[SO META] On the current format of General Chat threads.

[Oryx]

I totally understand if it's what you guys wanna do and I'll live, I don't feel nearly as strongly about this as the D&D issue haha, I would just be sad. 10 small threads with 2-3 pages that are chatty isn't the same as one big thread where the conversation flows from topic to topic; rarely does someone just post "so, let's talk about X" in the DCC, you know?

 

[Honest]

Hmm. Okay, I wanna know the public's opinion on this; do you think several smaller DCCS and the main DCC could exist in tandem?

 

[Sirfetch’d]

I see no reason not to experiment and see if the two can coexist! I like the trend now where there are the small DCC threads; particularly the ones you have made about fashion, school etc and so far they seem to be working alongside the DCC fairly well. It certainly would be ideal if both could exist as long as the DCC doesn't start draining activity from the smaller threads.

 

[Nick]

Hmm. Okay, I wanna know the public's opinion on this; do you think several smaller DCCS and the main DCC could exist in tandem?

I see you trying, so we can find out in time. Just keep doing what you're doing, and then people will follow.

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Hmm. Okay, I wanna know the public's opinion on this; do you think several smaller DCCS and the main DCC could exist in tandem?

No.

nope nope nope nope nope

*hops away*

 

[Sonata]

I agree with getting rid of the DCC but then again I don't. I like the DCC because it acts as a spawning grounds for a lot of the threads that people make, the only time I really think that this doesn't go down is when either someone isn't serious about the topic, the topic is too vague and would get too little reviews, or everyone's just too lazy to do it. So maybe if we just got rid of DCC and made a different kind of thread where everyone just comes together and kinda just drops their thread ideas that either they don't want to make or are too scared to make for some reason or they have the idea but don't really know what to do with it. And then reward people who go out and make use of those ideas.

 

[Honest]

I agree with getting rid of the DCC but then again I don't. I like the DCC because it acts as a spawning grounds for a lot of the threads that people make, the only time I really think that this doesn't go down is when either someone isn't serious about the topic, the topic is too vague and would get too little reviews, or everyone's just too lazy to do it. So maybe if we just got rid of DCC and made a different kind of thread where everyone just comes together and kinda just drops their thread ideas that either they don't want to make or are too scared to make for some reason or they have the idea but don't really know what to do with it. And then reward people who go out and make use of those ideas.

So basically a thread designated to come up ideas for threads? That's what I'm reading, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Sonata]

Exactly. But also not extremely strict about it since we still wouldn't want it to be a post and go, come back to check once a month kind of thread but not what the DCC is. That's really what I see most DCCs as and what they really should be. But that's just my opinion.

 

[Nick]

Exactly. But also not extremely strict about it since we still wouldn't want it to be a post and go, come back to check once a month kind of thread but not what the DCC is. That's really what I see most DCCs as and what they really should be. But that's just my opinion.

That's a very strange way to look at what the DCC is, but I'm not criticizing. I do think that people can come up with thread ideas at any moment, based on anything, and just because the DCC is capable of making people think of a topic, if it drains activity from other threads, then that's a problem. And it has done that for a very long time. Hell, there was a time where it drained activity from an entire forum, until anime discussion became a little restricted. I think that lifted with the Off Topic Discussion category overhaul, though, when the DCC was moved to this forum.

These days, though, it seems like every single forum has their own DCC and I really just don't get that given how much it sucks from other topics, and possible creations of others. Pretty much, I don't see any benefits the DCC has other than being a nice casual place to talk about something. But that's what we want the entirety of this forum to be about.

Plus the DCC has an on-topic rule, which is great and all, but I go to the DCC every now and then and am just not interested in talking about whatever is being discussed. And yet, with the way the forum it is now, it's the only place people can really go in a forum where they can have an open chat, and that's a problem.

 

[Honest]

That's a very strange way to look at what the DCC is, but I'm not criticizing. I do think that people can come up with thread ideas at any moment, based on anything, and just because the DCC is capable of making people think of a topic, if it drains activity from other threads, then that's a problem. And it has done that for a very long time. Hell, there was a time where it drained activity from an entire forum, until anime discussion became a little restricted. I think that lifted with the Off Topic Discussion category overhaul, though, when the DCC was moved to this forum.

These days, though, it seems like every single forum has their own DCC and I really just don't get that given how much it sucks from other topics, and possible creations of others. Pretty much, I don't see any benefits the DCC has other than being a nice casual place to talk about something. But that's what we want the entirety of this forum to be about.

Plus the DCC has an on-topic rule, which is great and all, but I go to the DCC every now and then and am just not interested in talking about whatever is being discussed. And yet, with the way the forum it is now, it's the only place people can really go in a forum where they can have an open chat, and that's a problem.

I more or less agree with everything said here, but I want to put some particular focus on the last paragraph especially. There have been multiple time where the DCC would be talking about something I don't know or something I don't care about, and there are multiple people out there that suffer from a similar situation, I'd bet. The removal of the generic DCC would fix that, I believe. There was also something else I wanted to say, but it's slipped my mind.


As for your idea O'aka, simply put, I don't like it. I can see where you're coming from with the whole DCC giving birth to thread ideas, because to some extent, that is true. However, two big issues arise from that. One, recall the primary goal of this whole "movement" so to speak is to kickstart GC into something amazing again. The elimination of the DCC in favor of a thread suggestion thread wouldn't help with that at all. Sure, we'd possibly have new topics to talk about (and I'm honestly a little skeptical as to how successful the thread would even be), but the execution of how a topic is delivered to the forum matters just as much as what the topic is. Second, I find such a thread unnecessary. I don't think we need to think about possible topics as a group, because our options for threads in GC are honestly extremely broad. Our problem is we center ourselves in a little bubble thinking about specific and generic things. We can take those things, tweak them, and end up with something swell. A thread would be an unnecessary step in the equation.

 

[Nick]

Since we're discussing the overall improvement of the forum, I think the forum mods should consider allowing members to post here without fulfilling the 25 characters / 4 words requirements. If you're concerned about spam popping up because of it, then you can crack down on spam, but for the most part, it seems like you guys want a laid back atmosphere, and I think not having to fulfill those requirements would be a tremendous help at creating a that atmosphere around here.

Yeah, it's not that hard to fulfill those requirements, and having it around doesn't make the atmosphere here any less laid back, but given the type of conversations that you guys are looking to prosper, I do think that there are a lot of times where we don't need 25 characters / 4 words to get our point across or to contribute to a topic. These are posts we would usually post anyway, but just fill it up with other words to meet that requirement. I can't count the times that I had something I wanted to say, and it didn't meet the 25 character limit rule, so I added something that fleshed the sentence out even though it's not what I initially wanted to say.

Just something I think you guys should think about.

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Since we're discussing the overall improvement of the forum, I think the forum mods should consider allowing members to post here without fulfilling the 25 characters / 4 words requirements. If you're concerned about spam popping up because of it, then you can crack down on spam, but for the most part, it seems like you guys want a laid back atmosphere, and I think not having to fulfill those requirements would be a tremendous help at creating a that atmosphere around here.

Yeah, it's not that hard to fulfill those requirements, and having it around doesn't make the atmosphere here any less laid back, but given the type of conversations that you guys are looking to prosper, I do think that there are a lot of times where we don't need 25 characters / 4 words to get our point across or to contribute to a topic. These are posts we would usually post anyway, but just fill it up with other words to meet that requirement. I can't count the times that I had something I wanted to say, and it didn't meet the 25 character limit rule, so I added something that fleshed the sentence out even though it's not what I initially wanted to say.

Just something I think you guys should think about.

A policy of substance being in a post as opposed to an arbitrary requirement of letter is what I'm gathering from this, Nick. If that's the case, it'd be great to instate something of that, eh?

 

[Nick]

A policy of substance being in a post as opposed to an arbitrary requirement of letter is what I'm gathering from this, Nick. If that's the case, it'd be great to instate something of that, eh?

Are you trying to sound smart? :|

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Are you trying to sound smart? :|

;_;

I swear that's just how I sound. It's a great idea!

 

[Shining Raichu]

I've kept quiet for the most part because I just wanted to see how this played out, but I think everybody's thinking too big and we need to calm down a little. I'm not necessarily opposed to this "tons of mini DCCs" idea, and it seems to be working well, but really I was nervous about this thread existing because I didn't want a big revolution. There's nothing wrong with the threads themselves, it's just how we're using them that needs a little adjusting.

That's why I was going about the problem the way I was - just talking to people in the threads rather than answering the questions in the hope that people would follow my lead. Obviously that didn't work but now that we've spoken about it and it's kinda come to everybody's attention, I've already seen a difference and I think we're fine to carry on as we are.

I also really hate the idea of losing the main DCC, for the record.

I know people get excited when a thread like this pops up and it becomes all about "hey lets change this and this and this and everything'll be awesome" but I think the only change we needed was for people to loosen up a bit.

Oh also, 10/10 idea to get rid of the 4/25 rule. I'm so down for that, it's a pain and it's unnecessary. I think people can think for themselves to differentiate between spam and contribution.

 

[Honest]

A policy of substance being in a post as opposed to an arbitrary requirement of letter is what I'm gathering from this, Nick. If that's the case, it'd be great to instate something of that, eh?

Okay, I translated this to: we should emphasis quality over quantity. And then something I didn't get. ENGRISH ALEX.

Also... I swear I've brought up the removal of the 25/4 rule before to the staff forums to discuss, and it got turned down overwhelmingly if I remember right. Worth a second shot though, I suppose.

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Okay, I translated this to: we should emphasis quality over quantity. And then something I didn't get. ENGRISH ALEX.

Sorry. Some troubles in my life recently have led me to speak in this tongue I didn't know I had…

Yeah, you got what I was saying well enough. Remove the 4/25 rule and replace it with a policy of quality > quantity. "It'd be cool to instate that" basically

 

[maccrash]

well I've only been here for like four months or so, so the only thing I've known this board as is boring. heheh. I think the problem is that I don't care NEARLY enough to go to a thread that posits a bunch of BORING questions in the OP and then read everyone's cut-and-dry responses to those exact same questions with no deviation from them and no discussion actually happening. in that case, as someone else I think said earlier, I'll just read through the responses from the people I like or if there's a particularly juicy question then I may read through and just look for that question or something, and it bolsters no foogin chatting which is in the name of the board after all so it must be important. am I wrong???!??!?!

eliminating the 4/25 rule would be brilliant, because as Nick said earlier there have been numerous times where there was something I really wanted to say that I had to flesh out with some unnecessary fluff that takes away from what my actual post was gonna be and then my post is poop. I imagine many others have had this experience as well.

re: DCC. I'm not sure how one could have multiple DCC's at all considering the point of a DCC, at least from what I'm gleanin' here, is to talk about whatever enters your brain that you don't think (at the time, at least) is worthy enough to merit a whole ♥♥♥♥in thread. and every forum that I've ever been on has a thread exactly like this and without it people seem a lot less motivated to come to the GC board in the first place. I'm not sure if that would be the case here. and I only have one suggestion: try it. there are so many great ideas in this thread that a lot of people are rallying for and I think that trying some of the things with a lot of support for like a week at a time would be nothing but beneficial because you don't need to argue about what would work and what wouldn't and instead you'd get some cold hard evidence as to what's happenin'.

uhh, these are just my two cents, as it seems I missed the bulk of this thread while I was ~~away~~.

 

[£]

Sorry. Some troubles in my life recently have led me to speak in this tongue I didn't know I had…

Yeah, you got what I was saying well enough. Remove the 4/25 rule and replace it with a policy of quality > quantity. "It'd be cool to instate that" basically

#whatwouldRamessesIIdo

I have absolutely no difficulty writing four words or 25 characters and the amount of people who think removing it makes a drastic impact startles me! If there's a topic that can be answered in less than 25 characters it's not a very good topic of conversation!

It takes me about five seconds to write that much and I'm a slow typer! Like if it was a Skype chat I'd see the point in it but forums feel like... I have to put a little more into my posts than something like "yes/no/maybe/idk lol"

if people just took the time to have more #sickbanter in the GC forum we'd have a good time srsly guys

 

[Oryx]

#whatwouldRamessesIIdo

I have absolutely no difficulty writing four words or 25 characters and the amount of people who think removing it makes a drastic impact startles me! If there's a topic that can be answered in less than 25 characters it's not a very good topic of conversation!

It takes me about five seconds to write that much and I'm a slow typer! Like if it was a Skype chat I'd see the point in it but forums feel like... I have to put a little more into my posts than something like "yes/no/maybe/idk lol"

if people just took the time to have more #sickbanter in the GC forum we'd have a good time srsly guys

I wanted to tell Matt to get it in the relationships thread but I couldn't because 'get it matt' is only 11 characters. :(