Merging sections
Helladamnleet
Banned
POST REASONS WHY WE SHOULDN'T
YES = merge NO = Don't merge
Right now totse has 53 sections that can be posted in, and that's great! Everybody loves variety, but people also want to have their voice heard, and right now that isn't happening due to the user to section ratio. By simply merging a couple of the inactive sections with some of the more active sections, we could increase the learning curve, and encourage more people to join based on the apparent amount of activity on the site.
The first step is for us to come to the agreement that we do currently have too many sections. After that we can openly discuss what sections should be merged.
YES = merge NO = Don't merge
Right now totse has 53 sections that can be posted in, and that's great! Everybody loves variety, but people also want to have their voice heard, and right now that isn't happening due to the user to section ratio. By simply merging a couple of the inactive sections with some of the more active sections, we could increase the learning curve, and encourage more people to join based on the apparent amount of activity on the site.
The first step is for us to come to the agreement that we do currently have too many sections. After that we can openly discuss what sections should be merged.
Comments
So DFG, look at the following comments to my post here and tell me people didn't want these changes.
There is a huge amount of bloat at the moment, which isn't sustainable for a community our size.
It isn't exactly 'one huge pile', the forum mergers I suggested all result in forums with direction and a general topic.
And it's forced and stupid to just mention 'contribute!!!'. With the size of our community, well end up with a bunch of people making bullshit 'what is your favourite X' threads in an attempt to boost the amount of threads. The answers will be posters going through the notions, and no real content will be generated which we haven't seen before.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and it's absolutely stupid to think we can instantly become Totse and support the same number of forums in an instant. We need to return to a sustainable level and build from there."
Thank you.
We don't need to get rid of these sections for good, but merging them until they are needed again would be a good idea to increase the apparent traffic.
Exactly, so why not merge a few sections so there is more intelligent conversation going on in one place?
Will the few users we have which are knowledgable in such areas leave if we merged there forums with similar subjects?
For example, would the radio guys stop posting in an all encompassing technology forum?
Would the chemists stop posting in an all encompassing science forum?
Or would they be more attracted by the having more posts to read regarding similar subjects, and likewise would they welcome those who may not initially have ventured into their own forum popping in to ask a few questions?
I personally remember the best threads in SG being those which now have their own dedicated forums. When people made threads on health issues, about the law, travelling, etc. Now they have their own forums, it's killed a certain part of SG. There's very little to post there bar idiocy.
You make some pretty good arguments, really. It's good to have someone who remembers how things used to be a LONG time ago.
Yes = merge, correct.
Maybe I should have made the options more apparent....
ALSO, can people voting not to merge please post a reason why?
That's why we merge sections with like sections
We're not talking about merging S&A with Backyard Ballistics or anything you know...
But that's like someone renting out a stadium for 5 friends to party in in hopes that more people will show up. It just doesn't make sense. We don't have the activity to support some of these specialty forums, and merging them for a while COULD bring us the activity needed.
Money money money: merge into Reinvent Yourself/Bad Ideas
Headshrinkers: merge into SG/S&A/Reinvent Yourself/Humanities
Anime: merge into Moving Pictures
All nature forums: merge into Green Planet (categorise under Science)
Science of the Damned: merge into Mad Scientists, or vice versa
Cunning Linguists: merge into Humanities/SG/Trav Travails
NOTY: merge into SG/IFIOTW
OSNWFS: merge into SG/Reinvent Yourself
I am the law: merge into SG/S&A/Humanities
Together we serve: merge into W&C
Nix/Mac/MS: merge into T&T
I'd be ok with merging a lot of these. I am the law, together we serve, all the tech forums into T&T, money money money, head shrinkers, and anime.
I think maybe we could merge things for a while until the forums get more traffic. I really don't care, though. I do see the point that there's no reason to have a specific Anime forum when we hardly have anyone posting there and people could just post that content in Moving Pictures.
It's a tough call. I'm going to think about it some more. I voted no, but I'd be willing to change my mind for some mergers.
Thank you for your consideration.
I would at least like to see it tried.
But isn't that just a superficial solution? To me it doesn't seem like it would accomplish much. Let's get more users instead of making it look that way.
Anyway, it's something to consider at least. I'm not totally sold on the idea yet.
New users are by and large going to be attracted by interesting threads which they are linked to, not the forums themselves. And besides, people will still be able to deduce that a technology forum is a place to speak about macs.
I feel that the bold "Design", "Studio", or "Literature" prefaces of the merged unsuccessfully attempt to organize what was previously achieved by the separate subforums.
While I can reason as to why they sections were merged, was it necessary? The singular fashion comes off as rather cluttered.
The clutter would get removed eventually. I would fade out the prefixes eventually. Right now you will just have to hold on and wait for things to settle down.
Plus, the Art section is now more diverse.
Sorry Dfg, while it does look slightly more bearable, I can't get behind you on the prefix approach.
Like I said, it will get removed once everything is in order. I expect the forum mods to make guidelines etc. I am currently in the middle of a major overhaul, once it's done we will keep these sections and remove other prefixes. Once we're big enough 12+ months we will expand and just generate new content instead of moving threads from other sections.
More mods?
I reshuffled the mods to different sections. So, technically they're new to that section, hence new mods.
I had the same thought when this thread was created but after testing. I thought why not
But merging unrelated content doesn't make sense (at least, not to me anyway). A thread about literature sitting next to a thread about flip-flops? Really? That smacks of a forum without direction and that doesn't inspire me to post in that section. And if it doesn't inspire me, who is already part of the community, then it's not going to inspire potential new recruits.
I used to post a lot on the original PLRC, and what I think made the forum great was that short OPs with little attempt at discussion were discouraged. If you were going to post something you had to put some thought into it. It sent the message to new posters that if you posted something well thought out then people would actually take the time to post a well thought out response. Quality begets quality. I don't think merging it with the news forum helps at all to this end. There are other websites that do similar things to us and we aren't going to suddenly appear more active than them over night by just merging a few forums. In the long term, I think merging the wrong forums is a bad idea.
Resubmitting my previous request.
You can point out the bad merges as we can move them back.
Okay, you made your point.
Much appreciated Dfg, I hardly visited the Art sections when they were merged, it was far too much to take in at once, especially with the god-awful pink prefix.
I am not overly opposed to the merging of sections, although in this particular case, I feel that the separation is more visually appealing and organized.