Forums not what they used to be

[Oliwerko]

I personally don't like too strictly moderated forums. And I think it is just fine here. Gen-gen is constantly full of off-topic trash, but hey, wouldn't it be just too boring to have only a few serious posts and nothing else? Community lives from communication, not forcing itself to post only relevant on-topic posts.

[Pumaman]

You can never win with this sort of thing. If we leave the "I wish" thread open some people will complain that it's pointless and stupid. If we lock the thread, some people will complain that we're over-moderating and being too strict.

When you think back to some other seemingly pointless threads that turned into classics (like the "I LOVE MARK LOVEGROVE" one and the Haiku thread) I think it's usually worth letting them burn themselves out.

[Tuomas]

Then probably we should move it to popular threads? After just a few days and over 70 posts, it surely is popular, right?

[rharpe]

I don't post as much as I use to because of other life responsibilities. Being a husband, father, and older AGSter pulls me away for long stretches of time.

But like CJ put it, there should be fresh blood coming in all the time to make up for us older guys and gals. 

[Nikolas]

Since I started over here my Internet life, I've picked up a few very good habbits, I think.

Double posting is bad
CAPPITAL LETTERING is bad
Quoting your above post is stupid and bad probably
Quoting an image is bad, etc

After almost 3 years of being around, some of these seem to be logical, while others seem to be based in some kind of "bandwith" issue, or some "slow dial-up users" issue, which in all honesty I can't say that it really exists...

Quoting your above poster, seems to make sense when you want to adress specific issues, or when it might be misunderstood who you're talking to.
Quoting an image, in all honesty helps, and it is helpful, to not go back to check which image we are talking about. Don't know how many of us over here are in dial-up era, but I somehow feel that the % will be very small, so it doesn't matter if the thread is clattered with images, etc, does it?

Just some thoughts, I guess...

[miguel]

I think that the overall quality of the forums is very high here.
I Also believe that if we want it to improve, then the top members must post more, people that are references and I am not writing names because we all know who they are.
When I served my country  we used to say: "Age is a rank around here".
When the respected members talk the other members listen.
It happens to me, I just calm down
The important threads will survive time.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I don't see a problem with silly threads in General Discussion, really.  General has always been pretty much an 'anything goes' forum where people can vent frustrations, be silly or bring up interesting (or not) non-ags topics.  The thing that some people seem to have trouble grasping is that you neither have to read every thread nor participate in every thread.  If the subject matter seems pointless to you, don't participate!  As long as the content isn't about attacking someone in the forums or a flame war or some kind of random advertisement/spam, I don't see a problem.

[Emerald]

I don't see a problem with silly threads in General Discussion, really. 

Whenever I see the title of this thread I think:
"The old grey mare
She ain't what she used to be
Ain't what she used to be
Ain't what she used to be"

Sung by a bunch of old men with their trousers around their ankles a la Simpsons

[Ishmael]

It's hard to draw the line between fun and spam. I apparently draw it a bit further in to the fun side than most people, but I've been in this community for a long time, seen a lot of the earlier topics, but not once before do I recall to have felt a topic left open has been useless in this respect. But as it's none of my business I'm resting my case here for now.