Any chance of splitting the OTD into two or more forums?

[Patrick Curtin]

It seems the OTD is kinda all over the place. You have the political/religious debates, more 'social' threads like the FAWTLY towers, funny threads like Untitled, etc. etc. Ever given any thought to splitting these up into different forums? That way if you really didn't want to watch the constant trainwreck/flamefest of the political/religious threads you could close it up without sacrificing the funnier side of the OTD. I would sort it into three broad categories:

• Political/religious discussions
• Non-gaming Q&A (like where's so-and-so, do you like hot dogs, etc...)
• 'Truly' OTD (cult threads, silly stuff, etc.)

Oh and I still think there should be a free-form RPG forum. Switching the last free-form game from OTD to PbP killed it deader than Factol Skall :P

[Tordek Rumnaheim]

Patrick Curtin wrote:

It seems the OTD is kinda all over the place. You have the political/religious debates, more 'social' threads like the FAWTLY towers, funny threads like Untitled, etc. etc. Ever given any thought to splitting these up into different forums? That way if you really didn't want to watch the constant trainwreck/flamefest of the political/religious threads you could close it up without sacrificing the funnier side of the OTD. I would sort it into three broad categories:

• Political/religious discussions
• Non-gaming Q&A (like where's so-and-so, do you like hot dogs, etc...)
• 'Truly' OTD (cult threads, silly stuff, etc.)

Oh and I still think there should be a free-form RPG forum. Switching the last free-form game from OTD to PbP killed it deader than Factol Skall :P

+1

[A Man In Black]

-1. One of the greatest navigation issues with these forums is that they're hopelessly splintered into many tiny subforums. Splitting them even more only makes them even worse.

[Mike Welham]

Tordek Rumnaheim wrote:

Patrick Curtin wrote:

It seems the OTD is kinda all over the place. You have the political/religious debates, more 'social' threads like the FAWTLY towers, funny threads like Untitled, etc. etc. Ever given any thought to splitting these up into different forums? That way if you really didn't want to watch the constant trainwreck/flamefest of the political/religious threads you could close it up without sacrificing the funnier side of the OTD. I would sort it into three broad categories:

• Political/religious discussions
• Non-gaming Q&A (like where's so-and-so, do you like hot dogs, etc...)
• 'Truly' OTD (cult threads, silly stuff, etc.)

Oh and I still think there should be a free-form RPG forum. Switching the last free-form game from OTD to PbP killed it deader than Factol Skall :P

+1

+2

I find OTD to be a cluttered mess, and I'd like to be able to get to the more truly OTD threads without having to wade through flame bait threads du jour.

[Mairkurion {tm}]

Yes, please.

[Kevin Mack]

Yes please (although I would be happy with just having a separate forum for artwork requests and a place to put links for said artwork)

[Urizen]

<-- dittohead for this thread

[Crimson Jester]

Yes please.

[Patrick Curtin]

A Man In Black wrote:

-1. One of the greatest navigation issues with these forums is that they're hopelessly splintered into many tiny subforums. Splitting them even more only makes them even worse.

Simple fix:

• Go to the main messageboard list.
• Look for the subforums you don't care about
• hit the little triangle by the subforums' names
• Said subforums disappear from your view.

That way you will only view those forums you decide you are interested in. I know I did for the entire 4E forum, and now I just recently returned to the OTD after a long absence. It even takes any postings off your main page as well.

[taig]

Once Gary or Ross make "focus" work across the sub-forums, you'll be able to see all the threads you care about, without worrying about fragmentation.

[hogarth]

Patrick Curtin wrote:

Simple fix:

• Go to the main messageboard list.
• Look for the subforums you don't care about
• hit the little triangle by the subforums' names
• Said subforums disappear from your view.

That way you will only view those forums you decide you are interested in.

Of course, that doesn't help if you're actually interested in all three subforums.

(I already have the OTD subforum minimized, so I don't care. +0)

[Celestial Healer]

+1more in favor of the split.

[Andrew Turner]

I like the OTD thread the way it is--it's like walking into a library with a blindfold on and selecting a book at random. Sometimes it's a gem, sometimes a lump of used charcoal.

If you don't want to be involved with any of the political or religious threads, just don't click on them.

[Gary Teter]

I dunno. In general I think we have way way way too many forums. I'd like to have fewer. But each one kind of has a reason for existing, and, yeah, I actually want to add a couple because they're appropriate and necessary.

Maybe global focus would help. Maybe thread soup.

[Vic Wertz]

I'm also not keen on having a separate forum for political and religious discussion. There's a cultural difference between having a place where people can discuss *anything*, and having a place where people can specifically discuss those things.

That is to say, putting up a section for people to specifically discuss those things is kind of like telling the internet "Paizo has a place for anyone to discuss religion and politics," and that's not really what we have. We have a place for gamers to discuss stuff.

[Patrick Curtin]

Gary and Vic wrote:

Thumbs & tentacles down

Ah well, such as it must be. I guess I'll wait for this 'focus' thing to go online and just keep the OTD closed for now and try to follow the few I like there via bookmarks.

*sigh*

So, what about that whole Free-form RPG forum? That out too?

[Aberzombie]

Patrick Curtin wrote:

Gary and Vic wrote:

Thumbs & tentacles down

Ah well, such as it must be. I guess I'll wait for this 'focus' thing to go online and just keep the OTD closed for now and try to follow the few I like there via bookmarks.

*sigh*

So, what about that whole Free-form RPG forum? That out too?

It was a good try monkey. But, hey, I'm sure that one day people will get tired of discussing politics/religion stuff around here.

Wow.....I even kept a straight face while I was typing that.

[Patrick Curtin]

Aberzombie wrote:

It was a good try monkey. But, hey, I'm sure that one day people will get tired of discussing politics/religion stuff around here.

Wow.....I even kept a straight face while I was typing that.

Well, Gawd knows I certainly did. I guess the OTD will burn on, regardless. There's always another troll under the bridge ...

[Aberzombie]

Patrick Curtin wrote:

There's always another troll under the bridge ...

Yeah, but that's why Prometheus gave us fire, and Teter gave us smurfing....

[A Man In Black]

Patrick Curtin wrote:

Simple fix:

• Go to the main messageboard list.
• Look for the subforums you don't care about
• hit the little triangle by the subforums' names
• Said subforums disappear from your view.

That way you will only view those forums you decide you are interested in. I know I did for the entire 4E forum, and now I just recently returned to the OTD after a long absence. It even takes any postings off your main page as well.

The problem is figuring out where a thread should go or where a thread is/has been moved to. Hiding forums only makes that even more annoying.