Be Excellent To Each Other

This is why I have wondered if subsections are necessary. After all, previously if a thread was popular and ongoing, it would be locked and moved, so we could stop that silly computer games talk and knuckle down to agreeing that indeed, Parcelforce are quite poor. Now, suddenly, that's not the case. People are going 'Hey! Who wants to talk about <x>?!?' and being all excited that they can be a bit silly, and take their ties and shoes off at last.

Perhaps it'd be worthwhile to pump that enthusiasm into more specific areas. After all - when the site is ready, should it lead to increased forumites, then it's going to be ever more 'noisy' in the main area.

Also - a useful side-effect of having a 'OKAY NOW SHUT UP AND BE SERIOUS' section to the forum means that any twattiness in there can be quickly dealt with. "Sorry, should have seen the sign!" Nice and simple and clean.

Yeah thats all true. It's just if we've only 150 odd of us, it could be damaging to split the forum. Spread us too thin and what not. A topic/offtopic split might be ok, but I would be worried if we split by topics.

Who am I to argue with a BETEO/BEEX Voice Of Reason nominee? I agree.

I could get used to this!

As VP I can only concur with my esteemed colleague's sentiments here and would like to add that currently, aside from a vague notion of it being mainly videogame related, we as yet don't really have anything definitive on which to base such a split.

Perhaps there should be a general chit chat thread pinned. Then there should be a rule that threads should generally stay on topic.

Of course, threads drift but the mods can split the topics if required. I've seen this work well on other forums.

I did like the WoS rule where, with important problem threads, law dicated that it was a bad thing to post unhelpful replies until the problem had been solved.

I don't think a forum split is needed, just a couple of groundrules and some proactive modding when threads drift.

Indeed the VP is right, I foolish used vague and imprecise terminology! What a fool I was. If such a split was nessecery maybe the titles:

"Happenstance and Ribaldry" and "The Gentlefolks' Verbose Musings on Matters of Personal Prominence" would better avoid such topic split.

I'm sorry, but I'm all in Bits trying to work out what you mean there. *Bobs head about, trying to work out what you mean*. Sorry, but it's no good, no, that's crazy talk. That'd never work. Stu would have done something like that, if so.

I think just making the main page hold more threads would help. We'll all calm down with the crazy talk soon enough.

Absolutely. Have you done it yet?

erm, all this talk about having subscription members only allowing topics and generally trying to cut down the "noise"- is that not the exact reason why everyone left WoS in the first place?

Trying to make this place more "elite" won't exactly build up the numbers- yes there should be a way of splitting the forum off (maybe into different sub forums- such as "off topic", "games", "music" etc) but thinking about trying to cut down the amount of new topics just seems exactly like WoS turned out. And my worry is that it will just become an offshoot of WoS for a dozen or so hardcore posters. Nobody else will bother posting.

Another problem is the fact that you don't have to subscribe to look at the forum, hence I very rarely log in (I had it on auto login for WoS and the sofa bistro forum). This might actually help boost numbers a bit and will give you a better idea of who is actually logging into the forum.

Of course- the simple way is to have everyone pay for a subscription, that'll cut down the unrelated new topics pretty quickly.

I would like to see a main section that has ALL the topics in one place. And sub sections to break it down. So if I want to read all the topics in one list, I can, but if I want to only look in one section, then I can do that too.

What would be even better would be if I could pick and chose the sections that appeared in the main part (filters if you like)

Malc

I haven't really got a point to this post, I just wanted to say that with too many topics then the place could end up like the "football365:forum"

I used to look on there for the wrestling thread but it was damn near impossible to find with the amount of rubbish topics started every minute.

At least we're not at the stage of the "post your desktop/last text message/girlfriend".

I'm sure we won't go that way as it seems that we're all far more excellent than the football 365 lot.

Those smilies are ace!!

This is superb, and it's why you're better than all of us.

However I honestly don't think you need any additional sub-forums or stuff like that. If there's a lot of threads being started for mostly general chit-chat or meme-related silliness, then a mod should make a pointed comment or two until the house style is established and understood. Locking the odd thread if something is being discussed elsewhere or has been previously shouldn't be controversial either. But trying to force-fit a structure by categorising everything is just going to be counter-productive and will totally harsh the buzz man.

And yeah, perhaps more posts per page pls if poss.

I like it as it is - it is more friendly like this. With sub-forums (such as the football thread on the 'other' forum, I missed out on a lot of things because I always forgot that they were there. As a Spurs supporter I should have had a lot to say.

"This". Except both sites now represent different things. WOS is more Serious. This isn't. It's kind of good that way.

I think most of us recognised why the other place wasn't like every other internet forum. At the moment this place has become abit like the day at school where all the teachers get called into a meeting and it's a free for all. We just need to make sure everything is kept in check otherwise it will just become like every other internet forum and that would be bad.

Yup. CUS is going to fix it so there's more squeezed on each page, too.


This.
It's a tricky business getting the balance right - Stu was close, IMO, but perhaps a little too heavy-handed.
However, we (the moderators) have to be careful not to make it look like we are imposing too harsh a rule - we're here for your benefit at the end of the day, and we want to make a forum that everyone can enjoy (that's why we let the bear meme run on for a little while before asking for it to stop, for example). It'll take us a little while to get the balance 'comfortable' (I don't think it's really possible to get it right), and we're busy tinkering with the insides of the forum to make it Most Excellent, but in the meantime if you think we're being too harsh or too lenient, just let us know, either by PM or by starting a thread with your thoughts.

I want to be Head of the Urban Development Department... of Reason.

I agree with this and chinnyhill 100%.

This is only partly because I'm vain. Also Beteo/beex wouldn't fit but I still could resist putting it as my title.

As I said I'm vain.

That.

Also, as for new members, anyone worrying about that should stop it. They'll come when the site is up and running. I'll hopefully be back online in a week or two and should be more free to write stuff than I am now to boot. WE SHALL OVERCOME.

Even though I've always felt a bit of a fraud on WoS since my interest in video games is quite minimal these days, the place had a certain tension that made it interesting,but WoS is pretty much dead at the moment and I can't see it reviving.
Having drifted over here after the big split, and not having the time during the day to read anywhere near all the threads,I'm not too sure what this forum is 'about' at the moment.
I still get that Seinfeld sense that it's a forum 'about nothing'.
Sure it's nice to see some familiar names and read the usual witty banter, but there is a slightly cliquey feel to most of the threads I've looked at -it feels a bit like accidentally wandering into a strange IRC room.
Fascinating up to a point for lurkers, but maybe not the best way to involve new blood (especially those who already spend way too much time surfing in the internet when they should be working ).

Look, there's really only one way you can realistically divide up a forum like this. I've been on forums for years and lived through all sorts of design decisions, as have we all. In particular one forum stands out to me as being something that has a lot of sub-forums and works, and that is YakYak. Over there there's about five categories with three or four subforums in each, so under general you've got a general 'pub' board, announcements board and 'pay for forum hosting' board and the archived thread board. Then there's a gaming category with a general gaming thread and a gaming league thread, and finally an 'artisanal' category with music, programming, photography and so on boards, most of which have their own discreet ecosystem.

That's a rather drawn out range of choices, and we don't need that here. I do however propose a simplified version, with three boards. Firstly, a video games board. Anything remotely to do with gaming can go in here. Up to and including amisung anecdotes about your missus slapping you for calling her 'Princes Peach' breathily during anal. Then an arts forum, you know, Van Gough to Van Halen... no, make that Van Morrisson - classy stuff would be preferable as a rule of thumb! And then an 'everything else' forum, for everything else, like. Should a particular topic/meme/raging flame war become cancerous on the general forum, we migrate it to an isolated area, so only those with the stomach need fear its depths. Say we can't stop talking about cookery, buggery or witchery, we simply create a fourth board. In fact, we ought to have a fourth 'dark arts' forum where nature and chaos may have their way, enter at your peril and so on. We should probably call it "Goatboy's Demonic Dungeon of the Dark Stuff" just to be sure it is as kick-ass aweome as possible, too.

Anyway I'm off my fucking spazflaps and I need to go to bed. I can't understand why I managed to type this so well there's like a million keys but somehow I'm in the fucking zone, yo.

wtf etc lol

That all sounds like a tremendous headache and something I would simply not be arsed to visit. We just need to stomp on the nonsense/blog threads a bit or have one of them stickied or something. It's pointless dicking about with the forum to a great extent now though - our priority must be the site it'll be attached to, as without a site there's no reason for anyone to stick around (we'll all just end up talking to our favourite people on msn or whatever eventually) or come here in the first place.

I'm finding that too.

I realise there's obviously going to be "in" gags on a any forum but with WoS Stu was the focal point of it with Queen, Superglue et al being bandied about by all and sundry. Here unless you've carefully monitored each thread a lot of stuff can fly clean over your head.

I think therefore Grim... should be the primary target of any future jokery seeing as he has the following things to rib him about;

He is richer than the Sultan of Brunai
He is bigger than Godzilla
He's a gripped, sorted off offroader
He talks like Brian Sewell, only posher

Etc.

Don't forget:
He's got a baby, the cunt
He's now late for work because he's posting rather than getting out the door

They're easy, just remember to check on them every half hour when out on the piss in hot countries and you should be fine. Just in case though I'd have another couple as "backups".

Except that only stuff in the main forum gets read, so ends up being duplicated there anyway. With the exception of the programming forum maybe. And YakYak has about 5 times the number of active people than here. So no need I reckon.

That's what the "Bits & Bobs" thread should be for, surely?

I think the dividing of YakYak into trillions of subforums was disastrous. Personally, I can't be arsed checking on them all and just stick to the main one. Then you have problems with people posting things in the wrong areas and having them moved, so a thread you've been following suddenly disappears. People with specialist interests stick to that area of the forum and don't bother mixing with everyone else, so it ends up being more like a pub with lots of secluded, inaccessible rooms and dark corners than a nice, open, happy one.

That's why my idea of having a main forum with everything in, AND sub forums would work so well. Those that wanted to see everything still could, and those that only wanted a subset still browse that too.

Malc

That would be super, if effort to implement.

You could 'tag' a thread when you first see it, which would effectively move it into subforums of your choice. Untagged threads would remain on the main page.

You can already sort of do that using the subscribe feature though.

When the main site goes up the best thing I think would be to promote new user reviews. Basically wave the flag for lurkers and passers by to post their reviews of things they love and hate in the forum, with the promise that we'll put it up on the site if it generates interested and interesting feedback.

We could have a 'Who Do You Think You Are' thing with self-drawn/Dimrill drawn portraits for the initial founders here, with a space with a big question mark for the reader. This forum can have a core theme, and that is user reviews, creative stuff and feedback on it.

With lots of irreverant whimsy thrown in.

For that reason, the reviews section of the forum might be best to have replies enabled when the site goes live. So there's a resource on the forum and a way for lurkers to join with their own contribution, and thus feel more part of the community faster.

I do agree that this forum should be kept reasonably streamlined, though. We may want to avoid threads purely revolving around in-jokes as well I guess.

No, it's more a case of "I don't want to see any sport threads, or music threads, so they disappear off into their newly created sub-fora, and I don't have them cluttering up my front page any more".

As others have said at the moment there's still a lot of camaraderie and 'Spirit of the Blitz' type stuff going on. It'll settle down in time but the direction of forums is something that I guess is difficult to contrive, in the end it'll be what it's going to be because of who uses it but there's nothing wrong with giving it a gentle nudge here and there.

Ah.

I pretty much agree with this and you'd get the same problem with sub forums.

You're better leaving things the way they are imho and then more actively mod the forum in the short term to get it to where you want it to be.

Oh yes, agreed on Spirit of the Blitz thing, and I do like the in-jokes (though a few fly over my head sometimes) I just mean regarding new threads everywhere on in-jokes, rather than individual posts.

Agreed that we'll drift in a happy direction too. There's a few reviews I'll be submitting in a bit this weekend, too.

I think rllm proved an attached site isn't essential nor is a good, memorable name nor is a forum that actually works reliably as long as there is a community to prop it up.

Hello Halo!

Halo hello!

Fixed.

Rllmuk was a continuation of the Edge forums though, no? What was the starting population like?

Hello!


Hello!


I'm only a little bit cuntish.

Hallo!

I dunno, when you get your overshield working and run at us with that hammer, I could swing for you!

Personally, the "site" that we do will be another nice little outlet for my brain farts.

Predictable/10. Although technically I'd be a ring-shaped habitable thing. I prefer to think of the thing over angel's heads but I guess that's so BC.