Proposed General Chat Clean Up (Update: 29/1)
Fri Jan 25, 2008 12:15 pm
29/1:
There's a new General Chat subforum called "Neopets Reporting" which is for all dailies and whatnot.
Posts there do not affect your post count and (within reason) all dailies can have their own threads - provided they have some random factor (IE: Posting how excited you are to have lost 100 NP from the Lever of Doom doesn't count)
The Tarla thread has been stickied there. Whenever Tarla is active, you may post to announce it so. Currently, if you were the last person to post on the thread, and you wish to post a new alert, then you can copy the text from your old post - delete, then repost it with new text added if you want. This will remark the topic as having new posts so others can see, whilst not double posting. In the future, I don't see a problem with being able to post twice in a row if they are for alerts, but until a proper decision has been made on this, please stick to the normal forum rules regarding posts.
Turmaculus threads should now be posted in the Reporting Forum. In the future, a sticky thread or alarm system as suggested below may be implemented, but for now just continue as before, just in a different forum
The issue of news threads is still up in the air. An alternative solution suggested is that we have one main "news thread" where everybody can post news and discuss it, rather than spreading it through several threads. A similar alternative would be to have weekly news threads to reduce clutter slightly, whilst still creating seperate threads for each week of news. Any insight into a solution would be much appreciated
Finally, if anybody has a suggestion for a new name for the forum, feel free to post that. Something like Poochy, but less lame and refencial...
=)
-------------------------------------------------------
Here's the deal. Currently, it seems the General Chat has become a bit sloppy looking. There are piles of clothes on the bed, there's dust on the shelves and for the life of me, I can't remember what colour the carpet was - was it grey? was it a off-colour green? I'm drawing a blank - I really am.
Taking a quick gander at the front page of the forum currently, I'm seeing 6 daily news topics, 2 Turmaculus topics (which is lower than the usual figures) and 5 dailies threads. Most of these topics don't even make it to two pages because there's usually not that much to discuss on each individual thread. It just seems that cluttering the forum with these topics kinda squeezes out other threads and leaves a bunch of similar topics page after page after page of the general chat.
I just can't help but think a bit of a tidy up is required. Not a huge one (yes, you can keep the vast majority of your CD collection in a heap, even though you know you're only gonna lose them), but just enough to limit the junk in the General chat. Unfortunately, there's a bit of a snag in deciding how exactly the clothes should be sorted, which bed sheets to use, how the shelves should be arranged blah blah blah. Y'know, the whole room analogy is getting pretty tired right about now - so effectively, its a matter of deciding exactly how the clutteriness (yes its a word now...) should be dealt with.
A couple of general chat mods and I have come up with a few suggestions about how to try and clean up the general chat and I just thought that rather than rushing in and changing everything around that I'd stop and ask for some opinions from the masses (and then rush in and change everything around...))
So any opinions or ideas on the clean up in general and on the suggestions listed here would be fantastic. Clearly we'd prefer helpful suggestions rather than just "it sucks!"/"it rocks!" - but if you really want to post meaningless blather, go for it...
Some suggestions - in no single coherent, linear proposal
- Those popular dailies threads that often require splitting (such as Petpet Lab Ray and Expellibox) remain separate threads.
- Those daily threads that can be easily covered in the Gloat/Cry thread, have not really been popular enough to warrant separate threads, or those that have dwindled in popularity become condensed into a single "dailies" thread which links to a host of dailies on the front page (possibly the Gloat/Cry thread gets broadened into this). Threads in this category would be things like The Wheels, The Meteor and any new threads that pop up that could be condensed into a wider based thread.
- Turmaculus alert threads are open till Turmy falls asleep again. Then locked. At the end of the day, the threads are removed to prevent things like Page 3 of the General Chat which has a whopping 8 Turmy threads on it.
- A Neopets Dailies (sub)forum where post count doesn't increase is created for all dailies threads. Tarla's alert thread could perhaps be stickied in here?
Some things to think about:
- Is a clean-up necessary now that there are some new forum categories?
- What to do with the daily news postings? The general consensus is that these should stay, but should they operate similar to the Turmaculus threads? Perhaps if there is nothing of any discussion value on them, they should be removed a few days after their release?
- Does this topic make my butt look big?
- If the dailies are condensed, should the thread be split or left to run for a higher number of pages.
- Similar to the dailies thread, should there be a thread for minor bugs and glitches?
etc etc etc
As I said, any ideas/comments would be much appreciated =D
Cheers
There's a new General Chat subforum called "Neopets Reporting" which is for all dailies and whatnot.
Posts there do not affect your post count and (within reason) all dailies can have their own threads - provided they have some random factor (IE: Posting how excited you are to have lost 100 NP from the Lever of Doom doesn't count)
The Tarla thread has been stickied there. Whenever Tarla is active, you may post to announce it so. Currently, if you were the last person to post on the thread, and you wish to post a new alert, then you can copy the text from your old post - delete, then repost it with new text added if you want. This will remark the topic as having new posts so others can see, whilst not double posting. In the future, I don't see a problem with being able to post twice in a row if they are for alerts, but until a proper decision has been made on this, please stick to the normal forum rules regarding posts.
Turmaculus threads should now be posted in the Reporting Forum. In the future, a sticky thread or alarm system as suggested below may be implemented, but for now just continue as before, just in a different forum
The issue of news threads is still up in the air. An alternative solution suggested is that we have one main "news thread" where everybody can post news and discuss it, rather than spreading it through several threads. A similar alternative would be to have weekly news threads to reduce clutter slightly, whilst still creating seperate threads for each week of news. Any insight into a solution would be much appreciated
Finally, if anybody has a suggestion for a new name for the forum, feel free to post that. Something like Poochy, but less lame and refencial...
=)
-------------------------------------------------------
Here's the deal. Currently, it seems the General Chat has become a bit sloppy looking. There are piles of clothes on the bed, there's dust on the shelves and for the life of me, I can't remember what colour the carpet was - was it grey? was it a off-colour green? I'm drawing a blank - I really am.
Taking a quick gander at the front page of the forum currently, I'm seeing 6 daily news topics, 2 Turmaculus topics (which is lower than the usual figures) and 5 dailies threads. Most of these topics don't even make it to two pages because there's usually not that much to discuss on each individual thread. It just seems that cluttering the forum with these topics kinda squeezes out other threads and leaves a bunch of similar topics page after page after page of the general chat.
I just can't help but think a bit of a tidy up is required. Not a huge one (yes, you can keep the vast majority of your CD collection in a heap, even though you know you're only gonna lose them), but just enough to limit the junk in the General chat. Unfortunately, there's a bit of a snag in deciding how exactly the clothes should be sorted, which bed sheets to use, how the shelves should be arranged blah blah blah. Y'know, the whole room analogy is getting pretty tired right about now - so effectively, its a matter of deciding exactly how the clutteriness (yes its a word now...) should be dealt with.
A couple of general chat mods and I have come up with a few suggestions about how to try and clean up the general chat and I just thought that rather than rushing in and changing everything around that I'd stop and ask for some opinions from the masses (and then rush in and change everything around...))
So any opinions or ideas on the clean up in general and on the suggestions listed here would be fantastic. Clearly we'd prefer helpful suggestions rather than just "it sucks!"/"it rocks!" - but if you really want to post meaningless blather, go for it...
Some suggestions - in no single coherent, linear proposal
- Those popular dailies threads that often require splitting (such as Petpet Lab Ray and Expellibox) remain separate threads.
- Those daily threads that can be easily covered in the Gloat/Cry thread, have not really been popular enough to warrant separate threads, or those that have dwindled in popularity become condensed into a single "dailies" thread which links to a host of dailies on the front page (possibly the Gloat/Cry thread gets broadened into this). Threads in this category would be things like The Wheels, The Meteor and any new threads that pop up that could be condensed into a wider based thread.
- Turmaculus alert threads are open till Turmy falls asleep again. Then locked. At the end of the day, the threads are removed to prevent things like Page 3 of the General Chat which has a whopping 8 Turmy threads on it.
- A Neopets Dailies (sub)forum where post count doesn't increase is created for all dailies threads. Tarla's alert thread could perhaps be stickied in here?
Some things to think about:
- Is a clean-up necessary now that there are some new forum categories?
- What to do with the daily news postings? The general consensus is that these should stay, but should they operate similar to the Turmaculus threads? Perhaps if there is nothing of any discussion value on them, they should be removed a few days after their release?
- Does this topic make my butt look big?
- If the dailies are condensed, should the thread be split or left to run for a higher number of pages.
- Similar to the dailies thread, should there be a thread for minor bugs and glitches?
etc etc etc
As I said, any ideas/comments would be much appreciated =D
Cheers
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:15 pm
Hi TDG. Great post. Hmm let's see. I'd like the General Chat to have threads dedicated to general Neopets discussion rather than being cluttered up. With that in mind:
Just a general clean up. If it's on page one, then move it. No need to go through all the pages in your boards to move them.
We could create a new board dedicated for Neopets news only.
I hear black is a very slimming colour.
Splits for now to see how it goes. If it gets too much, the option to leave it run for higher number of pages is always there.
If there is a big bug on Neopets, I think it should warrant its own thread.
Is a clean-up necessary now that there are some new forum categories?
Just a general clean up. If it's on page one, then move it. No need to go through all the pages in your boards to move them.
What to do with the daily news postings? The general consensus is that these should stay, but should they operate similar to the Turmaculus threads? Perhaps if there is nothing of any discussion value on them, they should be removed a few days after their release?
We could create a new board dedicated for Neopets news only.
Does this topic make my butt look big?
I hear black is a very slimming colour.
If the dailies are condensed, should the thread be split or left to run for a higher number of pages.
Splits for now to see how it goes. If it gets too much, the option to leave it run for higher number of pages is always there.
Similar to the dailies thread, should there be a thread for minor bugs and glitches?
If there is a big bug on Neopets, I think it should warrant its own thread.
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:30 pm
I don't really have an idea but I'd like to just put in my personal opinion as a user.
The threads that are split over and over and over again, with absolutely no conversation other than "I got this, I got that, I got this..." (meteor, petpet lab, screenshots, expellibox) get on my nerves. I'll often pop in to see if anything new has happened, and don't like sifting through all of those because quite frankly I don't care what everybody got (sorry!). My only exception to this rule is Tarla, Turmaculus, and Freebies because they are alerts and I wouldn't've known to check without seeing one at the top of the page.
Wait maybe I do have an idea, delete or move the threads that have been closed and split? Sometimes when GC is slow we can have quite a few closed daily threads still on the first page which are pretty pointless.
The threads that are split over and over and over again, with absolutely no conversation other than "I got this, I got that, I got this..." (meteor, petpet lab, screenshots, expellibox) get on my nerves. I'll often pop in to see if anything new has happened, and don't like sifting through all of those because quite frankly I don't care what everybody got (sorry!). My only exception to this rule is Tarla, Turmaculus, and Freebies because they are alerts and I wouldn't've known to check without seeing one at the top of the page.
Wait maybe I do have an idea, delete or move the threads that have been closed and split? Sometimes when GC is slow we can have quite a few closed daily threads still on the first page which are pretty pointless.
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:03 pm
It would probably be easier to move all of the "I got 20np from Wheel of Infinite Posting" (and other semi-daily type) posts into a single gloat/cry thread - which would probably not need to be split, as there's are no real results that arise from those sorts of posts, and the forum makes it trivial to jump to any desired page of a topic.
Generally speaking, threads should facilitate discussion on their topic, and those that don't are rather similar to regular spam.
Perhaps Yukio could make a more visible way to trigger Turmaculus alerts via the main website, sparing the forum from those threads
Generally speaking, threads should facilitate discussion on their topic, and those that don't are rather similar to regular spam.
Perhaps Yukio could make a more visible way to trigger Turmaculus alerts via the main website, sparing the forum from those threads
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:36 pm
Hunter Lupe wrote:Perhaps Yukio could make a more visible way to trigger Turmaculus alerts via the main website, sparing the forum from those threads
Hmmm great idea. The only problem is that many of the forum users don't have the main site open at the same time. Possibly the same idea on the forum itself might be better.
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:07 am
One of my concerns is the recent load on the servers we've been experiencing here at our beloved PPT. If we went through and really cleaned a bunch of stuff up (chucking all of the Turmy alerts, old G&C threads, old petpet lab threads, etc.) would that help the servers at all?
Also, I think that a lot of us like to share our fortunes or misfortunes in specific threads, but I really dislike the idea that it contributes to post count, simply because it takes no effort to post these things and there's generally no discussion about them. So, I really like the idea of either a sub-forum for dailies, in which each thing has it's own thread (petpet lab, wheels, meteor, expellibox, etc.) or the "Dailies" thread that has all of those in one thread. I think that we can let these threads go for a longer period of time without being split (perhaps 20 pages instead of 10).
I do enjoy having the news updates here at the forum, as I never check the news on the Neopets site, except for Fridays when the Neopian Times comes out. Perhaps we could create a sticky of Neopets news? Instead of posting a new thread every day, we just create a stickied thread and whoever would like to post the news up can (much love to bettywales) and people can post on multiple days news all in one place.
*gigglesnort*
Also, I think that a lot of us like to share our fortunes or misfortunes in specific threads, but I really dislike the idea that it contributes to post count, simply because it takes no effort to post these things and there's generally no discussion about them. So, I really like the idea of either a sub-forum for dailies, in which each thing has it's own thread (petpet lab, wheels, meteor, expellibox, etc.) or the "Dailies" thread that has all of those in one thread. I think that we can let these threads go for a longer period of time without being split (perhaps 20 pages instead of 10).
I do enjoy having the news updates here at the forum, as I never check the news on the Neopets site, except for Fridays when the Neopian Times comes out. Perhaps we could create a sticky of Neopets news? Instead of posting a new thread every day, we just create a stickied thread and whoever would like to post the news up can (much love to bettywales) and people can post on multiple days news all in one place.
Does this topic make my butt look big?
*gigglesnort*
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:11 am
In regard to May's comment about post-incrementation on the dailies threads: Maybe we could create a sub-forum just for dailies, with threads for each one, and disable post-increments?
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:14 am
Siouxper wrote:In regard to May's comment about post-incrementation on the dailies threads: Maybe we could create a sub-forum just for dailies, with threads for each one, and disable post-increments?
That's exactly what I was thinking Siouxper! Great minds think alike!
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 6:56 am
how about creating an 'alert' catagory. For Termy and the likes. Is there a way to make it so posts would 'expire' after an hour and get deleted? That way the thread would be relevent for the time being and not floating around way after they are not needed. Maybe under the catagory make a sticky thread that would contain the list of items Tarla has dropped and a note of on which day if people are curious.
As for all the 'i got -blank-' threads I think they could mostly be sumed up in the gloat cry with no issues. The exceptions to that being the zapping threads which could maybe resort to being deleted every 3 or so threads?
Besides that I see no problems with the proposed clean up
As for all the 'i got -blank-' threads I think they could mostly be sumed up in the gloat cry with no issues. The exceptions to that being the zapping threads which could maybe resort to being deleted every 3 or so threads?
Besides that I see no problems with the proposed clean up
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 9:49 am
I completely agree with May, Rubywinged and Siouxper. If there were separate threads for dailies, news, alerts, then the GC would be a lot less crowded. And of course, post increments disabled.
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:38 pm
TDG, you summed everything up so succinctly that I do not need to add much more than an agreement.
Yes
Yes - just on a sidenote about Tarla - I have been the last person to post on a Tarla thread, then she comes back and no-one else has posted, I have then double-posted to move the thread so other's know that it is active. I have had my posts joined and got the 'don't double-post' message. Is there anyway to avoid this in future?
Yes
Yes - I have battled through a couple of pages to reach those older but still current posts. Sidenote again - same issue with the Screenies thread - I have posted about 6 times but the thread wont move because I am the last one to post. We even had someone posting a thread about the 'missing' screenies board.
Is there anyway for us to bump a board to the 1st page if we are the last to use it multiple times?
Yes
No comment
Yes - it does get a little annoying that everytime a slight lag or glitch happens we get the 'Is Neopet's down' topics. I would really like to see a sticky for this.
A Neopets Dailies (sub)forum where post count doesn't increase is created for all dailies threads.
Yes
Tarla's alert thread could perhaps be stickied in here?
Yes - just on a sidenote about Tarla - I have been the last person to post on a Tarla thread, then she comes back and no-one else has posted, I have then double-posted to move the thread so other's know that it is active. I have had my posts joined and got the 'don't double-post' message. Is there anyway to avoid this in future?
Turmaculus alert threads are open till Turmy falls asleep again. Then locked. At the end of the day.
Yes
Is a clean-up necessary now that there are some new forum categories?
Yes - I have battled through a couple of pages to reach those older but still current posts. Sidenote again - same issue with the Screenies thread - I have posted about 6 times but the thread wont move because I am the last one to post. We even had someone posting a thread about the 'missing' screenies board.
Is there anyway for us to bump a board to the 1st page if we are the last to use it multiple times?
What to do with the daily news postings? Perhaps if there is nothing of any discussion value on them, they should be removed a few days after their release?
Yes
Does this topic make my butt look big?
No comment
Similar to the dailies thread, should there be a thread for minor bugs and glitches?
Yes - it does get a little annoying that everytime a slight lag or glitch happens we get the 'Is Neopet's down' topics. I would really like to see a sticky for this.
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:51 pm
May wrote:Siouxper wrote:In regard to May's comment about post-incrementation on the dailies threads: Maybe we could create a sub-forum just for dailies, with threads for each one, and disable post-increments?
That's exactly what I was thinking Siouxper! Great minds think alike!
I'm all for that. That would clean up General Chat quite a bit!
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 3:57 pm
Daze wrote:Yes - just on a sidenote about Tarla - I have been the last person to post on a Tarla thread, then she comes back and no-one else has posted, I have then double-posted to move the thread so other's know that it is active. I have had my posts joined and got the 'don't double-post' message. Is there anyway to avoid this in future?
Daze wrote:Is there anyway for us to bump a board to the 1st page if we are the last to use it multiple times?
I think there should be a feature or rule regarding this, because I have been the last to post in a thread, and an important update or event has happened, but I cannot post again because it'd be double posting. If I edit my post to add it in, it doesn't show up as "New", so people won't notice the update unless they go to the thread and read it over for "edits" in user's posts (which, as you probably know, most people don't do)
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:43 pm
Siouxper wrote:I think there should be a feature or rule regarding this, because I have been the last to post in a thread, and an important update or event has happened, but I cannot post again because it'd be double posting. If I edit my post to add it in, it doesn't show up as "New", so people won't notice the update unless they go to the thread and read it over for "edits" in user's posts (which, as you probably know, most people don't do)
Actually I PMed May about this very issue a while back. She gave me a nice tip: copy your text from your last post, then delete the whole thing, then post a new reply and paste the old text + add the new text. This way it'll show up as a "new" post.
Re: Proposed General Chat Clean Up
Sat Jan 26, 2008 9:43 pm
munduses wrote:Siouxper wrote:I think there should be a feature or rule regarding this, because I have been the last to post in a thread, and an important update or event has happened, but I cannot post again because it'd be double posting. If I edit my post to add it in, it doesn't show up as "New", so people won't notice the update unless they go to the thread and read it over for "edits" in user's posts (which, as you probably know, most people don't do)
Actually I PMed May about this very issue a while back. She gave me a nice tip: copy your text from your last post, then delete the whole thing, then post a new reply and paste the old text + add the new text. This way it'll show up as a "new" post.
Good idea
I'll start doing that.