To the old board members: Do the same threads always come up?

I'm curious for those who has browsed here for years. In the general forum, do the same old threads just cycle all the time, or has there been a change in the kinds of threads you see over time?

Yes, threads cylce. And not just in the general forum, the rukles forum and house rulses forum are good for this type of thing as well.

Crothian speaks the truth...except there never seem to be any threads about the morality of paladin's actions within their codes and/or alignment. We need more of those .

Yeah, the same topics come up again and again. That's why you'll see comments like "Not this again!" in some threads... or the "Go search and you'll find your answers" sort of comments...

Yes, and no.

There are a few posts that are staples of any gaming community:

• Music for gaming
• Inspiration (the "weird events" thread, or "stuff from the news" thread or "books in the genre" thread)
• "What novels/suppliments should I read to learn about setting X?" (most commonly Dragonlance or FR)
• "X got the shaft!"
• "X is overpowered!"
• Best/worst gaming moments
• Best/worst players/DMs
• The "new edition" speculation threads
• The complaints about newly released editions/revisions to said game
• "How do I play the game correctly?" or "The other players aren't gaming right, how do I change them?" (aka role-play vs. roll-play threads)
• "Don't buy from company X, they're bad people!" (aka boycott threads)
• "Game X / Setting X is dead, why do you still play it?" (can be done constructively or in a flamebait manner)
• "Let's bring back game X / setting x!"
• "I hate game X / setting X" (for various reasons... usually flamebait, not always)

Those are the most common recycled threads I see. For the record, I've been on EN World for three versions of the boards, since 3e was just a rumor. I remember playing an online one-shot as a gnome cleric of Garl Glittergold with a mace, for one reason: that was the only race, class, god and weapon we had solid numbers on to play with.

That said, the majority of threads at any given moment are original, or at least deal with an original aspect of an old question.

There's also the jack chick thing I reckon.

I think these should be added to the list of staples:

* What's the best Olde Skool (tm) setting / module / whatever? (a.k.a. the old timers make you feel bad about not being as old as they are)
* How should I interpret this vague, poorly-conceived rule? (generally confined to the Rules forum, here)
* I found a great price on product X at Wal-Mart / Amazon / OtherLargeFacelessCorporation. (usually followed by huge flame war about why you should support you Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) instead of Wal-Mart, etc.)
* Please help me solve an intricate plot / role-playing problem in my incredibly detailed campaign that takes twenty paragraphs to explain. (sometimes these die after no responses; other times they blossom into something cool)
* My spouse / significant other / parents / friends / church don't like me to play D&D. (usually followed by a massive flame war)
* My gaming group suxxors. (following discussion will be evenly split between "ditch 'em and find other" (even if the poster lives at an Antarctic research base) and "work it out and quit whining")
* How do I convert Batman / James Bond / Luke Skywalker into game stats? (pointless argument ensues)
* Help me munchkinize my PC so he can do a lot of damage / have a lot of hit points / cast a lot of spells / be uber. (the WotC Character Optimization board is better for this, but it comes up in the Rules forum here also)

-- What, me jaded?

Yea, most of the threads I see, I've never seen before. Thats said, there are a lot of topics that seem to pop up at least once a month or so.

One thing I love about these boards are the sense of maturity and understanding from the majority of the posters.

On other boards I have visited, when you start a thread thay may have been discussed 6 months, 1 year or more ago, the thread is usually locked with a note saying that this thread has already been discussed and to go to the original thread to find your answers.

That is, if you don't get ridiculed and flamed by old-time posters calling you a "st00pid n00b"



Anyways, I love the EN World Boards, and have been here, (mainly as a lurker until recently) when this was "Eric Noah's 3rd Ed. News" or whatever it was called back then.

Well, you will find the same threads all the time. As the search function only works for community supporters, everyone else has to open a new thread on the same old topic if he doesn't find it on the first three pages .