Marco(2) Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 Hi all, The Atari 2600 message board on AtariAge must be one of the most visited classic video gaming boards on the Net. Because of that it's getting hard to follow all the topics that are being opened every day. Before you know it, a topic has disappeared from the first viewing page again. I sometimes feel some topics deserve far more attention, but they just get burried in the flux of posts. So, I was wondering: given the high number of posts on the Atari 2600 board would it be an idea to generate a handful of new subdivisions to make the board better accessible and readable. Divsions could be something like: Atari 2600 Gameplay Atari 2600 Hardware Atari 2600 Game Development Atari 2600 Collecting Issues Atari 2600 Etcetera I know this would partially interfere with some of the other general boards on AtariAge, but I think it would greatly enhance the navigability of the Atari 2600 board. Any thoughts? Cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 Your idea has merit, Marco., but I'm not sure it would help. You see right now everybody just kind of uses the 2600 board as a General Topic board (everything from Hardware issues to Gaming, to Off-topic), I'm guilty of it occasionally, I try to post in the appropriate place, but from time to time I slip up and just post everything in the 2600 board. I think this is due to the amount of traffic that board gets. If you post something there, people ARE going to see it. (which technically is ridiculous, if you post anywhere people are going to see it, perhaps I should say, "People are more likely to read it). I think if everybody made a more concerted effort to keep stray posts where they belong and reserve the 2600 board just for 2600 GAMING discussion that would help out a lot. Your point is well recieved, but I fear that even if you did break the 2600 board up, people would continue to post a majority of their items in the category that gets the most attention, just to be sure it gets read. I'd be interested to hear what the front office has to say about this. Alex? Albert? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nostalgic Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 I have occasionally wanted to see the 2600 board broken into sub-boards, mostly because there are sometimes an awful lot of "poll" questions (i.e. "which do you like better, A or B"). These are things that commonly inhabit listservs as well as bulletin boards and could be moved to another section or even off-site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted November 18, 2001 Share Posted November 18, 2001 quoteI have occasionally wanted to see the 2600 board broken into sub-boards, mostly because there are sometimes an awful lot of "poll" questions (i.e. "which do you like better, A or B"). These are things that commonly inhabit listservs as well as bulletin boards and could be moved to another section or even off-site. BUT, they are atari 2600 related, and it is in the intrest of the board viewer to be able to read opnions of different games to pick the best one out for thier collection. Moving these kinds of discussions offline would create bad fallout among many atarians, including me. I think a subdivision would work fine, something like 2600 - collectors corner or something, where you can inquire about what games are better, share your finds, bring back nostalgia, share tips for thrifting, it coul d have a wide number of uses so not to anger the visitors who are disturbed by the new section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco(2) Posted November 18, 2001 Author Share Posted November 18, 2001 Hmm, interesting point, Ben. I hadn't looked at it that way... I was just expressing my feelings (frustration is too big a word) about reading the board lately. Somehow I feel uncomfortable. With Stan's and Ben's points well-taken, I guess adding new forums isn't the solution... Cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 I'm not shooting down the idea of branching forums, although I somehow feel the site could contract a couple (merge Web Site Comments with Web Site Changes, and do something with Classic Gaming General?). My main concern is liek Ben said, no matter how many forums you create, you cannot make people post where they are supposed to. I suppose Alex and Albert could move them to their appropriate catergory, but that would seem somewhat totalitarian and I'm sure they don't want to do something like that. I think the best solution is for EVERYONE to make a concerted effort to post topics under the appropriate groupings. But I do see your point Marco. Something I posted a day or so ago on 2600 is already on page 2 (maybe 3?) You can lead a Stan to water..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 I'm not sure I want to splinter the 2600 board any more, for the reasons given above. A decent portion of the threads would really be more appropriate in other forums, but people want maximum exposure and feel they will get it in the 2600 forum, right or wrong. I think that a "times viewed" counter would be a step in the right direction. I've considered moving posts to other forums, but we try to avoid too much moderation unless it's absolutely necessary. But for now, I think adding more forums would just complicate matters - you'd still want to follow all the posts, but you'd have to do it in multiple sub-forums. I'm not sure how helpful that would be in regard to threads becoming buried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 could actually have the reverse effect and bury them more. I'm personally glad you guys don't move stuff around all the time and try to be overly oppressive. The community has a much more even flow that way. You guys do the best job ever! Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Weis Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 HI Guys, i'm a newbie to these message boards.. this is one of the first boards i do post in... could the problem be more that you are getting more and more "newbies" to these boards? since atariage started doing auctions i'm sure that has added more hits to their website and more people interested in finding out about atari 2600 stuff! maybe alex or albert could e-mail all members to just let them know (remind them) when you start a NEW topic to make sure you put it in the right board? mostly when i post it's not untill after i post (new topic) that i think hummm... i should have posted that there not here.... so i'm very guilty of doing this but not because of the traffic to the atari 2600 board. (just a newbies point of veiw) Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 I believe that the 2600 message board gets the most traffic because it's the first message board in the list. If we ordered them some other way, whatever happened to be first in the list would probably see a considerable amount of traffic. If people read the boards in sequential fashion, they may only have time to browse through the messages posted to the 2600 forum before running out of time or being distracted by something else in their lives. Perhaps Alex and I should write some general posting guidelines and periodically post them to the the 2600 board in an attempt to keep people focused on the topic at hand. As Alex said, we try not to be heavy handed in our moderation of the boards and this has generally worked pretty well. But I do agree with Marco that it can be tough wading through all the messages posted to the 2600 forum, and some topics that merit more attention quickly scroll off the first page, where they may not be seen by many people. I'm not too keen on fragmenting the 2600 forum as I think it'll just confuse people and in the end everyone will probably just post to the first 2600 board anyway. As Ben mentioned, there are already a fair number of boards and adding even more may be a bit too overwhelming for some. I think the best approach is to gently educate people to use the message board most appropriate for the topic they are starting. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhindle The Red Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 Maybe if you guys are more heavy handed for a while and move a bunch of off-topic posts people will start to get the hint. I'd certainly appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jun Kazama Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 haha well i can definatly say i am guilty of posting things in the wrong forums i stopped doing it though when i showed my friend my post and he laughed at me he thought it was so funny where i had put it so i stopped doing that. As for the traffic alex and albert should probably move post arounds occasionaly or maybe we could just make fun of whoever post it for posting it in the wrong place that stopped me from doing it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted November 19, 2001 Share Posted November 19, 2001 heavy handed moderation tends to pardon language but really piss me off. communities are communities, not totaltarian edited moved around forums. That is what is GREAT about this place, is the kindness and "gentle education" (too lazy to use the quoyte code) is the best way to get things done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco(2) Posted November 21, 2001 Author Share Posted November 21, 2001 One other thread is about a chat for this channel. I was wondering if a chat might cut back the number of posts. You see lots of inter-member messaging these days (I do it too): several (short) messages going back and forth between two posters. Any thoughts anyone? cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted November 21, 2001 Share Posted November 21, 2001 Chatting is very good for intermember discussion, but the problem is a problem that is odd in the way to control it.. archival. I understand not everything said is important, like if i was talking to marco about what he likes the most about owning a brazil 2600 modem. But if something starts up and there is a thought provoking discussion, 1. It wont be archived for future refrernce, and 2. if your not theer you miss out on it. The great thing about mesaage boards is i can find a post from 2 days or 2 months ago and chime in, in a chat you dont have that option. Im not really sure what the best option is, but i have noticed less non 2600 stuff over at the 2600 boards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ze_ro Posted November 21, 2001 Share Posted November 21, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Alex: you'd still want to follow all the posts, but you'd have to do it in multiple sub-forums. I'm not sure how helpful that would be in regard to threads becoming buried. I'm way too lazy to do this Hell, sometimes I won't bother checking the Jaguar and Lynx boards at all when I visit, just because I'm too lazy to load up previous pages... Personally, I like things the way they are... but then, I visit this page often enough that the speed of the posts isn't a problem for me. --Zero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco(2) Posted November 23, 2001 Author Share Posted November 23, 2001 quote: Originally posted by liquid_sky: Chatting is very good for intermember discussion, but the problem is a problem that is odd in the way to control it.. archival. That's not too much of a problem. It's pretty easy to archive everything that's being said in a chatroom. AtariAge could put the logs up on the site. Cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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