Proposal to Merge Some of the AC Forums

spartak · December 14, 2002, 15:14

Comrades

It appears that the Creation and Fiction forums are dead on their feet and General is flagging a bit as well. I wondered whether we would be better off with merged forums as the extra traffic could have the effect of bringing some life into the merged forum.

Please respond to the poll and let us know what you think. Also please comment in the thread and let us have the benefit of your ideas to keep this sub-forum healthy and happy...

spartak · December 14, 2002, 15:18

I'm sorry its a multilple poll. Can a mod fix this?

Kassiopeia · December 14, 2002, 17:47

Try a PM

Methinks it would be better to start a new poll altogether

What comes to the point at hand, I see no reason why not... BAC can survive on a subforum with many other threads, I think. Might even attract new people.

Same with creation. SMAC is, as sad as it is, yesterday.

spartak · December 14, 2002, 18:31

Am I missing something? BAC? Wots that?

AS far as a new thread goes, I'm inclined to leave it for the moment, we get precious few visitors and those that do will probably get the idea...

VJ · December 14, 2002, 18:42

Quote:

Am I missing something? BAC? Wots that?

Wild guess: Beyond Alpha Centauri, the only (huge) topic what is active on fiction now.

EDIT: I was thinking of fiction but used "creation" instead. My apologies (and yes, I'm sorry for spelling)

Method · December 14, 2002, 18:53

that's fiction.

Alex · December 14, 2002, 22:10

I voted for merging Creation and General. But, whatever.

spartak · December 15, 2002, 05:03

Thank you all for your votes but keep them coming...

spartak · December 15, 2002, 07:26

And it would nice to have the views of somwe of the big hitters here.

MariOne - I saw you posting but no contribution to this process...

Raging Mouse · December 15, 2002, 07:51

I voted for merging all. I don't think it would hurt, and some concentration of resources might help.

Method · December 15, 2002, 12:13

that's definately a bad idea. the fiction threads would be lost in general, and multiplaying would be just confuse everyone. then there's the DG...

Andemagne · December 15, 2002, 15:07

I told my opinnion in that other thread.

Frankychan · December 15, 2002, 18:15

I'm agreeing with Kass. THE only survivng multiple author AC-Fiction thread (i.e. BAC) can survive in a subforum. Might give more traffic for the story.

spartak · December 15, 2002, 18:39

There have been no suggestions to merge the MP or DG forums as they have enough traffic to standalone.

I'm not sure I understand about a subforum. Could someone explain for me? Thanks.

DarkCloud · December 15, 2002, 23:08

But if AC-fiction is not kept apart, then some of the organization threads can be easily lost... but then again... if this rate of posting keeps up... there's nothing to fear :sad: oh well

MariOne · December 16, 2002, 05:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Taz
And it would nice to have the views of somwe of the big hitters here.

MariOne - I saw you posting but no contribution to this process...

Well, with aging, and with balding, I more and more like oranised things. It must be the waning drive for generation and the increasing urge to fight entropia....

Of course:
a dedicated forum for a category helps focusing the attention and attractin the interested posters
OTOH
it also confines it in a sort of "ghetto", and prevents the occasionl reader to be serendipitously lured in something he might find interest in.

I think tho that if a category has low activity, or a decent activity confined however in few or a single thread, merging it with a forum generating 10 times the number of threads, olny makes it actually harder to make out the related threads for the occasional reader, as they'd easily sink.

Also, when I look for live issues about strategy or the last game mechanisms yet to be sorted out mathematically, I already have to endure to weed out the help requests about IP game or XP compatibility, which I'm not currently involved in NOR able to contribute...
Should I also have to parse thru Creation or Fiction posts, that would only mean added background noise (according to my very own personal preferences, of course).
If and when I want to read some amateur AC-fiction, I know that I can find it in the Fiction forum. If it's there, I can easily find it when I want to, and I don't need to read it when I don't have time or lust for it. Even if that forum only had 1ppq (one post-per-quarter

).
Besides, I think I have already sometimes expressed my own personal aversion for mods and eyecandy. I understand that the community might have a lust for it, but I like to have the option to AVOID it, if I don't want to mess with it.

To me, if Creation and Fiction are on the wane, as they both share a "creative" aspect, it could be useful to merge them the might even help spin each other.
But I like that they're SEPARATE from AC-General-strategy.
This is always of course my personal opionion expressing my very personal preferences.

Only other viable alternative for a subfolders (and spreadsheet) lover like me, is to change the posting interface.
The only condition under which I could supporrt a merging of all the AC forums, would be to ENFORCE a thread-subject PREFIXING:
That is, when you post a New Topic, there would be a REQUIRED radio-button field to fill, making you opt between:
TECHNICAL
STRATEGY
CREATION
FICTION
...
or something like that, and that tag would be automatically added in front of the thread title you provide, evenutally making it also a flag or field you could make a query/filter upon when searching...

But I understand that this would be a significant modification to the forum scripting, and it's not realistic to expect that.

spartak · December 16, 2002, 06:27

Thank you for your thoughts MariOne.

Ogie Oglethorpe · December 16, 2002, 11:44

I would be against sub forums, radio buttons, or the like. 'Poly trafic is very heavy and at times prevents reasonable page download speeds. Anything that requires another load IMHO is needless and aggravating.

Like Mario, wading through other threads not of interest to me also is needless within an uber-catch all-forum.

So to those ends, I suggest leaving things as they are.

Jac de Molay · December 16, 2002, 14:36

I agree. Especially with the strategy as Im fairly new to the game and just learning some of the tricks of the game.

Main_Brain · December 16, 2002, 16:30

merge Fiction and General leave Creation alone?

spartak · December 16, 2002, 19:02

I don't see the point of that main_brain as creating is rather dead right now...

gwillybj · December 17, 2002, 15:42

LeaveItAlone.
My thoughts here:
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...97#post1526397

spartak · December 17, 2002, 17:44

Did you vote in the poll as well?

spartak · December 19, 2002, 04:34

How many days do we think we should leav ethis poll before deciding what to recommend to the mods?

The overall figures don't appear to have changed in the last day or two.

Method · December 19, 2002, 18:26

until we can ~~bribe~~ convince enough people to vote for the option we personally want, driving it into first place, of course.

spartak · December 19, 2002, 19:14

I'm inlcined to leave the poll going for a week and then take stock.

What say the rest of you?

Agree?

spartak · December 23, 2002, 05:16

^bump^ all looks very inconclusive.

Mellian · December 25, 2002, 15:29

I rather that the forums are left alone...even thought i don't write in them much anymore...mainly because i was virtually banned

-Mellian

Flare · December 26, 2002, 11:51

I would prefer to have the forums left alone. ~Shrugs~ However, I will bow to popular demand. ~Grins~ Thanks for what everybody has put on these forums.

-Kevin-

spartak · December 27, 2002, 15:22

well, taking stock, it looks like there is a slight consensus for change but no consensus what change to make although almost 50% think we could merge Creation with General.

Frankly, I don't think there is enough support ot make any request worth while so I intend to drop the subject, unless of course there is a groundswell of opinion that we should plow ahead with changes...