I would've never thought that H/A was to be used for technical/computer issues until I actually looked at the forum. Then again, now it has DS and PSP game recommendation threads which seem kinda strange...
One problem is that with a tech forum H/A becomes basically a dating forum.
What? I looked back one week and out of hundreds of threads, I counted less than 10 relationship threads.
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RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
edited December 2007
I think the thing with H/A being seen as a "dating advice forum" is the fact that most of the people I know (myself included) skim the first page or two for threads that we feel concern questions that we have expertise in. Once those threads are checked, we skip to the dating/sex/etc questions for the unintentional comedy they produce.
I think I asked this before, but can't remember where/when -
Would it be possible to have one forum for games, one forum for tech, and one forum that displays threads from both. Basically like having a G&T forum, and allow threads to be tagged as either G or T, and give the user the option so see either Games, Tech, or G&T.
CrayonSleeps in the wrong bed.TejasRegistered Userregular
edited December 2007
My opinion matters naught, but I really enjoyed it. Now I'm not saying it was popular, or even needed-but it was much nicer to be able to go to a specific forum than wade through the crap of sonyolol versus wiinus olol shit.
I like it. We had some threads that would have been buried to page 2 in about four seconds in G&T.
G&T's speed really is pretty nuts. I only looked in the tech forum like once myself, but assuming they're topics that're gonna keep coming up, might as well have a place for them instead of making lots of redundant ones or having to spend forever searching for old ones. And given that H/A basically looks like "Help me with my girlfriend" half the time, I can see the want for a specific tech section.
Basically. I think when I looked threads were staying on the front page of the tech forum for like a day...whereas the oldest threads on the front page of G&T proper are often less than two hours old. Even high-volume tech-threads often fell off the front page, so some random-ass thread about graphing calculators would probably fall to page 3 before anybody ever noticed it existed, thus swiftly dying a silent death.
And H/A isn't just for "help me with my girlfriend." There's also "help me shave my junk." ;-)
In seriousness, though, there still seems to be plenty of traffic on H/A, so I think there seemed to be more than enough demand for the separate tech subforum.
I like it. We had some threads that would have been buried to page 2 in about four seconds in G&T.
G&T's speed really is pretty nuts. I only looked in the tech forum like once myself, but assuming they're topics that're gonna keep coming up, might as well have a place for them instead of making lots of redundant ones or having to spend forever searching for old ones. And given that H/A basically looks like "Help me with my girlfriend" half the time, I can see the want for a specific tech section.
Basically. I think when I looked threads were staying on the front page of the tech forum for like a day...whereas the oldest threads on the front page of G&T proper are often less than two hours old. Even high-volume tech-threads often fell off the front page, so some random-ass thread about graphing calculators would probably fall to page 3 before anybody ever noticed it existed, thus swiftly dying a silent death.
And H/A isn't just for "help me with my girlfriend." There's also "help me shave my junk." ;-)
In seriousness, though, there still seems to be plenty of traffic on H/A, so I think there seemed to be more than enough demand for the separate tech subforum.
To be fair shaving your junk is pretty difficult.
I vote it stays, and not just because I don't really play games now but do still live a life of tech.
I never posted in it but lurking it was nice, a few times I had considered answering questions but decided to let it try and stand on its own I suppose. I can see the need for a separate tech forum because a lot of people (myself included) aren't hardcore gamers (anymore) but tech still interests us. For the first month of my uh, posting career, I've stayed my ass in D&D but I'd like to see it stay so the tech dorks can get off in their own right without dodging WoW threads and whatnot.
I gotta say that I quite enjoyed having it around. I mean, of course I dig games, but I find that I spend less time talking about them and more time talking tech. Having the tech threads in one place made me more active than I've been around here in quite a while. Well, aside from whoring out my site for the sake of giving you leeches free games.
As an individual user, I can only speak to my own preference, but as my interests could be said to lie more squarely in "tech" than "games", I'd like to see some form of parsing to this effect. The idea LewieP mentions (namely G, T, and G&T views) strikes me as an excellent idea, presuming it's something that could be implemented in a practical manner; if it isn't, I would love to see the return of the Stupid Tech Subforum.
As it stands, I do not really frequent the G&T forum. My life is not a vast wasteland because of this, but access to a Tech forum without Game noise would definitely improve my forum experience.
I thought it was very useful. A couple of the threads, such as the advanced programming and vocaloid, would often go hours or days between posts. Because they weren't buried underneath game topics, they were still easy to find without pissing on a post to get a blue circle.
EDIT: Also, there are threads such as the cell phone thread that were moved from G&T to ST, and now cannot be posted in. If Stupid Technology is not to be, could those be moved back to G&T?
Personally, I'd like to see threads get to stay on the first page for at least a day. When threads can't even stay an hour without getting pushed off, to me that says it's too busy and needs to be split up somehow.
I sorta dislike every time we have to subforum out another swath of conversation types.
Separating on and off topic is fruitful, as are forums for different purposes (other than discussion), but... well I've just said it.
Maybe it's necessary with large communities, I don't know.
This. And G&T (as well as the PA forums in general) is definitely large. Even with a separate tech forum, a separate MMO forum, and a separate tabletop forum you'd still see threads drop off the front page in as little as an hour there. Low-volume threads simply don't have a chance there.
If there's an interesting and beneficial subset of topics that can be split off so as to allow previously low-volume threads on the subject to flourish, I'd say it's beneficial.
I don't think vBulletin can do this, but it is similar to what lewiep says. What if instead of being in one forum or another, a thread was tagged with Games, Technology, or H/A. That way if someone is making an H/A thread about their cell phone or whatever, they could tick a box that would also list the thread in the technology subforum. Or if they were having problems with an old game, they could tick a box that would list the thread in the games section as well. That way people with tech expertise would still see relevent threads even if they don't specifically browse H/A. Obviously it doesn't make much sense to turn the other forums into tags, as nobody needs a thread to be listed in Technology and Of Dice and Men at the same time.
No, really, I really, really hate the idea of links all over the place. There's certainly some logic to it, sure, but even those "MOVED ->" links that appear when a thread is moved from one subforum to another can be quite disconcerting. It's not a horrible idea, but it's something I would personally not like to see.
I'd rather Tube and the moderators just try to inspire more traffic in the other subforums, so that more technology-minded people go to H/A, or more gamers go to the Tech forum. Offer them candy or "other favors" perhaps. Or money, people always do stuff for money. In fact, if anyone would like to pay me to offer advice in H/A all day long, I'm more or less an expert on everything in existence, whether I've even heard of it or not.
In all seriousness, though, I've never been to the technology forum and I wouldn't mind seeing all those threads continue to be quarantined there but I didn't mind them in G&T either. People tend to get really antsy when it comes to technology and debates and arguments erupt, but then again what threads don't erupt into some argument or other.
In other words, I have nothing really relevant to say I suppose except that technology is cool and links to other subforums is a bad idea IMO. That'd be like...forum graffiti.
What I envisioned was that someone in G&T seeing one of these "hybrid" threads would have no indication that the thread also existed in H/A. Maybe the idea wouldn't work so well in practice but since Tube isn't looking for ideas, yet people are still giving them, I thought I would throw it out there.
EDIT: Also I liked the Technology subform. Good move, mono.
I sorta dislike every time we have to subforum out another swath of conversation types.
Separating on and off topic is fruitful, as are forums for different purposes (other than discussion), but... well I've just said it.
Maybe it's necessary with large communities, I don't know.
Yes, generally it is. A quick look at G&T on the default threads per page setting shows about five tech threads on the first three pages of the forum. Now, this may have to do with some existing threads having been moved into the STSF, but it seems pretty clear that tech talk is being crowded out of G&T.
I don't think vBulletin can do this, but it is similar to what lewiep says. What if instead of being in one forum or another, a thread was tagged with Games, Technology, or H/A. That way if someone is making an H/A thread about their cell phone or whatever, they could tick a box that would also list the thread in the technology subforum. Or if they were having problems with an old game, they could tick a box that would list the thread in the games section as well. That way people with tech expertise would still see relevent threads even if they don't specifically browse H/A. Obviously it doesn't make much sense to turn the other forums into tags, as nobody needs a thread to be listed in Technology and Of Dice and Men at the same time.
In before "that idea sucks"
That gave me the idea of having some sort of hybrid thread listings. It might work sort of like the subscribed threads in the user panel, except that you could blend in entire forums as well. For example, I might set it up so that I could see every thread in G&T, every thread in the hypothetical technology forum, every thread in D&D, as well as every thread in other forums that I've subscribed too, sorted in chronological order.
Would the current forum software support that kind of thing?
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What? I looked back one week and out of hundreds of threads, I counted less than 10 relationship threads.
Well I meant that if you take all of the tech questions out of it.
https://medium.com/@alascii
The tech forum has been there for a month.
Did it turn H/A a dating forum?
No. It didn't.
Actually the MMO has done very well.
Oh, so you have access to accurate statistics on forum traffic? No? Maybe keep the old face a bit more on the shut side then?
Would it be possible to have one forum for games, one forum for tech, and one forum that displays threads from both. Basically like having a G&T forum, and allow threads to be tagged as either G or T, and give the user the option so see either Games, Tech, or G&T.
Best of both worlds right there.
Basically. I think when I looked threads were staying on the front page of the tech forum for like a day...whereas the oldest threads on the front page of G&T proper are often less than two hours old. Even high-volume tech-threads often fell off the front page, so some random-ass thread about graphing calculators would probably fall to page 3 before anybody ever noticed it existed, thus swiftly dying a silent death.
And H/A isn't just for "help me with my girlfriend." There's also "help me shave my junk." ;-)
In seriousness, though, there still seems to be plenty of traffic on H/A, so I think there seemed to be more than enough demand for the separate tech subforum.
At this point, if the threads were moved into G&T proper, they would be buried under 2 days worth of G&T threads and be effectively dead anyway.
Am I allowed to wonder what the logistical difference would be between having the Tech forum as a subforum of G&T and a separate forum outside of G&T?
Edit: And compare both of those to having things go back to the way that they were?
To be fair shaving your junk is pretty difficult.
I vote it stays, and not just because I don't really play games now but do still live a life of tech.
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As it stands, I do not really frequent the G&T forum. My life is not a vast wasteland because of this, but access to a Tech forum without Game noise would definitely improve my forum experience.
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EDIT: Also, there are threads such as the cell phone thread that were moved from G&T to ST, and now cannot be posted in. If Stupid Technology is not to be, could those be moved back to G&T?
Separating on and off topic is fruitful, as are forums for different purposes (other than discussion), but... well I've just said it.
Maybe it's necessary with large communities, I don't know.
I enjoyed being able to click on a link and see all my tech threads lined up in a row. It made them easier to track.
This. And G&T (as well as the PA forums in general) is definitely large. Even with a separate tech forum, a separate MMO forum, and a separate tabletop forum you'd still see threads drop off the front page in as little as an hour there. Low-volume threads simply don't have a chance there.
If there's an interesting and beneficial subset of topics that can be split off so as to allow previously low-volume threads on the subject to flourish, I'd say it's beneficial.
In before "that idea sucks"
No, really, I really, really hate the idea of links all over the place. There's certainly some logic to it, sure, but even those "MOVED ->" links that appear when a thread is moved from one subforum to another can be quite disconcerting. It's not a horrible idea, but it's something I would personally not like to see.
I'd rather Tube and the moderators just try to inspire more traffic in the other subforums, so that more technology-minded people go to H/A, or more gamers go to the Tech forum. Offer them candy or "other favors" perhaps. Or money, people always do stuff for money. In fact, if anyone would like to pay me to offer advice in H/A all day long, I'm more or less an expert on everything in existence, whether I've even heard of it or not.
In all seriousness, though, I've never been to the technology forum and I wouldn't mind seeing all those threads continue to be quarantined there but I didn't mind them in G&T either. People tend to get really antsy when it comes to technology and debates and arguments erupt, but then again what threads don't erupt into some argument or other.
In other words, I have nothing really relevant to say I suppose except that technology is cool and links to other subforums is a bad idea IMO. That'd be like...forum graffiti.
EDIT: Also I liked the Technology subform. Good move, mono.
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Yes, generally it is. A quick look at G&T on the default threads per page setting shows about five tech threads on the first three pages of the forum. Now, this may have to do with some existing threads having been moved into the STSF, but it seems pretty clear that tech talk is being crowded out of G&T.
That gave me the idea of having some sort of hybrid thread listings. It might work sort of like the subscribed threads in the user panel, except that you could blend in entire forums as well. For example, I might set it up so that I could see every thread in G&T, every thread in the hypothetical technology forum, every thread in D&D, as well as every thread in other forums that I've subscribed too, sorted in chronological order.
Would the current forum software support that kind of thing?
"Games" and "Technology"
instead of Technology being a subforum of Games.
Why? The forum was pretty well received, went to good use, and I think was a success.
Because then we would be referred to as "GAST" henceforth. And that would be awesome.