StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Per this thread...
http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 2&t=137654

I think this is a more important issue than the *Silly Old Senate, since it is why this board is basically here to my knowledge.

I like the idea of a Star Wars and Star Trek forum. What I would suggest is simply taking all active topics from all three forums and starting the new one with those and archive the rest of the three forums whereever is appropriate. Take the new SWaST and make it a sub forum of a renamed ScyFy Sci-Fi forum.

However, I would make the rules for the new forum a little more lax concerning old arguments. I know most of us have all been there and done that a million times, but not everyone has, and as long as they try to make good arguments, perhaps we can let it slide. This may help to keep the forum active and allow for new members to join in what, at one point, was fun without the mods completely ruining their shit and possibly chasing off new members. I do stress that arguments made should be good, I wouldn't want to deprive Ghost Rider of his fun.

*I need to stop talking to Stark so much.

So why exactly can't we leave things the way they are? What exactly is wrong with the forums being a bit slow? paced The forums are still used so why bother to mess about with them? Does every forum have to have a zillion threads on the go at once? I can't think of a reason why.

The reasoning in the Senate seems to be that the mod staff can be for those forums can be used in other places with a higher traffic rate, as you can basically just have one mod where there are now several (as inactive as some of them seem to be) and that cross pollination may take effect if the frequenters of Other Sci-Fi are exposed to Star Wars and Star Trek and discussion will liven up.

Really, other than it might be a hassle for Mike, there is no reason to not do it. Change is usually a good thing, especially when that change is sought to make the board better, even if it is a big 'maybe'.

Reasons for combining them: streamlines moderating, makes the front page less cluttered, possible cross-pollination between fandoms, a more lively "feel" (personally I think this is important; I have a hypothesis that dead forums discourage new traffic), more eyeballs on Trek, Wars, and Trek v. Wars vs. threads, an end to the ridiculous spectacle of people getting dinged for "necroing" a thread that's on the first page.

Reasons for not: ...erm, tradition? Not good enough.

Incidentally, for the same reason I'm opposed to keeping the forums separate, I'm opposed to making them subforums. I can't speak for everyone, but I browse from the main page. I definitely pay less attention to subforums than I do top-level forums, even the ones in which I'm very interested, like History. The only reason I can see for making subforums is if traffic from Trek, Wars, or vs. would push active OSF topics off the first page, and given the combined traffic level of all four forums, I can't see it happening. If the idea is to get more eyeballs on threads, making new subforums totally defeats the point of closing the old forums.

Is it really that difficult to mod? I mean don't mods have to look at all the threads anyway? So isn't it the same work load for them anyway, no matter if the threads are group in one forum or three? Plus or minus a couple of forum changing clicks.

Although fair point, I can't think of any reasons to change them, I equally can't think of any compelling reasons to keep them like they are, sans tradition of course.

Red, the subforum issue COULD be a skinnable one. Subforums could be made more promenient on the front page. This would, of course, raise the question of what the point being a 'subforum' is in this case.

I think the idea of making them subforums of OSF was floated so that they could be locked and archived for posterity's sake, with all new discussion occurring under OSF. At least, that's one of the impressions I got from perusing the Senate thread.

Actually, I think a SWaST forum on its own is fine. Then take the archived PST, PST and SWvST and make them sub forums of that, or however you do archives.

I don't think it really makes sense to have a SW/ST forum separate from Sci-Fi. Aside from "they're both space operas", there's not so much common overlap between the two franchises that warrants them being together while keeping them separate from everything else.

I'm also of the opinion that it should all go into one big Sci-Fi forum, that there's nothing to fear from a forum where active topics can be found on the second page, and that moderators jumping on people's asses for bumping a thread in the top half of the first page is hilariously absurd.

Crazedwraith wrote:Is it really that difficult to mod? I mean don't mods have to look at all the threads anyway? So isn't it the same work load for them anyway, no matter if the threads are group in one forum or three? Plus or minus a couple of forum changing clicks.

Trust me, the fewer pages you have to scan, the easier it is to mod, especially if you're a supermod. I don't know if the other mods actually inspect every single thread, but when I was a supermod, outside of my assigned forums (PST, OT, and ARSE), I didn't inspect every single thread, only the ones which were particularly active (and it was pretty easy to inspect all the active threads in PST, OT, and ARSE).

Plus, combining forums reduces the need for mods--look at the combined total for SWvST, PST, PSW, and OSF. You could free up at least two of them for duties elsewhere (*cough*N&P*cough*) if the forums were combined.

Although fair point, I can't think of any reasons to change them, I equally can't think of any compelling reasons to keep them like they are, sans tradition of course.

Well, happily for everyone involved, I did think of reasons to change them. Put 'em right in my post and everything.

Stark wrote:Red, the subforum issue COULD be a skinnable one. Subforums could be made more promenient on the front page. This would, of course, raise the question of what the point being a 'subforum' is in this case.

Well, that would reduce the danger of those forums actually slowing down, but I still don't see what advantage you get by making them subforums. If the idea is "we should combine these forums so SW, ST, and VS threads get more eyeballs", segregating them makes no sense.

darkjedi521 wrote:I think the idea of making them subforums of OSF was floated so that they could be locked and archived for posterity's sake, with all new discussion occurring under OSF. At least, that's one of the impressions I got from perusing the Senate thread.

There's a bunch of different ideas floating around. I actually like the idea of making the archived forums into subforums, because it would reduce front page clutter.

RedImperator wrote:Reasons for combining them: streamlines moderating, makes the front page less cluttered, possible cross-pollination between fandoms, a more lively "feel" (personally I think this is important; I have a hypothesis that dead forums discourage new traffic), more eyeballs on Trek, Wars, and Trek v. Wars vs. threads, an end to the ridiculous spectacle of people getting dinged for "necroing" a thread that's on the first page.

Reasons for not: ...erm, tradition? Not good enough.

My only objection is if its not broken don't fix it. Archiving SWvST makes sense, because that's an argument thats been dead for years, but I can't shake the feeling PSW and PST still have some life left in them.

Whatever is decided, I have to agree with Adam: no subforums, please. God I hate subforums. Having subforums isn't a step forward, it's a step sideways. I'd be more in favour of combining everything into one dedicated Scifi forum than have any subforums. Plus, if you have subforums for SW and ST, why not for Stargate, 40K, and whatever the next flavour of the month will be?

If you ask me, I'd keep pure SW and ST forums, but SWvsST has been dead for ages.

though if we do remove the SW and ST forums I'd slip the current Scifi forum into 2, 1 for VS arguments and another for discussion without VS arguaments

I like the idea of merging PST, PSW and ST vs SW forums into a Star Trek and Star Wars forum. What was the original motivation behind separating them like that anyway? It seems like it would be just a matter of moderation to prevent threads from getting derailed if they weren't supposed to be vs threads.

Why not merge ST & SW with OSF as well?

I'm not being facetious here - I think having all the Scifi shows we know and love all accessible from the same forum would make versus scenarios a bit easier, as all the FAQs and such will be linked from the same forum. It would also give a better foundational understanding to the newer members to the board, and why certain scifi versus matchups are...just hopeless.

I think it would be good to do the one SF forum thing, with vs debates put into another forum. Of course it might be a bit of trouble to go through the whole history of OSF and split out the vs threads into their own forum.

Why is that good? Many OSF threads have vs elements, and it's a board about discussion.