I’ve been having some thoughts about these boards, and I think it’s time that I come out and say them.
I hope nobody will be upset or offended, but a couple of things are driving me nuts

1. STICKIES!!!!!! It seems that once something gets stickied, it’s at the top of the forum forever. Can we consider retiring all but the most critical of them? It seems to me that the old fashioned "bump the topic that you want to keep active" is a much better way… once a topic reaches the end of its useful life, it would drop away.
2. Dates – is it possible to add a year to the format? Some of us have been in this for the really long haul, and it’s always funny when you have a déjà vu topic appear – and then realize that it’s two years (or tours) old. Also, I think that sometimes things that have really passed their time are looking new and active to folks.
3. Do we have too many forums? Maybe it’s me, but I feel like to “keep current” on the board means I have to look a lot of places to see who’s discussing what. When things come up, we’re constantly having threads to re-direct readers to active topics. Maybe considering reducing the # of forums might bring more folks together. For one, I’d like to see “questions for the band” go. It’s discouraging to see it all the time, knowing that it has never been used.


Snipe ---I don’t want to make more work for you with these, but I really needed to get off my chest that I think some changes would be a healthy thing.


If I’m out of sync with others’ wishes, I’m ok with that. And if any of these would cause problems, please ignore. But if we can at least consider them, I’d appreciate much.

lol!! and i was thinking about starting a request for a new forum w/a thread for each state within the forum so we could better keep up w/smackers where we are and where we may be going for a show. seems if we knew to look in that state's thread, it'd be more effective than the countless "roll call" threads. i figured we could also have a thread for other countries and members could only reply to the thread, not start new ones so all the state info will stay in one place.
dear teach wants less and i want more!! lmao!!

Kat -- I gotta disagree on teh states thing... Having been and hoping to be at least once more in my life a road dog, I can't IMAGINE having to keep track of so many forums. Roll calls, to me, have been an awesome tool for connecting with smackers, and they have often played a major role in my decisions as to where to travel. I'll admit to frequently having elected to travel to a show just on the excitement of the people who are gonna be there.

However, I do see a point in having some directory information on who's where. (And who does/doesn't want to be contacted in certain contexts)

GLAD TO KNOW WE"RE AT LEAST DISCUSSING THESE THINGS!!!
(and I luvs ya, Kat, even when we disagree)

the black label society board has a "chapters" forum for each state which allows everyone to get on the same page during tours. i frequented the georgia and florida threads since i attend shows in both states. that's why i thought this would expedite meetings and allow us to have informal fan sites in each state. (not to leave outside the us fans out but that's such a broad area)

Metallica fans also have chapter organizations. They're SUPER organized.

The first 2 things you are dead on about, Teach.

Stickies and Dates - I have longed to see the year on the date. Really.

I hear wise voices saying get off the "too many forums" train.


Thus Request # 3 withdrawn...

One & two still on the table...

naw. i agree. the "questions for the band forum" is wasted space as is the "fawning and fainting" forum although i totally appreciate snipeyhead for doing it and i love her sense of humor. it's just that people fawn and faint all over the board so it's not confined to that one forum so i could just ignore it. "images" and "links" could be comined as could "on tour.." and "press...". the "trading" forum is basically unused 'cept from people we'd never buy from anyway and who never post again. and does anyone really use the "music undiscovered" forum? we usually just ignore that one too. or i do anyway. "music mania" and "music undiscovered" could actually be combined as well.
wow... i truly have no life cuz i'm sitting here rearranging the board in my head.

quote:

Originally posted by Teach:
1. STICKIES!!!!!! It seems that once something gets stickied, it’s at the top of the forum forever. Can we consider retiring all but the most critical of them? It seems to me that the old fashioned "bump the topic that you want to keep active" is a much better way… once a topic reaches the end of its useful life, it would drop away.

That is, and always has been up to the person who asked that it be made sticky to ask me to make it unsticky - which I always do the same day the request is made.

quote:

2. Dates – is it possible to add a year to the format? Some of us have been in this for the really long haul, and it’s always funny when you have a déjà vu topic appear – and then realize that it’s two years (or tours) old. Also, I think that sometimes things that have really passed their time are looking new and active to folks.

Not possible, unfortunately. At least not so far as I can tell. Its frustrating for me, too.

quote:

3. Do we have too many forums? Maybe it’s me, but I feel like to “keep current” on the board means I have to look a lot of places to see who’s discussing what. When things come up, we’re constantly having threads to re-direct readers to active topics. Maybe considering reducing the # of forums might bring more folks together. For one, I’d like to see “questions for the band” go. It’s discouraging to see it all the time, knowing that it has never been used.

I have removed the questions for the band forum. I set that up when I was told we'd actually have some participation from the guys there, but internal changes on management's end caused that not to happen. Its been on my to-do list for a while.

I doubt, however, that reducing the number of forums will bring people together - it was because of all of the complaining that people were posting too much in each others forums that they were created in the first place.

quote:

Originally posted by MamaKat:
it's just that people fawn and faint all over the board so it's not confined to that one forum so i could just ignore it. "images" and "links" could be comined as could "on tour.." and "press...". the "trading" forum is basically unused 'cept from people we'd never buy from anyway and who never post again. and does anyone really use the "music undiscovered" forum? we usually just ignore that one too. or i do anyway. "music mania" and "music undiscovered" could actually be combined as well.
wow... i truly have no life cuz i'm sitting here rearranging the board in my head.

The changes you're talking about here are fairly significant changes to the structure we have had for basically 7 years. I'm not opposed to merging some of these, but I'd need to know tat the vast majority of the board supports it, mostly because I don't feel like hearing the bitching when people get torqued over it. And they will.

Also keep in mind that although things are low-key right now, the guys will be touring soon, which usually means an upswing of activity on the boards. Which means the new people will be posting somewhere. If that means they post in the smaller, condensed forum structure, then expect to have your posts bumped off each forums first page pretty quickly, and expect to have to scroll through multiple pages in one forum to get caught up on forum. Also expect that there will be less stuff you actually care about in each forum, since they will no longer be finely-grained for content.

Snipe --

Thanks for the info. Too bad about the date thing. (Evil software!!!!!)

I didn't know about the sticky procedure. Should have known you had a system in place. My bad to complain before asking. Sorry. If I get to it, I may politely ask a few folks if it's time to let a few things go.

Thanks for the edit on the questions forum.

As to the rest, as usual, you've got your finger on the pulse of things around here... In Snipe I trust...

Appreciate your time in addressing these.

you made some great points snipey!!
but look at the trading forum - only 259 total posts and most who come here to sell stuff never come back to answer questions.

and the music undiscovered only has 525 posts. surely that one could be combined w/music mania.

but it really doesn't matter much to me. i'm just so grateful to have this board to keep up w/my favorite people and my favorite band so i can't complain. and i'm grateful to you, our steadfast mod, for keeping it here for us.

Ya know what this forum needs? And I know it isn't going to happen with this software...

"Mark All Forums Read"! I hate coming back every day and having threads that I've read two weeks ago still being marked as "New".

Also, some sort of icon that shows that you've posted to a topic.

*sigh* We really just need to be on vBulletin or phpbb.

THIS TOWN NEEDS AN ENEMA!!!!

lololololol!!!!!

Just imagine how much happier the world would be if everyone was scheduled periodic enemas and sexual release. I swear, it would solve the world's problems... no more war. We'd feed all the 3rd world countries. Champagne would fall from the heavens and angels would sing.

Cold meds must still be affecting me.