Some topics to relocate

[Aquilai]

Call it Winter Cleaning if you like but I think topics like the Dreams, Funny Pictures and Quotes should be moved to the Bored Board. The Bored Board is the place for essentially spammable topics. A few exceptions might exist where certain non-spam boards could have triple digit page counts but for the most part these topics should be relocated.

The Dreams topic currently is 106 pages long, Funny Pictures is 150 pages long, Your current addiction is 288 pages and Quotable Quotes is OVER 500 pages! If there ever was a place to put these topics it's not in "Media" or "General". Another example of a topic that belongs in Bored Board rather than General is Most beautiful girls and guys... that is more of a game than a General topic. Unlike the RP boards where you might actually go through 20,50,90 pages of topics because it reads like a story, these topics should really be moved to the Bored Board.

Another bunch of topics that should be moved include "RAF Crush", "Post Pictures of Yourself", "Name Changes", "Birthdays" which should instead be moved to the RAF Social Board.

[Darth Revan]

Just because a topic is popular, doesn't mean it should go into the bored board. Funny pictures is talking about comical media items. It belongs in the media section. It's not a game to see who can find the funniest pic. What's your reasoning as to why Dreams doesn't belong in the General section other than how popular it is?

These topics have been in these boards for a very long time. If it was necessary or more appropriate for them to be in another board, they would have been moved early on in the topics' creation. Our staff does a wonderful job of organizing and catching inappropriately placed topics. It's good that you care, but this message would be best sent to the Staff as a PM, and not have an entire topic created for it.

[goom]

if you notice people spamming posts in the threads or getting off topic, make a report and the staff can deal with it.

by the way, quotes break the url tag. just paste in the url after Your current addiction
[url =http://animorphsforum.com/index.php?topic=1625.0]Your current addiction[/url]

 

[Aquilai]

Well you don't think even a single one of those topics should be moved? A blanket dismissal seems very ignorant. Just because the topics have been in a certain place for a long time doesn't make it right. If you think "Funny Pictures" should be placed in Media then why not "Post Pictures of Yourself"? Sure pictures can be considered media but you can't deny it is more of a spammable thread than a general topic that you would expect people to read through. IMO, the seriousness of the thread being discussed should decide whether it's in the Bored Board or otherwise. In the same way that "Discussions and Debates" is a subsection of the "General" board rather than "Bored Board".

On that note, "Dreams" I'll allow is debatable whether it's in Bored Board or General. On the one hand you might want to be able to discuss your dreams with other people so it can be serious but on the other hand if you read what people have wrote it just seems like a paste-bin of whatever we happen to think of (which kind of is what makes a dream). So I'll drop the "Dreams" should be in "Bored Board" but the others deserve legitimate consideration.

I don't deny that the mods are good at their jobs, closing repeated topics, cautioning spammers and inappropriate behaviour but just because "it's always been that way" is no excuse for not changing something. Even the Forum itself has had major overhauls this is no different except it's even less noticeable to those that don't even read those specific topics. 

[Kit Cloudkicker]

Bored board topics tend to be topics that require little to no thought to respond to. The topics you listed to be moved to the bored board are topics that you DO have to think about in order to come up with a response. They aren't games. They aren't competitions.

The moves to the social board might be ok though.

[Aquilai]

Bored Board topics aren't ALL games. In fact the description for Bored Board is: "Bored? Post anything here... (Including forum games)" games are just an extra but because they are popular they seem to appear more than other simple "Bored" posts. Just because it's in the Bored Board does NOT mean it's a competition. Notice in particular that the games part of the description is in brackets. It's not even meant to be the main reason for Bored Board. Bored Board in effect is a for fun, if you're bored, spam board.

I'd also say your argument that you need to think in order to come up with a response is invalid. The amount of thinking required for games is probably even higher than pasting a picture that you saw somewhere. As for reading the topic you probably wouldn't spend a lot of time thinking about the funny picture after you get the joke.  Same with Quotes or Current Addiction, you read what someone else has written usually 1 or 2 lines then post your own if you have one or something to say. The same with quotable quotes. The only topics that really require thought are the debate ones and I'm not complaining about them.

[Darth Revan]

That describes half of the topics across the entire forum. Very few members take the time to read through pages and pages of posts to be caught up with what's been said. That's why many of the same questions are asked over and over in threads.

Again I feel this isn't something that should be debated by the members; but an internal matter for the Staff to discuss. Should they request our views, that's another matter; however this is not for us to decide.

[Aquilai]

That describes half of the topics across the entire forum. Very few members take the time to read through pages and pages of posts to be caught up with what's been said. That's why many of the same questions are asked over and over in threads.

The few threads I have described are not "half of the topics across the entire forum" and as I pointed out earlier there are situations where people will read from 20, 50, 90 pages as in the RP boards. The debate topics for example are another area where RAFians would be willing to re-read quite a few pages to get up to speed on what's been discussed. These are not the ones that I am suggesting to be moved.

Again I feel this isn't something that should be debated by the members; but an internal matter for the Staff to discuss. Should they request our views, that's another matter; however this is not for us to decide.

Maybe so but as a member of this community this is a view that I can present.  Not to mention creating a specific topic for this is more fitting than individually hassling by private messaging every moderator or admin. If this section of the board isn't meant to be used in this way what is "Suggestions/Feedback & Issues" meant for?

[wildweathel]

Some topics are perennial.  Unlike some other forums that restart these topics periodically, we choose to keep the one thread alive.  SMF can handle thousand-page threads, so there's no technical reason not to.  No one is expected to read the whole thread -- actually, that'd not be a good idea with Random Thoughts (one that's always been a BB thread).

Also, I don't remember how long you've been here, but some of these threads predate RAF Social (and were briefly locked when Social was introduced).   

I third considering some moves to Social from General.  QQ might belong there, Crush is a definite, and so on. 

Honestly, I mostly read from the "Unread Topics" list, so categorization doesn't matter too much to me except when I occasionally start new threads.

[Estelore]

Honestly, I mostly read from the "Unread Topics" list, so categorization doesn't matter too much to me except when I occasionally start new threads.

Same here; for many threads, if you quizzed us where we could find them through the forum index, we wouldn't be able to tell you. *shrug*

[Richard]

Aquilai, you are correct in bringing this up here, because the placement of these topics is pretty debatable.

I would agree that the social topics you mentioned should be moved, and the will.

As for the Bored Bored topics, that board is the house for topics that aren't discussions, like forum games.

For your given threads:

The "Dreams" topic spurs discussions so it should say.
The "Funny pictures" topic is very borderline.
The "Current addition" topic should be in the Bored Board.
The "Quotable quotes" topic is also on the borderline.
The "Most beautiful..." thread is also borderline.

I will move the last four.

[Aquilai]

Thanks. Much tidier!

[esplin]

Total and utter fail.  Way to allow the complaints of one person ruin a long standing tradition of fun. 

[Kit Cloudkicker]

I agree with Russ. Holy crap.

[Aquilai]

It's only been moved. No one is stopping you from posting in those topics.