Changes, Changes, Changes to the Off-Topic Forum

[Inde]

No one likes changes. Good, got that out of the way. The off-topic forum is going to be changed a bit here. We appreciate all of you guys but we want to make this forum useful, a place to come to find information unrelated to Guild Wars but still valuable information. With that said, we want YOUR input.

This is your chance to help shape this forum, so even if you don't like the changes you can still give your input into what you'd like to see done.

Things up for discussion right now include:

• How many off-topic forum games to allow?
• Any post over 5,000 replies automatically deleted/closed?
• How can we encourage discussion on world events, other gaming news, topics of interest (our original reason for having an off-topic forum was for the discussion of things unrelated to Guild Wars.)

So please let's hear your thoughts. I want this a discussion so please know that any comments such as "this sucks" or other things that I would consider spam will be promptly deleted.

Cast your vote on which Off-Topic forum games will stay
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10027983

[Acillios]

Well, you wanted my view so here you have it

Originally Posted by Inde

How many off-topic forum games to allow?

I think 5 would be good, because there are a little too much now IMO.

Originally Posted by Inde

Any post over 5,000 replies automatically deleted/closed?

Meh, don't really like this one, if it's such an interesting post that there are over 5,000 replies in it, why close? I think you should just let it die by itself

Originally Posted by Inde

How can we encourage discussion on world events, other gaming news, topics of interest (our original reason for having an off-topic forum was for the discussion of things unrelated to Guild Wars.)

Just delete posts that aren't really in the line of the things you'd like to see? That way it would stay clean and well-organized.

This was just my view on your question so..

~Acil

[Cebe]

I agree with Acillios - 5 games is probably more than enough!

As for encouraging other off topic debates. Maybe you could subdivide the opp-topic forum further to have a "games" section (with a limit to the number of games), and then other off-topic sub forums for other types of discussion, and then if something does not fall into one of the categories you would be justified in deleting it.
Sub forums such as:
- Requests
- World Events
- Surveys
- Other Gaming News
- Caravans for Beginners
- Crochet for Professionals

etc..etc...

you get the idea

[Mercury Angel]

1 word association type game. (Usually games where people follow up single word posts with single word posts. Kind of the closest you can get to spam without crossing the borderline... completely, anyway.)
2 question/answer type games (Ask a stupid question/corrupt a wish/that kind of stuff)
2-3 'others' at most.


I usually see forums cap topics at the 500-5,000 mark, supposedly for database issues or something along those lines.

Honestly, for the topics that make it to 5,000 on forums, they tend to be forum games that are just plain spammy that nobody looks through them in the future, making them delete-worthy, but conversely, you have topics like the picture threads that can make it to 5,000 through pictures alone, which is something people can actually look through once and a while and reference.

I'd go with auto-closure, and delete the ones that are delete worthy manually, and leave the ones alone that are actually worthwhile reads in the future.


As for nurturing discussion of real issues, other than politics and religion (which are usually partisan garbage, and 'Proof God exists!/Proof God doesn't exist!' topics anyway), you've got me. I think if it were that easy to do so, the education system would be a lot better off <_<

I'll hold on that for now, I suppose.

[Kaguya]

This sucks!!11cos(0)

Nah, on a serious note. Games, games being stuff like "Paper, stone and scissors" and other silliness? If the amount would be limited, will there be a poll on which ones to keep? I don't find them very annoying or somesuch, expect that they tend to grow quite large. Atm there seems to be 4 "games" among the first 20 threads on this subforum that say they are games, plus 6 other threads that I'd classify as "games" of sorts. That's half of the threads on the first page, that are only 'games'. Maybe they could be stashed to their own subforum, where they aren't bogging up the "real discussion" I wouldn't set a limit to the amount of games, but how about setting the posts "decay", after thread reaches certain size/age, the posts in the beginning start to vanish. I mean, who is interested in reading 30 pages of 'paper, rock and scissors', they are low content posts anyways so there's nothing to really preserve.. :b

Any post reaching over 5000? I don't see that huge thread having very much important content, so if the "decay" system is possible, that could be applied. Who is interested in reading 250 pages of pretty unmeaningful stuff...

I don't know how to encourage discussion on "serious non-GW" topics, I mean, if people are interested in the topic then they'll discuss it. Suppose only limiting factor would be people not starting threads about these topics that might breed in-depth discussion.

Originally Posted by Celestial Beaver

Sub forums such as:
- Requests
- World Events
- Surveys
- Other Gaming News
- Caravans for Beginners
- Crochet for Professionals

I don't think blowing up the whole section into a bunch of smaller sections would be that smart, tho I might be wrong as well. I'd only see need for a "forum games" subforum so the games and similar threads aren't cluttering up the real discussion. Of course these subforums could be started up, give them a month trial, and see how much they are used, then drop the less popular ones, and keep the popular ones.

[Charqus]

i think a poll'd be good to decide which games should stay and which should go. Maybe top 5 stay? And any new games be submitted to an offtopic forum mod and would have to beapproved by them?
I dont really see the point in threads with over 5000 replys deleted because they'll just be remade again.
I also agree with Beaver that we should have sub forums.
I agree with all his forums but the crochet which he was bein sarvastic about anyway :P
Yes I think subforums is a very good idea.

[Divinitys Creature]

Wouldn't discussion about world events lead to discussions and flaming about politics which are likely to be shut down very quickly?

[Charqus]

Originally Posted by Divinitys Creature

Wouldn't discussion about world events lead to discussions and flaming about politics which are likely to be shut down very quickly?

I was thinking about that and I've got lots of stuff that I'm going to put if there is a sub forum which I'm sure I'll get flamed for and deleted but I'm thinking strangley at the mo...

[Lasareth]

Immature people flame. Intelligent people discuss. The faster we can weed out the immature people, the better.

If people can't handle that, though, we can just remove everything except a few games. The goal is to reduce spam here, so you can bet we'll work to that end. The question, and purpose of this topic, is to see how much we can compromise without entirely removing the forum.

[Sir Skullcrasher]

what about merging similar thread together in off-topic section. I seen some game thread that seen almost similiar.

[Guardian of the Light]

Well you could have 1 forum for Forum games and the other for real off-topic.

[Inde]

I will not be making more forums to divide the off-topic section. I cringe at the number of forums we have on this board and taking something such as off-topic to divide out a handful of posts is not something that will happen.

There seems to be a general consesus on 5 forum games. I think that will stick, and yes we'll let you fine people decide on the final 5.

The 5000 cap seems to be something that can be agreed upon. To address some issues that came up, threads being remade are not a problem. If a forum game gets above 5000 post then we can certainly bring in a new fresh one, or start a new forum game. This could keep a thread from becoming stagnant and give others a chance to jump in if they choose. There are some who won't respond to a large thread and the same is true of off-topic.

We will be prepared to bring in some new forum mods for this section with the changes. If a thread is generating discussion, even something as volatile as a political or religious discussion we'll monitor it. Delete out the flames (as we do on every other section of this forum) and we'll try to see some new discussion and meaning for this forum... while still having an element of those things you love such as forum games, etc.

We'll evolve the forum as we need to.

[Stalker Haras]

Hmm. I figured this would be comming some time soon, and yes the forum does need a cleaning per say.

Five games seem's like a good number, for alot of them are almost the same thing so that will help that out.

Concerning the 5,000 post limit. I think some threads such as the "off topic thread part deux" should be expemt from this just because it's always been a huge thread, and 5,000 post for that thread will most liekly be reached in a week or less, so haveing mass off topic threads like that would be better off. So keeping that 1 as is would be a better idea in my opinion. Lock it like the first one was after a certain length, then start a new one (i think the old one was shut down at 700 pages?).

I think a better set of rules should be implimented in one of the stikies in this section, the only one realy there is "do not spam" which in my opinion isn't enough. More rules based on what can actualy be posted here, what will get deleted, and so on and so forth.


Also random threads like "click this link to win an xBox360" stuff shoulden't be allowed for those sites could most likely be keylogger sites. So that beeing moderated better would be a plus, for there is about 2 a day that i've seen.

But in general, this forum does need a clean up, 3/4ths of it is spam, some threads (im thinking about 15 in total) should be kept, and the rest get tossed in the locked away recycling bin (i know you have one, every major forum has one )

And implimenting mods to be just dedicated to this forum is a great idea, it would keep the more impotant mods in the more important sections, so they don't have to worry about the garbage in here.

Anyways, thats my two cents on this. More opinions from people that actualy post here would be nice though.

[Inde]

Also random threads like "click this link to win an xBox360" stuff shoulden't be allowed for those sites could most likely be keylogger sites. So that beeing moderated better would be a plus, for there is about 2 a day that i've seen.

We do try to get these off as soon as we see them. Please don't forget to use the 'Report Bad Post' button so that we can get to these sooner. Because I've seen just as many people 'respond' to these threads versus reporting them.

[Opeth11]

I would think that we should only keep to 3-5 games at the most.

Regarding the spam and reporting: I have sent plenty of those reports, only to find them to stick around for three more hours =/

[I pwnd U]

5 games sounds fine. But i think we should get to vote on which ones stay. Their are too many of the same kind of games or close to the same kind of games.

It would be nice to see more topics that can be discussed. Most of them are a simple question that can be answered in one post, or isnt that interesting. The only problem with world issues is it could bring in politics, which can get out of hand, it just means the mods paying close attetion to threads like that.

I dont like the idea of deleting a thread after 5,000 post or so. We would being going through Off-Topic Threads way to fast. Just let the thread die out.


Also i think their may need to be a set number of threads one can post in a day. I have seen a couple members that post 3+ threads a day. Some of these threads arent even touched. They just take up space.

[Stalker Haras]

Originally Posted by Inde

We do try to get these off as soon as we see them. Please don't forget to use the 'Report Bad Post' button so that we can get to these sooner. Because I've seen just as many people 'respond' to these threads versus reporting them.

Ah right, I forgot this forum had that. The last gaming forum that was as big as this that i acitvely posted in didn't have one, so I guess i'll just have to remember the bad post button. Or become mod and delete them all? . Just kidding.


EDIT: The two above posts weren't there before >.<

I dont like the idea of deleting a thread after 5,000 post or so. We would being going through Off-Topic Threads way to fast. Just let the thread die out.

That's what I was saying. Especialy ones that get posted in very often in 1 day, it would just leave a huge trail of locked threads, and a bit of a mess. So keeping larger ones of threads that are very popular may be a good idea.

Also i think their may need to be a set number of threads one can post in a day. I have seen a couple members that post 3+ threads a day. Some of these threads arent even touched. They just take up space.

This I also agree with, poeple posting 3 differen't threads to show 3 different flash games they found is unecissary, maybe make a stickie that is "post your flash games here" type deal?

[Inde]

I pwnd U, there's no way for me to restrict on just a single forum the number of threads that someone can post. So that's out of the forum's capability without affecting the entire forum.

And 5,000 posts is a 250 page thread. That's an insane size and using some of the other threads I'm seeing as a guide takes many months to achieve with the exception of the Off-topic part 123 threads. If a thread is truly that big, with some actual discussion versus one-liners going on.. it would take at least 6 months to achieve and that's the goal. To do away with +1 posts in a thread.

And most of these large thread we are talking about are going to be deleted... not just locked. I don't see a purpose to keep a 300-400 page thread around that is filled with spam. Sorry. A new thread is more then welcome to be created but I don't see a historical value to keeping that thread visible. Please argue away for or against this action and convince me of the benefit of just closing versus deleting it.

[Stalker Haras]

Originally Posted by Inde

And 5,000 posts is a 250 page thread. That's an insane size and using some of the other threads I'm seeing as a guide takes many months to achieve with the exception of the Off-topic part 123 threads. If a thread is truly that big, with some actual discussion versus one-liners going on.. it would take at least 6 months to achieve and that's the goal. To do away with +1 posts in a thread.

This is also where you have to take into concideration that there will be less threads to post in, so more people will be sticking with threads already made, so current threads will be gaining a boost in posters, so it woulden't take the ammount of time given to achive the 250 pages.

[Inde]

Point for Stalker Haras. Something to consider. Okay.