"Individual" club threads

[freshy]

The problem is, we moderators don't want to have to read through page after page of threads about clubs we don't care about. Reading 8 pages of turgid nonsense and conjecture regarding Spurs and their nearly signing world class players or Newcastle and their never winning anything ever is really, really boring

These threads are dull. Very dull. No-one but the fans of the club in question and the mods reads them. Individual threads mean someone will browse because of the subject rather than the club. much better

Indeed, so rather than this problem being reserved exclusivley for new members as previously intimated, mods themselves don't want to read 'through page after page of threads about clubs we don't care about'.

I wouldn't say I cared about any of the clubs but still liked the threads. I was able to push my own arguments in related issues so the thread was actually quite varied. Are the club threads restricted or heavily varied: the mods seem to give different standpoints!

And I don't think the threads are dull at all. My opinion of course. But I believe it is fact that they attract beyond the fans of the respective clubs.

Of course I agree that individual subject threads might provide clarity and organisation - but at what cost?

Indeed if it was the whole 'people don't go into these threads because they don't care about the clubs (sic)' then a general day to day football thread would be a solution. If the motive if that the mods cannot deal with the overload of varied information then that is another matter...

 

[Gilly]

Couldn't the whole case have been put forward to us like that right from the start?

If you had told us the threads were getting closed because it's easier to moderate individual threads then I for one would have accepted it far easier than all of the BS excuses in the OP.

Panzer

Nothing I have said excludes any of the reasons in the OP. They're all still valid and correct.

Indeed, so rather than this problem being reserved exclusivley for new members as previously intimated, mods themselves don't want to read 'through page after page of threads about clubs we don't care about'.

Did you miss the smilie?

I wouldn't say I cared about any of the clubs but still liked the threads. I was able to push my own arguments in related issues so the thread was actually quite varied. Are the club threads restricted or heavily varied: the mods seem to give different standpoints!

This may be news to you but mods are people too, with their own opinions no less!

But I believe it is fact that they attract beyond the fans of the respective clubs.

You believe it is fact? :/

Of course I agree that individual subject threads might provide clarity and organisation - but at what cost?

Cost? No cost whatsoever.

Indeed if it was the whole 'people don't go into these threads because they don't care about the clubs (sic)' then a general day to day football thread would be a solution. If the motive if that the mods cannot deal with the overload of varied information then that is another matter...

Cannot and should not are different things.

 

[freshy]

Did you miss the smilie?

Oh I apologise for that one, whilst I did see the smilie I did assume that you were making a point and softening it with the smilie rather than positing a humourous comment in itself.

This may be news to you but mods are people too, with their own opinions no less!

Of course but one might expect the reasons for a forum decision like this to be based on a unified decision, such that they identified the problem, the solution etc.

You believe it is fact? :/

Yes by virtue of the fact that the posters in the threads often went beyond simple club associations.

Cost? No cost whatsoever.

At the cost of the small and inter-connected areas of interest and debate being probed. Do you not think that, for all its supposed bad points, the club threads did expand the discussion for football talk?

Cannot and should not are different things.

Cannot and should not are not mutually exclusive; whilst should not cannot be used interchangably with cannot the converse is not so true. Not being able to do something can include the fact that it goes beyond the mods remit.

But anything bringing up that issues moves away from the point that yes the threads did create unreasonable work for you guys, but my comment was trying to find a solution.

 

[Weebull]

Well, I'm going to be one of the few to back this move I guess.

The mega-thread bored me, even the Arsenal one. If you weren't in them from the start, or you missed it one day, you'd spend ages catching up, as ever latest post would be a reply to some post before it, which was a reply to one before that, and so on, and so on. Half of it wouldn't even be worth reading, just people arguing over small details.

It also meant I could no longer come here and just find out news about other clubs, since I had no reason myself to really be reading other club's threads. But I'd still like to discuss random things that happen, I just don't want to trawl through "I'd play x, y and z if I was manager" posts.

New threads give a chance for the discussion to "reset", and allow newcomers to join in sooner, instead of feeling they have a massive backlog they've missed out on.

 

[Big Kev]

Just a quick question for those who would like to keep the individual club threads, I've had a look around at a few forum sites and haven't located any of them with one big thread on certain teams, could you please post some links of sites that do this, so we can see how they've panned out, maybe giving us an indication if they work or not.

Cheers.

 

[red11]

Personally I don't mind the club threads, it has it's merits but I guess it can stifle discussion in other threads when certain topics have already been covered in the club ones.

 

[Rotty]

If you had told us the threads were getting closed because it's easier to moderate individual threads then I for one would have accepted it far easier than all of the BS excuses in the OP.

strangely enough I do appreciate the tone of that post

 

[Irish_Tom]

Just a quick question for those who would like to keep the individual club threads, I've had a look around at a few forum sites and haven't located any of them with one big thread on certain teams, could you please post some links of sites that do this, so we can see how they've panned out, maybe giving us an indication if they work or not.

I don't really see how this is relevant. If we're the first to adopt it and it works then what does it matter what other people do?

GD has very large threads for certain topics - YouTube thread for instance. This keeps GD clear of lots of individual threads posting videos.

strangely enough I do appreciate the tone of that post

Noted and I've edited my post. Thank you for leaving that one there this time.

I still think a bit of honesty would have gone down better to begin with, if it was a case of a moderating issue, rather than trying to fob us off with debatable issues of forum quality.

You're the ones with the power and control and we have to respect that, but respect can be earned as well through responsible use of that power. I would include being straight with the forum users as part of that responsibility.

Panzer

 

[Gilly]

I don't really see how this is relevant. If we're the first to adopt it and it works then what does it matter what other people do?

Why change what is brilliant? Before the individual club threads came along this was a great forum. Then they did come along and the whole forum suffered. We're going back to what was proven

I still think a bit of honesty would have gone down better to begin with, if it was a case of a moderating issue, rather than trying to fob us off with debatable issues of forum quality.

I don't want to beat you over the head with this because I don't think you're that stupid.

Mods are individuals with their own opinions. The fact that I have simply given an additional reason changes nothing from the OP.

 

[Irish_Tom]

Why change what is brilliant? Before the individual club threads came along this was a great forum. Then they did come along and the whole forum suffered. We're going back to what was proven

This is still debatable seeing how much opposition the decision has met in this thread (from non-moderators of course). All of the above is conjecture and opinion. If it's proven then I'd like to see the proof because I saw no suffering of the forum due to the club threads despite what you're saying.

I don't want to beat you over the head with this because I don't think you're that stupid.

Mods are individuals with their own opinions. The fact that I have simply given an additional reason changes nothing from the OP.

I appreciate that and I'm not that stupid

My issue from the start has been that the threads were closed and this thread was created telling us "this is how it's going to be" rather than asking us if we agreed with your (the mods) point of view and putting the decision to the community.

The OP mentions nothing about the decision making it easier to moderate the forum and the inclusion of this small detail would have made it easier (for me at least) to digest and accept the decision because it would have been a practical reason rather than an opinionated one.

I've said I'm willing to give it a try and I've also said that I wont willingly try and make it fail. However, since the closure of the club threads I've seen no reversion back to 'the good old times' that I seem to have been oblivious to anyway.

If you noticed I started a thread in an attempt to continue a discussion that was in full swing in one of the club threads but it was ignored or went unnoticed and is now back on page 5. I would hardly call that an increase in discussion activity...

I'm not arguing for arguments sake. We obviously have different opinions about the state of forum before and after the introduction of club threads. You're the ones in the position to make the changes and I suppose because I'm not I have to accept them. I still stand by my earlier statement that it wasn't the decision itself so much as the way it was implemented that got to me.

Panzer

 

[Big Kev]

I don't really see how this is relevant. If we're the first to adopt it and it works then what does it matter what other people do?

We don't think it works, so I simply asked if anyone knew of any other forum sites that use individual club threads, to see if it works elsewhere, so what's the problem?

GD has a thread dedicated to Youtube videos, not quite the same really, is it.GD has very large threads for certain topics - YouTube thread for instance. This keeps GD clear of lots of individual threads posting videos.

The GD has very large threads for certain topics, enough said.

If you noticed I started a thread in an attempt to continue a discussion that was in full swing in one of the club threads but it was ignored or went unnoticed and is now back on page 5. I would hardly call that an increase in discussion activity...

There's a very obvious answer to that.

 

[Irish_Tom]

We don't think it works, so I simply asked if anyone knew of any other forum sites that use individual club threads, to see if it works elsewhere, so what's the problem?

It wasn't a problem, it was just irrelevant.

The GD has very large threads for certain topics, enough said.

The club = the topic no?

There's a very obvious answer to that.

I would agree except that the subject was being discussed within the club thread. If the thread hadn't been closed we would probably still be discussing it (especially based on our last two performances).

Panzer

 

[Big Kev]

It wasn't a problem, it was just irrelevant.

No it wasn't irrelevant, I presume nobody has found any other forum sites with individual club threads, so I was trying to make a point, which I think most people would have realised.

The club = the topic no?

Too general a topic, hence "YouTube videos".

I would agree except that the subject was being discussed within the club thread. If the thread hadn't been closed we would probably still be discussing it (especially based on our last two performances).

Panzer

As people have said before, if a thread is interesting enough, there will be debate, we've all posted threads that haven't attracted many replies mate, it's the way it goes.

 

[Irish_Tom]

No it wasn't irrelevant, I presume nobody has found any other forum sites with individual club threads, so I was trying to make a point, which I think most people would have realised.

I did realise the point you were trying to make, I just think it's irrelevant. We had the threads and they were working so why do we need to compare ourselves to other forums? <-- The problem with this is that it's all IMHO which differs from YHO. We're not going to change each others minds by the looks of things so I think we should agree to disagree.

Too general a topic, hence "YouTube videos".

I don't quite understand this point. Are you saying the YouTube thread is too general or the club threads are? I can see that a 'football' thread would be too general as a thread title and would cause havok but the club threads were pretty specific in defining the content.

As people have said before, if a thread is interesting enough, there will be debate, we've all posted threads that haven't attracted many replies mate, it's the way it goes.

I'm not crying because no one replied to my thread That would be childish. My point was that the topic of conversation was being readily discussed by a number of members in the club thread and when they were closed the discussion ceased.

If my thread had stayed on page one for longer then it might have got a few more replies but out of sight out of mind. The thing is if the club thread drops from page one then people just say "I'll go find the club thread". If they didn't know my thread had even been made then they can't be expected to go and find it.

I'll just reiterate "We're not going to change each others minds by the looks of things so I think we should agree to disagree."

It seems pretty pointless continuing to argue about it because it's not going to change anything. We have different opinions, you're in charge, I'll get over it.

If you want the last word then take it, but I'm bowing out of this thread because it's just going around in circles.

Panzer

 

[Gilly]

I don't quite understand this point. Are you saying the YouTube thread is too general or the club threads are? I can see that a 'football' thread would be too general as a thread title and would cause havok but the club threads were pretty specific in defining the content.

Buying/selling players, new manager, tactics, injuries, suspensions, formations, squads, youth players, attendances, stadium, training ground... you can't see that a club thread is too general?

 

[BaZ87]

Surely created a new thread to talk about tactics or youth players, injuries, suspensions etc would just be a mess. I can see why you'd want to keep the major issues out these threads but individual club threads imo are useful for smaller issues.

 

[Rotty]

Surely created a new thread to talk about tactics or youth players, injuries, suspensions etc would just be a mess. I can see why you'd want to keep the major issues out these threads but individual club threads imo are useful for smaller issues.

you cant really just keep them fo the smaller issues though, the big stuff ends up in there and folks without the time to wade through it all end up excluded

 

[BaZ87]

I understand that and like i said earlier in the thread, match talk ends up in them too but it was nice to have some where to talk about the smaller issues which aren't worthy of there own thread.

 

[memphisto]

personally dont understand this decision at all.

in the past 2 / 3 seasons there has been a man utd thread which was brilliant in all honesty for keeping up to date and going in and discussing whatever, the brilliant thing about it was there werent 400 threads about 400 different man utd things in SA.

Also it did not exclude members from it, it was blatantly obvious that the thing being talked about 99% of the time was the most relevant thing at that time.

Hell i only partook in those threads when massive things were happening i didnt partake in them 100% of the time. but if someones point interested me id scroll back and take a peak at the convo. I remember the old times where in hear no other sport than football got a mention as it was pretty much off the first screen as soon as it was put on because of the new threads about who signed who, whose doing what, whose injured etc.

Since the inception of these threads this place has become far more sporty and much less football orientated.

 

[BaZ87]

Also it did not exclude members from it,

Im in favour of these threads but this simply isn't true. Many a time, guilty of this myself (albeit a joke with dan), ive seen people complaining about supporters of other teams posting in 'our thread', particuarly Utd fans towards either Liverpool or Villa fans and similarly Liverpool fans towards Utd fans.

I know there were a couple of occasions where i was moaned at for posting in the Utd thread (and can safely say i wasn't trolling etc) and it got to a point where i didn't bother posting in it any more.