Misunderstanding of "Popular Threads"-forum?

DoorKnobHandle · Thu 25/10/2007 14:23:21

I know I'm not a moderator and shouldn't act like one, but I've recently come across a bunch of comments that were indicating a general misunderstanding of the "Popular Threads"-forum pretty clearly.

Now, I am pretty sure it's meant for threads asking questions in a similar fashion to polls. For example: "what's your favorite kind of pizza topping?" or "what's your favorite brand of cars?" - of course this needs to be applied to adventure-topics. As in: the thread asks for your favorite something.

People (and even a few moderators moving threads, if I remember correctly) seem to (start to) think it's meant for popular threads (like, threads with lots of response). Moving those threads to a different forum-area makes no sense in my opinion and just confuses readers (therefore coming close to "locking" the thread since interest - and participation - is drawn away from it) - all that shouldn't be done to "good" threads, whether they're popular or not.

So, any clear-ups? I know this doesn't exactly look like a very important issue, but it's been crossing my mind since I first read one of these misunderstandings and noticed they were apparently pretty spread out.

OR am I just being stupid here (and the forum-subtitle is very unclear in that case) and that area is (for whatever reason I can't see at the moment) in fact for threads with lots of interest and responses?

Tuomas · Thu 25/10/2007 14:30:55

I know it's really not my area to meddle with, but:

frutti di mare (shrimp, tuna, shellfish, tomato sauce, cheese)

a Trabant, no doubt about it

And then, I always saw the forum as a place where we have threads that share general interest, as in threads that don't really die. Kind of a forum chat around a certain issue like music, women's hair, or so and so. Now the poem thread seemed to be popular, also there's no end to it most probably, so imo it really is the place for it.

Nacho · Thu 25/10/2007 14:35:26

I am just going to say that I am happy that this "Haiku maybe help?" silly thread has gone forever from gen gen. ^_^

Radiant · Thu 25/10/2007 14:40:51

Actually, I had been wondering why "offer your services" had been moved. It's not really a "popular" perennial answer-your-stuff thread, but part of the adventure design structure on these boards.

Imho.

Gilbert · Thu 25/10/2007 14:55:40

As far as I understand, the current use of the Popular thread thread is to make popular threads become less popular, so people can cool down for a while.

DragonRose · Thu 25/10/2007 15:57:30

Haiku Maybe Help has bounced back and forth from popular to Gen-Gen several times, as I recall. Same with the post your picture thread. I like Gilbert's definition- sort of a time out space when people go on posting frenzies.

Then again, for me two posts in a month is a posting frenzy.

DoorKnobHandle · Thu 25/10/2007 16:12:18

Well, if people need cooling down, maybe we should talk to those people and not move the threads around to somewhere where they'll rust to death. It's no big deal, really, though. I just wanted to point out (and confirm) the shift of meaning I saw behind the forum.

Radiant · Thu 25/10/2007 16:14:00

Yeah, I get that part, and I see how the forum basically contains "overdone threads that most forum regulars really don't care about", but I still fail to see what "offer your services" is doing in there.

MrColossal · Thu 25/10/2007 16:22:09

Quote from: DragonRose on Thu 25/10/2007 15:57:30
Haiku Maybe Help has bounced back and forth from popular to Gen-Gen several times, as I recall. Same with the post your picture thread. I like Gilbert's definition- sort of a time out space when people go on posting frenzies.

Then again, for me two posts in a month is a posting frenzy.

Dragon Rose, please, take a break from these forums... You've been posting so much in so many threads that you're frankly cluttering the place up... Maybe take a break for a couple of months, why not take up sewing! Don't make me move you to the Popular Threads section!

Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens · Thu 25/10/2007 23:36:32

My question is, if you were really curious why the moderators were moving threads around then why didn't you pm a moderator instead of starting another General Discussion thread?

DoorKnobHandle · Thu 25/10/2007 23:43:12

Read my original post again, prog. I'm not wondering why threads have been moved, I just wanted to ask about or point out that little misunderstanding that's been going round the entire community about the purpose of that specific forum-area, mainly because its name "Popular Threads" is linguistically misleading. Hell, I mainly find it somewhat amusing that people have been mixing up the purposes and actually posting/moving popular threads in that area, not popular-threads.

And why am I "starting another GD thread"? Do I do this a lot? I don't think so. Does this thread have a purpose? To me it has, but if nobody cares a whole lot about what's in there or not, so be it. There have been more pointless threads before.

Pumaman · Fri 26/10/2007 00:26:33

It's a reasonable question.

What's the purpose of the Popular Threads forum?

Is it to put threads that have had a lot of replies there to get them out of the way in General Discussion?
Or is it to put commonly asked question threads there so that people can find them easily rather than asking them again?

Some threads would tick the box for both of these, but others (like the Haiku one or the I Love Mark Lovegrove one) are dubious.

To be honest I can't remember what the forum's original purpose was, but do we think it's working as it is now?

Domino · Fri 26/10/2007 00:35:21

If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

It is fine the way it is, and i really like the threads there. Easy to find.

edit: we could put the Moving Thread in there too, so it doesn't disappear, but that would defeat the purpose of the moving thread. But just a suggestion.

RickJ · Fri 26/10/2007 01:39:51

I'm with Radiant on the question of why the "Offer Your Service" was moved there. It doesn't seem to make sense to me at all, since the "Recruit a Team" thread was left alone in the Chat forum?

I wasn't paying attention when it was first instituted but it always seemed to me to be the forum equivalent of the windows recycle bin that provided a way for moderators to dispose of annoying threads without provoking the wrath of the masses.

Pesty · Fri 26/10/2007 03:44:37

The popular threads forum is for popular threads. It's sort of a neverneverland for threads that have become big, to keep them from overwhelming the gen gen and to sort of take them out of the public eye so that they maybe stop being so prominent. It's also there to save threads from being lost forever in the big swamp of old gen gen posts. It's appropriate for the Haiku thread, and all those "list your favorites!" threads.

I don't know why the "offer your services" thread was moved there. I think it's even less noticable there, and will cause even more confusion. I would rather see it as a sticky in the gen gen forum, since this is the forum most people visit and that way it will most likely be seen.

I also think that maybe the post your pictures thread should be in the popular threads forum.

These are my opinions!

Gilbert · Fri 26/10/2007 05:16:49

I vote for a "Show your kitties!" topic stickied in the popular thread forum. =3

Every community should have this.

RickJ · Fri 26/10/2007 05:27:54

Hehe, for a second I thought Gilbot said "tities" instead of "kitties". Maybe we should have both?

Radiant · Fri 26/10/2007 10:26:39

Quote from: RickJ on Fri 26/10/2007 01:39:51
I'm with Radiant on the question of why the "Offer Your Service" was moved there. It doesn't seem to make sense to me at all, since the "Recruit a Team" thread was left alone in the Chat forum?

Quote from: Pesty on Fri 26/10/2007 03:44:37
I don't know why the "offer your services" thread was moved there. I think it's even less noticable there, and will cause even more confusion. I would rather see it as a sticky in the gen gen forum, since this is the forum most people visit and that way it will most likely be seen

So, since nobody has been able to explain this so far, can we get a mod to move that one back please?

Pumaman · Fri 26/10/2007 20:41:47

I agree, I've moved Offer Your Services back to Adventure-related Chat.

Ashen · Fri 26/10/2007 23:01:41

I understood the Popular Threads forum to be for either questions that're asked often enough (what's your favourie game/AGS game/character, etc) that a single thread makes more sense, or for threads that get periodically bumped and added to over a length of time (like the Haiku one) - or in other words, have proved popular. I guess 'Offer your Services' could qualify under the first definition (as could 'Recruit a Team', of course).

It was moved, I'd imagine, on the back of the discussion about cleaning up RaT. Having both seemed a bit redundant, so one had to go - and instead of deleting it entirely and losing all the active offers, it was moved somewhere it would still be visible, but not visible enough to compete with RaT. That's my interpretation, anyway. The tone of the discussion (when I read it, at least) sounded like RaT should be the one to 'go', but what the heck.