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Improving GD

Started by Neil, February 17, 2004, 06:54:19 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Timmay

Apologies, my understanding was that we were going to have a sticky thread with links to common problems, or specialist forums.

And yes, I understand about the sex, wanking and minge topics and the abuse you must get in the community because of it. I've never argued against that decision. What do I suggest? Well, with regards to the techy threads, I really don't see what the big deal is. We're all computer (semi)literate people. We even access this ere site with pooters. So it's hardly unreasonable to expect people to want to discuss techy topics.

That said, if you really are that fed up with them, keep them to one thread like is suggested. It's the best compromise.

jutl

I'd like more people to explain the things that they feel strongly about. The threads which I can take or leave are always the ones which the person thread-instigator can clearly take or leave as well. I get genuinely miserable when it seems to me that no-one feels anything strongly anymore, and I am genuinely uplifted every time I am proved wrong...

blue jammer

OK, how about a monthly sticky thread, Feb Techy, then March Techy etc, that way it'll not get too many replies, and you could just unsticky one at the end of the month, and shove another one up instead.

Neil

I can't understand why people object to a sticky tech thread, honest I can't.  There wasn't as much fuss over the cool links thread.  Maybe I'm wrong, maybe people find it really damn interesting to know that someone on here has a monitor that they can't get to display in the resolution they desire...

blue jammer

My only objection was that 1 sticky thread left for too long would have too many pages to get through, see alternative suggestion above.

Cheese Arse H Christ

Techy questions may well be dull, but I get the impression that the people asking them can trust the answers they get here from people they 'know'.

MInd you, I don't ever ask them and whenever I answer them (always with the correct answer) I just get ignored anyway. like now.....    hello?      HELLO?

Timmay

My problem with sticky threads, is that when I open up a forum, my eyes naturally skim past the sticky threads because they're *always* at the top, and so aren't there because they've got something new in them.

I rarely went in the cool links thread because of this. The only times I did, was if I was *particularly* bored, and wanted something to play or chuckle at - but never because I saw something new in there.

Neil

Hmm maybe you're right Cheese Arse.  blue jammer, I don;t really understand why people don't follow sticky threads when they "get too long" but I've seen you say you do it with cool things.  Would it be the same with tech stuff?  Surely people are only going to read a sticky tech thread when they (a) have a problem that needs fixed or (b) fancy helping someone fix their problem.  It doesn't matter if people don't follow every single post in it, as long as folks are getting the help they require.  That said, I'll bear it in mind.  Can a mod please start a sticky tech thread then?  Getting rid of those endless threads about broken keyboards would instantly improve GD, right?

Incredible Monkey Doctor

You may as well have a techy mini forum, because it's going to keep cropping up. A sticky didn't work last time, why would it now? A locked thread will just mean people will post new topics if the answer doesn't come up straight away.

Give in to the techy side of the force.

blue jammer

I don't know to be honest Neil, but I'd imagine if there were say 12 pages in a sticky thread, and someone had posted their problem on page 2, it might take a while for a solution if it's a tricky thing to solve, so they'd have to trawl through x amount of pages for their answer, ok that's their hardship!

I think we all need to have more cups of tea whilst browsing GD, taking time to read and digest before just jumping in with the first thing that comes to mind, as that seems to be a problem, people think they *have* to post something, and end up posting shit, something I've been guilty of myself in the past.

Cup of tea. Read. Digest. Think. Post.

?

Neil

The sticky DID work last time, but me and Huzzie got into a fight so it got unstickied, but even then people kept bumping it.  No way am I starting a forum for tech stuff, Rugby Union, wanking sex and minges or anything else, we've got enough as it is.

A Passing Turk Slipper

I agree that GD has been a bit shit recently. Maybe we could have 'threads of the week' in the updates, that might encourage people to make more of an effort. There should definitely be a sticky techy thread, I have made one techy thread before and felt guilty doing so but there wasn't much else I could do. If people start threads regardless they should be given a telling off. Are avatars coming back because custom ones could be given to people who have made excellent threads, that kind of thing might get better threads.

Borboski

As someone who started a useless thread about capturing digital footage, and then had his problem solved...

The only reason people ask for help on here is because they respect the opinions and knowledge of the other posters. And there are a lot of people that have a good applied knowledge (as opposed to hardcore technophiles).

On the auld board there were a few people that posted "my pc is dead" type messages at the end of there tether, and they were helped out.

that made me happy.

But, quite right, it's Neil's board and he should do whatever he wants. I want more censorship, I don't trust anyone elses judgement and my own even less.

Neil

Yes, I'm sure avatars will be back!  

How can we get more people who want to talk about comedy?  Anyone?  Oh, I should pre-empt the probable response to this:   No, it's a myth, the forum is there to CELEBRATE good comedy, it just so happens that a lot of current stuff is shite.  However I do agree that "if you don't like x then you're an idiot" is a fucking ridiculous argument, and you'd never ever see the same people saying that about music.

Robot DeNiro

I think the suggestion of rewarding good thread starters with custom avatars is a great idea, as is some kind of Best of the Threads competition.  

I also think that bad threads should be locked sooner.  the mods should be a bit more gung ho about it.  for example that bloody threesome thread went on for far too long.

one more thing while I'm here.  In amongst all the whinging I think we should recognise that Comedy Chat has been good recently.  an informed, intelligent, passionate debate about garth marenghi (of all things), some wonderful pete and dud downloads, and generally a high level of  enthusiasm.

butnut

Quote from: "Robot DeNiro"one more thing while I'm here.  In amongst all the whinging I think we should recognise that Comedy Chat has been good recently.  an informed, intelligent, passionate debate about garth marenghi (of all things), some wonderful pete and dud downloads, and generally a high level of  enthusiasm.

Curb it.

Sorry - shit joke, couldn't help myself

Blue Jam

Sorry about wittering on about fecking codecs on the last board Neil, even if it was related to Faceless files on Soulseek :o

Perhaps you are being a  bit too nice though. There have been some pretty poor threads already, and they must be taking up a lot of space- an example of which is this thread, which I can't believe has got twelve replies already...

Is there any way of putting up a stickied thread that automatically gets emptied every few weeks, so that posts on older viruses, etc that are no longer helpful will be deleted, and newer ones, asking about codecs for a new file everyone's just downloaded for example, will be at the top? Perhaps it could be a bit like the "Run poll for _ days" option, but I don't know as I'm not very techy-minded...

gazzyk1ns

Here's an idea I anticipate won't sound too appealing - make comedy chat into "Media Chat". It would undoubtably get more people in there and there's still no scope for "wank" threads. There is some good TV on at the moment (there always is, unfortunately not enough though...) which has no official place here and it feels wrong. Things like Six Feet Under and Faking It. In GD they get cluttered out even though I think 99% of people would like a serious (please don't interpret 'serious' too strictly...) discussion about programs like that and I can only think it would complement what is currently the "comedy" forum. As would threads about journalists and/or discussion of different publications' attitudes to certain subjects.

The fact that what is currently the comedy forum has a slightly formiddable reputation (whether it's deserved or not) would also be an advantage - people will be far less likely to just post to a thread with a flirty comment or whatever. Ambient Sheep recently started a thread on here which I kind of overshadowed by posting nonsense to it when I was drunk, I know I'd think twice about just posting without thinking in there. Like Jammer said, that's what's needed, a bit of consideration.

Which would leave GD for people to just talk about whatever. The time-passing/fun forum. I've found a lot of threads a bit shite lately but I'd be lying if I said that sometimes I want to put my brain out of gear on here and just have a bit of a joke and piss about with people who I know aren't idiots.

As I said at the beginning, I bet that will sound undesirable for a lot of people but as far as I can see the only alternative is leaving GD and Comedy chat how they are, with a few people posting to comedy chat and loads of people posting to GD and the mod(s) getting frustrated.

I would make an extra effort to post to the comedy forum AND SE but the truth is I'm not knowledgeable enough to appreciate either of them as they are, I don't listen to enough music and I don't watch enough comedy. The rare times I do watch a show and feel like I might be able to contribute something of worth, I go to add something to the appropraite thread... and there's already basic opinions of most sorts stated, and the conversation has turned to discussing the attitudes of the producers and previous work of the director. There's no problem there, I'll enjoy reading it and not feel aggreived but posting would just be a waste of everyone's time.

In other words I think there's no "ideal", i.e. you're never going to get LOADS of people debating comedy to that kind of level because the number of people capable of that doesn't exist on here. I think the best option is to slightly broaden the topic of that forum without giving people carte blanche to start "My cock spunked some out earlier" threads -  to attract more people over there and create a busier forum, which isn't too far from "the ideal".

Rev

Quote from: "gazzyk1ns"I would make an extra effort to post to the comedy forum AND SE but the truth is I'm not knowledgeable enough to appreciate either of them as they are, I don't listen to enough music and I don't watch enough comedy. The rare times I do watch a show and feel like I might be able to contribute something of worth, I go to add something to the appropraite thread... and there's already basic opinions of most sorts stated, and the conversation has turned to discussing the attitudes of the producers and previous work of the director. There's no problem there, I'll enjoy reading it and not feel aggreived but posting would just be a waste of everyone's time.

Amen.  I think everyone accepts that the comedy forum is the one that's at the heart of the site, but GB/GD will always be fatter and move faster because anyone can chip in without feeling that what they've got to say has already been said.  Piss threads are inevitable, but the thing as a whole is an absolute joy, don't forget that.

A sticky techy thread would be a good idea if everyone could use a little restraint and not post new questions until the previous one has been answered, or at least explored a little.  I dunno...  worth a try, at least.

blue jammer

Quote from: "gazzyk1ns"Here's an idea I anticipate won't sound too appealing - make comedy chat into "Media Chat". It would undoubtably get more people in there and there's still no scope for "wank" threads. There is some good TV on at the moment (there always is, unfortunately not enough though...) which has no official place here and it feels wrong. Things like Six Feet Under and Faking It. In GD they get cluttered out even though I think 99% of people would like a serious (please don't interpret 'serious' too strictly...) discussion about programs like that and I can only think it would complement what is currently the "comedy" forum. As would threads about journalists and/or discussion of different publications' attitudes to certain subjects.

I think that is an excellent idea, the inclusion of general TV discussion would get more people posting in that forum, which could also include the film threads too, which is something quite a lot of people are passionate about on here (myself included) I see that as a happy marriage of comedy/tv/film, and as said, GD would then be left open to the 'rest'.

Blue Jam

One small problem: a general media forum might just fill up with posts on reality TV, posts like "Has Jordan shagged David Beckham then?" and other Heat magazine-type discussions, 20-page topics on Big Brother, etc. I think there are clear differences between some of the proper comedy enthusiast here and more general TV viewers- just as there are differences between sci-fi fans, horror fans, etc, and there have been threads on these topics in GD recently. CaB was originally a comedy site, and it would be a shame to dilute the comedy forum, especially as that's where all the best discussion has been recently. I have similar thoughts on Stereo Excursions; music could be discussed in GD or in a General Media forum, but I think music fans make up a group large and distinct enough to be given their own forum here.

I'm trying not to sound snobbish here- there are many distinct groups of fans posting on this board, and I'm not saying any of them are any better than all the others. Some groups overlap- posts about the Bonzo Dog Band, for example, could be placed into Comedy Discussion, Stereo Excursions, or both. The problem is working out how to identify and define the interest groups we have here.

Though of course a wanking forum would not be the answer...

gazzyk1ns

Hmmmm yes... comedy chat might be where all the best discussion has been lately, but nobody seems happy with the way the forums are...

I accept the point about the fact that a general media/tv forum might get threads like "Did Jordan shag Becks?" or whatever but that's where my point in my first post comes in, Pienaar/Farrell/Neil/whoever can moderate and there could be clear rules set.

If people do it just to piss site admins off or just sheer numbers of visitors interested in starting those threads causes them to populate the comedy/media forum anyway, then that would indicate that the forums just aren't getting the sort of visitors we'd llike to think they are, in any kind of numbers. There's nothing you can really do in that case so being frightened of "bad threads" polluting other areas of the site isn't really productive in my opinion - if visitors old or new aren't going to obey guidelines or respect moderation then in theory, no amount of shifting/renaming (or leaving alone) forums is going to do any good.

My solution is to broaden comedy chat to include some of the best topics in GD - i.e. ones related to media; mostly quality new programmes/series', and not just based around gossip/Jordan etc., then to leave GD for the "brainless", "time-passing", "leisure" forum.

If leaving GD to that would make it a place which isn't really in the spirit of the site and/or the mods don't like it then I might suggest just doing away with it, as that might be what I'd do if I was Neil/TJ. However personally I would be very upset if that happened, and I'd also suggest that people would just be more inclined to post "bollocks" in the comedy/media forum.

One of the main reasons I think my idea is a good one is that it leaves GD and broadens CC. Nothing is depleted and everyone is happy (hopefully). You can argue that the "pure comedy chat" might be depleted, but I don't think that's very valid - pure comedy threads might sink of the page faster but that's all that would happen, a lot of the threads towards the bottom of the CC forum are effectively dead, there's just no new content to push them offscreen. As I understand it, Neil can change the number of threads displayed per page anyway, maybe that would be a good idea if people thought that threads were moving too quickly.

Darrell

Comedy Chat is the heart of the forum, it'd be a shame to change it. It's recovered remarkably well after the site fuckups, and is back to its glory days now. I'm trying my best to keep churning downloads out, threads such as the Garth Merenghi one are bliss, and there's a real business (as in very busy, damn you double meanings) and energy in there which hasn't been there for a few months.

I have formatted this post as a tribute to Surferghost. Come back mate.

Rubbish Monkey

While general TV / media discussion would get more people posting in CC it would water down the comedy element of what is a comedy based website. The only thing I can think of is to bring in more internet based stuff to it. Alot of funny things (like video clips and flash animations) get posted in GD, in the links to cool things thread, so maybe Comedy Chat should have a links to humorous / funny things? I'm sure the internet has comedy too....somewhere. Maybe cutups (or what ever you like to call them) should be posted there too, giving it a bit of the creativity elements that SE and MM have.

Renaming General Discussion to Off Topic Discussion (and moving it to the bottom)  would probobly encourage new people and visitors to the other sections more.

Well, everything seems like a good idea when its almost 5am (and you use google to see how things are spelt)

dizzidecazz

I don't think a stickie for tech stuff would work. It's not the size of the thread but the skimming over subject titles to know at a glance if you're interested or able to be of use. A subject like 'video card problems' i'll skip because i neither have them or know anything about them. 'sound card problems' I'll venture into because I suspect I can be of assistance. It would be nice to have the time to read every single post in every subject in every forum but it's not a reality. I see 4 choices -
- ban them as there are plenty of other resources available
- seperate them into thier own forum
- allow them to continue as they are
- broaden the portfolio of Website Whines to include tech queries.

As for comedy and Stereo Excursions, I find I don't participate much in them because my distance in oz means most the time, I don't know what the hell people are talking about. (I only have internet access at work so I can't use it to 'research' these things). The in-common shows are generally the commercial crap that is seldom worth talking about. No solution to that one that I can see. I do love going into Stereo Excursion for the creative output of VWs. The CDs are testament to the talent around here. Maybe some kind of collabaritive challenge in the comedy forum could boost interest in it. I know spitting out morris-esque monolouges is frowned upon but maybe there is some way of making it more interactive with the VWs as a community. Yes. that's the key. VWs needs more of a general sense of community across all the forums. How? I'll leave that to the more creative thinkers out there than myself.

How about moving General Discussion to the bottom of the forum list, renaming it General Bullshit and giving it very light moderation, with a disclaimer along the lines of "the opinions expressed in here do not reflect the opinions of the moderators"? As Gazzyk1ns says, sometimes it's good to just not have to think too hard about what you're talking about - this forum is perfect for that, whereas CC, SE & MM are full of experts in their particular fields. I'm certainly not advocating endless pages of crap threads etc. but getting pissed off about the "do you rinse" thread seems a bit extreme - I mean what CAN we talk about in here? It's called general discussion for a reason. It's not like Tom Rad was making a thread just to piss people off or anything.

If you think you can have a forum with no crap threads you're fighting a losing battle. There's not a single forum on the net that doesn't have a few, and most have loads. The only ones that don't are incredibly dry forums without the sense of community that this place does.

Morrisfan82

Minor whinge: I would like it if people stopped putting "Heads up:" in thread titles. You might as well put "This thread is about:"...

Rats

Hehe, yeah, that pisses on my chips too. Take a look at this http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=579

Vermschneid Mehearties

*Why not make the general discussions link the size of a pinhead. Then we'll see how many of you cunts visit. Arf, arf!*

Let's just leave things be. The techy sticky sounds like a good idea, and we'll always get 'bad' topics being posted.

Purple Tentacle

Oooh ooh I've had an idea.


Is there a way of making the thread rating more prominant? Say something like an icon beside the thread title that showed a gold grinning Morris-head for a high-rated topic, and a Iain Lee made of turds for a low-rated thread?

Then self-policing would be far stronger, and people would be scared to start threads about fucking Pancake Day for fear of getting a turdy Iain Lee.


Or is that not possible?