Kevin's Watch

Ya, Ryzel I definitely don't see your point..

I see Ryzel's point, but I disagree about what constitutes a thread. A thread should be something distinct, like a chapter (of course, if you're like Robert Jordan then each new book is a reason to repeat at least five chapter's worth of information). What I think might work better for what Ryzel has in mind is a kind of general forum (which i think is up now) where we can beat the proverbial dead horse and not worry about being redundant.

If you want to rant every monday that Foul is the anti-christ ( ) in a forum that is fluid and possibly not archived nobody would complain, i think (we might think you a bit loony...).

i'd suggest that we all go through the backlog and bump the topics we think are unique or should be kept, and after a couple weeks or so, let the rest go to the graveyard. repeat every quarter or so as necessary.

I'm not sure I like the graveyard idea .. archiving of old topics is good but not entirely disposing of them .. thats a waste of a good resource imo.

.. and surely thats where mods come in .. to clean up stagnant 4-5 post topics that dont look like they're going anywhere .. anytime soon. Even then .. it still can be difficult to tell.


deleting any older topic isnt a good idea.

. The problem I keep hearing with a repetition of threads .. is not the accumulation of threads but more to the point ~ the repetition of arguement

This is what is irritating a lot of posters here .. I have received a number of complaints about this aspect .. moreso than the fact that the repetition of threads is contributing to a heftier thread catalogue.

I think Ryzel has got some good ideas .. that could work well .. archiving rather than deleting pemanently from cyber-space .. and I like his FAQ forum idea .. I think these 2 ideas are workable.

Baring in mind that a FAQ sheet is where you can go to get answers to most of your general/simple questions.

Having a FAQ forum .. or even a FAQ thread is a goer imo ..

A place to go to ask those general questions or make general statements .. that once asked and answered the need for arguement is over .. sounds cool!

good job Ryzel!

the duchess of malfi just sent me a pm

duchess of malfi wrote:If you're thinking of a faq forum, you might want to check out the one at one of the boards where I'm a member. it's called A Song of Ice and Fire, and it's linked to the Hangar on the ezboard ring. Or if my link works (always a chancey thing) try pub26.ezboard.com/basoiaf
There is a board faq and a faq forum, the one that applies to the watch would be the forum.

I've just checked it out .. and it is a really good idea! A FAQ forum .. with a FAQ intro page and a page of Question Proposals .. to address possible questions as they arise .. is a workable and practical idea that would work here too! If you want to go see .. check out the FAQ intro page first .. it explains the rules and why-fors .. I say lets do it!

ASOIF .. is a huge board .. one that we can learn a lot from .. give the FAQ forum a gander

pub26.ezboard.com/fasoiaffrm6

Yeah...I don't know if I like the graveyard idea either. It sounds like an easy way to confuse newbies. And me. Heh. I really think our current system is pretty good. I think there are two cases.

1) If a new person posts a general topic that we are already discussing (AKA the idea of a Covenant Movie), then we should refer the new person to the topic in thier post and close their new topic.

2) If a person posts a topic with a new twist to an already existing topic, then perhaps we can just leave the topic up. Because sometimes a person may want to take an existing topic in a new direction and doesn't want to disturb the current flow of the existing topic.

So, basically, we can decide on a topic by topic basis if the topic is completely redundant or not. If it is, we can just refer and lock.-jay

Sevothtarte wrote: Well, my soul's long been sold, but I'll do it anyway.

Great ! I think as indicated, we can create a FAQ that isn't a FAQ as such but something that's informative and interesting......We may not know what we might achieve until we have a bash We have some extremely intelligent and witty people here so we should at least have a stab at it...if it falls apart then we can always delete all remnants thereof and kill all the witnesses

Archiving...now that sounds like a cool concept but I'm not too sure if this forum code supports it....I'll have to check

I think we're having some healthy discussion around the topic - and that's a good thing but I'm hoping I won't have to implement those WAR smileys

What would this FAQ say? I've been to the FAQ Discussion on ASOIAF, and read their FAQ, but what would ours have in it?

in the FAQ forum .. there are FAQ discussion pages .. to accomodate progressive fact finding .. it just evolves by itself .. They made it clear they werent going to write up a definitive FAQ page and leave it at that .. cos FAQ questions arise all the time ..

We could do likewise ~ open a FAQ forum and include FAQ pages as a means of addressing definitive questions that arise by various posters as time goes by ..

Then doesn't that defeat the purpose of a discussion forum? I mean, why post if you can just read the FAQ that answers an average readers quesitons? Hey, I'm not supporting repetitive threads here, I just don't like the idea of an FAQ.

I would think it would be more for a very few select things that come up again and again. The majority of things would still come to this forum...

would eliminate the opening line of, "I don't know if this has been discussed before or not, but..."

guilty of using that once or twice myself.

Weighing in a little late in the game, but still...

I could see an FAQ for threads that are essentially facts:

• What are the latest rumors on whether SRD is writing a 3d Chrons?
  Where are all the SRD interviews on the web? (Maybe this belongs on the Links page, but an FAQ topic could point folks to the Links page.)
  Who would you cast in the TCTC movie/play?
  etc.

I like the idea of a Graveyard area for threads that have not been posted to within the last, say, 3 months. But I don't like the idea of deleting old threads; I'd rather see them archived (unless server space is an issue). A lot of us put a lot of time and thought into those old threads and I'd hate to see them just disappear into the ether.

Okay, I have thought this over and have concluded that...

An FAQ Discussion would be better than a graveyard forum. However...

I don't see what stops a new member from making a thread that is almost indentical to a thread in the FAQ. That is problem we have to sort out..

That happens on a nearly daily basis over at ASOIAF. Usually an older member gives a gentle reply recommending that the new person please read the faq. But they have a whole lot more members than we do here, so hopefully it won't be as much of a problem?

nothing stops newbies from doing stupid things (and we've all been newbies at one time), but that's what mods are for. pm newbie, refer to appropriate thread, delete redundant thread.

Question: would threads in the FAQ Discussion be locked, or open for newbies and seniority alike?

I would hope that they'd be open to everyone -- Newbies are people, too! But seriously, just because someone has only newly found his/her way here doesn't mean that they might not have something great and new to contribute to an old arguement.

Syl wrote:

but that's what mods are for...

I try 2 do that, sometimes they listen, most times they don't!

heh, that's when you bring down your staff of law, so to speak, and teach 'em to respect your authoritah.

No doubt someone else has already mentioned this, but I'll take the trouble to say it again.

I have noticed that other discussion forums tend to group threads.

KW already does that to a certain extent, e.g. "Thomas Covenant Discussion," "Mordant's Need Discussion," etc.

I would propose that each of those main topics need to be divided into sub-topics. For instance, under the Thomas Covenant Discussion, it might be useful to have the subtopics, like "The First Chronicles." "The Second Chronicles," "The Third Chronicles," or "The Worm at The World's End" or "All About Giants" or "SRD's Sources."

Then all the threads that are specifically about the worm would be together under one subtopic and so forth.

Some things won't neatly fit into one catagory, but that's life.

If you have never explored TolkienOnline give it a look see. I think it's an excellent website and well organized. Of course, it's older than KW. (No I am not a member, but I think Hearthcoal was, at least for a while.)

- Seasauce