Well, no, I don't really mean that those threads are stupid. But what is stupid is requiring discussion of more specific topics relevant to the broad topic to take place in the dedicated thread.

For example: Dell Streak Release Date Official: 8/12-8/13

Now, I know this isn't really Wolf Web policy, and if some users prefer to herd discussions like that, okay. But my opinion is that it actually discourages people from participating.

If I'm interested in the Dell Streak, I'm looking for or starting a Dell Streak thread, not venturing into a goddamn 64-page no man's land where the salient discussion is mixed in with less germane talk and might be buried God only knows how far back.

Just so I'm not misunderstood: A dedicated thread to a broad topic, like "[politician] credibility watch" or "official [software developer] thread," is not in itself a bad thing. But lumping more focused threads into them can be.

And lest you think I'm picking on Tech Talk, I've felt this way for a while and first voiced my opinion in this Entertainment thread: Official Comic Book Discussion Thread, where I said:

Quote :

"Thread's gone to shit because it's one thread for a whole medium. Do you think anyone would post anything of worth in an "official music thread"? Nah. We have threads devoted to specific genres and artists, just like we should have threads devoted to specific comic genres and publishers and titles and such. A thread about Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane would entice me to post a lot more than "official comic book discussion," for instance. Big ol' monolithic threads like this just reinforce the insularity of comics fandom as perceived by outsiders. Can you imagine what this shit looks like to those folks? Fourteen pages of "comic book discussion"? We've got to tighten up the focus a little to actually generate interest and discussion."

8/10/2010 6:22:26 PM

really anything past 3 pages should be deleted, its not like there are any continuous discussions going on

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

8/10/2010 10:50:26 PM

this is a big problem in the garage as well

8/10/2010 10:55:43 PM

and my axe!

8/10/2010 10:57:45 PM

we should trash the textbook thread in classifieds. its so hard to find a specific book

and the what are you thinking thread... what if i just want to know what one user is thinking

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

[Edited on August 10, 2010 at 11:48 PM. Reason : ]

8/10/2010 11:48:05 PM

the textbook thread really is stupid, no one is going to scan page after page looking for their book. force people to use a fixed book exchange and advertise it on campus.

8/10/2010 11:51:13 PM

tl;dr

8/11/2010 7:56:48 AM

agree with this 100%



what good are comments from 2007 about the iPhone going to do me in 2010?



it's also very intimidating to someone who might be new around here - "hey i want to know about the XYZ app and how it does blah, I'll make a new thread," and then they get yelled at for not taking it to the "OFFICIAL IPHONE THREAD."

Meanwhile, I may be posting in the iPhone thread and not give a flying fuck about XYZ app.

[Edited on August 11, 2010 at 12:34 PM. Reason : .]

8/11/2010 12:32:11 PM

^ it can work both ways though, I agree with your iPhone/app example

but for soccer threads, it's much better having a few dedicated threads so the same arguments (why you're an England fan and why b4c is a fuck head, for example) and discussions don't get repeated over and over in a lot of threads

And since it's not "required" as TWW policy, I don't see the issue. It's easy enough to just tell whoever suggests taking it somewhere else to fuck off



didn't see the thread in the OP was locked; I guess it could be an issue then if that's happening a lot, I guess I just don't notice it that often. Carry on with the complaint.


[Edited on August 11, 2010 at 3:50 PM. Reason : eddiiit]

8/11/2010 3:48:14 PM

message_topic.aspx?topic=600211

8/12/2010 10:34:06 AM

will FroshKiller rage quit over this? probably not.... that's the difference between a professional like him and an amateur like Optimum

8/12/2010 10:37:46 AM

Quote :

"we should trash the textbook thread in classifieds. its so hard to find a specific book"

I wish we had the ability to search certain threads, but you can still run a post search on the classifieds and often find what you're looking for textbook wise.

Quote :

"the textbook thread really is stupid, no one is going to scan page after page looking for their book. force people to use a fixed book exchange and advertise it on campus."

While I agree it's not the most user friendly thing in the world, I'm not sure how many people would want the alternative of having 20%-25%+ of the threads in classifieds be about textbooks. If the Book section is back in a working state then we can lock threads and send people there, but until then people need somewhere to post their textbooks for sale.

Quote :

""hey i want to know about the XYZ app and how it does blah, I'll make a new thread," and then they get yelled at for not taking it to the "OFFICIAL IPHONE THREAD." "

The problem is not the fact that we have a single thread. The problem is the douchebag who goes in and yells at the new user.

8/12/2010 12:32:33 PM

qtmnfred said it has been fixed, so start locking

8/12/2010 2:27:48 PM

well they always get locked..it's just a matter of where we point them

8/12/2010 2:48:44 PM

I, too, think the textbooks thread is somewhat difficult to use... but it is much better than a billion textbook threads.

Fix the book exchange, advertise it, point people there. maybe ken can create some type of notification/banner in classifieds that says what to do if you want to buy/sell/trade books.

8/12/2010 4:05:02 PM

i thought this thread was about the topic of broads

broads that are everything to me.

8/12/2010 4:24:46 PM

Quote :

"Fix the book exchange, advertise it, point people there. maybe ken can create some type of notification/banner in classifieds that says what to do if you want to buy/sell/trade books."

or instead of painting the tunnel with 50 people and creating an ugly confusing piece of cluttered inside jokes and memes, just put that in the tunnel

8/12/2010 6:48:22 PM

Quote :

"Do you think anyone would post anything of worth in an "official music thread"?"

Both the Music of 2010 thread and the Upcoming Concerts thread regularly contain things of worth. They're both just as broad, the only difference is the word "official".

[Edited on August 13, 2010 at 3:19 AM. Reason : .]

8/13/2010 3:19:10 AM

the What are you thinking right now thread is retarded

THATS WHAT THE ENTIRETY OF CHIT CHAT IS FOR

8/13/2010 8:47:45 AM

the soap box needs an "----OFFICIAL POLITICS THREAD----" thread

8/13/2010 1:21:35 PM

we need an official feedback thread, this thread is useless

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

8/13/2010 1:26:38 PM

Quote :

"the What are you thinking right now thread is retarded THATS WHAT THE ENTIRETY OF CHIT CHAT IS FOR"

It's really funny how people used to complain about EUPHALO all the time considering how euphalic that thread is and how many people post in it.

8/13/2010 8:22:45 PM

no its not

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

8/14/2010 3:58:23 PM

yea that's not funny at all. I didn't lol or anything when I read your point, BigEgo

8/16/2010 4:34:30 PM

you shut your faces faggots.

8/17/2010 11:44:07 AM

the thinking thread is mostly like the same 50~100 users discussing things day in and day out.

Euphalo is like the same 4~10 users spamming the same copypastas day in and day out, not saying one is better than the other, but people were complaining about the number of euphalo threads and the fact that euphalo members were posting their copypastas in almost every thread in chit chat at the time.

prove me wrong.

I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

8/18/2010 2:20:52 AM

they've both about BIGEGO POST WHATEVER FUCK.

8/18/2010 5:03:54 PM

Just in case BobbyDigital hasn't gotten around to checking this thread out.

8/23/2010 1:32:49 PM

there are certainly both pros and cons to having some dedicated topic threads

but i personally don't want TT to end up with a new thread everytime a new phone comes out. this ain't engadget

8/23/2010 2:41:08 PM

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

8/23/2010 2:45:46 PM

Quote :

"i thought this thread was about the topic of broads"

8/24/2010 12:33:09 AM

Quote :

"but i personally don't want TT to end up with a new thread everytime a new phone comes out. this ain't engadget"

agreed.

and we don't need a separate TT thread every time someone has a question about their phone

8/24/2010 9:10:43 AM

I think Froshkiller has a point. I'm pretty agnostic to catchall threads vs. individual threads, and have somewhat enforced the consolidation of semi-broad topics based on historical community preference.

I think an equally valid point is that a new thread every time a new phone or iphone app comes out becomes cluttery.

heh, maybe we need to break tech talk up in to more subforums

but seriously, what's the happy medium? I'm all about whatever the community as a whole prefers.

8/24/2010 11:35:55 AM

i think it can't be summarized and needs to be handled on a case by case basis

8/24/2010 9:10:10 PM

of course you do, because a few reasonable guidelines would restrict your ability to be a complete douchebag

8/31/2010 4:30:12 PM

Quote :

"i thought this thread was about the topic of broads"

8/31/2010 6:22:09 PM

Just wanted to reiterate how fucking stupid this concept is.

3/10/2011 2:59:07 PM

You should specify which broad topics you don't like because there is no way this thread applies to all broad topics

I"m AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

3/10/2011 4:01:27 PM

I remember "The Bar Thread"

The only bar discussion on the whole site was supposed to go in that thread.

3/10/2011 4:18:15 PM

To a point I agree, but if the alternative is having tech talk be 90%+ android/iphone/ipad threads either then I wouldn't be a fan

Quote :

"Nah. We have threads devoted to specific genres and artists, just like we should have threads devoted to specific comic genres and publishers and titles and such. A thread about Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane would entice me to post a lot more than "official comic book discussion," for instance."

As an outsider:

1 - I never noticed a comic book thread. but if/when i do, i'm not clicking on it, regardless of the topic name...because I'm not interested in comic books.
2 - I'm glad there aren't 20+ threads devoted to comic books in entertainment

Also it's a little apples and oranges comparing music and comic books imo. pretty much everyone likes music. what percentage of everyone likes comic books? I can understand how a comic book fan would want 20+ threads for comics, but non-fans probably don't. if we could customize our threads by tags (like stack overflow) that would solve this

3/10/2011 5:24:37 PM

I agree.

I've been trying to create threads in TSB for issues instead of using the bloated, clutter "OFFICIAL XXX THREAD" or whatever they are.

3/10/2011 6:23:48 PM

The comparison with the app/iphone shit is fucking stupid. You would be in tech talk for hours scrolling throught shit you wanted to see because it would be boogerd up with question threads that would have 1-5 posts. That's why its all in one thread to keep that from happening.

3/18/2011 9:07:00 PM

message_topic.aspx?topic=556098

The above thread is a good example, I mean, The Soap Box should have a thread for everything he does.....not just one broad credibility watch thread.......I mean, each event is different....

3/19/2011 6:22:01 PM

>.<

[Edited on March 21, 2011 at 8:31 AM. Reason : balls, i have already stated this point in here before - apparently it really grinds my gears]

3/21/2011 8:29:44 AM

I agree 100% with the OP.

3/21/2011 8:40:14 AM

I do as well... countless times there has been a particular sports issue I would want to talk about, but mods jump out and scream "oh, this is about football so can be in the NFL thread" or something similar

3/22/2011 6:48:12 AM

Quote :

"i think it can't be summarized and needs to be handled on a case by case basis"

3/22/2011 1:24:54 PM

bump

5/6/2011 10:04:52 AM

Quote :

"I think an equally valid point is that a new thread every time a new phone or iphone app comes out becomes cluttery. "

Just to bring up how it works on Something Awful (since I think it's a good model), their gadgets forum is broken up so when there is a popular device it shakes out as:

iPhone Thread
iPhone App Thread
iPad Thread
iPad App Thread
Android Thread
Android App Thread
Android Tablet
Android Tablet App Thread

Then with a couple of more for rooted Android devices/jailbroken iPhone things, etc.

Anyway, point is I think it's a decent enough system (though we may not need the Android Tablet related threads yet). I think separating the App threads from the hardware threads is a good idea, and in the case of Android I think maybe even popping out a third thread for the rooting/whatever-ing your device might be beneficial as well. Of course, the smaller Phone OS threads can stay as they are (WP7, webOS, Blackberry?) until they start getting a ton of traffic.

5/6/2011 10:52:36 AM

if the mods actually moderated what they would to is allow specific threads either spawned from the broad thread, or auxillary topics to be discussed for a few days to a week and then when the discussion dies down go back and lock the thread, any other discussion can go back into the "broad topic"

same with new phones, and comic books in those given examples, or if something in the sports world happens that warrants separate discussion


that way it makes things much more easy to search for future reference, and with the timely locking of discussion it wouldnt clutter the site.

[Edited on May 6, 2011 at 11:36 AM. Reason : e]

5/6/2011 11:35:38 AM