I posted a thread last night asking people what shows they were watching and what shows they thought had good literary value. My thread got moved to be just a comment on a thread started by a guy just wanting to talk about the show Firefly. That annoyed me. A lot. I've been part of forums before and I know that similar things get posted by different people, but sometimes it is nice to start the conversation again because things change, new people join and there is only a limited number of topics you can discuss about TV shows. Now my post is just a dinky comment on a thread woth thousands of comments. If I wanted to search a forum and read what everyone has said in the past I wouldn't join the forum or I would just use Google. When people mostly only start asking questions that have been asked before will the forum shut down? EDIT: Sorry my title is confusing. I kind of mixed up two sentences. Haha.
The TV shows thread is actually meant for all TV shows, not just Firefly. If you take a look at the last couple of pages, you'll see that many different shows are being discussed.
Yeah, well, apparently there's something wrong with having a lot of threads in the lounge. See, this is how a forum works: Someone posts a thread about a topic. Then, either someone replies and it lives on as an awesome thread full of great conversation about one topic, or, nobody replies and it sinks to the bottom of the void. But for some reason they've decided that we can only talk about books in the 'Books' thread and only talk about movies in the 'Movies' thread, etc... This means that everything gets lumped together into 117 pages of unreadable garbage. I don't agree with it either, but there's some here who have some kind of OCD and everything has to be organized and sorted. :shrug: Law of the land I guess... ~ J. J.
Yeah the TV thread looks like a mess. In threads every comment seems to pertain to the comment before it. So you have to either start in the middle of a conversation or at the beginning, but you might get through War and Peace faster. Thanks for the responses though, guys! :redface:
Certain common topics belong in common threads, to avoid pushing other topics off the first pages of the thread listings. These include discussions of TV shows, Movies, Gaming, and Music. It's only fair to those who open other topics that aren't small talk, and may take longer to get responses.
But maybe I'm wrong, but the system works. It works in forums all over the internet. Popular threads stay at the top, unwanted/boring topics drop to the bottom. Does anyone read the movies thread from Page 1? No, so the system isn't working. If you saw a thread with 119 posts, and then it had 120, would you read it? No. Honestly, thread titles are so people can say, 'Ooh! I love that movie/show, I think I'll discuss it!'. But nobody will be interested in some gigantic 'everything' thread. And the less discussion, the less interest and less interest means less supporter donations for the site owner. Honestly, I would like to hear Daniel's thoughts on this. What does it hurt to have the Lounge be... Well, the Lounge, where we can 'Talk about politics, current events, music, movies, life, or just about anything.' ~ J. J.
I agree. I don't see why there can't be a folder for television, and you could post new threads in that folder. Television shows are often relevant to discussions about writing, and your question was valid. I agree it just gets lost in the hundreds of responses to the original question about Firefly, and I wouldn't generally bother to look there. There are other writing forums, though, where you can ask such a question, so maybe you could post your question on one of them.
The process was begun exactly because it wasn't working. It was begun to solve a problem. Granted, part of the problem was an overabundance of members who had no interest in writing, only in socializing. But the solution works, apart from a little grumbling. And no matter what, you can't please everyone.
I personally think this forum is a little overmoderated, myself. I'm more than just a writer, and I enjoy speaking with other writers -- people who might share my approach to things -- about topics outside of writing. A writer's view on, say, 9/11 or automobiles or school violence is going to be different than someone who isn't used to crafting words. I place value in speaking to writers about topics that aren't devoted to writing. I wish this forum gave freer rein to that.
I see this from both perspectives. It's true that thread will clutter the lounge, and we don't want dozens of tv threads dominating the lounge and pushing back other topics. That said, if you want a thread about a particular show discussion, I have no problem with that. One possibility is to create a TV/Movies/Entrainment subforum in the lounge. I'm toying with the idea of at least adding a politics/religion/philosophy subforum. I'm open to additional thoughts/feedback on this issue.
Perhaps a Media and Entertainment subforum. The fact that these topics have been so prolific that they have had to be partitioned into a few threads to keep them from flooding out other discussions suggests they need a home of their own. It would still make sense to keep those general topic threads for most of the chatter. Most of the comments in the Music Thread and the TV thread (for example) are one-offs that really don't need their own threads. This would leave more "hang time" for some of the more writing-related Lounge threads that are not properly Writing Issues threads, too, like the annual NaNoWriMo discussions, and how people feel about the growth of e-reader popularity, etc. I do believe any changes to the forum layout should continue to keep the focus of the site as a writing site. Trying to make it be all things to all people would be a grave mistake, in my opinion. There is plenty of room on the Internet to let members visit elsewhere for non-writing activities, and to know that here, at least, the discussions will be among those wishing to become better writers. Our greatest problems have come from joiners who have no interest in writing, but who come here to be entertained and to relieve boredom and socialize.
^ I tend to agree. I've created a poll on various forum suggestions I've gotten in the past few months. This poll is just meant to gauge everyones opinion, results won't necessary indicate what forums we'll see.
Thanks for the rule changes you've put in place. It's nice to see that the membership is heard. A forum for politics, religion, and philosophy is usually a busy stop in a forum, and I imagine it would be popular with writers. I also think it would require a little more moderation. Is it worth it? Perhaps. I could see it drawing more traffic.
I'm probably teaching my grandma to suck eggs by mentioning this but politics and religion normally generate a lot of heat, which is why on tightly moderated forums they're normally banned even in the non-forum subject areas. If you do implement them, expect to be busier with the moderating.
