Introduction Threads turning into Personal Bests/Update Threads

[Kirjava]

Feel free to remove my 'Hi, Marcel from Holland here' topic from introductions and move to off any place you like or simply delete it if that makes you happy. I for one like reading other people's personal 'welcome' topics. I don't care much for the accomplishment topic.

dat inferred victimisation.

They're not really welcome topics anymore. There are a plethora of other places you could've posted the content.

 

[MarcelP]

dat inferred victimisation.

No, what I am trying to say is I don't care about my own topic, but I do care about the other ones. Simply delete it, or what ever the topic starter suggested.

 

[Kirjava]

No, what I am trying to say is I don't care about my own topic, but I do care about the other ones. Simply delete it, or what ever the topic starter suggested.

You're overreacting, no one said to delete it.

This is about the other topics as well, not just yours.

 

[cubizh]

I don't think the point of this thread is to criticize the content that is being posted on certain threads, which is quite valid and was able to create valid discussions and interactions that allowed its users to be motivated and compelled to become faster with people that are in the same speed level as oneself and develop friendships, ultimately. That, in itself, is the spirit of what a community should be.

The only issue is the placement of the discussion. The spirit of a "Members Introduction" thread is (according to its description) to have new people "...Come in and introduce yourself to the fellow members of Speedsolving.com!" which if it remains open after a while it stops being introductory and defeats its purpose. Perhaps the creation of an Accomplishment forum with individual threads dedicated to accompany cuber's evolution should be appropriate, instead of a single accomplishment thread where everything gets lost in the shuffle(?)

Another suggestion I'd like to make is to point out that some of the discussions that take place sometimes should probably occur in an environment like a cubing chatroom, where people can have more casual and in real time conversations which is a more effective and relaxed way to interact. I use it all the time.

 

[moralsh]

If it's against the forum rules then it´s against the forum rules, if it is just personal opinion IMHO it's a non issue.

There are many kinds of people here, some care about blindfold, some care about cube theory, some care about accomplishment and some care about something else.

There is a group that care about some online friends updates and to them it's easy to check them on separate threads than to dig into the accomplishment thread, and let's be honest there are never more than 3-4 introduction threads used as update threads bumped at the same time mixed with roughly the same number of regular introduction threads which usually are alive a couple of weeks and then go down. Is that such a problem that can't be endured?

These people usually are very helping and give some kind of color to the forum as well as some other type of threads.

To all of you against the member update threads tell me if you would like better these 2 scenarios:
1) Marcel (or any other member) posts every video he has posted in his thread in a separate thread in the video forum
2) Marcel (or any other member) posts every video on just one thread on the video forum which also gets some comments from other members.

If 1) it's okay with you I really don't understand you, if 2) is okay then move his thread to de video forum and we are done, if you don't like either just ignore the threads wherever they are and leave them alone

 

[Kirjava]

To all of you against the member update threads tell me if you would like better these 2 scenarios:
1) Marcel (or any other member) posts every video he has posted in his thread in a separate thread in the video forum
2) Marcel (or any other member) posts every video on just one thread on the video forum which also gets some comments from other members.

> implying there are only two other scenarios

 

[moralsh]

not at all, just wanted to show a bad alternative and a good one

Edit: although I personally will be okay if the introduction threads (or a new "member updates" forum category) get the same treatment as the weekly comps and don't get bumped in the main page, which is another possible scenario.

 

[mark49152]

The "Hi, Marcel from Holland here" thread has been popping up on the frontpage for a year. That is no longer an introduction.

No it's not, but that doesn't mean it's not worthwhile. Call it a "member thread" rather than a "introduction" then, whatever, or rename the sub-forum it's in. The fact that it has 1000+ replies is a measure of the enjoyment that forum members get from the kind of social stuff that goes on in it.

You don't understand why that thread exists. The accomplishment thread was made because there was a constant flood of topics about people's times. Not everyone can have their own personal update thread - the userbase is way too large for that.

I do understand, I just disagree with the approach. The content is the same, wherever it's posted. The issue is what is the most appropriate way of organising the content, and it has to be recognised that the content is not just information, it is discussion. You say there are other places the content in the member threads can be posted. True, but none of them work as effectively for the kind of discussion people want to have, and that's why these threads are becoming more popular.

The accomplishment thread is one example of a "thread-pretending-to-be-a-subforum" (thorum?) created as an attempt to manage lots of similar but independent threads because they aren't deemed worthy of individual subject lines. Unfortunately that gets in the way of discussion (and search). When there is a bit of discussion mixed in with the giant log of PBs, it is difficult to follow or engage with because it's multiplexed with all the other updates. Some people have complained about member threads cluttering up the home page, but at least that information is useful because it tells you which discussion is active; the accomplishment thread is almost always listed on the home page but that is useless information because (i) it doesn't tell you whether you might care about the updates added, and (ii) the thread is updated so frequently that there's not much point announcing the fact. That to me is worse clutter.

The OAQT is similar. There's no way to guess if it's worth reading without reading it. I get bored constantly checking threads just in case they are interesting, and much prefer if the list on the home page gives me a clearer idea what's been posted so that I can be selective about what I read.

Anyway, back on topic, forums do tend to evolve to meet the needs and desires of the community regardless of attempts to steer them, and the trend towards social discussion and encouragement is one that I like.

 

[Clarkeeyyy]

See we need more threads like this one imo, where we can express opinions and here each others views.

 

[Kirjava]

fragmentation is a bad thing on a forum with this much traffic

 

[Noahaha]

I have a solution:

Once an intro becomes not an intro, people can use visitor messages to continue the conversations. This way the people who care can read the messages and be updated, while those who don't aren't affected in the slightest by it.

 

[MaeLSTRoM]

What about if member introduction threads are seen on the front page, but only because of the time the first post was made, then the subsequent posts in that thread no longer bump it to the front page. This way, the discussion can be continued and read by people who are interested, but it also doesn't impede the new post list on the front page for those who wish not to read it.

 

[applemobile]

I would rather it all be in one big thread/or section that i could completely ignore. Rather than having to ignore loads of other threads.

 

[littlewing1208]

fragmentation is a bad thing on a forum with this much traffic

Can you expound on this further? I feel like the anti-fragmentation practices on this forum are actually negatively affecting the information flow on this forum such that it is actually increasing unnecessary posting among other undesirable forum practices. OQOAT and the Accomplishment thread and the Modding thread etc are nearly unsearchable for discrete units of directed information on a given topic.

 

[MaeLSTRoM]

Can you expound on this further? I feel like the anti-fragmentation practices on this forum are actually negatively affecting the information flow on this forum such that it is actually increasing unnecessary posting among other undesirable forum practices. OQOAT and the Accomplishment thread and the Modding thread etc are nearly unsearchable for discrete units of directed information on a given topic.

While you may be correct from a manual point of view, there is a search box at the top of every page which returns very accurate results and searches all of the posts in these threads. There is also the wiki, which people tend to forget about.

 

[littlewing1208]

While you may be correct from a manual point of view, there is a search box at the top of every page which returns very accurate results and searches all of the posts in these threads. There is also the wiki, which people tend to forget about.

Re: page/thread search...it does not really help since all the relevant information is spread among a lot of noisy posts and not everyone quotes appropriately such that the search will capture.

Re: wiki....the wiki is amazing for algorithms and methodology info...less for hardware/modding info.

 

[pjk]

It's nice to have "New Member" threads on the homepage, since they'd get more replies, making it more welcoming for new members. If they turn into personal accomplishment threads that are constantly being bumped, then they're just cluttering the homepage. I agree that these PB update posts belong in the accomplishment threads instead of introduction threads. I'll talk to some of the other moderators to see what we should do about this.

One solution is to lock introduction threads if they tend to become update threads. Before locking, just reply saying "this thread has become an update thread, please post updates in the Accomplishment Thread, as this thread will now be locked."

 

[ben1996123]

would it be possible to make it so you can choose individual threads to appear/not appear on your homepage?

 

[mark49152]

What about if member introduction threads are seen on the front page, but only because of the time the first post was made, then the subsequent posts in that thread no longer bump it to the front page. This way, the discussion can be continued and read by people who are interested, but it also doesn't impede the new post list on the front page for those who wish not to read it.

Here's what I see in the new posts list today:-
1) Threads for several competitions, mostly on the other side of the world
2) Lots of individual threads for individual videos of accomplishments
3) Race threads have seen some results come in, maybe I'll read those on Monday
4) A bunch of "thorum" threads like OAQT have seen some posts
5) Some people are selling some stuff, although it's not clear what
6) A few member intros or updates
7) A few topical posts, some of interest to me and some not
So I don't see why it's such a big deal that member threads are getting shown in the list, or what nice clean information flow they might be "impeding". The helpfulness of info in that list in dubious anyway.

 

[moralsh]

I've checked 3 months worth of posting on the members introduction subforum and I have found the following

Only 3 threads have more than 100 replies
Only 6 have more than 50, one of them is less than 2 weeks old.

So let's be honest, no member threads are cluttering the main page, don't lock threads or overreact in a similar way, either hide the member introduction subforum from the main page or just leave these 3-4 alone, as they are easily avoidable for whoever not iterested in them.