Board request

Well, thats basically what happened in a nutshell. If you want to read everything (8 pages, go to the old forum, news, and find the topic Changes are sometimes necessary.)

Nutshell?

That is one big nutshell. It seems an off-topic forum would be very hard to run.

Nutshell?

Considered I quoted from a topic with 8 pages, yeah!

...this forum may have become more ... mature...

Ahahahahahaha!

I will 100% use it! 

This is also one of the biggest problems an offtopic forum would bring. People go 100% there and don't use the rest of it. The parts actually about Nifflas and Support for his games.

Necro post
Sorry to do so, but it's better than a duplicate topic isn't it? If not feel free to delete my post.

Anyway.. I think there are different ways to approach a general discussion board.
What I have noticed is that a general board most always forces activity, yet also directs activity towards it instead of towards the boards that should be focused on. In fact, I've seen a gaming forum become a general forum after the general board caused a lack of interest in the gaming. Therefore, it has to be addressed carefully. I think that a good approach for this forum would be to open up a philosophical discussion board.
In this board, you could have (example topics) :
The afterlife?
Religion
Drugs
Politics for non politicians
etc.
I think this would work well because it brings about debates which bring about activity. This forum, I believe, is very centralized on creativity, so creative arguments fit it much better than (example topic) :
I got a new cat!
etc.

Again, sorry to necro post, let me know what you think

I think that a good approach for this forum would be to open up a philosophical discussion board.
In this board, you could have (example topics) :
The afterlife?
Religion
Drugs
Politics for non politicians
etc.
I think this would work well because it brings about debates which bring about activity. This forum, I believe, is very centralized on creativity, so creative arguments fit it much better than (example topic) :
I got a new cat!
etc.

This is exactly how I solved it the first time.

It did work in the extend that it brought activity and did not get out of control. We had it so that no one could make a topic but the staff. If you had a topic you would want to debate, you could pm one of the staff and the staff would start a topic with that subject as a debates topic. The debates went in circles though and there were like 6 different topics that were debated. No conclusion came out of it, but thats not bad, but at a point they just died because they went in circles. No one brought new discussions to the table either.

When we went to this forum, I decided that it wasn't going to work a 2nd time. Then there was a question if we could get the debates forum back, and I answered, if you or anyone else gives me a topic for debate (with explaination why I didn't add it earlier) then I would consider it. I got no topics for a debate.

This lead me to the conclusion, that people wants an off-topic section, so they have the section, but will use it maybe for 2 or 3 topics, or possibly only to reply in, not even start their own topic.

maybe you could assign people to mod just the offtopic section since the other staff are busy?

It's not about staff being too busy, I think it's about that we don't think it would be worth it. Because it has not appeared to be worth it in previous installments.

It's not about staff being too busy, I think it's about that we don't think it would be worth it. Because it has not appeared to be worth it in previous installments.

but what if the people are really dedicated to making the section clean and moderated and active while the others post on the other boards too

because the only people who visit this place and stay are dedicated nifflas members, because this forum is a kinda sleepy place.

The matter isn't helped by the fact that the mods/admins insist on locking threads that have gone off-topic. The only person punished is the OP. Why not just remove OT posts and warn the posters of them?
Or you could, you know, just make a  General board.

It's not about staff being too busy, I think it's about that we don't think it would be worth it. Because it has not appeared to be worth it in previous installments.

You don't think it would be worth your time? Fair enough. As Evil said, others would likely be happy to give their time. Why not let them?

You also argue that an OT board would discourage people from posting Nifflas-related stuff? Err.

At the moment:
Someone wants to post something Niff-related: They do so, in the appropriate forum.
Someone wants to post something not Niff-related: They don't.
If an OT board was added:
Someone wants to post something Niff-related: They do so, in the appropriate forum.
Someone wants to post something not Niff-related: They do, in the OT board.

It would only add more discussion and activity, not lower it.

The matter isn't helped by the fact that the mods/admins insist on locking threads that have gone off-topic. The only person punished is the OP. Why not just remove OT posts and warn the posters of them?
Or you could, you know, just make a  General board.

Quote from: Miss Paula on August 01, 2010, 19:07:22

It's not about staff being too busy, I think it's about that we don't think it would be worth it. Because it has not appeared to be worth it in previous installments.

You don't think it would be worth your time? Fair enough. As Evil said, others would likely be happy to give their time. Why not let them?

You also argue that an OT board would discourage people from posting Nifflas-related stuff? Err.

At the moment:
Someone wants to post something Niff-related: They do so, in the appropriate forum.
Someone wants to post something not Niff-related: They don't.
If an OT board was added:
Someone wants to post something Niff-related: They do so, in the appropriate forum.
Someone wants to post something not Niff-related: They do, in the OT board.

It would only add more discussion and activity, not lower it.

In theory that's true, and it wouldn't have an immediate negative effect, but eventually people start coming here only to discuss in their favorite OT topics with their favorite users.
I think the debate forum would be different, though, because this is a serious thinking forum, and those are serious thinking topics.
I think that anyone would be able to make topics, but if the topic is too 'silly' it would be locked/deleted/moved to an archive staff section somewhere/etc.

I do agree with staff in saying a true OT board has the potential to hurt the forum, but I think that the board I am talking about would do just fine..

eventually people start coming here only to discuss in their favorite OT topics

...only if they have nothing Nifflas related to talk about. In which case, why shouldn't they be able to chatter with fellow nifforumers about OT stuff? It's not like people will see the 'General' board and think, "oh, I was going to talk about something Nifflas related, but now I'm going to forget about that entirely and post something else because this General board exists. After all, it's not like I could post in any of the other 9001 forums if I just wanted to post random stuff, I'm bound to only posting here, and only now, after the General board was created!" No; they would post Nifflas related stuff as usual, but now also have a place to post other stuff, but among their fellow nifforumers.

Let me be blunt here, I feel like it.

No, there is not going to be an off-topic forum in any kind of form. We (staff) have had this chat too many times now, and each time its a clear no. I can explain and give the 8 pages of posts in one post nutshell thingy, I can link to the off-topic forum that died about 2 months after its creation which isn't being used either, I can talk about the debates forum that also wasn't being used anymore.

In reality, it just turns out to this: People want the forum for the forum, and once its there, it either is not going to be used much or has a big chance of doing a great deal of damage to this forum.

So to sum it all up: No. No off-topic forum.

It does seem after I've mention it a few times (and so did Paula) that people still think they can actually pursue us into going in this very wrong direction, but face it, its not gonna happen. never.

One of the reasons is this: It just requires too damn much work to keep it clean. Even now I occasionally see a level editing question in the Knytt Stories forum, which is the general chatter area of that particular game. People (especially new ones) don't read. Its a fact that with a forum too general, people will post everything in it.

oh yeah this is such a big forum where the mods and admins have no control over the high amount of users.



shoutbox?

LP has already said that it isn't about that.

And what is it about you guys? no means, funnily enought, NO, g'dammit

Quote from: Salmoneous on August 02, 2010, 09:35:25

oh yeah this is such a big forum where the mods and admins have no control over the high amount of users.



shoutbox?

LP has already said that it isn't about that.

And what is it about you guys? no means, funnily enought, NO, g'dammit

Of course it's not about that. The real reason is that we, the lowly drones are not worthy enough of their time or a board where we can actually, you know, TALK about something that doesn't include the word "Nifflas" in every sentence.

=|=