Condensing Off Topic

Off-topic

General/Off-topic
Something for all
Media
>Music
>Movies/Television
>Video Clips/Live streaming
Lifestyle
>Assets and investment
>Sport/Health and fitness
Technology
>Programming
Spam forum
>Viral threads
>Upper spam

To appear as:

General/Off-topic
Something for all
Media
Lifestyle
Technology
Spam forum

 

fixed. no seriously, I'm the only one who supports lit section?

 

No thanks. A 'literature' section would be just as inactive (if not more) as Investment/Assets...

I still think 'Something for All' should be renamed to 'Intelligent Debate' or something along those lines.

Edit: and I support Superman's proposal:



And double edit: While we're on this issue, get rid of 'Viral Threads' in the Spam Forum. It was fun while it lasted.

 

Supermans isn't offensive to me.

 

I agree with Heads about the literature section. Everyone on this site that has to read books for class probably uses sparknotes or something like that. Also, I do not believe the amount of people on here that actually read or read for enjoyment would be enough to make the section active at all.

 

Instead of dealing with this shit every time we notice inactivity, I want to see hard activity lower limits, for market sections and off-topic sections.

This is good for two reasons - first of all it encourages experimentation. When you add a new section now you make a commitment to keep it effectively indefinitely and use valuable home-page space. That's pretty huge, and so it's hard to get a new section in. Removing the commitment would be beneficial in this case.

Second, it reduces inactive sections. I propose two sets of limits that should apply to all sections more than two months old, and be evaluated every month for every section (preferably automatically).
First tier limits:
--Market Upper Limit: X posts in a month or this market section is condensed
--Non-Market Upper Limit: Same, only not for market sections
Absolute Lower Limits:
--Market Absolute Limit: If a section, after failing the upper limit, at least once before, and then fails the lower limit, it's removed. End of story
--Non-Market Absolute Limit: Same, only not for market sections.

For a section to be removed it has to first be condensed, and then continue showing inactivity.

Calculating the limits should be a matter of examining post history in a multitude of sections and getting some sort of Posts/Month quota. Some tool should be available to automatically calculate the number of posts in a particular month, and at the end of it the admin team should quickly run over things and do what needs to be done.

If a section fails the upper limit but not the lower one repeatedly it stays condensed. If it fails the upper limit but later rebounds it gets a front page spot again. Basically this is objectively answering the question of what's important and what's not.

 

In theory this sounds like a good idea, but ultimately would create a "rotating" architecture of the site, and would confuse members who are trying to find a certain section, as it may end up constantly moving.

Would not work.

 

I doubt it. Take a look at activity levels for most forums right now (something simple like how many hours to fill a page), and take a look at the same forum for activity levels of posts a month older or more.

You'll see lots of flatlining for anything remotely old.

 

We should just be a lot more reluctant to make new sections. I'm not sure we need a formula for it... We just need to be in the mindset of not wanting to dilute the posts we have.

 

I don't see how it could hurt. I mean the movie and music section aren't exactly thriving. Perhaps we could just combine them all into "media"? Instead of three semi-dead sections we could have one that's decently active.

Kinda shitting on Sythe.org history by changing the name, but maybe it's for the best. Might become more active if it had an instantly recognizable name. Can anyone tell me how exactly it got SFA as a name?

 

Merge music and video clips with Movies/Television and call it media. Merge technology with programming and call it technology. Remove assets and investments or merge it with general/off-topic.

-General/Off Topic
-Something For All
-Media
--Music
--Movies/TV
--Video clips
--Literature
-Technology
--Hardware
--Software/Programming
---Programming General
---Web Programming (That may be too many sub sections, but meh you can play with it)
-Spam Forum
--Viral Threads
--Upper Spam

Collapsed will look like

-General/Off Topic
-Something For All
-Media
-Technology
-Spam Forum

Smaller and more streamlined.

 

I've always thought it was confusing having "general" and "something for all". I don't have any suggestions other than to suggest that SFA be renamed. I like "intelligent debate" personally

 

-General/Off Topic
-Something For All
-Media (with a sticky saying what belongs).
-Programming
-Technology
-Spam Forum

Done, no subforums because they'll just end up dead.

 

I'm down with that.

 

Any further input?

 

superman's idea is #1

 

-General/Off Topic
-Something For All
-Media (with a sticky saying what belongs).
-Programming
-Technology
-Streaming
-Spam Forum

this^

 

http://www.sythe.org/community-general/1581417-off-topic-overhaul.html