This week saw the addition of the latest subforums 'Music', 'Food and Drink' and 'Welcome to EM' with 'Off Topic' being re-implemented. These new sub-forums were put in place by Jasprar (with the consent/recommendation of other members on the mod team) in an attempt to open up the forums to appeal to a wider range of current players whilst also making it more accessible to new players who want to broaden the knowledge of the game and also make friends within the forum community who share similar interests. Although 'General Discussion' encompasses these elements, the addition of the new sub-forums makes everything feel much tidier whilst also sign-posting threads to newer players by making certain areas of discussion more prominently accessible. The previous subforums were more centered around mafia related topics with the exception of video games which proved to be a popular forum, inviting users to discuss and share opinions on a non mafia-related topic. The success of this thread highlighted that niche subforums can attract a wider community, hence why the decision was made to implement sub forums which are more interest based to make the forums more attractive to new players.
TLDR? Start here:
We are not currently looking to delete the new subforums. They are still in the stages of being tested however we are always looking to improve so constructive criticism would be much appreciated to let us know what you think. There is currently deliberation into the merging of certain subforums and also the addition of a media-related subforum so thoughts on this in particular would be extremely helpful. Whilst the deletion of the existing subforums is not priority at this point in time, ideas about how the new subforums as they exist currently could be improved are also welcome if expressed constructively.
This thread should not be about bashing the Food & Drink subforum as a result of what has been said above. It is important to remember that the aim here is to try and utilize the idea of subforums to find ways of making the forums more accessible to all whilst catering to a diverse range of interests.
Obviously the forums cannot be improved or expanded without input from the people who keep it thriving, so ideas that relate to the philosophy that was expressed in the OP are very much appreciated.
deletedalmost 10 years
I can't seem to fall asleep so I'm going to take a stab at this.
In reality, the ideas mean well but I feel are a bit out of touch of what is needed for the forums, and that is an overall welcoming environment and one that doesn't promote hostility. Creating sub-topics such as food and drink/music don't really solve this issue for the sole reason that if people were interested in discussing this then you would see newcomers posting about these things. The reality of the situation is that GD is broad enough to cover these sub-topics and there is no need to create more clutter.
Most people treat the forums like a niche because they cater to certain people, who are constantly derailing threads or causing trouble. If you want to make this a place for newcomers, you need to find a way to control that from happening in the more important sub-sections, such as Epicmaifa or GD/Welcome to EM. A very simple solution is to, and I say this with a bit of bitter criticism, is to actually use your mod powers to keep things in check. People can complain about police state all that want but the problem is that even from a perspective of a user, forumgoers get away with far too much. You might end up being hated in the process and not everyone is going to like you, but the bigger picture is what matters.
That's the only way you're going to get any sort of new faces on the forums.
food and drink is kind of unnecessary i think, but everything else is good
deletedalmost 10 years
On another note, you really should have made this thread the day you actually implemented all of these.
deletedalmost 10 years
The scrolling is significant on lower resolutions and I maintain this does more harm than good, particularly for people with older, CRT monitors (IE. poorer countries).
I also maintain that I should have the Food & Drink forum dedicated to me if you are going to keep it around. But the actually serious threads would fit into GD fine, given there's only about 5 of them. And the rest should frankly be in OT.
people join to play mafia and then linger around on the forums after a while.
I've only been around a year, but I've seen it get volatile way more often than I'd like to.
deletedalmost 10 years
from what i've seen there are plenty of new faces in the forums and the mods are trying to fix an issue that isn't there.
deletedalmost 10 years
i also think we're at a point where forums are a lot less hostile than they used to be. the thing is people join this site to play mafia, not to mingle on the forums.
I honestly don't know what to say to that bronto. I think I've tried a thousand million ways of saying these things. I can't believe you actually quoted 1984 either.
I give up. You guys won't listen because you want your idea to succeed
deletedalmost 10 years
I'd just merge it back and find a way to sticky less topics.
That's a fair point (and thank you for the compliment btw)
If it was up to you, would you simply delete the subforum and merge it back with the regular EM one, or would you come up with a different name/solution?
deletedalmost 10 years
You and Vancy both made it very easy so that there's a ton of ways to help out new players(which is really nice) The whole subforum thing is silly cause if any new player wants help we can assume they have common sense and find it themselves. Between announcements, asking players in game, the mentor system and PMing moderators it's entirely accessible to learn/get help with or without the extra subforum.
Also I got a bit used to the cluttered stickies cause the round thread is there and I only read that pretty much
oh yeah, of course. I was more or less referring to the clutter of stickies atop the EM forum, which is why I like all the stickies and announcements really being in one place. Calling it "Welcome to EM" is just to coax people into reading it, I feel. But the way it looks now I assume it's there mostly to house informational threads and announcements. The name could be changed, but I don't know how much that'll matter.
Having newbies come with their questions to the main EM forum is totally cool.
deletedalmost 10 years
I dunno, I just feel like adding+stickying a thread for new players/a refined important threads in the actual EM subforum would be sufficient (and just removing Welcome to EM) One can just be important stuff, the other can be for new players or it can be merged. Doesn't really matter. I don't get very bothered by new players asking questions about EM in the EM subforum because that's pretty much how it's always been. I don't think anyone else gets bothered either? Most threads that start in EM get moved to Complaints or Off Topic if they go too far, so having a few threads that're like "plus my setup!!" or "how 2 do this" isn't gonna really hurt anyone.
have you considered that maybe we can help improve the culture of EM by giving more opportunities for people to find common ground and connect?
If you've read 1984, you'd know that part of "big brother's" plan is to decrease the amount of words in the citizenry's vocabulary. Why? So they can't express themselves as well.
Making more subforums gives more avenues for people to chat about different things, exchange ideas, and allow for them to connect on more levels. The old format isn't bad (it's certainly less cluttered, but that's relative because it's what you're used to), but I think this invites more discussion and allows people to connect more and will hopefully create a more inviting forum for newcomers who would otherwise be turned off by how awful it can be.
There's a lot of negativity on this site and a lot of people dislike each other over silly things. I think if you find common ground with people through music, food and drink, or anything else, you'll create a more positive environment and make new friends.
The scrolling is really the only downside and that's maybe an extra second you have to take to get to some of the ones on the bottom.
