Tell everypony the other threads have punch and pie. More ponies will show up if they think they have punch and pie.
I'm not trying to get anyone banned or get into an argument. :derpe: So before that happens (again), I think if all the staff members can give this thread a quick read and come to a conclusion on what to do about this (if anything at all) We can call this case closed. I don't think there's anything left to disagree on.
I saw a lot of discussion about deleting the GCT thread all together. You also have to think about potential members who have not registered and just stare at that thread. Remove it, and they won't just go looking for more threads, they might just leave as a whole. Example of myself: If you were to just suddenly drop the Roleplaying board, I would probably remain active for a few days, but then eventually slip down in my activity until I became totally inactive considering I just lost my main section. With those people who stare at the GCT, take it away and they might just slip off and leave. I don't think deleting the GCT is the best choice, but perhaps attempting to string out some of the topics into other threads might be useful.
You may be on to something there. Although they'd be pretty annoyed when they don't get it. But anyway, I really like the idea of replacing the GCT with a "Quick Conversation" and "How was your day Thread". Although just remember that both these threads will eventually get just as big as the GCT, which currently holds over 18% of all the posts on this site. Hopefully, though, the growth will be much more steady.
well, finally read this thread. now, let's see what we have here: problem: GCT is too big and getting too much attention, but members don't want it deleted what is wanted: to GCT to drop attention, so rest of forum can have more attention, but still since people don't like much changes, not to change much drawing paper solution: change environment and people solution that would make everypony happy: change little bit of people and little bit of environment, like so: people that post in GCT, if some topic is more interesting, and if more people are interested in it, someone from GCT should make topic about that topic elsewhere on forum for everyone else to discuss. - even so, if needed, I'd propose getting one new staff that would be GCT moderator, and would be in charge of GCT, and cut posts that evolve into some constructive topic, weather it's silly or serious, into it's own thread elsewhere on forum
We could always... do the thing. Like lock the GTT and make a bunch of seperate, more specialised threads. And prehaps a gaming specific GTT.
I'm not so sure, I see about 75-100 threads being replied to by many various members of the community everyday. The forum wide activity seems quite active to me. And the chat going back up, I've seen the GCT has lost a small amount of prominence. Besides, the GCT in an EP staple.
i hardly consider that section an actual addition to the forums, tbh. It's nice to keep yourself busy with when extremely bored, but it doesn't really contribute to the community. Most of which are Forum Games...
Nu-uh, based off an extremely rough calculation (correct me if I'm wrong, mods) but if you have around 100 threads replied to from 7am-3pm, from what I can see, a maximum of those being forum games about 35, usually less.
It has been in my opinion, thats where I had made most of my freinds. It's a great place to be silly and let people enjoy others company in a non serious atmosphere. What about a series of GCTs just minus the general part. They have an actual topic. Like the "how was your day" being one, and to keep it from just being a new GCT make other topics of chat to defer the attention GCT has. Topics like school stuff, game stuff, and other topics that are pretty common on GCT. We can also do a "good morning, goodnight" GCT Then GCT will just get leftover topics that don't warrent a thread of it's own hopefully cutting it's attention.
Congratulations, you've just learned the basics of posting on a forum community! :derpe: What you're talking about is actually creating threads besides the GCT to post in. The problem we're trying to solve here is people usually ditching those threads you're talking about to post whatever in the GCT we have now. There is a "How was your day?" thread. People don't care about it, and then they post about how their day was in the General Chat...
To be honest, I think the GCT stops people from posting in these other similar threads (How was your day thread). As much as I'd hate to see it go, it may actually have to go if you want the other threads to get used more. I've come up with an example to explain this: GCT is like Wal-Mart (or any other similar stores). Once it is established, people will find that this one large store/thread will do more than what many other, smaller stores/threads could do put together. Using this logic, the GCT could be putting the other threads out of "business". Although the main difference is that people actually like the GCT, but they're not too happy about Wal-Marts. I'm not sure if this is the case, but there's is sadly only one way to find out.
please, do not patronize me. I'm not talking about regular threads, I want ther to be "chat" treads. I like to chat not just post in response to something. Is what I mean.
If the General Chat Thread was to go, the "chatting" would probably be done in the "How Was Your Day" Thread, since most of the conversations in the GCT are started off by "How is Everypony?" and "[Insert recent experience here]". Not much will actually change, except that the thread will be different. The other idea was that we'd have a "Quick Conversation" Thread, where you could ask small questions without making a whole thread that only requires one reply. These two threads seem to cover what the GCT is currently doing. And this way, there will (hopefully) be less "spam".
That's what I was trying to say pretty much. Except I was suggesting making a handful of "chat" threads, to really distribute the "spam" and such. This is assuming people would even use the new threads instead of just use GCT.
I understand where you're coming from, but forums ARE meant to post in response to something, to post your opinions on topics the poster of the thread brings to light. That's why forums exist in the first place. Chatboxes are for chatting. I don't really care how we deal with the GCT. It can stay if it's possible. I just want to find an effective way to redirect unnecessary traffic from the GCT to other sections of the forum. You need to herd sheep out of the pen. You can't just open the gate and expect them to walk out on their own. "People aren't interested" isn't an excuse. They're interested enough to post about it in the GCT, aren't they?
That's pretty much what we're aiming to do. Hopefully, splitting up the GCT into these multiple threads, they'll stay on topic so the conversation will be prolonged. This goes back to my whole "Wal-Mart" comparison. If members can talk about many different topics in one thread, why would they bother visiting the other threads.
I know on my other forums we have GC Thread. This forum has thirty-fold as many members and has a less active GC thread. Why is that? I've narrowed it down. -only 3,000 of the 75,000 members are active. -HUGE emphasis on the community -advertising section (which no one ever looks at but it brings in a lot of long lasting members lol) -a ton of older members who care about the community -A clan system where: -people take a clan test -by those results, people get sorted into clans -clans are a laid back atmosphere where you can chill with your friends -each clan has it's own GC thread -The is a serious discussion board So yeah, that's what is different there. Idk if it helps any.
