Why "Official Thread" fad has been ruining this board

[Ian]

Also, the more I look, the more I'm guessing the main issue is the number of threads that have become massive. This has been something we've seen more of recently but not due to us merging them or forcing content into one thread; it's just they've garnered a lot of attention and have actually remained productive throughout, which is obviously a good thing.

But there have been some great suggestions in this thread and we love hearing them, so keep them coming

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Because you can see who started the thread and based on experience know if their post is actually going to be worthwhile and result in a good discussion, or if they are one of those "BB sucks, i hate him, i cant believe he didn't do anything to make the #3 offense in the league last year better" people.

Instead one thread 50 some pages long, no thanks ill read the first post and the ignore the rest because around page 6 the **** measuring starts.

I hear you. Perhaps we should all post our **** sizes in a thread and avoid the issue. Ian?

 

[Ian]

I hear you. Perhaps we should all post our **** sizes in a thread and avoid the issue. Ian?

LOL, I'll add it to everyone's profiles and give people the option to include it...although I'm guessing not all of them will be truthful

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Also, the more I look, the more I'm guessing the main issue are the number of threads that have become massive, which has been something we've seen more of recently but not due to us merging them or forcing content into one thread, it's just they've garnered a lot of attention and have actually remained productive throughout, which is obviously a good thing.

But there have been some great suggestions in this thread and we love hearing them, so keep them coming

Is Live Update possible with this new software?
I end up with lots of refreshes if I'm in the comedy gold game thread.

 

[Ian]

Also, from what I've read, the next upgrade will take care of the user titles so we can eliminate the "rookie" status from people who have been here forever. Just wanted to include that in here since we're talking about things related to that.

 

[Ian]

Is Live Update possible with this new software?
I end up with lots of refreshes if I'm in the comedy gold game thread.

There will be an add-on I'll be installing that will allow me to select a thread to make live, instead of making all of them that way, which bogged down the other software. We'll see if this one works better.

 

[Zeus]

Is it possible to merge posters?

This is definitely possible but there are practical issues related to hygiene and the care/feeding of resulting offspring.

I hear you. Perhaps we should all post our **** sizes in a thread and avoid the issue. Ian?

Please - no photographs or other likenesses in avatars.

 

[Galeb]

I hear you. Perhaps we should all post our **** sizes in a thread and avoid the issue. Ian?

On behalf of the Irish community, I firmly reject this proposal!

 

[FirstAndGoal]

Is this the "official thread" on complaining about the official thread?

 

[Joker]

Please - no photographs or other likenesses in avatars.

Zeus hates my avatar.OK, so I'm no Steve McQueen....hmmmmm...how about something with verisimilitude ????

 

[Ian]

If there is no mechanism for rating threads in your toolkit, would it be possible add a rating (like, agree etc..) option like "promote" to individual posts? If the OP gets enough of that specific rating, the thread could earn a promotion to the main forum.

I'm actually looking into this, and have been for a while. Just trying to figure out the best way for it to work properly, but I think you'll see something like this at some point.

 

[Danger Zone]

I periodically will try to puzzle out how to design a forum that would minimize the aggressive posters.

There is something maybe to the mechanic of hiding sub-topics or conversational tangents.

A poster states something like: "the Mankins trade is yet another idiotic move by Belichick"

A responder can opt to have his response to this quote created in a tangent sub-thread. A big plus graphic could be put at the bottom of that flammatory post with something like: This post has one reply. Or more than likely: This post has 1574 replies.

Clicking on that Plus would open up the sub-topic.. but leave it hidden to anyone that hadnt clicked on it from the main thread.

Its not perfect, but it gives posters the option of not derailing a thread if they recognize the potential of their response to do so.

I think where this mechanic fails in other forums is when a topic has dozens and dozens of mini branches that require clicking just to see a comment to a comment. I find it annoying to click on a hundred Pluses to read a back and forth.

Moderators then could be real sticklers about keeping the main/visible thread on topic and much of the back and forth could be hidden in a sub-topic.

A Thread on the main page could have an icon to represent Show Subtopics. Clicking on it and we might then see something like:

Mankins Traded!!
-Sub Topic: Re: Belichick is an idiot [1653 replies]
-Sub Topic: Re: Belichick is a genius! [2573 replies]
-Default Sub Topic Where Posters Argue Semantics [875578754 replies]

As I said this idea isnt perfect but I feel theres a real good idea/system that could come out of it.

 

[Galeb]

Is this the "official thread" on complaining about the official thread?

If it isn't, we should merge it with the official one.

 

[Urgent]

There are some valuable threads, like "interesting cuts around the league" that are really "interesting arguments to a couple posters." Someone referenced soxprospects - the moderators there are very good at weeding out the commentary on transaction threads.

I would be delighted if there was a place to move the "nuh-uh! -- "uh-huh!!" posts out of the analytical discussions. Do that consistently and there are fewer of them. See Giuliani and broken windows. Routing that stuff to one big argument thread would be wonderful. (I already paid! No you didn't.)