New forums, new sweepers, moving threads, etc.

[Garner]

on the motion to reorg the boards: if you and roman are removing your motion in the face of the google ranking explaination, then the motion is hereby removed and stricken from the records.

As for people's feelings in this matter... everyone please line up for trouting.

This is just a rough and unbiased opinion, but ben you seem entirely too sensitive to that word 'fatalist'. you have, rightly or wrongly, garnered a reputation for obstructionism about this move. we NEED people to point out where there are mistakes, issues, or just stupid ideas, but if you are the only one who does it (or, in cases, the only one who sees a problem with something that everyone else is fine with), then it is natural that your activism on 'negative' points will overshadow and eventually eclipse your priasing and positive points.

now, i for one do not want to see you keeping schtum about anything that needs addressing on the site, but i think, for your own peace of mind if not the community's, you ought to try to distance yourself from any emotional attachment to the stuff you speak up about. i am NOT saying that you're being unreasonable (nor am i saying you're a model of logic and reason, or a master at debate and arguement), but if you can't sleep over something going on on the boards, then i worry that you're taking it too personally.

i don't think being called 'fatalist' should have that reaction on someone.

more to the point, i don't think you were being called a fatalist in the first place, but i dont wanna speak for anyone else. i think doors' comments are the only ones that go that far, but from what i'm reading, you were already getting worked up before he weighed in, which might be what prompted him to be so broad in his speaking.

anyway, let's all have a nice cup of hot chocolate, tea, or bourbon as is our individual preference, and enjoy the rest of our weekends.

[Orrdos]

Yes, that's basically what I was trying to say, garner.

[Orrdos]

[quote:87fd766cb3="Electric_Man"]The reason we left was because of mod's - a lack of. When we appeared here we agreed to make their actions transparent, when they weren't, I piped up. I feel we've made progress each time I have and (forgive me for putting thoughts into other people's minds) I think a lot of people have also felt we made progress. It didn't matter to me which mod made the mistake, it just happened to be you the last time I noticed one. [/quote:87fd766cb3]

In what way wasn't I transparent?

I left notes on what I did, and have done everytime I've used any sort of mod power.

How that's not transparent, I'm not entirely sure. I would also dispute that it was a "mistake".

Had I forseen the outcry of my actions, then I'd have probably have reconsidered.

But I'm still not convinced that anything i've done in a mod capacity has been a "mistake"

[Electric_Man]

Fair enough, I phased that a bit badly - the rules regarding what you did weren't transparent rather than the action itself.

We decided after the event that posts shouldn't be edited for reasons of spelling, so in that regard it could be classified as a mistake if done now. However the rules weren't in place before that so it wasn't at the time. So sorry, I didn't mean to say that you made a mistake.

My point was though, that if a mod does make a mistake, it should be pointed out.* Also, the mod shouldn't be castigated for a single mistake, because mistakes happen and I don't think that (castigation) has happened either.


*I should also say here that if [i:f128ba423c]anyone[/i:f128ba423c] notices anything amiss, they should point it out. I occasionally feel like I'm only one of a few who's prepared to do that, much like Garner and Doors felt they were largely left alone to be the police on the old board.

[Roman_K]

Right, due to the google ratings, I hereby take back my arguments. I do, on the other hand, feel that little is being done regarding the rather empty sections, and empty sections [i:4cea6d7536]do[/i:4cea6d7536] stay empty, unless a large group of people actively tries to fill them.

Fatalist? Mayhap. I'm not exactly Mister Hopeful, but I'm also not inclined to a view that sitting around and doing nothing will achieve anything. We've had our fair share of new members, and most folks do find it easier to join existing discussions than starting their own. Perhaps others see it in a different light, but that's the way I see it.

Now, as the first course of action has fallen, let's move on to the second. I have two or three Discworld-related topic ideas I may post during this week, maybe even today, but I was thinking about our old official discussions. Would bringing them over, as Doors did with his 'When Doors met...' threads be a good idea? There's certainly good content in them, and unless we're going to repeat those discussions at a later point, they will be lost. As to who will do the actual thread copying, I'm willing to take up the task, if it's considered a good idea.

Opinions?

Also, unless people other than Grace post topics they wish to discuss in those small sections, then they will remain mostly empty. The only way we now have left is effort, in my opinion. Unless people are inclined to post in the Discworld sections, then that way of thinking will hold, and spread.

[Orrdos]

It's been seen before that an attempt to, for lack of a better word, force people to post about one thing is doomed to failure.

On the old board, there was a sudden rush for everyone to try and post a highbrow intellectual topic, which led to lots half empty threads kicking about the place and a general feeling of forcedness about the whole thing.

Generally, a concerted effort to post about, say, discworld only topics is just going to result in feeling that people are only doing it purely for the purposes of making it look like "why yes, we do talk about books!"

In other words, it's probably not going to work.

I'd think that it's best to let conversation take its natural course rather than attempt to make everyone go to the "effort" of posting a disc thread.

If people don't want to post a disc thread, then, fuck it.

Fine.

If people do want to post a disc thread, then that is also fine.

But what I don't think we need is a big push to make everyone participate in a book thread or post a disc thread.

Cause that'd be pish.

[Maljonic]

I still don't see that there's anything wrong; I don't see a need to 'remedy' anything, it's the way a message board works - the general discussion fills up rapidly and continuously, the specific topics fill up gradually, it's the way it is on all message boards. I don't think we have to keep analysing the way things are working, proffering virtual speadssheets and percentages regarding how many people are posting where and asking for future projections on this, that or the other.

Obviously more Discworld-related topics will be nice, but there's no need to make some kind of regime out of it like a new year's resolution or something. If you feel like making Discworld topics then do it, if you don't then don't; they'll appear anyway as people feel the need to make them, if it's irritating you that it's taking too long then, by all means, take the bull by the horns and come up with a topic or three.

It's pretty much what Doors just said, but it's what I think anyway.

[Rincewind]

What I'm suggesting isn't to try to force people to post stuff they don't want too but just to encourage people to *actually* make an effort to post stuff they want to but just never get round too.

There have been times when I re-read a book thats raised and interesting point and I thought 'oh I should post this on the board' but then neigbours came on and i never got round to it. Just the idea that right now (seening as people are unahppy with the state of the forums) it wouldn't hurt if we made an bit of an effort to make sure *if* we have something to say, We say it.

[Roman_K]

[quote:41f82cd9f5="Rincewind"]What I'm suggesting isn't to try to force people to post stuff they don't want too but just to encourage people to *actually* make an effort to post stuff they want to but just never get round too.

There have been times when I re-read a book thats raised and interesting point and I thought 'oh I should post this on the board' but then neigbours came on and i never got round to it. Just the idea that right now (seening as people are unahppy with the state of the forums) it wouldn't hurt if we made an bit of an effort to make sure *if* we have something to say, We say it.[/quote:41f82cd9f5]

Indeed. This was, in part, my original point. People don't post everything they might have to post, for various reasons. I just felt that compacting the Discworld sections would be a move towards encouraging the posting.