Something is wrong with the forum!

Something is wrong. I'm pretty sure this has happened since rep was changed.

But, basically, it seems like the board isn't allowing members to post in techforge. It's like $corp was banned!

I had no problem making a post in techforge.

I see nothing wrong with the forum or your own accounts permissions...is this a troll of some sort?

Were you trying to post from a computer or from a smartphone with Tapatalk?

Until Async posted in that forum a few hours ago, the last post was from five days ago. I could be wrong, but I think apostle may have been making a funny that the forum was "broken" because of that.

By that standard Camp Wordforge has been "broken" even longer.

Apostle not being able to post is a sign that the board is working correctly.

I think this has to do with Rep.

This is awful.

Merge some damn forums already!

All we need are:

Red Room Pin a non-RR rules 'Welcome and Introduce Yourself' thread to the top.
Entertainment, Science, and Tech (Techforge+Press Start+Media Central)
42 (Gold Room+Camp Wordforge+Iron Room)
Workshop.
Blue Room being hidden to nonmembers.
Admin Room (Announcements+Help Desk w/FAQ and Shelter [also hidden from non-members] being subforums)


Seriously, say we do actually get our address out there and someone comes here, what do they see? A crapton of admin stuff and a bunch of dead forums. If we really do want to attract new members, we need to actually make the place look inviting.

I'd even think about having a little summary of who we are. Nothing too wordy, but just a few lines.

This is what we are about.
This is what we got.

Do it right and no scrolling required, just simple, clean, and to the point.

Make the place look inviting? The last new member we had was either a troll or got ran off on the first day. Changing the forum layout isn't going to change the fact that 90% of us are just here to piss each other off for the lulz.

This has been under discussion in the staff forum, we just haven't come to a consensus yet.

Well, yeah, this place isn't for everyone. But the more people we get to check the place out and give it a try the more will decide to stick around.

And MikeK has stuck around after a month even being a straight up socialist. Turns out the people who get the most enjoyment out of running people off for having different opinions are roughly the same group that got their panties in a twist and stormed off over the Rep Change.

Who'd have thunk it!

WF is moving in the right direction, we just have to sustain this forward progress and build on it. I heard new software is in the works, good. We need it. But more importantly we need board consolidation and a refreshed front page. Think about if you are trying to sell your house, you remove the clutter and put a fresh coat of paint on in order to make it attractive.

After we've gotten those things in place we need to make a concerted effort as a group to market the board. But not until those prior things have been done.

I think we need to raid some other forums and mass invite people we thinking are interesting there to come here. I volunteer to visit various BBS's for stripper, hookers, and MILFs.

Seriously, what's the worse that can happen? You can combine every non-RR forum into one, and it will still have less traffic than the RR so it's not like you will be destroying discussion and shoving threads off the page before people can see them. And so what if every combined forum doesn't go perfectly together, again, our most popular forum has NO central theme, doesn't seem to hurt participation there.

Activity breeds activity. Stagnation breeds stagnation. We need to get out of this funk we are in and start making some positive changes.

But hey, say I'm wrong, and consolidation is the worst thing since sliced bread, you can always add new forums later. Remember the early days when we added boards every couple of months? Heck remember when we had a separate front page and newshounds (not a bad idea to bring back actually, the newshounds, not a separate front page). Change isn't a bad thing, growth REQUIRES change.

Actually that is not really effective, you are basically just a spammer. Better to make a personal appeal to your existing networks. People are much more likely to follow the recommendation of someone they know than they are a stranger. Also, tailor each appeal to the audience. If you are talking to a Sci-Fi board you are on, highlight our sci-fi past, a political board, the RR, a sports board, the annual sports threads, etc. etc.

Just putting the link in your sig does nothing. You aren't really asking people for anything, and you have to ask for it for them to give it (their time) to you.

The solution to forums with low traffic isn't to squish them together, it's to attract more traffic to them. There's a couple threads in Red right now that should be in Gray, for example, if you go by the forum descriptions.

So you're assuming that I don't hang out at other BBS's with MILFs, strippers, and hookers already...?

Not true. On another board I am on we have had traffic pick up over 15% (and stay there) after a reorg/consolidation.

We simply have too many non-RR forums for the traffic. You spread out the discussion and people now have to go to half a dozen rooms, most of which appear dead, so thy just get skipped. So then no one puts their threads in those forums.

The answer isn't to force people and topics out of the RR* but to make the other forums more like the RR (in activity and diversity of discussion).

*Not to mention we already tried this for years (Flashlight MC wars anyone?) before finally giving up. It didn't work then it won't now. Try something new instead.

Let me try and rephrase this.

Imagine if the Red Room were divided up into:

Political Discussions
Religious Discussions
Economic Discussions
Social Discussions
Media Discussions

Now say I'm into Politics but don't give a shit about religion. I'm just not going to go into the Religious forum. So any threads in there, even ones that may pique my interest I will never see and never participate in. So that is a lost opportunity to generate more discussion, just b/c I wasn't exposed to it.

Now what about topics that cross genres? What if there was a topic on say the 10 Commandments in Courtrooms. Something I do care about but it got put into the Religious Forum. Now you have not merely given up a chance to draw me out of my 'comfort zone' with an intriguing thread, but you have actively excluded me from a topic that IS in my comfort zone. Something that I do automatically want to discuss is now going to be completely missed by me.

Now, you are going to say, hey, why don't you go into the Religious forums. That is of course an option, but we are talking about how people ACTUALLY work, not how we want them to work. If you want to accomplish anything when it comes to influencing human behavior (and that is exactly what you are trying to do if you want people to participate more) you need to understand and work WITH human nature, not against it.

I fully support a reorg of the forum. Pushing threads into other unused fora won't solve anything. They'll remain a bit better than unused, but still useless.

Jesus, dude. Look, most people weren't happy, but bringing this crap up whether it goes or not just makes you and everyone on this side of the argument look retarded.

And Anc is right that some restructuring probably won't be the worst change, but if no one knows of the board's existence, then what good is it?

If I had any other message board I spent time on, I'd pimp this place out in a heartbeat.

Oh for fucks sake leave the forums alone. If you're to lazy to go through what is there then you have no one else to blame but yourself.

This change for the sake of change shit is lame and unwanted. If a forum has traffic issues it really doesn't matter if you compile it into another one.

Oh I know, let's just have one forum and put all of it in there!!1!

Another thing while I'm at it. Get over the rep changes already and quit wasting our time.

Personally I don't like that we limit sensitive topics like politics and religion to the Red Room because they often devolve into shit-slinging contests. I think we should encourage more RR-style posting outside of the Red Room while still sticking with the rules of that forum.

Not entirely. It generated much weeping and gnashing of teeth and at least one thread in the HD on the part of the " No fair! Why do we have to act like adults in the Green Room? " crowd.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

It wasn't a change; it was an experiment...starting slightly more controversial threads in the Green Room.

The Entitled crowd threw itself on the floor and howled.

Unless you're arguing that those who started the GR threads are responsible for others' behaviors oint:?

Hey, it managed to drive the mighty rep [-]warriors[/-] whiners from the board when they changed the rep system.

People still can post those kinds of threads in the Green Room for debate, it was never said it had to stop.

Nobody ever does it though. Not even the people who claim that is what they would prefer.

Lately, there has been more civilized debates in the Red Room than usual in some threads anyway. It's been more interesting in those threads, too. It's nice that not every single thread is being over-run with some stupidity or other. By choice, even, and not by decree.

There are far less threads, and far less diversity of opinion.

It sucks.