Condense the media forum

Just name the section "Entertainment Media" and set the description to "Music, Movies/Television, and Video Clips" or some variant.

 

I don't understand how these are interchangeable. EOC and RS3 are interchangeable. Whether I want to buy RS3 gold or I want to buy EOC gold, it means the same thing. Cryptocurrency, Finance, and Gambling are not interchangeable, and neither is Sports/Health/Fitness. Would I say the Casino Discussion Thread is a Cryptocurrency discussion? No, it clearly belongs to the Gambling section of that subforum.

By your logic why don't we have a subforum for hockey in Sports/health/fitness? A subforum for powerlifting, and one for basketball as well? Those are definitely not interchangeable, and you say that it's always better to keep forums separate.

I don't say that Music, Movies/Television, and Video Clips are interchangeable, however just with the other 2 off-topic subforums I mention I think they're closely related enough + have a low enough amount of activity to warrant a merge.

 

What purpose would that serve? Keeping it how it is now has more benefit than condensing it.

I think the better word is indistinguishable in terms of relation.

Sports, Health, and Fitness are indistinguishable and intertwine with one another. Making separate sections for all three, or even two would be pointless since they are essentially the same thing.

Are you arguing that Music, Movies/Television, and video clips are indistinguishable? Because they are not.

You also aren't taking into account the times these forums were introduced. Both Sports & Health/Finance were created last year, and it was decided that they would not be separate. The media forum is a longstanding one, and at the time of creation, was decided that it would be divided into 3 parts. Saying "Hey, this forum is not the same as this one, so we should make it the same as that one" isn't an argument. What is the benefit in condensing the forum?

Because they are interchangeable. You aren't following my logic and your examples lack substance. That's like giving a specific movie or television show their own sub forum.

Let me make it more clearer for you.

My argument is: Music, Movies/Television, and Video clips are distinguishable forums. The content in music can't be placed in movies/television, video clips can't be placed in music, and movies/television can't be placed in video clips.

Depending on the subject, sports can be placed in Health & Fitness, and vice versa. Health is more a categorical term, such like media, so essentially there would be 2 sub forums, both being Sports & Fitness. You can see how keeping those separate wouldn't make much sense.

Cryptocurrency can be placed in Finance and Gambling.

You're pulling at straws here.

 

I think where this disagreement stems from is the fact that I don't think Music, Movies/Television and video clips are indistinguishable, rather I think that they are closely related enough so that condensing those subs into the same one wouldn't be a big issue.

And I don't see a problem with revisiting decisions that were once made to determine whether they were the right ones or not, especially when we look at it within the context of that subforum's languishing activity today.

And why shouldn't they, if this forum had 30 new threads every day for each of GoT, Parks and Rec, Mad Men, etc etc, it would make complete sense to give each specific television show their own subforum. We just don't have that kind of activity to warrant splitting it up like that.

Okay that makes a lot more sense to me when you put it like that. But I still don't see how keeping the 2 sections of Sports and Fitness separate wouldn't make sense (other than of course the activity factor). Sport would be to follow the big sport leagues, discussions, etc. and Fitness would be for personal health.
Overall though, I can now definitely see where you're coming from in terms of the sections being interchangeable/related, and how that doesn't apply to the Media subforums. I still think we have to consider the fact that if it does come down to a merge of some forums, it wouldn't be completely out of place as they are related, just as I currently have to look past all the fitness discussion to find the sport related discussion I'm interested in.
But, Cryptocurrency can be placed in Finance, but I don't think it has any relation at all to do with Gambling and by what you're saying should be separated, however it isn't. Why? Again, it comes back to the issue of forum activity. At the moment, Music seems to be doing fine in terms of activity, with the front page only being 1 or 2 weeks back keeping on pace with the other off-topic subforums. Movies/Television and video clips definitely seem to be lagging far behind and could be combined, for example with the forum being called media and the one subforum being for music discussion, with the main one to be used for all other media discussions (similar to how Technology/Programming is right now).

 

Similar how?

No doubt, but what is the purpose in condensing that particular forum?

One thread per movie/television show is allowed. Having 30 separate threads for the same movie isn't practical, nor would it be possible.

There needs to be a good reason for the forum being condensed. If you look at each sub forum in media, it would suggest the forum isn't dead, so collapsing it would only be for aesthetic reasons.

 

Video clips is about as dead as you can get. Movies and TV is pretty bad but not terrible. Music is decent at best.

 

There isn't enough activity to justify the division into subforums.

 

I think a great idea would just to merge them all into one forum and have tags for posts like [VIDEO] or [MUSIC]

Support.

 

Or even leave music as a subsection but delete the TV / clips sections and let them post directly under media.

 

I think this is the best possible implementation of this idea seeing as music is the one that's actually doing fine as a subsection

 

Surprisingly It's more active if not on par with the finance forum from a thread creation perspective. The thread creation to post ratio isn't bad either.

How so? It looks pretty active to me.

 

The frontpage of finance goes to about the beginning of January, whereas the frontpage of Movies/TV goes to about a week into December, a 3-week gap (with activity favouring finance). Even if they were the same, just because activity in one forum is lagging behind doesn't justify keeping a completely different subforum separated. That's a different discussion all in itself.

Furthermore, the frontpage of video clips goes to September and I have no idea how that is considered active.

Granted, I only took into account the one metric of thread creation - if you have other ways to measure forum activity I'm open.

 

Considering one forum is branded for discussion and the other is not it will show a disparity. If we're talking about expectations, video clips is on an average curve for what you would presume the level of activity would be in there, at 5 replies per thread on the first page. Since navigation is not of importance to you, we should also collapse the guide forum entirely, since of course video clips is more active than any subforum in the guide section. At the end of the day, it's better to leave these forums alone as there is no benefiting purpose to condense them.

 

Navigation is important but when it gets in the way of convenience (I wouldn't want 100 different subforums with very few threads in each) then I think it's time to reconsider.

I honestly wouldn't mind collapsing the guides forum, that's a different topic for discussion though.

 

Gets in the way of convenience? Navigation is the embodiment of CONVENIENCE. It's only 3 sub sections. Is it really bothering you that much?

 

Too much navigation (like 10 subsections) does get in the way of convenience, yes. Yes, it's only 3 sub-sections and I think it would look cleaner and be more convenient for users as a Media section with a music subsection. You've considered my view, I've considered your view, and that's the opinion I rest with. You're free to have your own.

 

That logically doesn't make sense. That's like saying having isles in a store is not convenient and makes it look more cleaner by having everything stored in one place. Having how it is now would make it more cleaner than having everything jumbled in one forum. You're grasping at straws here.

 

If the store only had 3 products, yes, having them all in one place would be more convenient than having them all in separate aisles

 

The way that it's laid out now is fine, each subforum is distinct enough that it doesn't make sense to integrate them. I feel that any activity boost from condensing them would be minimal and not really enough to justify getting rid of the current organizational structure.

I wouldn't be against moving the video clips section into Media though, I think it would look better to also have posts directly under a forum instead of just having it divided into subforums.

 

Except there isn't only 3 products here. The "products" you are referring to are classified brackets that branch out the actual products which are threads/posts.

That's like saying isle descriptions like condiments or kitchen utensils are products, completely neglecting whats inside those isles.

It would be random to just throw video clips directly under media. There needs to be direction in the sense of what's acceptable to post and what's not directly under media.