy Zoos, is not adequate for Speculative Zoo Design, as both titles implies different ideas. But personally I think the thread was adequate for "ZooCafe" or something like that.
We *did* consider moving the thread there, but the aforementioned issues were judged to be too problematic. The issue there would have been proving which members were lying about dreaming, and which were telling the truth at the end of the day, it wasn't a vital enough thread to merit the constant vigilance and moderation which keeping it open and ensuring people didn't try to evade the new rules by posting fantasy zoo designs under the guise of a dream would have required.
I wanted to post this a while ago, but it seemed to have slipped my mind. Would it not be okay to relocate this to the ‘Zoo Cafe’ section?
