A suggestion for the forum - need opinions

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

Hello I have teh proposal to make k.

There has been an increase in the number of competitions and collaborative activities lately. Which is good, because it means we're doing more things as a community. But the posts regarding these various activities are scattered over various forums.

I think it would be a good idea if we had a seperate section under the 'Community' area called something like Competitions and Collaborations or AGS Community Activities. Something along those lines.

This will have two effects:
1. The number of stickies in forums will decrease, and people will stop complaining about them.
2. It will be easier for people to find activities they might want to participate it. Right now, they're scattered around the forum.

The stickies in the Activities forum could be the currently running comps and activities. That way everything will be nice and tidy.  

Anyone have any opinions, positive or negative, on this?

[Pumaman]

Sounds like a good idea to clear up the forums to me -grouping competitions like the Sprite jams, Background Blitz, Photoshop Phriday and so forth all together.

[JD]

Excellent idea!

[cpage]

I think this is a great idea

[BOYD1981]

that's a very sensible idea

[Scummbuddy]

Yeah, nice thinking. I noticed it, but I didnt think as far as to this.

[Darth Mandarb]

That's one thinkin' gal there!

Great idea!

dm

[Las Naranjas]

I think further affirmation is required, especially after CJ agreed.

[evenwolf]

Sounds good, the only repurcussion I can think of is that this will encourage people to think of competitions simply because they want their own competition- and not because they have a good idea.  If that makes sense... like for instance- a few people will start really neat competitions- and then someone will witness the popularity of those threads and feel obligated to make his own considering an entire forum is devoted to the topic. So perhaps if there was some process of adding a competition, where a person must only post with moderator permission- or some sort of disclaimer before posting new threads.  Just an idea, maybe I'm being paranoid.

[Erica McLane]

Nice idea, really.

[Pumaman]

EvenWolf, that's a good point - we don't want to over-milk the cow and have so many competitions that nobody has the time to take part in any of them.

The new forum rules should probably state that no new types of competition should be started without a prior thread in Gen Gen where a majority of forum members agree.

[DGMacphee]

Leave it up to moderators to approve to comps.

As for the idea, I'm against it -- just to be different!

Seriously, though it is a good idea but I think the current system is pretty good -- I think it's about time to get rid of some of the stickies.

Should I unstick a few threads such as Haiku, post your picture, and story project?

Tell me what you think -- should certains ones stay or should they go.

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

Heh, its more than Gen Gen DG. We have Mittens, the Team games and MAGs in Talk and Chat, the Blitz and Sprite Jam in Critics and the Writing project, Photoshop Phriday, Haiku and the Music comp in here. And periodically we have people coming up with things like small puzzle comps and short story writing, which aren't all that long running yet still fun.

That's a lotta activities scattered all over the place, wouldn't it be better to consolidate all this in one place?  

Even, I hadnt thought of that, but its very likely to happen! So yeah one or the other way of deciding which comps end up in there. Either method will work fine IMO.

[Scummbuddy]

I think Post your picture and A/S/L should stay here.  no ones competing over cuteness.... cause i won already.

[DGMacphee]

OTG: Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a great idea.

However, I also read Evenwolf's comments -- and he makes a very good point.

Such a forum might encourage a lot of stupid competitions -- and thus over-moderation.

Besides, we're bound to have competitions in their respective forums.

The thing is the competitions are already organised in such respective forums -- I can't think of one competition that doesn't belong in a particular board.

I think the problem is more or less the number of stickies -- perhaps we should just leave the competitions as unstickies.

I think we get too sentimental about such threads and thus we hold on to them, always leaving them at the top of the board.

Maybe it's time we moved on from our current posts.

Don't get me worng -- I love the Haiku and Post Your Pic posts.

However, maybe we should let them go and move on to better topics.

And it's not like we'd be deleting them and losing them forever -- just unstickying them so newer posts get priority.

Just a thought inspired by both Evenwolf and OTG's comments.

[Pumaman]

I think it's worth leaving the Post Your Pic as a sticky, because if we don't then in a couple of months somebody else will come along and start a new one, we'll all say "there's already one, search the forum" and so forth - so it's probably best left.

On the other hand, the Haiku one has probably outlived its time now.

As for competitions belonging in specific forums - to an extent yes they do, but there is inconsistency - like the sprite jams being here, and the background blitz being in the critics' lounge.

Also, having a central competitions forum might encourage more participation - for example from people who don't noramlly read the Critics Lounge and therefore don't know about it.

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

Pre-emptive strike DG? It MIGHT lead to a lot of bad comps, but it might lead to good ones too. I don't think CJ has picked any mods so far who have over-moderated thier forums, so I doubt that will happen.

CJ, the last few Sprite Jam's HAVE been in critics, although I think they originated here, but photoshop phriday and the music comp which seem to me to be somewhat related, are here.

And I don't think of it as entirely a comp forum, more of an activities one, whether competitive or collaborative.

[LGM]

I'll be happy to moderate the forum... Since I've been trying to moderate a forum for years.

[Pumaman]

So long as we make it clear that it is merely a place to put existing competitions, and not an invitation for people make up as many as possible, it should be ok.

However I understand your concerns DG - it's like why there's no "Suggestions" forum in the Technical area, because I know it would just encourage people to post as many suggestions as they could think of.

[Jimi]

I'd love to moderate a forum! And if I did bad, you could always ged rid of me. It would be an experience to learn from!....

[DGMacphee]

Pre-emptive strike DG?

With all respect, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, OTG. (regardless of smiley or not)

Equating me to Bush?

You might make Narangas my Defense Secretary -- Las Rumsfeld.

I am not making pre-emptive strike -- merely some points to consider that were inspired by both Evewolf and your comments.

And by over-moderation, I mean it will create a lot of work for the moderators involved (such as me, considering I'm doing Photoshop Phridays).

Like I said, it's a great idea.

But like I also said, points to consider.

I'm not against it at all.

This thing I said:

As for the idea, I'm against it -- just to be different!

... was a joke.

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

[q]Pre-emptive strike DG?[/q]

With all respect, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, OTG. (regardless of smiley or not)

Equating me to Bush?

You might make Narangas my Defense Secretary -- Las Rumsfeld.

I am not making pre-emptive strike -- merely some points to consider that were inspired by both Evewolf and your comments.

Well, I wasn't exactly equating you to Bush. I was saying it could go either way and you seem to be assuming it would go towards the bad, and so we should just not do it.

My point is it could go either way. Why cross the bridge before we come to it?

[DGMacphee]

I never said we shouldn't do it.

In fact, I'm all for encouraging new ideas.

However, I'm aware of the negatives too.

Just balancing the good and the bad so we can develop something that's foolproof.

Perhaps I sounded a tad cynical -- but that's to do with "other things".

[Jimi]

Write a list of goods and bads. If there are more bads than goods, don't do it, otherwise, DO IT!  

[Pumaman]

Ok then, shall we give it a trial period - say, a month. At the end of that we can always go back to the current system if it doesn't work out.

[Las Naranjas]

Compitions come and go as well as novelties like the haiku thread, but the post your pic thread is an index that deserves permanancy.

Cause even apart from reasons CJ gave, it's a resource needed when visualising people on IRC and making photoshop entries.

[DGMacphee]

It might be time to let the Haiku thread go then.

[RickJ]

Perhaps  the scope of this new section should be broadened a bit to include other kinds of events in addition to competitions.  

As for the possible abuses, this should probably be a read only category for most of us.  Perhaps modreators and directors of sanctioned competitions should be the only ones allowed to post or to start a new thread?    Perhap us commoners would be granted permission to reply to thrreads where appropiate.

I guess I am thinking of something more like a calendar of events and news releases.  I am not sure if that's what everyone else was thinking here or not.  It seems to me that competitions would naturally fit into this categorization.

Well, just some food for thought....

PS.  DG, OTG, let's calm down a bit not get so personal.  Spirited debate shouuld be fun an help us refine or reject ideas.   Please relaize that a critique of an idea is not the same as a critique of the person who had the idea and act accodingly.  

[DGMacphee]

PS.  DG, OTG, let's calm down a bit not get so personal.  Spirited debate shouuld be fun an help us refine or reject ideas.  Please relaize that a critique of an idea is not the same as a critique of the person who had the idea and act accodingly.  

We've resolved it.

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

I had always thought of it as more than competitions, hence my mentioning Mittens and other collaborative activities. More along the lines of an Activities forum.  

Thanks for the advice rickj, but I don't really recall being the one who wasn't calm.

[DGMacphee]

Oh, quit pointing fingers and let's just leave it at resolved.

[Punch]

The only thing I can think of is that we have so many forums already... I must miss so much because I log on, come here to the general, occasionally skip accross to the chat forum, get annoyed at my connection and log off. I haven't been near the other forums for a while.

On the other hand, you pretty much know exactly what your downloading when you go to a forum, and if you don't want to see pictures mixed in amongst your discussions you don't have to.

I'm not really sure if there was a point in there somewhere or not.

- Punch

[Las Naranjas]

I agree, it's Punch's fault

[Pumaman]

Bickering aside, I managed to forget about this before my leave of absense. I shall do the required setting up of the forum tomorrow.

[Quickstrike]

I'd love to be a mod.  I've way too much time on my hands.

[Andail]

Great, this will suit the upcoming debate-competition nicely.
Remember I even asked you to create such a board last year (although you were away at the time for the competition), CJ?

One problem is that if we have too many competitions in one single forum, they will lose status and dignity. It will be like the agsfun channel; you only go there to goof around and kill some time.
It won't take much to turn such a place to some chaotic playground for the least serious people...

[Pumaman]

Andail: indeed - which is why we need some rules about starting competitions, or I can forsee loads of newbies starting 'great' new competitions, and then there are so many that nobody enters any of them.


Oh, and guys, I don't remember asking who wanted to be a moderator... generally speaking, the best moderators are the ones who don't request the job.

[Jimi]

Soz for that. Welcome back!  

[Evil]

i leave for 10 mins and i come back and there is a 2 page topic and a new form... Thanks C. Leks for saving us bandwith! I SALUTE YOU!!1

* Evil frys some bandwith

...i like the idea btw...

[OneThinkingGal and ._.]

Unhh this is an old topic, and I SO don't get what you mean.