+- MacResource (https://forums.macresource.com)
+-- Forum: My Category (https://forums.macresource.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=1)
+--- Forum: Tips and Deals (https://forums.macresource.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Thread: Adding more subforums - UPDATE - NOT CHANGING (/showthread.php?tid=152077)
Re: Adding more subforums - davester - 05-03-2013
graylocks wrote:
[quote=rgG]
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
please, don't dealmac us, bro!
FTW!
Re: Adding more subforums - GGD - 05-03-2013
That bar graph is looking a lot more like a big middle finger than a bell curve.
Re: Adding more subforums - DavidS - 05-03-2013
Carnos Jax wrote:
Larry, unfortunately without such a side to the forum, political posts will then leak onto this side and poison it. This is why Craigslist originally had a section for 'hookers'. When they eliminated that, the hookers now advertise in the regular personals section. I think this place would be a lot worse off if we didn't have an 'outlet' such as the political side.
Interesting that they didn't migrate over here, then.
Seriously, thanks for asking and thanks for taking the above (and below) opinions seriously. Now leave it alone. We're good the way we are, our own little dysfunctional family.
Re: Adding more subforums - rz - 05-03-2013
$tevie wrote:
PS: did you guys ever visit the fragmented DM "deals" section? It was beyond moribund.
:agree:
They averaged about one post a month or so.
Re: Adding more subforums - rz - 05-03-2013
OWC Larry wrote:
I personally like the main forum as it is - but this has been shot across the bow a couple times, and glad to see the poll and results not surprising.
That said - the 'political' forum side currently has no sponsor, use is limited to a single digit percentage... and because people can't seem to help themselves but devolve conversations into personal pot shots and even direct attacks - it also has a very disproportionate percentage of Mod time spent on it. With lots of other forums more appropriate for that kind of discourse, going to see a poll on it's future. Certainly it's going to need a sponsor for it to continue imho.
I can see your point. I don't read or post over there. I didn't realize how bad it was. And if you're spending a disproportionate amount of time playing babysitter over there, then yeah, something probably needs to be done. Maybe charge people to post over there... :devil: kidding, of course. But if it's that bad, please don't allow that kind of stuff over here. If it's such a small group, tell them "Sorry, you'll need to take your ranting elsewhere".
Re: Adding more subforums - M A V I C - 05-03-2013
OWC Larry wrote: That said - the 'political' forum side currently has no sponsor, use is limited to a single digit percentage... and because people can't seem to help themselves but devolve conversations into personal pot shots and even direct attacks - it also has a very disproportionate percentage of Mod time spent on it. With lots of other forums more appropriate for that kind of discourse, going to see a poll on it's future. Certainly it's going to need a sponsor for it to continue imho.
Political side solutions:
- Ban everyone who makes things personal
- Put a banner ad in every post to increase revenue
- Put interstitials in to increase revenue, and increase time between posting
- Limit all posts on that side to 140 characters. Oh, wait, just make it a twitter feed
- Restrict posting to emoticons only
Lots of potential options. If you pick the first one, eventually there may be no one left
Re: Adding more subforums - $tevie - 05-03-2013
The thing is, the political conversations on the old pre-exodus DM were, if anything, even rougher than what goes on here. I don't see how it can be a surprise to anybody that it takes a lot of moderation with absolutely zero return on investment. That should have been obvious from the git-go. I am finding it disingenuous to complain that people aren't nice to each other when that is the way it always was. I'd prefer an upfront admission that it is a drag on the bottom line to any kind of preachy judgment about what goes on there.
I'm kind of surprised that Larry is only just now realizing that the Dealmac forum group in its entirety is an unprofitable drain on resources, since that's exactly why DM threw us under the bus.
Re: Adding more subforums - Black - 05-03-2013
Excuse me if someone already said this, but the reason the old forum capsized was not because it was split, but because the opinions/desires of the user base were so thoroughly disregarded.
That said, I think we've found the perfect forumla from a user perspective.
From a business prespective, i.e. the need to "monetize" Macresource and all its parts, there are some good ideas above e.g. $tevie's.
Re: Adding more subforums - OWC Larry - 05-03-2013
Actually - DM forum devolved from a deals and tech discussion space into one with personally charged attacks and unrelated conversation. The DM forums overall used to look a lot like Tips n' Deals does today. It really isn't about profitability on either forum.. that said - much more time could be devoted to improving what is the main forum if it was the only forum. I like personally like the flow main forum.
initially there was more activity on that other side and it was, for the most part, 'friendly'. At this point, it's become more vindictive and personal rather than a true sharing of viewpoints and ideas. Bottom line is that it's not being used in to the original framework and the small group who continue to utilize it are continually offended and reporting each other.
Aren't there plenty of forums out there just for that kind of discussion and where people can get as personal as they want or don't want?
Re: Adding more subforums - Marc Anthony - 05-03-2013
I think you have less visitation on the other side partly because people expect a certain degree of polarization in a "Political Ranting" forum, and you also have "friendly" in quotes, which implicitly enforces the expectation of ungentlemanly/ladylike behavior. There are occasionally topics on the Tips side that get moved to the other side, even if the thread isn't out of control; they're moved solely because they might get politicized or are NSFW. It actually might be a good idea to unify the sides, but give more options for filtering content. Allow us to ignore topic keywords, for example.