OOT, something sam brought up

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I wanted to respond to this earlier but I got distracted by some POSiness instead.

I strongly agree with you Sam about you, NT and other OOT mods needing to come up with a new set of rules and guidelines based your vision of OOT.

the great thing about that forum is the culture is always changing, old problems are solved, new problems arise.

I also think doing so will set this current era of OOT apart from mine and atro's both of which were great at the time but which also I don't think suit the current forum.

I also agree that its important to differentiate OOT from BBV or El Diablo's forum so that its remains something fun and unique rather than just becoming the default forum.

[Gildwulf]

You both raise some good points. OOT really has its work cut out for it to separate itself from El Diablo forum. bbv/BBV4life has got the irreverent humor, El Diablo has highbrow and now OOT is caught in an identity crisis of sorts. Definitely going to be interesting over the next few months to see how these forums progress and feed off each other.

[citanul]

the thing that's been bothering me with oot lately, and i mean only really recently:

we're seeing a return wave of the most frequently posted oot threads ever.

omg, a new post on how to shave your nuts! omg!

i think that i would read the forum more if i weren't disgusted to see the same damn thread over and over. i've reported like 2 of these to moderator, but then i got tired of it.

[4_2_it]

citanul,

Are you saying that you are not looking forward to my "How much should I tip the florist for Valentine's Day" thread?


FWIW, I agree with you. OOT does go in cycles, but this rut is getting old.

[samjjones]

One need only to read the archives to see that basically 95% of OOT threads have already been done at some point or another. This was actually my biggest pet peeve, and the main reason I wanted to be a moderator was to try and help reduce repetitive/zero content threads. I try to lock the ones I can, but if we locked every thread that has already been done, we'd be locking 95% of the threads we get. I'd also suspect that the vast majority of threads in BBV4Life have also already been done in OOT. That's just the nature of the internet.

But the 5% of threads which are really original are what make OOT (and basically all of the similar "lifestyle" forums) worthwhile. My concern is with the plethora of similar forums, that "original" posters/threads will choose to post somewhere else instead of OOT. To prevent this from happening, we need to be more creative than the other guy in engaging our readership.

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to continue step one I think is to determine exactly what you see as the problems and what your vision of the forum is. this is critical

once you've done that, then its just matter of constructing rules to help create that environment. which also of course means reevaluating the current rules as well, if it involves scraping stuff I came up with then so be it, getting rid of * policy, or reexamining the train wreck rule. I don't think the current mods should be held back by the legacy of the past when its no longer appropriate.

[NT!]

cit is right, there have been a lot of repeat threads lately. i'm never sure what the threshold should be for how recently a thread has been done. sometimes i think, oh, we did this last week, and it turns out it's actually been a few months and i'm just OLD SCHOOL.

i was just rereading the sticky and there was a lot of stuff i felt good about. i think it's overall a good sticky, could probably be shorter, take out some of the introductory crap, whittle it down a bit.

i'm a little ambivalent about articulating the 'niche' of OOT. OOT has for a long time been the sort of niche-less forum, and only recently have we started seeing a number of off-topic forums come into existence for specific demographics. BBV for the kids, Diablo for the grownups or those who like to think they are, The Lounge for... [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] awww i won't even do it.

it's a newish thing and i guess i'm saying i don't know exactly how we should or shouldn't respond. in some ways i think the new forums and demographic shifts should move us towards a LESS regulated OOT, because other forums are starting to (successfully, at last) fill the more 'mature' niche. but in other ways i know that OOT will continue to suck more and more if we let people keep posting the same utter dreck.

there's a sort of institutional mindset in OOT because it's got a large pre-existing base of users. makes it hard to spawn the kind of creativity and spontanaiety of BBV or Diablo's forum.

that's about all for now, i got class. just some stuff to chew on.

NT

[samjjones]

Also, please note that I refuse to use "fora" in lieu of "forums".

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[ QUOTE ]
o prevent this from happening, we need to be more creative than the other guy in engaging our readership.

[/ QUOTE ]

completely agree. I still think OOT has a valuable spot on 2p2 and there are some things which happen in that forum that will never be done as well in others.

on the subject of repeated topics, i've always thought the determining factor should be how much thought as the OP put into creating his/her thread

[samjjones]

One other thing...we will likely need to find either an internal or external replacement for Nick B. He did a TON of mod dirty work, and his loss will be felt. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he, NT!, and myself were basically the "active" mods in OOT. My work responsibilities essentially restrict the amount of time I can spend actively patrolling the forum, and to be honest, I am probably better suited for the bigger picture/overall quality realm than administrative duty. Somebody will have to step up and fill Nick B.'s shoes.