Gandalf Parker and the SEIV Forum

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Gandalph Parker, about a week ago I posted in the thread 'despair' that I had schiziophrenia. And there wasn't one troll. Not one. I have been on about 6 forums that I can remember and there is only one other I have been on where I could feel confident enough to say that. And it had precisly the same attitude towards OT Posts that this one does and much the same feel.

It isn't the on-topic Posts that have done that. It's the off-topic Posts.

Look through the old Posts. We've gotten agitated before. It's brought us all closer together.

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Mephisto:
*Moderator mode /on*
Hi all!
There is some concern from Shrapnel that to many OT topics will drive away newcomers to the extend that they will not join the community.

To this end I would like to ask all of you to maybe cut the amount of OT threads present on the top of the board down a bit - just post your OT question in one of the other OT thread.
*Moderator mode /off*

Seems fair. Will do. Would be nice if, in addition to some question threads, some old fasioned announcement threads made it to the top. And maybe the Cantina thread could bubble up for a bit, let everyone know we have a sense of humor, without being too weird.

[spoon]

Originally posted by Mephisto:
There is some concern from Shrapnel that to many OT topics will drive away newcomers to the extend that they will not join the community.

Why? Have there been complaints? The ratio of OT to On Topic Posts doesn't seem too horrible to me. And most of the OT Posts are clearly labeled, so newcomers can easily avoid them if they are annoyed by them. I can't help but think Shrapnel is jumping at the sound of the wind here. If it is really a problem, maybe they should just break the forum into two seperate forums. One for Game Discussions, the other for OT discussions. (Which, again, IMO would be over-reacting to a problem that doesn't exist...)

Originally posted by Mephisto:

To this end I would like to ask all of you to maybe cut the amount of OT threads present on the top of the board down a bit - just post your OT question in one of the other OT thread.

This seems like a bad idea to me. With seperate thread names, it is much easier to avoid topics that people find objectionable. So by reducing the ratio of OT threads you increase the ratio of people getting upset by OT content (if such people exist in our community )

Originally posted by Mephisto:

Thanks for your attention!

Thanks for posting!

[ May 29, 2004, 14:05: Message edited by: spoon ]

[General Woundwort]

OK, time to toss my own 1/50th of a standard American dollar in...

My primary purpose in coming here is to do SEIV business (mods, PBW, new shipsets, ad infinitum). But that's hardly the ONLY reason. What veteran among us would say this board would have been the same without the various manifestations of the good ol' Phong's Head cantina? Or David's avatar thread? The jokes and comics threads? The thread where everyone posted their pet pictures? Or even that monstrously annoying Badger film?

The problem, as I see it, is when the political/religious discussions get out of hand. This is a particular problem for me (being a staunch conservative of orthodox faith), so my solution is to avoid the political threads entirely. I come here to unwind, not pick a fight. But I'd rather see the political threads remain than have a top-down gag order on all non-SEIV discussions. Despite the problems with those threads, the rest of the board is a shining beacon in the dark space of gaming communities, all alone in the night. Aside from the politics, this is still the friendliest, most newbie-friendly, and most informative board out there.

We've got a good thing going here, Mr. Parker. Don't ruin it over a couple of political/religious discussions that occasionally get out of joint. THOSE can be backed-off from. They usually die off on their own anyways. A gag-order would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[ May 29, 2004, 14:30: Message edited by: General Woundwort ]

[Grauzone]

Originally posted by spoon:
...

i agree with spoon in this issue.

[Renegade 13]

When I was a newcomer to the forums (back in September 2003 I think) I primarily came to find out things about SEIV that I hadn't known before, to learn new tactics, and to converse with other people who play this great game.

However, right away I was interested in the OT threads. I don't live in a large community. Actually, I live in the middle of nowhere, and this is really the only place I can have a mature discussion with other reasonable people on subjects that are non-SEIV related. Subjects such as politics and religion can get a little heated sometimes, but the other 99% of the time, they're completely reasonable.

Basically, it was SEIV that brought me here, but in large part, its been the community and the interest of the OT Posts that has kept me here, and likely will keep me here until everyone else has left!! Would I still come here if the OT Posts were gone?? Maybe, but only to ask the occaisional question I had. To be totally honest, checking this forum, and reading all the discussions (especially the OT ones) is one of the high points of an otherwise difficult day.

So to add my voice to all the others, please don't do away with, or restrict the OT threads. They really are an integral part of this community, and it wouldn't be the same without them.

[Suicide Junkie]

When I first saw Mr Parker's Posts, I took him for a old cranky newbie, and didn't think too much of it...

After the Posts about removing all the OT threads started building up, I went to say something to him.
Only then, on the way to the PM button, did I notice his post count...
Such a discrepancy made me look around a bit, and at the sight of "Advisor", my first thought was "Oh, $#!^, they're actually going to do it."

*cue flashback to planet of the apes*

-----

Even the hardest newbie questions answered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed?
You can't even get a pizza delivered that fast these days.
Back in the early days of Gold when they were coming out of the woodwork, you'd have 5 responses in the first 10 minutes, and if you had to race through your typing to get the first reply.
180 seconds was pretty common for the first reply, though some short questions managed to get answered in less than a minute, forum time.

---

I'm one of the few who can say he's been here in two millenia, and I hope to remain here forever in paradise.

[pathfinder]

If Posts are restricted here (other than obviously obscene/inflammatory ones) , I guess I'll simply take my leave.

[rextorres]

Is the SEIV forum broken? Last I looked it has the most Posts of any of the other games. If I worked at shrapnel I would ask "Why is the SEIV forum so successful while the others are not?" Instead of "What's wrong with the SEIV forum?"

My experience in working at software companies, though, is that people need to make changes to show there value. If Gandalph said "let's not change anything" then what's his value?

An easy thing to do would be to clamp down on OT topics. It doesn't take much creative thinking, has an immediate impact, and he can say he did something.

From a marketing stand point, though, it doesn't make a lot of sense to remove what keeps a lot of people coming back to the forum - especially when the game is at a lull.

While Gandalph et. al. is fiddling with the forums it seems to me they are ignoring real issues. Here's a question that has baffled me. Why doesn't Shrapnel invest more in improving and promoting the multi-player aspects of the game? I believe it doesn't take a genius to figure out that multi-player gaming is the future of gaming.

[Phoenix-D]

Originally posted by Mephisto:
*Moderator mode /on*
Please don't see this as a harsh rule and don't be afraid to create an OT topic if you have the urge to, just keep an eye out that the forum is not swarmed with OT so the newcomer won't find a SE4 topic.
*Moderator mode /off*

Have we ever done that? Really the concern should be cutting down on OT too much. Because a lot of the OT stuff takes more time than the SE4 stuff (debates, etc). That means posters hang around longer..which means they're here when the newbies ask questions. We don't have an average response time of sub 30 minutes for nothing.