Topic: What's up with locking everything

[WesDawg]

Hey, I noticed the thread in the GC section on the new Fire Emblem was locked. Whoever did it said it was because there was already a thread about the same topic in Talkback. I don't get that. There are a dozen topics there about different games, from Metal Gear to Mario Kart to Baten Kaidos, all of which probably have some dead thread about them sitting in Talkback too. They're all fine, but this one gets locked? Who looks in Talkback for threads about GameCube games? Certainly not people visiting the forums for the first time. I've been reading the forums for awhile too, and I never look there. This just seems a bit Nazi to me. I appreciate troll threads being deleted, and I've gotten over being pissed every time someone asks for an opinion and is raped for writing a "poll" but when you start making me look under 20 different forums to see what people are saying about a new game it seems outta hand. In fact, the whole place seems to have gone nuts lately. There used to be lots of posters here I remember. I think they've mostly gone other places. Doesn't that make you wonder why? Forums are for talking and I think there's gotta be a bit more give and take about what's OT or a duplicate or not. Maybe even cut back on a couple forums. Theres no need for a DS forums with a whole 13 topics in it. Let 'em clutter up a Nintendo general one or something. Or even better, just make a general Games and Technology thread for all the systems. I really don't think it'll be the mass chaos you're expecting.

[KnowsNothing]

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Hey, I noticed the thread in the GC section on the new Fire Emblem was locked. Whoever did it said it was because there was already a thread about the same topic in Talkback. I don't get that. There are a dozen topics there about different games, from Metal Gear to Mario Kart to Baten Kaidos, all of which probably have some dead thread about them sitting in Talkback too. They're all fine, but this one gets locked? Who looks in Talkback for threads about GameCube games? Certainly not people visiting the forums for the first time. I've been reading the forums for awhile too, and I never look there.

I didn't read the thread you mentioned, but I'm assuming it was locked because not alot of info was released on the game yet and/or the discussion in the GC board was almost identicle the the one in talkback.  Most of the posts would be about the news that's already been released or if anyone has heard any news about the game.  Well, if you want to talk about news then where else to go but Talkback?  AND WHAT BILL SAYS =O

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Maybe even cut back on a couple forums. Theres no need for a DS forums with a whole 13 topics in it. Let 'em clutter up a Nintendo general one or something. Or even better, just make a general Games and Technology thread for all the systems. I really don't think it'll be the mass chaos you're expecting.

Hey, the DS is a new, current-gen, Nintendo system coming  out.  It seems that the other current-gen systems Nintendo systems have their own cetegories, why not the DS?  Can you guess why the DS category doens't have many threads in it?  Perhaps it is because the system was just anounced and not more is known about it.  Come E3, I expect the number of threads to dramatically increase.  And after that, we'll get game specific threads like in the GC discussion.  There's no point in creating a general Nintendo thread since this whole site is about nintendo.  You WOULD consolidate EVERY discussion on the boards (save general chat and site discussion).  If you're complaining about any chaos there is now, then there most definitley would be 20 times the chaos going by your little plan.  

[Bill Aurion]

"Theres no need for a DS forums with a whole 13 topics in it. Let 'em clutter up a Nintendo general one or something."

Wait, what?  Do you have any sense of organization?

And the only threads that are locked because a Talkback thread exists are those that appear around the same time the Talkback thread is introduced...  

[Bloodworth]

Yeah, as I said, they started a thread about IGN's article on Fire Emblem when ours was up just before IGN's.  I don't think it's too much to expect readers to check out our site before telling people to check out the exact same info somewhere else.

[WesDawg]

Bill, organization is fine, but theres a point where its to much. Do you really think people who peek in the GC forum are gonna be annoyed at having to see a thread about the DS in its page? Maybe when it does become its own system with its own real games it'll have merit having its own forum. I applaud  your forward looking attitudes, but for now, its more of a subject of discussion and speculation for GC, GB, or any other system owners. I guess in my opinion, organisation is about allowing threads that will interest GC owners to exist in the GC forums.

Have you guys not noticed that discussion on the forums has almost died down dramatically? I wish I had some stats on the board use a year ago. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I was just new than and it seemed more exciting, but it seems like most discussion has stopped, and not because people weren't here, but because every thread got shut down.

Just to look, of the 20 threads on the GC front page right now:

5 are locked (1 sticky)

6 have over 100 posts, the earliest of those was started last Dec (RE4) so its had 4 months now to get to its size. Some of the rest have been around for over a year so alot of that discussion isn't even recent. The HM:AWL thread was started 2 months ago and has just shy of 100 posts It's locked now.

The rest ( have, on average, 10 posts each. TEN! That's hardly any discussion at all. That's boring! You know why? Cause theres nothing to talk about in 'em.   The highest post of those is Paper Mario 2 which is at 50 and should probably also be locked since theres a undoubtably a Talkback thread about it too.

Anything worth talking about gets told it should move and or locked for being a poll or locked because some mod just feels like being an ass that day. Who cares if your story was up before IGNs. Put up a post about it and point people to the story. If you've got better content (which isn't hard considering we're talking about IGN here) then people will read what you've got. If all you do is post press releases without even interesting/funny comments, don't expect a ton of traffic.

Consolidating more (not necessarily all) of the traffic could theoretically help spark up more discussion. Surely if you broadened the topics, there'd be more to talk about. Anyways, its just a suggestion. Maybe other people do check each forum every day for new interesting posts. I guess I'm apparently the exception, but being on dialup, its a lot of work to load three different forums to find whos talking about FireEmblem. I don't get the feeling you're really willing to listen to suggestions, but there they are. Take 'em or leave 'em.

[Bloodworth]

The funny part is that we continually get more lax on the rules only to get more complaining.  I think the discussion is getting killed more by wanna-be moderators than anything we're doing.  

[DrZoidberg]

also should be noted it's pre E3.. a generaly quiet period for the games industry

[mouse_clicker]

Bloodworth's right- I wonder how long you've been aroundm WesDawg. The rules used to be a lot more strict than they are now, and were enforced more ruthlessly- my first name on the EZBoards was banned on my first post for advertising. In any case, I think the reason a lot of users have gone all vigilante is because they were use to the rules being strictly enforced and when that strictness is loosened even just a little bit, they take it upon themselves to produce the same result. That's not a reflection on anyone in particular, just a thought.

[KnowsNothing]

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Maybe when it does become its own system with its own real games it'll have merit having its own forum

It is its own system wiht its own games.  They're just not out yet. =o

I have a suggestion to for the mods.  How about actually deleting more threads.  For example, the "Back in Stock" thread in the GC Disscussion has NO conversation in it.  If people are complaning about the locked threads cluttering things up or that there are too many, just delete the threads entirely.  You'd lock things like the HM Ask-a-question-get-an-answer thread because somebody might want to read it.  better yet, you could've left it open and just moved it to the Help section (unless there was already a thread about that there, i haven't looked).

Anyway, just a suggestion.  I say we ban MC, too, because once you're banned you're banned for good, right?

[Bloodworth]

heh I do clean out some of the old locks from time to time, but whenever I just delete something, it ends up returning since the original poster has no idea what happened.

[KDR_11k]

Why not mail he poster then? After all, we got mails after every thread move, this should be possible.