Original Post
A more fun Off-Topic (OR BRING WIBBLES BACK)
[05:08.39] <fallu> lol why the fuck are threads like the acronym thread not allowed
[05:09.00] <fallu> oh dear god they're havinG flFUN WE MMUST SSTTTOOPPP TTHHEEMMM
[05:10.37] <fallu> How the duck did tb forums become this heavily policed
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What does everyone think about this board? Is it too heavily policed? Should we allow threads and posts that don't meet the existing quality standards (obviously global rules would still apply)?
Toribash used to have Wibbles, a hyper-active board that had little-to-no quality standards. It used to be Discussion was serious, Off-Topic was semi-serious and Wibbles wasn't serious at all. Wibbles was removed at some point and many wept. Toriprime, a board locked behind a paywall, became Wibbles 2.0. People that pay money have the luxury of a practically rule-less community board to post in, but not everybody can (or wants to) spend $10 amonth year for the privilege of having fun in a wibble-like community board.
I've come up with two possible courses of action here (I personally prefer the latter).
1) We use the [Serious] tag format from Toriprime and apply it to Off-Topic. This would likely make Off-Topic more active but less serious.
2) We bring Wibbles back and leave Off-Topic as it is. Everybody that just wants have fun can do so there. This option allows Off-Topic to retain its integrity while simultaneously letting people who just want to have fun do as they wish.
Do you like one of the options? Do you have a solution of your own? Do you even see this as an issue in the first place?
Let's talk.
[05:09.00] <fallu> oh dear god they're havinG flFUN WE MMUST SSTTTOOPPP TTHHEEMMM
[05:10.37] <fallu> How the duck did tb forums become this heavily policed
Originally Posted by wibblefox
IMO mods should just stick to what ACTUALLY IS A PROBLEM. For example if you don't want flaming, then police flaming. Don't ban and close all threads because you are afraid that "Let's count to 100!" will end in hostility...
Originally Posted by Lazors
... The more I think about it I realise I'm not necessarily against a looser OT if people can behave and not be awful to each other. Toriprime have [serious] tags and even if nobody uses them, they're there for people who want a serious topic. There's no reason it wouldn't be the same in Off-topic.
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What does everyone think about this board? Is it too heavily policed? Should we allow threads and posts that don't meet the existing quality standards (obviously global rules would still apply)?
Toribash used to have Wibbles, a hyper-active board that had little-to-no quality standards. It used to be Discussion was serious, Off-Topic was semi-serious and Wibbles wasn't serious at all. Wibbles was removed at some point and many wept. Toriprime, a board locked behind a paywall, became Wibbles 2.0. People that pay money have the luxury of a practically rule-less community board to post in, but not everybody can (or wants to) spend $10 a
I've come up with two possible courses of action here (I personally prefer the latter).
1) We use the [Serious] tag format from Toriprime and apply it to Off-Topic. This would likely make Off-Topic more active but less serious.
2) We bring Wibbles back and leave Off-Topic as it is. Everybody that just wants have fun can do so there. This option allows Off-Topic to retain its integrity while simultaneously letting people who just want to have fun do as they wish.
Do you like one of the options? Do you have a solution of your own? Do you even see this as an issue in the first place?
Let's talk.
Last edited by Ele; Sep 6, 2016 at 05:09 PM.
Originally Posted by Ele
People that pay money have the luxury of a practically rule-less community board to post in, but not everybody can (or wants to) spend $10 a month for the privilege of having fun in a wibble-like community board.
It's $10 per year.
@everything else
The first rule of the board is:
A. We do not allow useless threads. Your thread must have an obvious topic with room for some Discussion. Examples of useless threads include: Birthday threads, leaving threads coming back threads...etc.
Pretty broad room for things to talk about and post about. The acronym thread doesn't fit this so it was closed.
I personally think that the thing to blame is just people being unable to make good threads. I'll use reddit as an example because I read stuff there quite a bit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/askreddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/askmen
Lots of questions there would be applicable here. Some are obviously too narrow to get a wide pool of responses and discussion and some are inappropriate to ask here on this forum.
When I look down the list of threads made in the last week most of what I see is trash.
There's a wide wide allowance of what can be posted here.
The goddamn mission statement is:
"Welcome. Off-topic is a board meant for less-than-completely-serious debate, idea sharing, news linking, et cetera. All these things which get posted in Discussion, but which most members that participate in Discussion don't really feel that they are suitable to a forum of the type Discussion currently is (Read: Debate). This means you can post some stuff you find interesting or new or cool here."
"Off-topic is a board meant for less-than-completely-serious debate, idea sharing, news linking, et cetera."
I don't know how much more you could ask for...
Maybe the solution to increasing activity and discussion here is to relax the rules and restrictions on what can be posted but I think that if that's what it takes to solve the problem then the problem in the first place is just that most of the community is incapable of thinking of good things to talk about in the first place.
Originally Posted by Solax
"Off-topic is a board meant for less-than-completely-serious debate, idea sharing, news linking, et cetera."
I don't know how much more you could ask for...
Threads/posts that are deemed 'low effort' aren't allowed. Low effort, fun threads. "Less-than-completely-serious" doesn't include the kinds of threads wibbles used to have. That's the point of this, to allow for these 'shitter', 'useless' threads that maybe don't result in any meaningful conversation.
The point is 'why can't we have useless/fun-for-the-sake-of-fun threads'. It seems that the answer right now is, 'you can, but you gotta pay us $10'.
Originally Posted by Solax
Maybe the solution to increasing activity and discussion here is to relax the rules and restrictions on what can be posted but I think that if that's what it takes to solve the problem then the problem in the first place is just that most of the community is incapable of thinking of good things to talk about in the first place.
You're automatically equating 'good things to talk about' with threads that don't facilitate 'less-than-completely-serious debate'. In your mind, and in the minds of a lot of mods, good = useful. That's the way the rules are set up and that's how we're told to act.
Now, that's OK. We have to realise though, that the way we see shit isn't necessarily the way the community sees shit. Good, for some people, might mean 'fun' instead of 'useful'. Right now, we (staff) have decided that 'good for the board' means 'useful'. Maybe the community would prefer 'good for the board' to simply mean 'fun' and 'active'. In my mind, when it comes down to the will of the community vs. the will of the staff, the staff's will should take the backseat.
Now, I'm not saying that the will of the community is to have a freer Off-Topic or to have wibbles come back. I don't know what the community wants, that's what this thread is for. All I know is that there's been rumblings in the community about the policing of Off-Topic for a while now, so I figured it would be good to give this issue some attention.
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It might be useful for someone in authority, and in the know, to explain to us why wibbles was removed in the first place. If we analyse why it 'failed', we can come up with solutions to ensure it wouldn't fail again if it were given another chance.
Last edited by Ele; Sep 6, 2016 at 05:14 PM.
Originally Posted by Solax
"Off-topic is a board meant for less-than-completely-serious debate, idea sharing, news linking, et cetera."
I don't know how much more you could ask for...
That is exactly what we do want. Unfortunately that is not at all how the board actually functions right now.
Offtopic right now is in a horrendous state, maybe half of all threads are closed, and any thread that picks of steam is almost certainly closed swiftly. Just look at it, 1 active thread.... In a sub that is supposed to be fun...
The quote above was from last time we discussed this sub, I shit you not, staff said that they were afraid that threads might turn hostile so they just close them all. Another staff member said they were afraid of people getting high post counts! Are these really legitimate concerns?
When was the last time we had a competent admin who actually used and improved the forums? Maybe Hamster? Staff in this forum really need to get their shit together.
Originally Posted by Ele
1) We use the [Serious] tag format from Toriprime and apply it to Off-Topic. This would likely make Off-Topic more active but less serious.
2) We bring Wibbles back and leave Off-Topic as it is. Everybody that just wants have fun can do so there. This option allows Off-Topic to retain its integrity while simultaneously letting people who just want to have fun do as they wish.
Let's recap how the boards were supposed to work before people fucked it up:
Discussion: "Serious talk goes here."
Offtopic: "For less critically criticized general topics."
We do not need to bring back wibbles, we do not need to have tags. Just get rid of all the shitty rules and move serious threads to discussion, and non serious threads to offtopic. That's why we made those boards in the first place, that is how they are supposed to function.
Last edited by wibblefox; Sep 6, 2016 at 08:30 PM.
If you have minions in your avy or sig DO NOT REPLY TO MY POSTS
Firstly, can you show me some closed threads that you feel shouldn't have been closed in your mind?
Currently, the gaming and movie/music subforums are in a very good place activity wise - yet they are subject to OT rules and then some. While I agree with you on these points:
I'm not sure if I agree with the 'tone back moderation' idea - the way I'm looking at it is that the only active threads in that situation would be posting game threads (like the acronyms thread) - this is not discussion and not the objective of off topic at all.
So rather than a changing of OT rules, some other action would be healthier imo - either free up the wibbles-style board for regular users or maybe even create a 'posting games' subforum.
Currently, the gaming and movie/music subforums are in a very good place activity wise - yet they are subject to OT rules and then some. While I agree with you on these points:
- the goal of moderation is to provide the most enjoyable experience for the maximum number of users
- off topic is currently a very inactive board (comparatively)
- the reason for a pay-wall into wibbles (TP) is opaque to most people including myself
I'm not sure if I agree with the 'tone back moderation' idea - the way I'm looking at it is that the only active threads in that situation would be posting game threads (like the acronyms thread) - this is not discussion and not the objective of off topic at all.
So rather than a changing of OT rules, some other action would be healthier imo - either free up the wibbles-style board for regular users or maybe even create a 'posting games' subforum.
Last edited by Fear; Sep 6, 2016 at 09:14 PM.
