Suggesting Alterations To A Current Forum

Hill-Shatar · Post by **Hill-Shatar** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 12:53 am

Although I usually like the rambling beginning, I think this time, it would be a good idea to cut straight to the point; I think it might be a good idea to alter the Comics forum, as it is, to a new type of forum.

Not that I think we should do away with Comics, but I thought it might be a good idea to expand the forum to something along the lines of 'Books (Literature), Comics and Movie Discussion' or something along those lines.

The thought came to me recently as I wandered through some other forums and found that, although they were mysteriously missing the Comics forum, they did include, for some of the larger forums, such things as the Movie/Book Discussion forum, or something similar. Not only that, but I had recently taken to reading around through the past of SYM and found that such reviews like [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69771"]this[/url] one by Luis Antonio which were shunted to the bottom, when there was still a lot of room left for discussion.

SYM may be the off topic board where everything else goes, but anything along the lines of the forum I stated above is pretty much shunted to the bottom as news threads and spam threads surge to the top. Some of the threads had posts that ranged in an hour before one busy night shoved them right off the edge of the first page and from people's minds.

The Comics forum itself is not exactly brimming with activity at the moment. The most active thread, [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23852"]Dungeon Crawling[/url], is one of the main reasons the forum is still there. Most of threads get little attention as there is not much to drive people there. Broadening the forum a bit might increase traffic, and give a place for people to discuss such things as this, a genre that used to be only for people who had found the miracle of SYM.

There are currently a mass number of threads in SYM that can be moved, and some threads, such as DW's thread [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66303"]here[/url], would have had some lasting conversation value, most likely, if they had had a chance to stay on the front page.

I didn't include sports in this as, well, looking at SYM, you can see that whatever [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65467"]sport[/url] it is usually has a way of staying on the front page, and I did not include music for partly the same reason. More or less the latter was because, well, discussion on those topics will soon fall to spam in any case, as discussion in general on music other than 'This band rules' and 'I agree' is pretty much non existent. If there is discussion on music, then from the threads I have read, books and movies seem to bring about more discussion.

I'm not asking for another forum as, well, I think that because GameBanshee is mainly an RPG site, I don't think it should stray off that. We already have a barely used comics forum, why not build on that? Otherwise, soon you'll have people asking for cooking and fitness forums, and I personally think the three topics above are close enough, universal enough, and already discussed enough to be a reason for the forum to be altered.

I have to admit that it is late at night and I have not totally prepared all my thoughts on this, but I should be a little more refreshed in the morning, and hopefully ready to answer any questions/problems there may be with the idea…

I'd like to add that I can help in any way, from compiling links that should be moved or any other way I can, I will. Considering this is my little pestilence I created, I might as well do as much work as possible myself, and not dump too much work on Buck or the SYM moderators.

Phreddie · Post by **Phreddie** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:36 am

Good idea Hill, I remember one thread started bu Steven00009 i think his name was, about aspecific genre of books that lasted for a while, I think he wa asking to recomend books. The forum would be a great idea, nor only could you discuss nooks youve read, but also if your looking for a book, you can probably find one with good reviews from other people that you might be interested in.

Post by **BuckGB** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 3:15 pm

I'm up for this idea, as long as the members who frequent the forum don't mind seeing movie, book, and other entertainment topics showing up from time to time. Anybody opposed to the idea?

Hill-Shatar · Post by **Hill-Shatar** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:03 pm

I think that anyone who likes DCI can keep it to the top quite easily. Otherwise the typical member who posts there really only comes for that thread itself, and it is pretty much also the main source of traffic.

Otherwise, I don't think there will be many problems at all, personally. I know at least one or two members wouldn't mind a forum like this, one (DJV) who just mentioned so a few minutes ago down in SYM.

Overall I think, once again personally, that a Literature (Book, either word, really), Comics and Movie (TV as well?) forum would do well.

Phreddie · Post by **Phreddie** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:50 pm

I would be a little hesitant on tv, id hate to see it turn into a forum about gossip on differnt shows, what happened last week, whats going to happen next week kinda deal. I think things that open and clsoe in one volume, or in a short series spread far apart ( either a single book, an authors unconnected series of murder mysteries, or fantasy fiction trilogies) my two dollars and 85 cents is that its kept to movies.

Hill-Shatar · Post by **Hill-Shatar** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:19 pm

I don't know, you see quite a lot on TV shows and movies together. They have basically the same idea going on. For example, a thread discussing the Hit TV series Lost would probably be very active, and very full of specultion on the Others, a group of people on the island.

Besides, if there is interest in this forum, I doubt it would immediately turn into a TV forum. I guess other people may be a little more informed on the subject.

Phreddie · Post by **Phreddie** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:27 pm

it just depends on the number of threads that are started for tv, if there are fifteen shows each with their on active thread, the other parts of the forum are easily overshaowed.

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:35 pm

I'm a fan of a Literature section, as Hill has mentioned. I'm not so sure how successful a TV one would be however, it would mostly be talks going on in a particular country (eg. In Australia, we get American shows usually half a year later then they were aired there).

As such, it would somewhat lessen the speculative kinds of conversation, but perhaps if a few countries were at the same spot, it could work. For this reason, I think it's okay having it as a TV one, as I doubt it would fill up that many threads.

I would participate in book threads (provided I had of course read it), and it would be great just to see what other members are interested in, and simply as a place to gain recommendations on what to read, because sometimes covers/blurbs, or reviews on the book just don't give it justice.

Anyway, I'm all for it, and if it fails, well, it fails and we move on. Though personally I doubt it will fail.

Great idea Hill, and have fun trawling SYM for the appropriate threads

.

Look forward for more word Buck.

Galuf the Dwarf · Post by **Galuf the Dwarf** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:38 pm

A somewhat wise young dwarf's words

I agree with such a new forum. It seems like a good amount of the time, SYM has become little more than an entertainment multimedia critique, which may sometimes (if not often) conflict with the more spam-worthy content and attitudes present in SYM.

Not that the spamming behavior mentioned is being degraded, but I'm saying that more serious entertainment topics and spam are (IMHO) like tomatoes and potatoes - unless mixed in a certain way, they just don't go well together, so it's often better to keep them apart.

Oscuro_Sol · Post by **Oscuro_Sol** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:46 pm

I like it.

The only thing that might be a concern, is people giving away plotlines etc. without realizing it, which isn't a life threatening deal, but it does take away from the enjoyment of whatever the post might be on.

I don't have a problem with TV shows, as long as, like Phreddie said, it doesn't turn into a huge gossip fest. I've seen it happen.

I like the book/literature idea, maybe you could theater be includid as well? I'm not sure if anyone would post, but it does open it up a little more and I'm curious to see peoples' views on it.

Alright. I hope at least some of that made sense. I'm very bleary eyed at the moment.

Hill-Shatar · Post by **Hill-Shatar** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:00 pm

Plotlines are given away quite often in gaming forums, and we have some nice new spoiler code, not to mention the ability for moderators to add spoilers to the thread title.

Personally, I just think the original intention of the forum, Literature, Comics and Movies (TV?) is good enough for now. If ever someone posts theatre, posting it in that forum would probably be a good idea, but keeping the forum title and what it is used for simple is pretty much what I desire.

Thanks to you all for giving your opinions. Anymore opinions on this?

Fiona · Post by **Fiona** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:40 pm

I don't read the comic forum, but I might if books were included. I would quite like that, if the people who use it a present don't mind

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:56 pm

I basically think this is a good idea. A question, though.
Could we still post literature or film topics in SYM?

I kind of like the way SYM contains a wide variety of topics.

Hill-Shatar · Post by **Hill-Shatar** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 12:03 am

The threads on literature and movies rarely survive long on the first page. One busy night and they are off before they even reach page one. At the moment, a lot of what is being posted in SYM is random topics, news threads, birthday/death threads and hypothetical questions.

What do you mean by literature topics specifically?

Most of the time, I have a feeling that I want to discuss movies, etc, and rarely find one that I'm interested in talking about. The book threads recently up that I participated in were gone and off the front page in less than a day, normally.

I don't think it will really effect the number of threads going through SYM, especially since these threads are a small percentage of what is there and usually have few posts in them. There are dozens of other topics...

On TV, Box Sets are pretty much movies... or at least, productions that can be spoken about.

Fiona · Post by **Fiona** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:26 am

If topics fall off the page quickly, does that not perhaps imply they are of limited interest? Just a thought.

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:51 am

[QUOTE=Fiona]If topics fall off the page quickly, does that not perhaps imply they are of limited interest? Just a thought.[/QUOTE]
Perhaps, but not necessarely always.
I have noticed that at times there comes so many new threads so quickly that it takes only few hours to one thread to drop out from first page.
And the last two weaks have proved to me that during such time there are over 2 pages of threads which contains new posts.

So, IMO the idea would be quite good, especially when considering how low the use of the comics forum is...

Phreddie · Post by **Phreddie** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:13 am

[QUOTE=dj_venom]I'm a fan of a Literature section, as Hill has mentioned. I'm not so sure how successful a TV one would be however, it would mostly be talks going on in a particular country (eg. In Australia, we get American shows usually half a year later then they were aired there).

As such, it would somewhat lessen the speculative kinds of conversation, but perhaps if a few countries were at the same spot, it could work. For this reason, I think it's okay having it as a TV one, as I doubt it would fill up that many threads.[/QUOTE]
the other problem is with us ignorant americans on that one. Perhaps we are discussing a show while its running here, you drop by and read to try and figure out whats going on and all of sudden the new season has been spoiled.

Im not really against the TV section, im just here to show you what may go wrong, then it can be balanced against the good and a decision made.

Athena · Post by **Athena** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:50 pm

I think the idea of bringing books and movies into the forum is good. Those things deserve a place here at GB. DW brought up an interesting point about weather literature would be moved out of sym though. I wonder how we will fix things. Right now in SYM we have a story thread and song lyrics thread. Would those be moved? In what ways will this impact gb?

Hill-Shatar · Post by **Hill-Shatar** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:54 pm

The song lyrics thread is music, and not literature, comics or movies, so it might as well stay there.

The Quest for Spam thread, if it was going to go anywhere out of SYM, which it probably wouldn't, would most likely go to the Fan Fic forum.

I doubt it will ever be moved at all, so no worries.

Threads like the Anime thread, I have no idea. People like fable, Aegis and Rookierookie who participated more in it at the moment and have read through its entirety (and also knows what half the things are) would know more on that.

EDIT for DW- I think that if your in a thread thats being spammed and it turns to books, thats fine. Often in the SF or HC the topic turned to games and DCI, etc, etc...

Also, Multimedia videos, etc, would probably stay in SYM as well.

Athena · Post by **Athena** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 10:59 pm

'so let it be written, so let it be done.'