shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2014 13:54:56 GMT -5
When we first moved over here, we made the decision to keep things more or less the same as they were at CBR in order to facilitate a more comfortable transition. As time has gone by, we've toyed with adding more categories. More categories can make it easier to browse narrower topics, and they can even encourage more of a specific type of thread (or attract increased activity from a specific kind of member), but they can also kill discussion when sections become too fragmented and isolated from one another. In the end, you risk even ending up with separate communities, attracting completely different users who never leave their one section (which is why I am not in favor of adding a current comics section at this time).
My point in all this is to ask -- is the Classic Comics General Discussion too general? Is anyone finding it burdensome to have to surf through so many topics (many unrelated to comics) each day, or is the casual atmosphere working for you?
We could easily create an Off-Topic section, and even a review threads section (as several members once requested), but the risk in doing this is that each section will become a fragmented island unto itself and will draw less participants than the one clumped together Classic Comics General Discussion section currently does.
So...thoughts?
(please note -- I did not make a poll because I'm less interested in numbers and more interested in rationale. Let's think this out together).
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2014 14:09:49 GMT -5
Sometimes surfing through a lot of threads can be a chore, but it is easy enough to skip over ones I am not interested in or bookmark the important ones to me on the site so I can find them easily enough. So I like things the way they are for one primary reason-the draw for the site to me is the community not necessarily the content (though the content here is a plus but that content comes from the members of the community), and keeping it all together enhances the sense of community rather than splintering it.
-M
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2014 14:13:34 GMT -5
. So I like things the way they are for one primary reason-the draw for the site to me is the community not necessarily the content (though the content here is a plus but that content comes from the members of the community) Excellent perspective. Thanks for this. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2014 14:37:20 GMT -5
I like it the way it is.
I am almost certainly the least knowledgable person here when it comes to comics. As such, I have little (if anything) to offer to those discussions. I do enjoy reading what others have to say,though. At CBR I ended up spending most of my time in Classics, despite reading mostly newer books (the discussions have since changed that), because it felt more like a community than any of the other comics-based boards there. Having the comics discussion mixed in with the non-comics stuff makes me feel like I'm still contributing and, thus, part of the community. Separating the comics discussion would make me less likely to check it because I wouldn't have much to contribute, and thus I'd being to feel somewhat isolated and eventually just quit checking the forums at all.
I've been on smaller forums where people felt the need to add specialized boards, and it always ended up hurting the forum . When I first go to a forum I check the last post dates. If there are multiple boards with a last post being days/weeks ago I tend to consider it a dead/dying forum and don't bother. Even with bigger forums, the more boards there are, the less likely it is to keep me interested. Things become too fractured and it gets annoying to have to check a bunch of different boards with different people to talk about topics that interest me.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2014 14:46:38 GMT -5
I like it the way it is. I am almost certainly the least knowledgable person here when it comes to comics. As such, I have little (if anything) to offer to those discussions. I do enjoy reading what others have to say,though. At CBR I ended up spending most of my time in Classics, despite reading mostly newer books (the discussions have since changed that), because it felt more like a community than any of the other comics-based boards there. Having the comics discussion mixed in with the non-comics stuff makes me feel like I'm still contributing and, thus, part of the community. Separating the comics discussion would make me less likely to check it because I wouldn't have much to contribute, and thus I'd being to feel somewhat isolated and eventually just quit checking the forums at all. I've been on smaller forums where people felt the need to add specialized boards, and it always ended up hurting the forum . When I first go to a forum I check the last post dates. If there are multiple boards with a last post being days/weeks ago I tend to consider it a dead/dying forum and don't bother. Even with bigger forums, the more boards there are, the less likely it is to keep me interested. Things become too fractured and it gets annoying to have to check a bunch of different boards with different people to talk about topics that interest me. You echo several of my own concerns about creating new categories. Thanks so much for sharing this. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2014 18:02:42 GMT -5
At one point yesterday when I logged on, the first 6 threads on the CCGD weren't about classic comics.
So yeah, it is becoming a bit too other-discussion heavy.
NOTE: I'm not dissing other discussion, but I'd prefer it have it's own space, like a General Discussion board.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 23, 2014 21:27:20 GMT -5
It's fine just the way it is.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2014 21:29:05 GMT -5
It's fine just the way it is. I've never known you to be so agreeable. It's kinda' freaking me out, actually. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2014 21:47:33 GMT -5
It's fine just the way it is. Well if it's going to become a community board where potential 'favourite pizza' and 'favourite radio-station threads' are at home with classic comic discussion on the same board I'm sort of not liking it... |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 23, 2014 22:00:49 GMT -5
I kinda think its inevitable you'll want to split it between comics and non-comics.It'll help keep good threads visible and active.I can't see two sub-divisions splitting the community.People have already made their choices on which threads interest them or not.And then when it comes to the 12 days of Christmas thats all you'll see on the first page besides the stickies
Pizza is a fascinating topic
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2014 22:22:35 GMT -5
I kinda think its inevitable you'll want to split it between comics and non-comics.It'll help keep good threads visible and active.I can't see two sub-divisions splitting the community.People have already made their choices on which threads interest them or not.And then when it comes to the 12 days of Christmas thats all you'll see on the first page besides the stickies The danger, though, is that when folks have limited time (and let's face it; none of us log on here expecting to spend hours surfing -- even though we inevitably do), they'll favor visiting one section over the other. As we become a closer, more tight-knit community that enjoys discussing everything with one another, the risk becomes everyone checking in at the off-topic forum first, and a lot of folks subsequently over-looking the one that actually discusses comics; thus less participants in the discussion. I started this thread because I see both sides and am torn on which way to go, but I just wanted to articulate the counter-point. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 23, 2014 22:36:52 GMT -5
Well you fear off-topic dominating,I would suggest the front page populated only from the comics section.And thats appropriate for the CCF.Also list off-topic last of the choices.Any which way you display threads,I think people will naturally gravitate to where they would have gone in the first place.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,865
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2014 22:44:41 GMT -5
For what it's worth, while I noted Jez's observation a few days ago that most of the more recently updated threads were all off-topic, there are currently only six threads on the entire first page of the Classic Comics General Discussion that are off-topic.
The community might just find the balance on its own. It would be great to arrive at a point where we all comfortably bullsh*t with each other and still maintain a primary focus without having a structure imposed on the conversation.
But that doesn't end the conversation, here. I'd still like to hear more from both sides.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 23, 2014 22:49:09 GMT -5
I probably said something like this at the beginning, but it bears repeating... as things are now, we generally have all the threads that have been posted to one any given day are generally on the 1st page, which I think is good.. I don't think I'm alone in saying I HATE having to go to page 2.
That being said, we have almost enough traffic to knock things off the front page in less than a day, so dividing the big board in half might not be a terrible thing.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 23, 2014 22:52:19 GMT -5
I probably said something like this at the beginning, but it bears repeating... as things are now, we generally have all the threads that have been posted to one any given day are generally on the 1st page, which I think is good.. I don't think I'm alone in saying I HATE having to go to page 2. That being said, we have almost enough traffic to knock things off the front page in less than a day, so dividing the big board in half might not be a terrible thing. That's a worthwhile point. Sometimes a thread you're really into goes inactive for 24 hours. When it falls off the front page, it's far less likely to get resumed. |
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