The Problem With OC

[Mr Cat Dog]

I agree that OC definitely needs at least some form of 'definition', as opposed to the hodgepodge of threads it is now. However, as the cliche goes, Rome wasn't built in a day. As a trial run/compromise, how about making one sub-forum for one of the proposed topics? I guess "Politics" would be the best one, off the top of my head, as there's loads of political threads.

If that has the effect of loosening up OC while being a vibrant sub-forum in its own right, that could clear the way for other sub-forums as suggested by Penatrait and others in this thread. If it has the opposite effect - it becomes a desolate subforum whilst syphoning off activity from the main OC forum - then it wouldn't be too hard to re-combine the forums and forget the whole sorry mess ever happened.

[/two pennies]

 

[Saryka]

Other Chat probably needs some sort of total overhaul. A repurposing, I suppose.

Maybe we could do with spanning the current forum into a "News & Views" forum (or sub forum) and then creating a new Other Chat that really does encompass general discussions. I don't see the need for several broad sub forums, however.

I like this. I kind of rethought the idea of all the different subforums and it would just make it more cluttered. Aaaand if there are threads that, for example, could potentially be a political and social issue at the same time, it could be hard to place them accordingly if there are so many subforums.

I like the idea of it being a separate forum, so that Other Chat can truly be other chat. I feel that we have enough serious discussions on PC that kind of makes it a category of its own.

 

[Livewire]

I'll go back and find the details from when I brought this up in the lounge, but if I remember correctly, Other Chat becomes:

Debates & Discussions


Laid back, "Other Chatish" threads belong in Discussions, along with the DCC, Post your pictures, etc. Post Your problems, as well as the threads concerning social issues, politics, religion and philosophical debates belonging in, you guessed it, Debates. (Now just because it's in debates, that doesn't mean every topic needs to get heated and nasty).

And to further clarify, I would utilize some form of prefix tags as well..

 

[Esper]

For a small change that doesn't involve adding subforums maybe just a single [Debate] prefix tag would help let people know what kind of thread they're getting into.

I've thought that there could be a division (either tags, a subforum, or a whole new forum) for the serious business threads (politics, social issues, etc.) and lighter chat (like the DCC and news stories about kittens doing cute things), but honestly I don't see a big problem with OC aside from less activity compared to other areas. If everyone agrees that it needs a change then I'd just like something done - throw things out there and see what sticks. We won't know until we try. If we fail like some people predict then, well, we fail and go back to how things are. No harm done, right?

 

[Abnegation]

The forum is simply disorganized more than anything. Slightly outdated. There's not a need for a sub-forum, but more of a reason for prefixes as Scarf suggested. I don't see a big problem with it either, it's not the section that is the issue, but the posts and threads made by some of the memberbase, so I think that there needs to be more of an outline on what constitutes as disrespectful and what people should avoid doing. Which is seen in the rules, but perhaps a more hands on approach needs to be taken by Live, and/or the higher staff.

In terms of a forum title change, I do agree that Other Chat is a little too laid back, Even something such as "Other Chat & Discussions" would both clarify the more laid back approach to certain threads as well as the more serious discussions and debates without going too far from the original name that people are used to. I actually think "Debates & Discussions" isn't accurate enough, it suggests a 100% serious board where laid back conversation won't be found. Where it is quite the opposite given the fact that the most popular thread being the DCC has been running for 5+ years.

The addition of prefixes is something I feel would be necessary at this stage, due to the fact there's quite a diversity in the type of thread that is posted there.

Why don't we just make a single politics and news forum and move all those threads there, and focus Other Chat on more... <insert a good word to describe what Live_Wire and the regulars want out of Other Chat>? That way, there's a place to go specifically for people interested in politics and news articles, and there's a place to go for intellectual discussion on philosophy, etc.? It's not like people can use the excuse "oh well, we don't have enough to warrant a forum!" There's more than enough, and it's been stated time and time again that it's not necessary nor wanted.

There's enough to warrant a forum, but you'd be taking a big clunk out of Other Chat's activity for a new forum. I could see OC becoming dead after that. So again, I think prefixes solve that issue.

 

[Ineffable~]

I'll go back and find the details from when I brought this up in the lounge, but if I remember correctly, Other Chat becomes:

Debates & Discussions


Laid back, "Other Chatish" threads belong in Discussions, along with the DCC, Post your pictures, etc. Post Your problems, as well as the threads concerning social issues, politics, religion and philosophical debates belonging in, you guessed it, Debates. (Now just because it's in debates, that doesn't mean every topic needs to get heated and nasty).

And to further clarify, I would utilize some form of prefix tags as well..

So just to be clear, it would be like this?

Other Chat Forum

Debate Subforum

[h3][/h3]
Politics What do you think of this senator?
Philosophical Is incest okay? [(Well personally idk if this would be philosophical or social)]
Social Should Gingers have rights?

Discussion Subforum

The Daily Chit-Chat! (Sticky)
News Woman sues Build-a-Bear for low-quality stuffing
Philosophical How does weather affect your behaviour?









Okay, those are bad / not serious examples but I want to know if I'm getting the picture.

 

[Livewire]

I don't see a big problem with it either, it's not the section that is the issue, but the posts and threads made by some of the memberbase, so I think that there needs to be more of an outline on what constitutes as disrespectful and what people should avoid doing. Which is seen in the rules, but perhaps a more hands on approach needs to be taken by Live, and/or the higher staff.

I agree.

However, I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that I have the most hands-on approach of the current Moderators, which usually gets me labeled as a Hardass and/or mean by those who draw my ire. But obviously the current system could use more revamping and clarification - more must be done.

So just to be clear, it would be like this?

Other Chat Forum

Debate Subforum

Politics What do you think of this senator?
Philosophical Is incest okay? [(Well personally idk if this would be philosophical or social)]
Social Should Gingers have rights?

Discussion Subforum

The Daily Chit-Chat! (Sticky)
News Woman sues Build-a-Bear for low-quality stuffing
Philosophical How does weather affect your behaviour?

Essentially, yes.

 

[Ineffable~]

Essentially, yes.

In that case, I rather like the idea, so for what it's worth my vote goes to this until someone has a better plan.

 

[Alex]

Other Chat probably needs some sort of total overhaul. A repurposing, I suppose.

Maybe we could do with spanning the current forum into a "News & Views" forum (or sub forum) and then creating a new Other Chat that really does encompass general discussions. I don't see the need for several broad sub forums, however.

Jake I don't think that's going to be a good way to splitting Other Chat. I assume that within the "News & Views" forum, there will be news articles and topics of debate. I really don't think those two should be mixed. Because while some news articles will be topics up for debate, there will be real philosophical discussions going on as well and the two don't seem to mix in my opinion. I truly think News articles would fit much better within the general chat forum. Topical Debate & Discussion should be its own forum, for those who are looking stimulating conversation.

I rather prefer Live's rendition of how the forum should be split.

 

[Nick]

The only appropriate thing to do in my mind is to filter out all the heated discussions.

Other Chat is a forum that has become somewhere where it's hard for new members to really get into. Every thread seems to go from a discussion to a small debate or a large-scale debate. Some people just like discussions without it turning into a debate. So a solution to that would be to filter the debates into a sub-forum, and leave behind the remains of a free-for-all forum that Other Chat has traditionally been and focus on keeping those threads on their own, without becoming a debate.

Right now, it seems like Other Chat is pretty much a Debates & Discussions forum, focusing on news and politics and religion and the like, with debates being the primary thread type. The atmosphere of the forum is really tense when I go there, I find, which discourages most members from posting.

 

[Melody]

I like the idea of just one "Debates" subforum.

But I also like the idea of tags better, especially if the h-staff is worried about killing the activity of the main OC.

 

[Oryx]

I always saw prefixes as a way of making subforums for things that don't have enough difference to get subforums in most places. For example, the Trade Corner has B/W and Fourth Gen prefixes. I always assumed it was because there aren't enough of one or the other (probably 4th gen) to make their own subforum, but it should be noted that they're different. Same with the FF section, with Pokemon and Other, I always thought it was just because there wasn't enough of either one to warrant their own section so they used prefixes instead.

I like the layout that Live/Ineffable came up with, I can see how using "Discussions" could get slightly confusing though, since not everyone thinks of discussions as lighthearted so they may see the name and shy away. However, it does have a nice ring to it and the description of the section could let people know that lighthearted discussion is allowed and encouraged.

 

[Ineffable~]

I like the layout that Live/Ineffable came up with, I can see how using "Discussions" could get slightly confusing though, since not everyone thinks of discussions as lighthearted so they may see the name and shy away. However, it does have a nice ring to it and the description of the section could let people know that lighthearted discussion is allowed and encouraged.

I thought of this too and my immediate thought was, maybe it should be called "Other Chat & Debates" or something. Idk, I don't want to have a name that is too unwieldy since Other Chat is pretty/shiny enough that it should have a pretty/shiny name. Chat definitely sounds like the most laid-back word possible.

 

[Belinda]

I really don't see a need for sub-forums, like some have already said prefixes pretty much do it for at least me. PC is big enough as is. Seeing as how many categories/forums it holds already. But in all that's just my opinion. Sometimes I get overwhelmed seeing a lot of forums (I don't really hold interest in Pokémon sections anymore). I mean sure it isn't hard to collapse the categories but I'm not the kind of person to save my browser data. xD;

 

[Netto Azure]

I disagree with those who say that having a Debate/News subforum is something we don't need.

First of all, splitting the 2 types of discussion into a main and sub forum respectively would allow new members to come in without being "terrorized" by all the heated debates that come up generally.

Secondly, the casual discussions would be relegated as the MAIN forum thereby isolating the stuff people here have an adversity to in the SUB forum no?

Finally activity would increase overall due to the fact that the split would get new people into the Discussions side of the Forum while the more established members can handle the Debates Sub-Forum.

Plus the Prefix system would be seriously awesome IMO. It would allow things to be clarified so people will know what they're going into.

 

[Nick]

I think the only problem is that a lot of members make discussion threads into debate threads, and there's a very, very fine line between a discussion and a debate that even I don't really understand. I was sitting here thinking "Well, if we do split the debates into a sub-forum, what kinds of threads will be left behind?" Because then I'd just think the main Other Chat forum would blur the lines even more than they already are with the difference between it and the Other Voting Polls forum.

 

[Netto Azure]

I think the only problem is that a lot of members make discussion threads into debate threads, and there's a very, very fine line between a discussion and a debate that even I don't really understand. I was sitting here thinking "Well, if we do split the debates into a sub-forum, what kinds of threads will be left behind?" Because then I'd just think the main Other Chat forum would blur the lines even more than they already are with the difference between it and the Other Voting Polls forum.

Then what IS OVP for then? A lot of the discussions about everyday life already go there, so it's not much of a surprise that the "Discussion" aspect of what is being proposed sounds close to OVP.

A lot of people, veterans and higher ups, ever since I joined kept on saying that debates go on Other Chat everytime the issue raised by this thread is brought up so I am not surprised that it IS debates that pop up in there and take up a lot of the discussion.

 

[Nick]

Well, Other Voting Polls encourages very minimal discussion, but most of them are post-and-go threads. I made an outline back when I modded the forum for a more detailed description on the types of threads that belong in Other Voting Polls.

 

[Netto Azure]

So the discussion aspect for the stuff posted in OVP goes to OC then? :U

 

[Nick]

Uhhh, I don't think that's a very solid solution. :(