Things you hate to see in an sffworld thread

[Rob B]

OK Folks the changes are underway:

Fantasy + Horror + Author Forums [Tolkien, Martin, etc] are now in the Fantasy Forum, soon to be named Fantasy/Horror Forum so please don't post anything new in the Author forums.

and

TV/Film + Comics + Games are all in the TV/Film, soon to be named Other Media Forum

 

[kcf]

I like the changes - any plans on merging the Sci-fi forum into the fantasy/horror forum. I find it rather annoying that they are seperate.

 

[Hobbit]

The general impression was that there were overlaps/similarities between Fantasy/Horror than SF/Fantasy.

Consequently, though some of us are happy mixing the genres, there was a feeling we got that, at least for now, we keep SF/Fantasy separate.

But there will be SF/Fantasy that will overlap, I'm sure.

Mark / Hobbit

 

[Rob B]

We debated integrating SF, but it really is separate enough in terms of the visitors here that keeping it separate is the best course. Many of the folks who post in the SF forum do so exclusively (or rather not in Fantasy) and prefer to keep it separate.

 

[nick1689]

I hate to say it ('cause you guys do such a great job here), but I dont really like how the seperate author forums in the Fantasy section have been removed. What made you guys come to this decision?

 

[Hobbit]

No, say away, Nick; we are very aware that any change we make will divide those who are interested - for everyone who wants the change there will be equally those who don't.

We are trying to do what most members want: even when it may not be a unanimous choice by all of those involved!

Mark / Hobbit

 

[Werthead]

I must admit I was a bit confused over the proposed changes. I thought you meant the authors who currently have their own forums (Bakker etc) would be integrated with the existing author subforums in the Fantasy section, to put them all together and reduce how may clicks you need to get from one section to another.

I didn't realise you meant getting rid of the subforums altogether and pouring them all into the general Fantasy discussion. Whilst that is a good idea for the authors who don't get much traffic (like Goodkind), I'm not sure about the effect the heavy-traffic authors like Erikson or GRRM are going to have on the board. People who aren't interested in those authors are going to have to wade through numerous threads about them to get to other things. Are you going to have to get every person who creates a new topic about them to put the author's name in the title?

I really like the idea of streamlining the board and reducing that huge number of subforums you see when you first load up the board, but I think the author subforums was actually one of the better existing ideas

 

[nick1689]

Maybe it would be a good idea to get rid of the author subforums that have less traffic (like Goodkind, as Wert said), and keep the popular ones?

 

[Eventine]

Tags are your new best friend gentlemen.

 

[kged]

I don't like that idea at all. I thought that the individual forums for the leading authors was one of SFFW's best features. And after a quick play with the tags, I can see that "Martin", "Bakker", and "Erikson" don't work, and "Tolkien" produces one response. I feel safe in assuming that such errors are teething troubles which will be attended to, but even so I'm afraid this is not a welcome development. I will miss the GRRM forum.

 

[...]

I have to agree that losing the author forums is a bit confusing. I usually go to a few of author forums to read the conversations. Now that they are in the main forum it will be easy to miss new posts due to the high amount of traffic to the site especially if you don't check the site for a couple of days. The main forum is great to discuss authors and books that don't have a large collection of work or aren't as popular as some of the subforum authors.

 

[Werthead]

I feel bad for the admins now that they've done this change and are being faced with a wall of negativity for it, but as I said I didn't quite 'get' what the former proposal was. Amalgamating Horror and Fantasy is a good idea (the two are frequently heavily intermingled anyway), but the author subforums were a better way of handling the problem. I've even been considering proposing something similar for Westeros (for the ever-present Goodkind, Erikson, Bakker and Jordan threads).

 

[KatG]

Well, what we'd have to say to those who dislike the elimination of the author forums into the Fantasy/Horror forum is where were you when we had all the members complaining that they didn't like having to go to the separate author forums and wanted to discuss Martin and Erikson solely in the Fantasy forum? And Wert, weren't you the one advocating that it should be one big happy forum with everyone in the pool?

But here's why we decided to try it without the author forums:

1) A number of them didn't get much traffic or sporadic traffic. That left the ones that did get a lot of traffic, and the question of whether we should keep those.

2) These author forums had to be moderated, which was extra work for the staff, and the conversations in the forums usually got nasty, which meant a lot of policing to avoid flame wars. The author forums have been one of the most contentious and problematic parts of the forum site.

3) People wanted to talk about these authors in the main forum and had to be continually referred over to the special author forums. Once referred, they usually didn't want to go to the author forum and expressed immense dislike for them. They regarded the author forums not as a nice place to hang out and chat (again, flame wars,) but as an exile from the main Fantasy discussion.

So, since we were merging things and trying to simplify the forums, as seemed to be a major desire of the members, we thought we'd try it without the author forums and allow threads on these authors in Fantasy/Horror but not allow tons and tons of them. If it doesn't work -- if it causes more problems than it solves, if it produces flame wars in the forum, or too many threads squeezing out other discussions, if members give us a lot of complaints, if the site owner decides it's not working, etc., we'll put the author forums back.

But for now, the majority of members expressed dissatisfaction with the author forums and wanted them gone, and they certainly weren't a thrill for the staff, so we're trying it out this way. Keep letting us know if you're unhappy with it, here and in the suggestions/complaint forum. We'll monitor the situation and try to find what will work best. We're not going to get it perfect on the first revision. Hey, who knows, maybe the SF forum will clammor to join Fantasy/Horror. (But right now, they don't seem to want to.)

 

[Werthead]

Well, what we'd have to say to those who dislike the elimination of the author forums into the Fantasy/Horror forum is where were you when we had all the members complaining that they didn't like having to go to the separate author forums and wanted to discuss Martin and Erikson solely in the Fantasy forum? And Wert, weren't you the one advocating that it should be one big happy forum with everyone in the pool?

No, I suggested merging the SF, Fantasy, Horror and non-genre fiction into one forum (as it is on most message boards), but I didn't advocate getting rid of the author subforums at all A couple of other people suggested that, but I didn't think it was an issue.

 

[suciul]

Regarding author forums an opinion from "the other side" - someone completely uninterested in any authors there - Goodkind, Erickson, Jordan, Rowling.. - except for GRRM and then only when the new book comes out to discuss it - I am also somewhat mixed in the sense that before I could safely ignore those forums but now we may get a lot of clutter in the main forum, but I hope I will become an expert to know which threads refer to something that was in those forums before and avoid them easily...

Regarding sf, keep it separate to avoid more swamping. If people want to discuss science fantasy in the fantasy forum being more popular by far that's fine, but there is specific sf only that I hope does not get lost...

 

[argon]

I like the new flat layout. For me there's no difference between 'wading' through countless subforums and some pages of main forum. Just hope people will write author or book title into subject if they want specific discussion.
And the traffic is such that October 1st is still on the first page, so no big deal I'd say.

Well done admins

 

[kcf]

well, I'm a big fan of having everything in one place - though I agree it could get to cluttered with the traffic around here. I know that I visit the SF forum rather rarely since it is seperate - I'm lazy enough that the extra effort to get there is enough to keep me away.

 

[Rob B]

All I can say right now is thanks for the input, wait and see how things work over the next few weeks and maybe we can re-address it then. As the one he did all the thread moving, I'm perfectly happy with the way everything is right now.

Seriously though, this was six-of-one, half-dozen-of-the-other situation. In that case, it is easier to moderate one forum (Fantasy/Horror) than the 12+ it was before.

 

[Eventine]

I don't like that idea at all. I thought that the individual forums for the leading authors was one of SFFW's best features. And after a quick play with the tags, I can see that "Martin", "Bakker", and "Erikson" don't work, and "Tolkien" produces one response. I feel safe in assuming that such errors are teething troubles which will be attended to, but even so I'm afraid this is not a welcome development. I will miss the GRRM forum.

Sorry - should've expanded more. Everyone here has the ability to add tags to threads. The more people that do this, the more effective the tag cloud becomes. Apologies for passing it off as a panacea.

I don't mind the changes so far. I thought a lot of the author sub-forums were uneccesary silos (mainly those for less discussed authors) and were therefore ineffective. I think this was a big problem where these authors were those that arfe high-selling but not as popular on this board and a lot of trolling/flaming happened before they could get moderated.

In regards to the more popular authors (basically GRRM, Erikson and Jordan) I'll be interested in seeing if their posts flood the main forum. I suspect it won't happen, but I don't think the changes have been in place long enough to know.

In the meantime, search is your friend (and tags - everyone tag! It's quick, it's easy, it's tagalicious!)

 

[Bond]

I haven't been to the site for a couple of weeks and when I finally got back these big changes awaited me!

Maybe I just need to get used to it, but my initial reaction is elimination of the author subforums was not a good idea. I liked being able to click on one link and find most of the relevant threads on an author I'm interested in in one place. What might end up happening now is that the frequently talked of authors will overwhelm threads devoted to less well known authors or more general topics.