Mega threads, good or bad?

[jersey cubs fan]

Hot topic or hottest topic? Edited March 31, 2015 by jersey cubs fan

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Whichever affords me the best opportunity to show people that I am cool and witty.

[Proven Veteran]

More threads equals more space for hot taeks.

[Derwood]

I would probably pick the third option if the emphasis was on the "a" instead of the "r" and "e"

[Guest]

A mega thread for random Cubs discussion inside of a Cubs discussion subforum with almost no thread turnover is the dumbest thing ever

[jersey cubs fan]

I would probably pick the third option if the emphasis was on the "a" instead of the "r" and "e"

That would suggest that you don't Kay, which could suggest you avoid cheap jewelry, which is fine. But the other interpretation is that you are a mysoginist psychopath like Michael corleone.

 

The emphasis is on the "r" to sound out the word.

[Thrilho]

Some nice things about individual threads are:

 

- You don't have to quote someone if you want to respond to a topic

 

- It's easier to find good historical posts (stats, particularly good post on what Bryant had for breakfast last Tuesday, etc)

 

- It's easier to catch up on thoughts on a topic. E.g. Imagine if Game of Thrones stuff was scattered in a Random Book Musings thread. Impossible!

 

The bummer is obviously the possibility of scores if innane topics pushing things down the list. But dumb topics (things that aren't about Kris Bryant's meals, etc) should get pushed out of the mix pretty quickly due to low traffic.

 

So while you can probably tell due to my post count that I won't be inundating the board with new threads I wanted to throw some support out there for the recent trend.

[Guest]

I think there's a middle ground here, or at least some confusion around the term.

 

Having threads that get long over time isn't necessarily bad. I don't think we need separate monthly threads for discussing Baez's struggles, so that thread in Cubs Discussions is a good example of a good 'mega-thread'.

 

On the other hand, having a 'Random Cubs Musings' thread in Cubs Discussion or an 'Offseason Rumors and Transactions' thread in Transactions is essentially mimicking the purpose of the forum. I get why they're created (not everything necessarily needs its own thread), but the unintended consequence of no new threads being created is worse, IMO.

[OleMissCub]

At this point this site is just a social club for like 60 of us. Since this date 5 years ago, we've only had 6 members who have joined that now have over 1000 posts. In the last 5 years we've added 576 members. In the 5 years before that we had 2,692 join up. I think the Cubs being terrible is worth 90+ percent of that decline, however, I think the mega threads are not very conducive to drawing in new members and increasing traffic. If someone was just browsing through and looked at the forum, they might almost think it looks dead due to the lack of threads.

 

My main reason for not liking them has been echoed by others in here, which is that you're just creating a forum within a forum.

[Guest]

It would help a lot if I actually did something with the front page. New people coming to the site will mostly land there first, see nothing going on and then go elsewhere.

[OleMissCub]

It would help a lot if I actually did something with the front page. New people coming to the site will mostly land there first, see nothing going on and then go elsewhere.

 

Eh maybe, I don't really care about what is on the front page of a site if I'm looking for the forum on that particular topic.

 

Perhaps just have the front page center exclusively on leading people to the forum and forget all the other stuff.

[Derwood]

It also doesn't help when new people come, create a topic about something already being discussed in a mega-thread, and are scolded/mocked. Those people are unlikely to return

[ctcf]

I'm actually finding Cubs Discussions a lot more enjoyable since we started making smaller threads. Edited March 31, 2015 by ctcf

[Hairyducked Idiot]

It's still super weird to have a separate subforum for Cubs Discussions and Transactions.

[Clem Fandango]

I'm actually finding Cubs Discussions a lot more enjoyable since we started making smaller threads.

All those threads feel faceitious though. I like TT's compromise. Random Cubs Musings makes sense, it just morphed into the thread where everything was posted. We don't need to create a new thread called "Check out this picture of Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler". Any sort of news or information should get its own thread, but a funny tweet, picture, or one off comment or thought shouldn't get one.

 

Its not that the mega threads are bad, its that they are used improperly.

[Proven Veteran]

I'm actually finding Cubs Discussions a lot more enjoyable since we started making smaller threads.

All those threads feel faceitious though. I like TT's compromise. Random Cubs Musings makes sense, it just morphed into the thread where everything was posted. We don't need to create a new thread called "Check out this picture of Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler". Any sort of news or information should get its own thread, but a funny tweet, picture, or one off comment or thought shouldn't get one.

 

Its not that the mega threads are bad, its that they are used improperly.

Meh, I think silly pictures should get their own threads too.

[TruffleShuffle]

It also doesn't help when new people come, create a topic about something already being discussed in a mega-thread, and are scolded/mocked. Those people are unlikely to return

 

that probably happens just about never. new people are generally only scolded/mocked when their opinions are patently moronic. maybe THOSE people are unlikely to return, but i highly doubt that most people on this board are hoping that this turns into a cubs.com message board, or the equivalent of facebook comments on cubs news.

[Guest]

I'm actually finding Cubs Discussions a lot more enjoyable since we started making smaller threads.

All those threads feel faceitious though. I like TT's compromise. Random Cubs Musings makes sense, it just morphed into the thread where everything was posted. We don't need to create a new thread called "Check out this picture of Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler". Any sort of news or information should get its own thread, but a funny tweet, picture, or one off comment or thought shouldn't get one.

 

Its not that the mega threads are bad, its that they are used improperly.

 

They just feel facetious because we haven't had 5 new threads in a week since 2009.

[Guest]

It would help a lot if I actually did something with the front page. New people coming to the site will mostly land there first, see nothing going on and then go elsewhere.

 

Eh maybe, I don't really care about what is on the front page of a site if I'm looking for the forum on that particular topic.

 

Perhaps just have the front page center exclusively on leading people to the forum and forget all the other stuff.

The front page has actually had ~12,000 page views in the past 30 days. Most of those bounced after a single page view and never came back.

 

The front page having content would be a huge boost to the site.

[Clem Fandango]

It would help a lot if I actually did something with the front page. New people coming to the site will mostly land there first, see nothing going on and then go elsewhere.

 

Eh maybe, I don't really care about what is on the front page of a site if I'm looking for the forum on that particular topic.

 

Perhaps just have the front page center exclusively on leading people to the forum and forget all the other stuff.

The front page has actually had ~12,000 page views in the past 30 days. Most of those bounced after a single page view and never came back.

 

The front page having content would be a huge boost to the site.

 

You should let me redesign it. I'll make it as sexy as our prospects.

[Guest]

It would help a lot if I actually did something with the front page. New people coming to the site will mostly land there first, see nothing going on and then go elsewhere.

 

Eh maybe, I don't really care about what is on the front page of a site if I'm looking for the forum on that particular topic.

 

Perhaps just have the front page center exclusively on leading people to the forum and forget all the other stuff.

The front page has actually had ~12,000 page views in the past 30 days. Most of those bounced after a single page view and never came back.

 

The front page having content would be a huge boost to the site.

 

You should let me redesign it. I'll make it as sexy as our prospects.

Sexy doesn't really work without content.

[Clem Fandango]

You should still let me redesign it. A good looking page that highlights the forum will keep people clicking. Also having a better UI for contributors (Wordpress) could make it more enticing for them to write more pieces. Also a kick ass design with fresh content would make their stuff more readable.

 

I mean 12,000 visitors in a month is pretty damn impressive. I'm sure if the people who contributed knew their stuff was being seen by 12,000 people a month they'd have more of an incentive to contribute (and others might want to as well), and if visitors see it in a well presented layout, all the more reason to keep coming back and contributing on the forums at the same time.

 

So seriously you should let me redesign it. Won't even charge ya.

[Guest]

^This seems like a cool thing that could happen and be good for stuff.

[TruffleShuffle]

let cubbiebum write articles for it, now that the good people of williston, north dakota are no longer getting his hot takes.

[Banedon]

It would help a lot if I actually did something with the front page. New people coming to the site will mostly land there first, see nothing going on and then go elsewhere.

 

What if you just made the forum the front page?