potential new forums

**icedawg** · 11-06-2004 05:09 AM

HEY

i'm considering adding a couple new off-topic forums:

'Extended Discussion/Debates' -- this would provide a place for more serious, thought-provoking dicussions; topics would include politics, science & technology, sociology & psychology, opinions, etc. basically this would supplement the other two open-discussion forums we have thus covering the spectrum (senseless banter -- mindless posting; the lounge -- casual conversation; and now a place for more involved discussions). for completeness and clarity i would also amend the description of the Philosophy forum to include morality and religion.

'Entertainment' -- we tried this before but it didn't do so well; now that we're a little bigger i thought maybe we should try it again. topics would include movies, TV, video games, books, comics, sports, music, etc. the artist's corner is generally for authors to post their own work (when it comes to books, comics, etc.) or to discuss the work of specific authors; this forum would just be to discuss a particular book or movie, etc. (in case anyone was wondering the distinction).

Also, there will be an addtional dream-related forum coming shortly. this new one will be designed as an archive for any dream-related papers/studies/etc. some of the topics in Tutorials that are not actually tutorials will be moved into there, and also perhaps some of the Research Team members will create reports summarizing their studies and experiments and we can put those in there as well. it will be a closed forum like the tutorials, and users are welcome and encouraged to write papers on any dream related things and submit them. a site section will also be designed for the forum.

anyway, LET'S VOTE!

**Demerzel** · 11-07-2004 02:15 AM

if i remember right, a forum like that extended discussions one caused problems previously...?

**Kaniaz** · 11-07-2004 02:20 AM

Originally posted by _Mark_
if i remember right, a forum like that extended discussions one caused problems previously...?

Oh yes, Lost Soul almost left over it, but..well...icedawg said it wasn't used for the purpose that was intended - "i was expecting people to rant about gasoline prices, not things like religion", so it was all okay, and nobody was to blame for it. I wouldn't risk it again though, enough tears get shed in Beyond Dreaming and Philosphy already, so no vote for that one. It was named "Rants" though, but still, no vote.

As for entertainment, can't be bothered. We have Adventurer's Hall as an excess forum anyway (it's about as alive as an zombie convention), and if anything, i think it should just go together with Artist's Hall. So no vote there either.

k 2 pennies/cents.

**Dragon** · 11-07-2004 02:28 AM

Uh... go entertainment, then we gamers actually have somewhere besides the lounge to discuss games and argue about which Final Fantasy is the best (go VII!!!!) and stuff like that. As Kaniaz and Techboy said though, maybe the "argument" forum would only provoke bad things?

**Taosaur** · 11-07-2004 09:28 AM

If the Philosophy forum were overwhelmed, I might go for debate/etc, but as it is I think that sort of thing is neatly contained. There are what, maybe 5 daily posts in Philosophy on average (let's drop spoon and evangel's thread as an outlier)? It's a ghetto as it is, no need to carve it up further.

**icedawg** · 11-07-2004 06:10 PM

Originally posted by _Mark_+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(_Mark_)</div>

if i remember right, a forum like that extended discussions one caused problems previously...?[/b]

nope, never had anything like Extended Discussion before.

<!--QuoteBegin-Kaniaz
Oh yes, Lost Soul almost left over it, but..well...icedawg said it wasn't used for the purpose that was intended - \"i was expecting people to rant about gasoline prices, not things like religion\", so it was all okay, and nobody was to blame for it. I wouldn't risk it again though, enough tears get shed in Beyond Dreaming and Philosphy already, so no vote for that one. It was named \"Rants\" though, but still, no vote.

ah, apparently you're confusing the now defunct Rant forum with the Extended Discussion; the comparison is interesting i suppose, but without merit. Extended Discussion is supposed to allow for simply deeper conversations to develop (i.e. a place where people can go to have an intellectual conversation without being bombarded with threads of post-number announcements ("this is my 10000000th post!") etc. ); the Rant forum was simply for people to release steam, and carried with it a kind of stigma that would encourage fights to breakout. Regardless, I did some research before proposing this particular forum and it seems to work on other boards nicely, so I think it's a good idea and deserves more than simply being denounced as being on par with the Rant forum.

Furthermore, Philosophy's description would be amended as I said to include morality and religion related topics; thus, this new forum would not encompass that material. Philosophy has been the unofficial home to those topics for a while, but with this new forum I'd amend it's description so as to avoid confusion.

CT · 11-07-2004 06:21 PM

new forums are not always a good thing... it just gets annoying to check up on too many small forums & threads and such... one big pile of threads might seem unorganized but.. Bleh i guess i just like chaos.

**Kaniaz** · 11-07-2004 09:50 PM

Originally posted by icedawg+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(icedawg)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Kaniaz

Oh yes, Lost Soul almost left over it, but..well...icedawg said it wasn't used for the purpose that was intended - \"i was expecting people to rant about gasoline prices, not things like religion\", so it was all okay, and nobody was to blame for it. I wouldn't risk it again though, enough tears get shed in Beyond Dreaming and Philosphy already, so no vote for that one. It was named \"Rants\" though, but still, no vote.

ah, apparently you're confusing the now defunct Rant forum with the Extended Discussion; the comparison is interesting i suppose, but without merit. Extended Discussion is supposed to allow for simply deeper conversations to develop (i.e. a place where people can go to have an intellectual conversation without being bombarded with threads of post-number announcements (\"this is my 10000000th post!\") etc. ); the Rant forum was simply for people to release steam, and carried with it a kind of stigma that would encourage fights to breakout. Regardless, I did some research before proposing this particular forum and it seems to work on other boards nicely, so I think it's a good idea and deserves more than simply being denounced as being on par with the Rant forum.

Furthermore, Philosophy's description would be amended as I said to include morality and religion related topics; thus, this new forum would not encompass that material. Philosophy has been the unofficial home to those topics for a while, but with this new forum I'd amend it's description so as to avoid confusion.[/b]

You used too many long words in there for no reason, so I vote no anyway.

**nightowl** · 11-08-2004 01:33 AM

i wouldnt mind an entertainment one i suppose....

**LordCoreon** · 11-08-2004 01:46 AM

Entertaiment would be fun. Its kinda covered with the lounge. With adding entertainment there could be problems but it would be interesting to try.

**O'nus** · 11-09-2004 12:34 AM

Please.. no more forums..

Maybe an archives, if anything - or just change the name "Memorable Topics" into "Archives." We have enough forums as it is.. I think.

**Umbrasquall** · 11-09-2004 03:12 AM

I think an entertainment forum would be useful. Though I understand why so many people think that there are too many forums. It does take a while to scroll down...

Maybe we can consider having some forums to be collapsible or putting the team forums on a differnt page?

**Demerzel** · 11-09-2004 05:09 PM

Originally posted by Kaniaz+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kaniaz)</div>

Originally posted by icedawg@

<!--QuoteBegin-Kaniaz

Oh yes, Lost Soul almost left over it, but..well...icedawg said it wasn't used for the purpose that was intended - \"i was expecting people to rant about gasoline prices, not things like religion\", so it was all okay, and nobody was to blame for it. I wouldn't risk it again though, enough tears get shed in Beyond Dreaming and Philosphy already, so no vote for that one. It was named \"Rants\" though, but still, no vote.

ah, apparently you're confusing the now defunct Rant forum with the Extended Discussion; the comparison is interesting i suppose, but without merit. Extended Discussion is supposed to allow for simply deeper conversations to develop (i.e. a place where people can go to have an intellectual conversation without being bombarded with threads of post-number announcements (\"this is my 10000000th post!\") etc. ); the Rant forum was simply for people to release steam, and carried with it a kind of stigma that would encourage fights to breakout. Regardless, I did some research before proposing this particular forum and it seems to work on other boards nicely, so I think it's a good idea and deserves more than simply being denounced as being on par with the Rant forum.

Furthermore, Philosophy's description would be amended as I said to include morality and religion related topics; thus, this new forum would not encompass that material. Philosophy has been the unofficial home to those topics for a while, but with this new forum I'd amend it's description so as to avoid confusion.

You used too many long words in there for no reason, so I vote no anyway.[/b]

I was bored, so I worked out that the average length of word in there was 7 letters. Not really, but it looks right.

CT · 11-09-2004 05:12 PM

hmm, just noticed the new sticky icon looks rather pixelated.

**Kaniaz** · 11-09-2004 05:34 PM

I just noticed they've all increased to damn jumbo sized. UGH.

**Haz** · 11-09-2004 05:51 PM

I just noticed some changes too, great work but i think u DO need to sort out the sticky and announcement icons first

**Kaniaz** · 11-09-2004 06:33 PM

I'm pretty sure that icedawg/the art team are already on that, hard to miss.

**icedawg** · 11-09-2004 11:44 PM

Originally posted by CT
hmm, just noticed the new sticky icon looks rather pixelated.

lucidnina mentioned that too, but they look fine on my end...i need screenshots people! screenshots!

those are the only forum activity indicators that you should see...the old ones are completely gone, and nothing should look oversized or pixelated. if anything else shows up, refresh!

**Stalker** · 11-09-2004 11:54 PM

Originally posted by Kaniaz+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kaniaz)</div>

it's about as alive as an zombie convention[/b]

How many of those have you been to?

<!--QuoteBegin-icedawg
they look fine on my end

Look fine here as well.

On-Topic:
Don't think there are many entertainment-threads created as it is so that part might be a little bit abandoned.
The Extended Discussion might be a good idea. Then some threads from Philosophy and Beyond Dreaming could move in there. (And I could go back to avoiding the Philosophy-forum altogether again)

So, vote: Extended Discussion/Debates

**icedawg** · 11-09-2004 11:57 PM

Originally posted by Stalker
Don't think there are many entertainment-threads created as it is so that part might be a little bit abandoned.

that's true, but i think sometimes when there's a forum with a specific topic, people post stuff they might not otherwise post.

we might make Extended Discussion an opt-in forum (i.e. join a particular group to participate in that forum). i dunno.

**Kaniaz** · 11-10-2004 06:10 PM

Originally posted by Stalker+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stalker)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Kaniaz

it's about as alive as an zombie convention

How many of those have you been to?

[/b]

Not many, they were not really the most intresting folk.

...

Maybe you could give it a trial. Put it up for so long (without telling people when it's gonna come back down in case people just post for it to stay alive...but tell them it might go down again), then if it stays inactive for so long, take it down again. *shrugs* Makes everybody happy

**Demerzel** · 11-10-2004 07:36 PM

Like, I saw they new icons. But my cache has totally buggered dv.

**icedawg** · 11-11-2004 05:09 AM

Originally posted by O'nus
Please.. no more forums..

hrm. well, how's this sound: i'm the admin and i'm in charge so HA! HAHAHAHA! HA! *icedawg watches as the number of registered users to visit each day drops down to the lonely number of 1 (yes, paperdoll is just that devoted!))* ha?

alright, well how about THIS: i'm thinking perhaps it's time to do a separate page for team forums and a separate page for off-topic forums. each group would be replaced on the main page with a forum-like cell link (i.e. would look like any other forum's link on the main page) which would instead lead them to a smaller index page with just the respective forums present. that would reduce rather significantly the number of forums on the main page, would probably "tidy" things up a bit, and would make for smoother sailing for our dial-up friends. if we did that, i could also throw in a couple extra forums under off-topic and it wouldn't really make much of a difference.

so, what does everyone think of THAT? if we did that, would you want the additional forums?

'k bye