I Think We Need More Forums

[differentSmoke]

First of all, I'm not generally inclined to the notion of subdividing forums into specific sub-section, but in this case I think some subdivision would be good. Also, I'm a newcomer and I admit that I might be jumping into conclusions with this, but here it goes:

My first reaction to the amount of traffic on this forum was "whoa, great". But then, after watching that unfortunate discussion on warranty grow 3 pages while I was posting a reply to it, and analyzing the evolution of other topics, I think the amount of traffic on this forum is making topics unnecessarily bloated. They tend to break into sub-debates, and go off-topic, rather quickly(I know that comment will come back to bite me on the ass), and in my humble opinion, become rather unmanageable if only for the sheer volume of messages. Also, arguments tend to be aggravated by seemingly random comments from people who is just "posting by".

Since there are several types of posters here, from those who are (understandably!) obsessed with the shipping date, to those who want to figure out how to start developing amateur games, to the hardware guys, to the emulator crowd, etc, etc, etc, I think a subdivisions of fora into categories more fine grained than "general" "dev" "news" would be a positive change.

Maybe "general talk" could be further subdivided into "community", "questions and answers", "software development", "hardware tweaking", "tutorials for newbies" and the ever necessary "humor" trash forum where everyone can post pictures of captioned cats and vent some steam. This of course being a very general idea.

What do you think?
What do you think would be a proper subdivision?

 

[Tom`]

The forum will be subdivided upon the official release of the Pandora, as it was on the release of the GP2X, Wiz, and Dingoo (and maybe the GP32, but I wasn't around then).

 

[Consequence_9]

The forum will be subdivided upon the official release of the Pandora, as it was on the release of the GP2X, Wiz, and Dingoo (and maybe the GP32, but I wasn't around then).

? I don't see any sub-forums in general talk under any of those... not to mention the pandora area already is divided up the exact same way they are... nevermind, looked harder ;]


A topic growing by any number of pages while posting around here is really not that common. It only really ever happens when something big has happened (which is not by any means on a consistent basis)

 

[Prometheus]

The forum will be subdivided upon the official release of the Pandora, as it was on the release of the GP2X, Wiz, and Dingoo (and maybe the GP32, but I wasn't around then).

This is my understanding of the situation also.

I'm rather looking forward to getting a Reviews section, like the GP2X one ("Post your reviews of both commercial and not commercial games (including emulated games), utilities and any related to GP2X programs."), myself. I've got plenty of views on lesser-known games to share, amongst other things.

Regarding one particular point, if I may;

and the ever necessary "humor" trash forum where everyone can post pictures of captioned cats and vent some steam.

There's already an Off Topic area, it's just not in the Pandora section (or the sections for any of the other hardware covered here).

 

[Tom`]

The forum will be subdivided upon the official release of the Pandora, as it was on the release of the GP2X, Wiz, and Dingoo (and maybe the GP32, but I wasn't around then).

? I don't see any sub-forums in general talk under any of those... not to mention the pandora area already is divided up the exact same way they are... nevermind, looked harder ;]


A topic growing by any number of pages while posting around here is really not that common. It only really ever happens when something big has happened (which is not by any means on a consistent basis)

I meant the "reviews, FAQ, cool ideas," and so forth - the specific subdivision will presumably be determined based on need at that point.

edit: too slow!

 

[Fishbong]

I do not think we need more forums, it seems that many members are already confused as to the correct forum to post their threads in. You, differentSmoke, seem to be a perfect example for this. Next time you have a Suggestion, i suggest you use the suggestions section.

 

[mali]

The forum will be subdivided upon the official release of the Pandora, as it was on the release of the GP2X, Wiz, and Dingoo (and maybe the GP32, but I wasn't around then).

This. It was Chip(I think) who said this again not long ago and ED said it too.

@OP
Have you ever been at NBR? Threads with severeal thousand replies

As for large bitching threads, leave it to the persons involved and avoid such threads.

 

[Alpha2]

There isnt really a need to subdivide the general chat as most everything ends up being started here anyway before needing to be moved by mods. You could make a section for reviews but someone would just have to move it. in the case of the thread before that exploded overnight there was a situation that snowballed and it's not often that that occurs, and it's unlikely that any of the off topic conversation that occurred would have been alleviated by making a sub forum.

 

[borgqueenx]

Newbie forum would be totally welcome.

 

[TaG]

Ok the OC/Warranty thread went bananas. Most just go nuts. In a forum about a device that has been two years in the making and still isnt available, its no surprise the topics wander - if they didn't there'd be very little activity and interest could easily wane so it's probably a good thing for the project that so many people still come here to join the banter.

 

[mali]

Chip mentioned that the traffic of the Pandora section is about tenfold the size of the other subsections. Ok, most is noise, but when Pandora is out the traffic will increase further, I'm sure.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

What I think is that everyone needs to take a breather.

This is without doubt the highest pressure point for the team (and us to a lesser degree). So close to having this thing actually finished, yet the worry of having a new obstacle rear it's head at this point and destroy everything must be almost unbearable. I can see why things went where they did, I'm not excusing anything but I totally understand the explosion considering the enormous stress.

Anyway, I'm not convinced that dividing the forums further would be effective in curbing the fights. We should all just hold it in for a couple of weeks, take a break from the boards if you're getting uptight.

 

[mali]

^Thanks for the voice of reason...

 

[kingoddball]

^Thanks for the voice of reason...

Mali - You over the dark evil looking women avatars?

 

[Sugar_Kane]

I often feel that I am unqualified to post on the forums. I feel dwarfed by the terrifying, superhuman knowledge displayed by some of the guys (gerald, for instance... ), and I really wouldn't confidently say that I am part of the community, because I feel more like the guy that's tethered to the outside of the community, washing it's windows but occasionally catching a glimpse of what's inside.

Anyway, the fighting is breaking my heart. When I read what was going on I thought 'oh man, no more Mali?' I mean, there are a lot of people on the boards, but most of them are joes like me, and then there's what I would call the personalities, and I see them like the trees of the GP2X orchard, people like wizardstan, Gruso, Skeezix, Promethius, Mali, the list goes on, it just feels wrong when fights break out.

Anyway, I'm going to shut my gob because I'm being overly sentimental and I'm likely to break into song and start wearing pink bathrobes or something, besides I've forgotten what my point was.

 

[Prometheus]

Promethius

Wow, really? :blink:

That's made my day. Thankyou very muchly.

 

[mali]

I often feel that I am unqualified to post on the forums. I feel dwarfed by the terrifying, superhuman knowledge displayed by some of the guys (gerald, for instance... ), and I really wouldn't confidently say that I am part of the community, because I feel more like the guy that's tethered to the outside of the community, washing it's windows but occasionally catching a glimpse of what's inside.

Anyway, the fighting is breaking my heart. When I read what was going on I thought 'oh man, no more Mali?' I mean, there are a lot of people on the boards, but most of them are joes like me, and then there's what I would call the personalities, and I see them like the trees of the GP2X orchard, people like wizardstan, Gruso, Skeezix, Promethius, Mali, the list goes on, it just feels wrong when fights break out.

Anyway, I'm going to shut my gob because I'm being overly sentimental and I'm likely to break into song and start wearing pink bathrobes or something, besides I've forgotten what my point was.

^You are a lovely person.

The journey continues. What is another scar on the ego compared to the beauties we have seen here? I'm here to stay, that's for sure. Pandora is not was attracts me most. It's the characters on the boards.
I'll increase the distance a bit. I'm a pretty weird person, excessive. My emotions burn holes.

 

[rabidpoobear]

My emotions burn holes.

Like your avatar's eyes in my soul. ;_;

 

[SNESFAN]

do you guys realize that there are almost 5,000 topics in this forum alone?

AND THE MOTHER F*KER HASN'T EVEN BEEN RELEASED YET!

I don't blame the guy suggesting this be broken down some... and I also don't blame the people asking questions that have been asked before on here, even if it's been asked 50 times... an outrageous estimate, but that's only like 1% of the threads over here. But in reality it's normally only asked once or twice, probally a maximum of 5 times... which is like .01% of the treads... not posts... threads! No wonder people can't find nothing... even with the search.

Maybe this really does need to be broken down a bit. Have like a "actual pandora talk" and a "I'm gonna diguess my trolling as pandora talk" sub forums.. and maybe even a "newbie section" so these people know where to trout their flame throwers to when their in a bad mood.

 

[mali]

AND THE MOTHER F*KER HASN'T EVEN BEEN RELEASED YET!

You are spot on.
When Pandora is released, the topics will change, that's obvious.
Are we there, yet?