Legitimate complaints about the General forum

[Nadkor]

No, but it really is.

Really? So everything in F7 = spam?

As far as I can see the vast majority of F7 is precisely that.

But it's a spam forum, so that's fine.

[Nadkor]

Here is my suggestion to solve the problem.

Why not bring back the April Fool's 2010 discussion zones, one for the Liberals, one for the Conservatives, to replace both General and Forum 7. One would lean to fun, while the other would lean to seriousness, since honestly, those discussion zones really replaced F7 for a day, instead of General, and if we merge them and split them, the flavor will be good. One for the mocha, one for the decaf. (mocha = Fun, decaf = seriousness).

This is a terrible, terrible, idea.

[St George of England]

Really? So everything in F7 = spam?

As far as I can see the vast majority of F7 is precisely that.

But it's a spam forum, so that's fine.

Someone hasn't looked at some of the RPs. And there's much of NSG that could be considered worthless.

[Audentias Gryphus]

Really? So everything in F7 = spam?

As far as I can see the vast majority of F7 is precisely that.

But it's a spam forum, so that's fine.

There could not be more of a contrast between your statement and the OSRS.

Forum 7
Forum 7 (or F7) is intended for casual chatter. Conversation threads, word games, silly forum games, and social threads such as the Paradise Club of ye olde days are permitted in this section. The key point here is that this is intended to be a relaxed fun area, so please remember not to take things too seriously. The following rules apply to F7:

• Posts made in this forum DO NOT add to your postcount. As far as your postcount is concerned, posts here don't exist. So posting absolutely pointless spam (IE: a thread of nothing but smilies, or the typical post-whoring "+1!") isn't allowed.
• Auto-prune is activated on this forum and is set to 5 days. Threads that have not been posted in for more than 5 days will be auto-deleted to reduce clutter and minimize potential strain on the server.
• This area is NOT a spam forum!

As written by source.

[Sarkhaan]

I think a hard line's not the way to go about it, case-by-case is, I would think, the best. Just ask, as you say in your post, "Does this sound like a forum post or a chat room?"

Not so much a hard line, but a guideline.

I'd rather not kill off Paul to make Peter more sociable.

Even if Paul has it coming?

[The Deleted Chris]

Here is my suggestion to solve the problem.

Why not bring back the April Fool's 2010 discussion zones, one for the Liberals, one for the Conservatives, to replace both General and Forum 7. One would lean to fun, while the other would lean to seriousness, since honestly, those discussion zones really replaced F7 for a day, instead of General, and if we merge them and split them, the flavor will be good. One for the mocha, one for the decaf. (mocha = Fun, decaf = seriousness).

This is a terrible, terrible, idea.

Indeed. Perhaps we could just use some common sense and trust to the intelligence of most posters to flag up genuinely vapid threads in Moderation?

[Sarkhaan]

I don't hate Forum 7. It's not for me, but the people who enjoy it enjoy it, and that's great. I hate that somewhere along the line, General stopped being a forum "for discussion and debate about anything" and became a forum "for discussion and debate about anything serious." I like serious threads. I just like being able to take a break from serious threads and engage the same people I was just arguing with in a pleasant conversation about how we both think Dr. House is totally sexy and Kinder eggs are delicious, and since the move and the addition of Forum 7, it seems like all the threads where that sort of pleasant social conversation can occur get yanked out of General to die ignominious and spammy deaths elsewhere, while Generalites go right on viewing each other as allies and adversaries rather than friends and acquaintances.

Excellently put.

It's like I've said before. I still don't get why the decision was made to divide General into parts: debate, arts, and spam.

As it stood on Jolt, spam could happen in the spam forum, and everything else was good in General. I fail to see why the decision was made when the old system was fine and why, once the new system proved to have numerous flaws, it wasn't fixed.

I still say get rid of the arts forum and fold that back into General. Keep f7 as a word game type forum, akin to the spam forum on Jolt, and return NSG to the old system where it was, as stated, "discussion and debate about anything".

Oh, and what's with me having to review posts again? Is that just me and I clicked something stupid, or is everyone getting that?

[Katganistan]

Here is my suggestion to solve the problem.

Why not bring back the April Fool's 2010 discussion zones, one for the Liberals, one for the Conservatives, to replace both General and Forum 7. One would lean to fun, while the other would lean to seriousness, since honestly, those discussion zones really replaced F7 for a day, instead of General, and if we merge them and split them, the flavor will be good. One for the mocha, one for the decaf. (mocha = Fun, decaf = seriousness).

This is a terrible, terrible, idea.

Agreed.

[St George of England]

Excellently put.

It's like I've said before. I still don't get why the decision was made to divide General into parts: debate, arts, and spam.

As it stood on Jolt, spam could happen in the spam forum, and everything else was good in General. I fail to see why the decision was made when the old system was fine and why, once the new system proved to have numerous flaws, it wasn't fixed.

I still say get rid of the arts forum and fold that back into General. Keep f7 as a word game type forum, akin to the spam forum on Jolt, and return NSG to the old system where it was, as stated, "discussion and debate about anything".

Oh, and what's with me having to review posts again? Is that just me and I clicked something stupid, or is everyone getting that?

Uhhh, and what of the many, many RPs that go on in F7? Where would they go?

[Czardas]

Oh, and what's with me having to review posts again? Is that just me and I clicked something stupid, or is everyone getting that?

I believe that always happens in Moderation/Technical/Gameplay/Got Issues. Possibly the RP boards as well, can't remember. It's just turned off by default in the off-topic fora.

Uhhh, and what of the many, many RPs that go on in F7? Where would they go?

F7 will probably be unchanged -- our discussion so far has focused mainly on NSG.

Unless people think it should be changed, of course.

[Sarkhaan]

It's like I've said before. I still don't get why the decision was made to divide General into parts: debate, arts, and spam.

As it stood on Jolt, spam could happen in the spam forum, and everything else was good in General. I fail to see why the decision was made when the old system was fine and why, once the new system proved to have numerous flaws, it wasn't fixed.

I still say get rid of the arts forum and fold that back into General. Keep f7 as a word game type forum, akin to the spam forum on Jolt, and return NSG to the old system where it was, as stated, "discussion and debate about anything".

Oh, and what's with me having to review posts again? Is that just me and I clicked something stupid, or is everyone getting that?

Uhhh, and what of the many, many RPs that go on in F7? Where would they go?

They can stay in F7. General is expressly OOC (save the few exceptions like the office party...which may or may not have been moved over to F7)

[St George of England]

Oh, and what's with me having to review posts again? Is that just me and I clicked something stupid, or is everyone getting that?

I believe that always happens in Moderation/Technical/Gameplay/Got Issues. Possibly the RP boards as well, can't remember. It's just turned off by default in the off-topic fora.

That's what I thought.

Uhhh, and what of the many, many RPs that go on in F7? Where would they go?

F7 will probably be unchanged -- our discussion so far has focused mainly on NSG.

Unless people think it should be changed, of course.

I meant in relation to Sarkhaan's suggestion to "keep F7 a word game type forum"

[Syvorji]

This is a terrible, terrible, idea.

Agreed.

It actually will be a good idea, because when it was used on April Fools Day, it took over the role of F7, before it was pushed to the archives, and if we merge both, it will benefit both NSG and F7-goer's. That is what I call a deal.

[Audentias Gryphus]

-snip-

You may be forgetting that the two other threads in General Discussion exist for the sole purpose of removing constant stress only on the General Forum, and so that people can generally expect something when they visit A&F or F7. General is intended to fill the middle ground, and many topics of discussion have been allowed to stand in General, including the "Kink" thread.

Discussion* about a topic that has a solid OP to do so upon leads to a pretty good thread in General. Anything else, like side chatter or specific discussion of literary works fall into the other two categories. Now, creating a fourth thread might seem like a viable option, but it's a poor route to take. There isn't a huge gap between the seriousness of General and the spamishness of F7 that would require a new thread. What would you put in that thread that doesn't belong in General or F7? They aren't polar opposites. Therefore the three of them are fairly satisfactory in my view.

*this word I cannot stress enough

[Nadkor]

As far as I can see the vast majority of F7 is precisely that.

But it's a spam forum, so that's fine.

Someone hasn't looked at some of the RPs.

I only wish that were the case.

And there's much of NSG that could be considered worthless.

Now you're the one deriding other forums as worthless...

[NERVUN]

Like I said, we are open to suggestions (Currently we're talking about it), but it's a matter of what Community A (General) would like to see and making sure it doesn't overlap too much with Community B (F7).

That's why I'm asking is to see what you guys want... Otherwise we get to decide.

Honestly, I'm a little surprised that you guys are seriously discussing this behind closed doors. I think that speaks more to the fact that there's been this thick level of cynicism on the subject for the longest time.

Believe it or not, we DO actually listen. And you have a number of Mods who got their start in General and think of it as home, so we don't want to lose it either

[St George of England]

Someone hasn't looked at some of the RPs.

I only wish that were the case.

Snobbery, How Delightfully British.

And there's much of NSG that could be considered worthless.

Now you're the one deriding other forums as worthless...

Abortion threads. That's all I say.

[Nadkor]

As far as I can see the vast majority of F7 is precisely that.

But it's a spam forum, so that's fine.

There could not be more of a contrast between your statement and the OSRS.

Forum 7
Forum 7 (or F7) is intended for casual chatter. Conversation threads, word games, silly forum games, and social threads such as the Paradise Club of ye olde days are permitted in this section. The key point here is that this is intended to be a relaxed fun area, so please remember not to take things too seriously. The following rules apply to F7:

• Posts made in this forum DO NOT add to your postcount. As far as your postcount is concerned, posts here don't exist. So posting absolutely pointless spam (IE: a thread of nothing but smilies, or the typical post-whoring "+1!") isn't allowed.
• Auto-prune is activated on this forum and is set to 5 days. Threads that have not been posted in for more than 5 days will be auto-deleted to reduce clutter and minimize potential strain on the server.
• This area is NOT a spam forum!

As written by source.

What the rules say F7 is and what the reality of F7 is are very different.

[Sarkhaan]

-snip-

You may be forgetting that the two other threads in General Discussion exist for the sole purpose of removing constant stress only on the General Forum, and so that people can generally expect something when they visit A&F or F7. General is intended to fill the middle ground, and many topics of discussion have been allowed to stand in General, including the "Kink" thread.

Discussion* about a topic that has a solid OP to do so upon leads to a pretty good thread in General. Anything else, like side chatter or specific discussion of literary works fall into the other two categories. Now, creating a fourth thread might seem like a viable option, but it's a poor route to take. There isn't a huge gap between the seriousness of General and the spamishness of F7 that would require a new thread. What would you put in that thread that doesn't belong in General or F7? They aren't polar opposites. Therefore the three of them are fairly satisfactory in my view.

*this word I cannot stress enough

General doesn't exist to fill the gap, as General is the oldest. The other two are spin-offs which, much like in the TV world, are less successful (at least in my opinion), and degrade the original.

[NERVUN]

Not so much a hard line, but a guideline.

I'd rather not kill off Paul to make Peter more sociable.

Even if Paul has it coming?

Even then. Besides, Paul made some great songs.

[St George of England]

You may be forgetting that the two other threads in General Discussion exist for the sole purpose of removing constant stress only on the General Forum, and so that people can generally expect something when they visit A&F or F7. General is intended to fill the middle ground, and many topics of discussion have been allowed to stand in General, including the "Kink" thread.

Discussion* about a topic that has a solid OP to do so upon leads to a pretty good thread in General. Anything else, like side chatter or specific discussion of literary works fall into the other two categories. Now, creating a fourth thread might seem like a viable option, but it's a poor route to take. There isn't a huge gap between the seriousness of General and the spamishness of F7 that would require a new thread. What would you put in that thread that doesn't belong in General or F7? They aren't polar opposites. Therefore the three of them are fairly satisfactory in my view.

*this word I cannot stress enough

General doesn't exist to fill the gap, as General is the oldest. The other two are spin-offs which, much like in the TV world, are less successful (at least in my opinion), and degrade the original.

Snobbery, How Delightfully British.

[Sarkhaan]

General doesn't exist to fill the gap, as General is the oldest. The other two are spin-offs which, much like in the TV world, are less successful (at least in my opinion), and degrade the original.

Snobbery, How Delightfully British.

A) I'm not British.
B) That isn't snobbery. The arts forum is...okay. It doesn't get the traffic that General does, however, which degrades it significantly. F7 is pseudo-RP (I'm not a big RPer to begin with) and spam, both of which bore me fairly quickly. They also both remove aspects of General which used to be a huge part of that forum. And yes, it is inaccurate to state that General exists to fill a gap between the other two.

[Geniasis]

Believe it or not, we DO actually listen. And you have a number of Mods who got their start in General and think of it as home, so we don't want to lose it either

I know that logically, but at least I've been feeling this cynicism over the past few months especially that there's this perceived disconnect between posters and mods. That I know it doesn't exist, at least on an intentional level is somehow less convincing when the atmosphere just reads defeatist.

[Katganistan]

Excellently put.

It's like I've said before. I still don't get why the decision was made to divide General into parts: debate, arts, and spam.

As it stood on Jolt, spam could happen in the spam forum, and everything else was good in General. I fail to see why the decision was made when the old system was fine and why, once the new system proved to have numerous flaws, it wasn't fixed.

I still say get rid of the arts forum and fold that back into General. Keep f7 as a word game type forum, akin to the spam forum on Jolt, and return NSG to the old system where it was, as stated, "discussion and debate about anything".

Oh, and what's with me having to review posts again? Is that just me and I clicked something stupid, or is everyone getting that?

Actually, the Arts and Fiction forum used to be the Jennifer Government forum.

[Sarkhaan]

It's like I've said before. I still don't get why the decision was made to divide General into parts: debate, arts, and spam.

As it stood on Jolt, spam could happen in the spam forum, and everything else was good in General. I fail to see why the decision was made when the old system was fine and why, once the new system proved to have numerous flaws, it wasn't fixed.

I still say get rid of the arts forum and fold that back into General. Keep f7 as a word game type forum, akin to the spam forum on Jolt, and return NSG to the old system where it was, as stated, "discussion and debate about anything".

Oh, and what's with me having to review posts again? Is that just me and I clicked something stupid, or is everyone getting that?

Actually, the Arts and Fiction forum used to be the Jennifer Government forum.

Huh...weird.

Granted, I think the JG forum had all of...three? Four? posts the entire time I saw it kicking around.

I'll stand by keeping making "General discussion and debate about anything" meaning what it says. I see the other two forums as being a needlessly complex system, and have yet to see any positive consequence of their existence except to perhaps alleviate the spamming on NSG...which, honestly, it doesn't seem to do that well, and isn't inherently a good thing. A little spam every now and then isn't all bad.