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OT or not OT that is the question.......

northernlou

northernlou

Idi Admin
Hey all...

As you may be aware, I closed the OT News/Politics mega thread on the Habs board after noticing how much action the San Bernardino thread garnered as a stand alone thread.....and how watered down the old mega OT news thread had become. I'm convinced the SB/Paris Shooting thread, would not have done as well buried in the old "news thread". Mega threads go everywhere, lose focus, and often to a series new postings or two that on a stand alone thread....would quickly drop off the board due to a lack of general interest.

I think that's the key, OT subjects that will attract more posters and activity. An OT subject living or dying on merit alone, meaning the promotion of OT subjects that have mass appeal/activity.

On the other hand, we had a lot of OT threads on the Habs board before I closed the OT News thread. I'm not crazy about going back to a news mega thread, imo, we have too many mega threads, which in effect, focus less on current news of whatever subject. However, we have options.

Another possible remedy is to open a new and more free wheeling OT sub forum on the Habs Board.....while the Habs board stays devoted to hockey, or even only other sports. We also have an existing news forum that we could use.....seriously we do. But its far away or sumthin'. There are options though..

My main thinking here is to find ways to promote more posts/activity, because I believe it best for the board.

What are your thoughts......change or no change, and why?....Thanks.
 
IMO... Keep the board as much about hockey as possible... its a hockey board

While OT threads pop up, they should be minimal.

When I want to talk politics, the Habs board on FI isn't the first place I'm looking for.... and when I want to talk hockey, I'm not headed to a political board.

Also when it comes to new users... I wouldn't have signed up here if the first time I saw the site, it was as many OT threads as Hockey ones.

That's my take.
 
The number of threads (OT or otherwise) does not bother me. In fact, I prefer it when they are specific. It takes seconds to scan the thread titles -- it takes much longer to wade through a thread to find the desired content.
 
Oh great and OT thread about OT threads....typical.
:p

I think in the offseason having more OT threads in fine but I would like there to be a mega thread during the season.

Of course for big events like an election or terrorist attack they could have their own thread. But something like the refugee issue or gun control debate could be in a mega thread.
 
I also like there being less OT threads, especially during the season.

So my vote would be for the return of the megathread or if people want more, a sub-forum could work.
 
yes, I am channeling my inner reactionary, no change.

OT should be news

MLB

Football

etc

No need for one on shootings, etc

I know I have started some of those threads too so I am not without fault but if there is a rule, all stuff goes into the one thread, we can abide by it
 
still leaves us with a lot of OT threads....and counting.

I think Ben made a valid point about his reason for posting here and what originally attracted him (and probably others) to ForumIce. I believe we've gotten away from our original premise of being 'first and foremost'....a hockey board.

At this time we have strayed away from that. It's not just that new users aren't overwhelming us, lots of one time frequent posters, are no longer......and I'm not sure why, but supporting the status quo doesn't seem to be the answer to me.
 
posters come and go. Webboards are pretty much passé now. People just tweet about stuff now, or post on FB groups. I doubt you can say that people stopped posting due to OT threads. If someone were to do that, that is on them as you can simply bypass the thread in it's entirety.
 
perhaps so, but we aren't highlighting or selling current Habs news either with serial threads that aren't as user friendly as scanning thread titles like Chiggs mentioned. And yes, messageboards are not what they used to be, but neither is ours, hence my perceived need for change to try and fight that.

anyway, everyone's thoughts and ideas will rule the day if we can reach some consensus.
 
I prefer the megathread also as there are many things that don't really require their own thread. I don't mind the OT threads. If I'm interested I'll read it and if not, I'll ignore it.
 
TheCountofMonteCristo said:
posters come and go. Webboards are pretty much passé now. People just tweet about stuff now, or post on FB groups. I doubt you can say that people stopped posting due to OT threads. If someone were to do that, that is on them as you can simply bypass the thread in it's entirety.
Click to expand...

To be clear I don't stop posting cause i'm here now and part of the community.

I'm saying that when i first visited this board... before i posted anything... if i saw 10 OT threads on the front page of the habs board, it would have been a turn off.
 
BKerr said:
To be clear I don't stop posting cause i'm here now and part of the community.

I'm saying that when i first visited this board... before i posted anything... if i saw 10 OT threads on the front page of the habs board, it would have been a turn off.
Click to expand...

So we lost our chance. :smilewinkgrin:
 
XPOFAN said:
I prefer the megathread also as there are many things that don't really require their own thread. I don't mind the OT threads. If I'm interested I'll read it and if not, I'll ignore it.
Click to expand...

the many things that don't "require' their own thread, don't do so b/c, inherently, they aren't great conversation starters. Which is what I'm saying. A quality topic is one that attracts posts which is a positive for the viability of this board.
 
BKerr said:
IMO... Keep the board as much about hockey as possible... its a hockey board

While OT threads pop up, they should be minimal.

When I want to talk politics, the Habs board on FI isn't the first place I'm looking for.... and when I want to talk hockey, I'm not headed to a political board.

Also when it comes to new users... I wouldn't have signed up here if the first time I saw the site, it was as many OT threads as Hockey ones.

That's my take.
Click to expand...

I disagree with this post completely.

I like the people (or most anyways) and I like discussing more than hockey with them. I've been posting with most of the people here for over a decade. If someone isn't interested in a topic... don't open the thread.

Don't get me wrong, it will always be a hockey board... but we can definitely talk about many topics.
 
I like the "mega thread" for smaller news items but with bigger news items like the shootings and elections I like the specified threads.

Kinda like what we've been doing I guess... maybe we can have a few more specified thread for bigger items.
 
That is the salient question....how many users come here for the quality people (XPO not included) or the topic?
 
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