I got a lot of use out of it .... It seemed like it was better for specialized questions that would otherwise have gotten lost in megathreads or landed in the backwoods of page 3 in 25 minutes.
I got a lot of use out of it .... It seemed like it was better for specialized questions that would otherwise have gotten lost in megathreads or landed in the backwoods of page 3 in 25 minutes.
Ok, I do have to correct this...
G&T forum (check 12/06/07 at 3:30pm EST):
First page, every thread's last update is less then 1 hour old.
the first thread that hasn't been replied to in the last day is on page 4.
People, please get that straight. I'm with you on the fact that I would love to have a separate forum / subforum, but we really need to get our facts straight.
So here are the other facts (all done with 35 threads on a page and at the same time as the G&T data was taken):
D&D:
First page is 4 hours old.
1 day old is 10 down on page 2.
Artist's Corner:
First page is 1 week, 3 days old.
There's only 9 threads that are less then 1 day old.
H/A:
first page is 6 hours old.
The first day old thread is on the start of page 3.
Graphic Violence:
First page is 1 week 4 days old.
14 threads are less then a day old.
Critical Failures:
First Page is 4 days old.
17 topics are less then 1 day old.
Writer's Block:
First Page is 1 week 3 days old.
8 threads less then 1 day old.
And now after getting the link to the tech forum, let's compare:
Stupid Tech (adjusting for the fact that it was locked on the 1st):
Front Page was 2 days old.
19 threads were less then 1 day old.
Analysis:
If we compare the front pages of all the forums, Tech would be 3rd behind H/A and G&T.
If we compare # of threads less then a day old, Tech would again be 3rd behind H/A and G&T.
Feel free to discuss my findings.
EDIT: I know that those are not every forum on the boards, but those are all the on-topic ones and I feel the only ones that should be used in comparison.
He does have a point though. I didnt post much in it but it was a hugely interesting read most of the time. Plus it kept the same kind of threads out of G+T which has been pretty decent for discussion of late.
I dont see why it would be dispensed with. Seemed like a good idea and was well implemented.
I come from the opposite perspective, which is that I hang around H/A all the time but never visit G&T because I don't really care about gaming.
Stupid Technology had three kinds of threads in it.
Threads that should have gone to H/A, been answered, and been closed.
Stupid megathreads. The Q&A threads and other 'megathreads' are terrible and stupid because they attempt to be a forum in a thread. I don't see what's wrong with creating new threads for each distinct topic, getting the question answered, and then locking the thread (as is H/A tradition). What, do threads cost money now? If there's a new post in a Q&A/megathread, it may be on the one topic that somebody is knowledgeable on, or it may not, and you've got to wade through the four other chats going on simultaneously to find out.
"Help me waste my money" threads. Here, yet another guy posts yet another list of pieces of hardware he's going to buy to put together his "1337 g4m1ng r1g" and most of the comments are inane posters telling him he's going to need more RAM or less Disk or AMD r0x0rZ 1nt3l or whatever, and it's terribly droll. Seriously, it's like a parts fetish. If it's not a 1337 rig, it's "Which HDTV should I buy" or "Which monitor is better." Maybe a "product fetish" subforum?
Here's how I'd break down the top page of threads on Stupid Technology when it died.
ipod classic vs. ipod touch Goes to H/A or Help Me Waste My Money
The All-New Desktop Thread Neverending megathread
Essential Windows Programs? Nominally H/A but was turning into a Neverending megathread
So, uh, planned upgrade, critique it. Help Me Waste My Money
ASUS MW22IU monitor Help Me Waste My Money
HDTV A/V cable difficulties Goes to H/A
Suggestions for a new laptop? Help Me Waste My Money
Scratches on an LCD Goes to H/A
A/The Cell Phone Thread Help Me Waste My Money AND Neverending megathread
D-Link DI-524 + open firmware? Goes to H/A
New powered exoskeleton video Goes to SE++
Airline Audio Jacks Goes to H/A
PhysX - How good is it? Goes to H/A
Media Center PC parts.... Help Me Waste My Money
Recommend me a monitor Help Me Waste My Money
Vista or XP? Goes to H/A, but nominally Help Me Waste My Money
Revised OP: Obscure shot-in-the dark: Need help with COBOL Goes to H/A
Of 8800GT's (Dell deal over!) Help Me Waste My Money
A good set of headphones Help Me Waste My Money
$pend On::: Black Friday and other Technology Deals Thread Help Me Waste My Money
My computer, she hates mp3 players. Goes to H/A
I needs me a laptop, please help me pick Help Me Waste My Money
Mac Thread: Yes you can turn off the 3d glass effect! W/Y/H Neverending Megathread
Linux Thread - prerelease beta alpha version 5 Neverending Megathread
Nerf Guns and the Modding Thereof Neverending Megathread AND Nominally H/A
putting mp3s on meh xbox360 Goes to H/A
The search for weighted playlists Goes to H/A
FSB and CPU confusion Goes to H/A
Hey dudes, remember the EEE? Help Me Waste My Money
Podcasts: How to and what's good? Goes to H/A
The More Advanced Programming Q and A thread Neverending Megathread
ATi/AMD's New GPU Line Help Me Waste My Money
Low hissing sound emitting from either the CPU or the Motherboard Goes to H/A
Blue Chocolate Verizon Douchetransfer Help Me Waste My Money disguised as Goes to H/A
Desktop Replacements actual replacements? Help Me Waste My Money
I hang around H/A all the time but never visit G&T because I don't really care about gaming.
But do you care about Technology?
If you do, all the more reason to have a subforum dedicated to Tech.
Perhaps it would attract more people such as yourself.
Hiravaxis on
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Moe FwackyRight Here, Right NowDrives a BuickModeratorMod Emeritus
edited December 2007
The tech forum seemed to draw in a number of people who wouldn't have been posting in its threads if they had been in G&T.
I hang around H/A all the time but never visit G&T because I don't really care about gaming.
But do you care about Technology?
If you do, all the more reason to have a subforum dedicated to Tech.
Perhaps it would attract more people such as yourself.
I enjoy helping people solve technological (and other) problems and seeing how other people suggest help, because I learn a lot. This goes on all day long in H/A and mostly things seem to get resolved before they fall off the first page or get locked. H/A moves at a nice pace and doesn't need to be split up, nor do the tech help threads need to go elsewhere.
My problem with Stupid Technology was that about half the tech-help questions that would normally have just gone to H/A and been answered just fine got siphoned off into this other forum. There, they got all comingled with a Technology Fetish forum where the remainder of the discussion was about different ways to increase the size of one's epeen.
I know there are plenty of people here who want to argue endlessly about whether the Asus KL38438-WJR83 rev.2 is 1337er than the iWill i932Z-x64 for the Conroetanium 6600GT PCI-e video board and whether the upscaler on the Sharp Aquous Wega 1987X-22Z is superior to the one on the Westinghouse HD1347DP22, and I think that they should have a place to do that, but don't dilute H/A for no good reason in the process.
Well... yes. Any discussion about a purchasable object will probably center around either how to use it, or advice for purchasing it or similar alternatives. This is surprising for some reason?
The administration is already in possession of accurate statistics measuring board traffic, but thank you.
I was actually trying to point out the facts to the people who are not in possession of accurate statistics measuring board traffic, since they keep on getting the facts wrong... but you're welcome anyway.
Qs23 on
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The DeliveratorSlingin PiesThe California BurbclavesRegistered Userregular
edited December 2007
Tube, I'm really curious as to the honest reason you seem so against this. There are lots of good reasons to have it and I can't think of any reasons not to.
Hell, if you're so for keeping vaguely similar topics in a single forum, why are AC, Writers Block, and Graphic Violence seperate? Critical Failures is all about games, let's roll them up into G&T too!
Straight up, Tube. Give us an honest answer. We just want the truth. You don't need to prove you're a dick to us anymore. We get it.
Everyone should know by the way, that the return of the stupid technology forum gets bumped back by a week every time monoxide hassles me in any way about anything.
Yeah, thanks for your input. That's really helpful.
It has nothing to do with "proving I'm a dick". It has everything to do with discouraging people from being morons. You want to be an obnoxious asshole? Fine, you're ruining it for everyone. Every person who comes in here being a shithead is spoiling the tech forum, because it's not happening until people stop acting like children with bizarre entitlement issues.
Yeah, thanks for your input. That's really helpful.
It has nothing to do with "proving I'm a dick". It has everything to do with discouraging people from being morons. You want to be an obnoxious asshole? Fine, you're ruining it for everyone. Every person who comes in here being a shithead is spoiling the tech forum, because it's not happening until people stop acting like children with bizarre entitlement issues.
ElJeffeRoaming the streets, waving his mod gun around.Moderator, ClubPAMod Emeritus
edited December 2007
Hey Tube you smell funny.
Ha ha I have now delayed the return of the forum by another week!
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
I thought it was cool, a neat place to see all the technology threads in one spot. Then I realized that it was mostly just the "i own this thing" circle jerk and stopped reading it. Sure G&T moves quickly but people are still going to post inane "I just got a mac and can't spend 10 minutes doing some google searches on my own, please tell me how to use my computer" threads even if there's a big-ass Mac thread somewhere.
If the main complaint is that there aren't enough threads on the front page, the argument should be "give us more than 50 threads per page." Not "I want to post about my Zune since no one else on the web talks about it."
RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
edited December 2007
I find it rather weird that, "I personally do not enjoy thread [X]" is thought to be a valid complaint about a subforum. Especially when that very same thread apparently has enough people who *do* enjoy it to garner a relatively large amount of posts.
I guess maybe I can understand it if you are looking at the forum through an H/A mindset where the purpose is to solve the problem as quickly as possible, so threads with large amounts of discussion would be seen as a failure. That would seem to be almost exactly the opposite of the rest of the board, where multiple threads on the same topic are discouraged, and lengthy discussion is generally the standard to which we aspire.
So maybe that's the distinction that needs to be made here: If you post in H/A you should be expecting A) Quick Results, Little to no Discussion, and C) Your thread closed upon the resolution of your problem. If you have another question, start another thread.
If you are more inclined to wait for your answer, or feel more comfortable seeking open discussion then you should be asking in a different forum. Because some people find their "Help me spend money!" circle-jerks to be oh so entertaining.
There's one thing frylock missed about his analysis and want to put 90% of those threads in H/A. H/A does cater well to people wanting to have a debate over technology. A thread like the Physx one would likely have ended in at least one warning, if not more. Sure, it would kill off some of the pure nonsense that appeared in some of the threads, but it will also kill off genuine discussion.
There's one thing frylock missed about his analysis and want to put 90% of those threads in H/A. H/A does cater well to people wanting to have a debate over technology. A thread like the Physx one would likely have ended in at least one warning, if not more. Sure, it would kill off some of the pure nonsense that appeared in some of the threads, but it will also kill off genuine discussion.
It seems like a better solution would be to allow discussion in H/A threads once the issue is resolved rather than having a whole forum for the discussion part.
There's one thing frylock missed about his analysis and want to put 90% of those threads in H/A. H/A does cater well to people wanting to have a debate over technology. A thread like the Physx one would likely have ended in at least one warning, if not more. Sure, it would kill off some of the pure nonsense that appeared in some of the threads, but it will also kill off genuine discussion.
Not to mention that H/A is a terrible, terrible place for getting programming-related advice.
There's one thing frylock missed about his analysis and want to put 90% of those threads in H/A. H/A does cater well to people wanting to have a debate over technology. A thread like the Physx one would likely have ended in at least one warning, if not more. Sure, it would kill off some of the pure nonsense that appeared in some of the threads, but it will also kill off genuine discussion.
It seems like a better solution would be to allow discussion in H/A threads once the issue is resolved rather than having a whole forum for the discussion part.
Except then you'd likely have the top handful of debated topics remaining forever on the front page.
Then who is going to tell me the best way to shave my sack? That thread's going straight to page 2, and noone's going to dig in H/A for sack-shaving related posts.
Posts
The cell phone one and the mac/apple thread would both be nice
Ok, I do have to correct this...
G&T forum (check 12/06/07 at 3:30pm EST):
First page, every thread's last update is less then 1 hour old.
the first thread that hasn't been replied to in the last day is on page 4.
People, please get that straight. I'm with you on the fact that I would love to have a separate forum / subforum, but we really need to get our facts straight.
So here are the other facts (all done with 35 threads on a page and at the same time as the G&T data was taken):
D&D:
First page is 4 hours old.
1 day old is 10 down on page 2.
Artist's Corner:
First page is 1 week, 3 days old.
There's only 9 threads that are less then 1 day old.
H/A:
first page is 6 hours old.
The first day old thread is on the start of page 3.
Graphic Violence:
First page is 1 week 4 days old.
14 threads are less then a day old.
Critical Failures:
First Page is 4 days old.
17 topics are less then 1 day old.
Writer's Block:
First Page is 1 week 3 days old.
8 threads less then 1 day old.
And now after getting the link to the tech forum, let's compare:
Stupid Tech (adjusting for the fact that it was locked on the 1st):
Front Page was 2 days old.
19 threads were less then 1 day old.
Analysis:
If we compare the front pages of all the forums, Tech would be 3rd behind H/A and G&T.
If we compare # of threads less then a day old, Tech would again be 3rd behind H/A and G&T.
Feel free to discuss my findings.
EDIT: I know that those are not every forum on the boards, but those are all the on-topic ones and I feel the only ones that should be used in comparison.
I dont see why it would be dispensed with. Seemed like a good idea and was well implemented.
And Morrissey too. I guess that evens things out.
Stupid Technology had three kinds of threads in it.
Here's how I'd break down the top page of threads on Stupid Technology when it died.
Yeah, it's called "Penny-Arcade."
I'd like a "Whinging" forum. It would be like the Whine forum used to be before a bunch of idiots fucked it up, but you'd have to whine Britishly.
thanks for ruining that
If you do, all the more reason to have a subforum dedicated to Tech.
Perhaps it would attract more people such as yourself.
I enjoy helping people solve technological (and other) problems and seeing how other people suggest help, because I learn a lot. This goes on all day long in H/A and mostly things seem to get resolved before they fall off the first page or get locked. H/A moves at a nice pace and doesn't need to be split up, nor do the tech help threads need to go elsewhere.
My problem with Stupid Technology was that about half the tech-help questions that would normally have just gone to H/A and been answered just fine got siphoned off into this other forum. There, they got all comingled with a Technology Fetish forum where the remainder of the discussion was about different ways to increase the size of one's epeen.
I know there are plenty of people here who want to argue endlessly about whether the Asus KL38438-WJR83 rev.2 is 1337er than the iWill i932Z-x64 for the Conroetanium 6600GT PCI-e video board and whether the upscaler on the Sharp Aquous Wega 1987X-22Z is superior to the one on the Westinghouse HD1347DP22, and I think that they should have a place to do that, but don't dilute H/A for no good reason in the process.
I was actually trying to point out the facts to the people who are not in possession of accurate statistics measuring board traffic, since they keep on getting the facts wrong... but you're welcome anyway.
Hell, if you're so for keeping vaguely similar topics in a single forum, why are AC, Writers Block, and Graphic Violence seperate? Critical Failures is all about games, let's roll them up into G&T too!
Straight up, Tube. Give us an honest answer. We just want the truth. You don't need to prove you're a dick to us anymore. We get it.
Tumblr
I like "Stupid Technology Forum"
It's quaint.
Satans..... hints.....
I don't care what you want. I've heard your opinion. It has been taken into account. Get off my balls. I will make my decision
A. When I'm good and ready
B. One week after the last time someone annoys me about it
That's cool, we all have our personal issues. Good luck with yours. ^_^
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
It has nothing to do with "proving I'm a dick". It has everything to do with discouraging people from being morons. You want to be an obnoxious asshole? Fine, you're ruining it for everyone. Every person who comes in here being a shithead is spoiling the tech forum, because it's not happening until people stop acting like children with bizarre entitlement issues.
We can all cheer as it makes progress, jeer as it gets reset, and place bets on how long its going to take to count down.
Are you an admin or a housewife
Ha ha I have now delayed the return of the forum by another week!
Only if you wear a costume.
If the main complaint is that there aren't enough threads on the front page, the argument should be "give us more than 50 threads per page." Not "I want to post about my Zune since no one else on the web talks about it."
I guess maybe I can understand it if you are looking at the forum through an H/A mindset where the purpose is to solve the problem as quickly as possible, so threads with large amounts of discussion would be seen as a failure. That would seem to be almost exactly the opposite of the rest of the board, where multiple threads on the same topic are discouraged, and lengthy discussion is generally the standard to which we aspire.
So maybe that's the distinction that needs to be made here: If you post in H/A you should be expecting A) Quick Results,
If you are more inclined to wait for your answer, or feel more comfortable seeking open discussion then you should be asking in a different forum. Because some people find their "Help me spend money!" circle-jerks to be oh so entertaining.
It seems like a better solution would be to allow discussion in H/A threads once the issue is resolved rather than having a whole forum for the discussion part.
Not to mention that H/A is a terrible, terrible place for getting programming-related advice.
Then who is going to tell me the best way to shave my sack? That thread's going straight to page 2, and noone's going to dig in H/A for sack-shaving related posts.