The new off-topic forum

[Tom Cashel]

You also seem to not know the difference between a post and a thread. I thought you would, for all your time here.
Post - Comment in a conversation
Thread - Conversation

I'm fully aware of the difference. That's why I referred to a "post" that I read in a Hivemind thread, and "threads" that dealt with similarly inconsequential themes.

I'm all for silliness. I thought you would have known that, even in your short time here.

Oh, and by the way..."Sassy Henry's Soapbox" is a stupendous name, and should be kept forever or until something better comes up.

 

[barsoomcore]

Soon we'll all be in the Hive.

That's just silly.

You're ALREADY in the Hive, MS. The Hive is all. The Hive is you. You are the Hive.

Sheesh...

 

[Mark]

(B) someone's cutesy Forum Name spreads like, "Who let the dogs out?"

#10. "Look what the tarrasque dragged in..."


#9. "Posters' Pergatory"


#8. "Two Cents? Too Much!"


#7. "I can't believe it's a forum!"


#6. "My parents went on holiday and all they got me was this lousy forum"


#5. "Foaming at the mouth is optional."


#4. "There ain't enough bandwidth to justify what you are about to read"


#3. "monkeys, monkeys, monkeys"


#2. "Space Cube"


...and...


#1. "The Deep Gnomes' Secret Hole"

 

[Tom Cashel]

...Aaaaaand the Hive returns.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Just my own thoughts and opinions.

I am not sure about an Off Topic Forum myself. I never minded the OT posts in general as long as they remained controled. I even liked such things as news posts about Cthulhu washing up on the beach. Which brings up the question how far OT does something need to be? I would like to continue to see tangential posts like Roman D20s or giant Alaskan bird sightings in General. I think they are related and interesting. Now that brings up such things as I'm having a baby or I got married posts next. While definitely OT they were not overwhelming things. I didn't mind the Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Movie Forum since those threads were overwhelming general. That forum is now one of my top visits whenever I am here. Having a forum for baby/wedding news would be uninteresting in its own right without something extra, however dragging all tangential posts as well will strip General of the community feel it has while still leaving OT not interesting enough in its own right to visit. If this remains in effect I will likely drop General from general viewing and stick with Rules and House Rules for my D&D fix and keeping Sci-Fi for my community OT fix.

As for a name for the OT forum. I have not minded the Hive being around too much but the name in particular always kept me out. Dispite claims to the contrary it always seemed clicish and exclusionary in concept to me. Calling it just [OT Conversation] or something more descriptive whould have made it more appealing but naming it the Hivemind (brings up concepts of mindless drones all part of a simiilar thinking collective) and people declaring themselves "Part of the Hive" left me feeling it was a clic membership thing. Naming the OT forum "The Hive" drags the same connotations to the forum and leaves me even less desireous of entering and participating. It feels to me that a group of regulars I never wanted to join up with has taken over the community since all OT posts are now thier domain. I also don't see the need to come up with a cutesy name at all. The best forum names in my opion are the simplest most descriptive ones which also allow new people to find the right place for things. My own preference if it is decided to keep the forum (and even durring testing) would be to name it "Off Topic and Community News" I have always liked ENWorld for its decorum and sense of community and that is in part from the high moderation to keep out inflamitory and controversial subjects. Not everyone likes the Hive and declaring the OT forum to be the Hive only leaves me feeling like a second class citizen of the board for not joining into this clic.

Again these are only my opinions. While you may feel free to defend the Hive please don't do so in the hopes that I will be converted to your way of thinking.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

As for a name for the OT forum. I have not minded the Hive being around too much but the name in particular always kept me out. Dispite claims to the contrary it always seemed clicish and exclusionary in concept to me. Calling it just [OT Conversation] or something more descriptive whould have made it more appealing but naming it the Hivemind (brings up concepts of mindless drones all part of a simiilar thinking collective) and people declaring themselves "Part of the Hive" left me feeling it was a clic membership thing. Naming the OT forum "The Hive" drags the same connotations to the forum and leaves me even less desireous of entering and participating. It feels to me that a group of regulars I never wanted to join up with has taken over the community since all OT posts are now thier domain. I also don't see the need to come up with a cutesy name at all. The best forum names in my opion are the simplest most descriptive ones which also allow new people to find the right place for things. My own preference if it is decided to keep the forum (and even durring testing) would be to name it "Off Topic and Community News" I have always liked ENWorld for its decorum and sense of community and that is in part from the high moderation to keep out inflamitory and controversial subjects. Not everyone likes the Hive and declaring the OT forum to be the Hive only leaves me feeling like a second class citizen of the board for not joining into this clic.

I have to say, this is the most well reasoned arguement I've seen yet for not changing the name of the OT forum to The Hive. Whether or not the hive members have anything to do with the OT forum is not the issue. I know they don't. The fact that the name of the group has be used to refer to an entire forum gives the impression that it is an exclusive area, even if this isn't true to those of us who know that it is just a name. Just call it what it is and be done with it: The Off Topic Forum.

 

[Robbert Raets]

>Agrees with mr. Jerkin<

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I have to say, this is the most well reasoned arguement I've seen yet for not changing the name of the OT forum to The Hive. Whether or not the hive members have anything to do with the OT forum is not the issue. I know they don't. The fact that the name of the group has be used to refer to an entire forum gives the impression that it is an exclusive area, even if this isn't true to those of us who know that it is just a name. Just call it what it is and be done with it: The Off Topic Forum.

Agreed. Can we just call it the "Off Topic" forum? I'd like to keep up with people's OT news and events, but I don't really go in there anymore due to the name. It's just a clique I was never interested in joining, and now I have to go into their forum for my OT fix. Ick.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I have now made the effort to spend some time checking out the "Hive" forum. The impression I get is that it might be aptly named. It is if 90% of the threads are the exploded remains of a [Hivemind] thread. For me at least this is a failed experiment. I could deal with the Hive when its pointless ramblings were contained in 1 thread. Now that the OT forum is 90% Hive subthreads I have no desire to spend any time in there at all. Does the reorganization and merging of the Plots thread into general forshadow a keeping of the "Hive" Forum for all OT. If so I will be disapointed since the community spirit of the forums will relegated to the keeping of the Hive and I will no longer get tidbits of interesting news or updates on fellow board members. Whether the name is changed or not I fear that I will continue to avoid the forum if it remains a place where the Hive continues to dominate a vast majority of the threads.

 

[Umbran]

I have now made the effort to spend some time checking out the "Hive" forum. The impression I get is that it might be aptly named. It is if 90% of the threads are the exploded remains of a [Hivemind] thread. For me at least this is a failed experiment.

To be more specific, I just checked, and 9 of the first 32 threads were "Ask X". It seems when you give people the unfettered right to go off-topic, they... go overboard. Repetetively.

So, you wanted to know if there should be off-topic polls in that forum? I think you can guess teh answer to that would be "no" as well.