View Full Version : Changes!!! Please Read!
Over the next few weeks we’re going to implement several changes to the forums. These changes are motivated by a desire to
1. Return closer to our roots as an overclocking forums.
2. Improve the overall level of discussion in the forums.
3. Foster a tighter sense of community.
4. Improve the legal and financial security of the forums.
While these changes may seem sudden to you, be assured that they are the product of long and intense discussions among the staff. It is to be expected that not everyone will approve of these changes. Nonetheless, we believe that they are in the best interests of the forum and will result in an overall improvement over the long run. Some of the changes you may not notice. Others will seem drastic. We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion while we make these improvements.
Beginning later tonight you will see the following changes.
1. The forums will be restructured.
2. A new Front Page Discussion area will be opened.
3. General Chat will be removed. Gripes and Moans will be removed also.
4. All other discussion forums will require a minimum post count of 100 posts.
Below is a description of each of these.
1. The forums will be reordered to more closely reflect the priorities of oc-forums.com. You may need to look for a bit to find what you want, but it shouldn’t take long. The biggest changes will be moving discussion forums to their own subsection. You’ll also notice a few changes in the other sections, but mainly some streamlining and reordering.
2. We’ll be opening a forum specifically for discussing articles from the front page. The details of this are still being decided upon, but keep your eyes open.
3. We are getting rid of General Chat. It has increasingly become more like instant messaging and less like a productive forum. The quality of posting has been in a constant downhill slide, and we feel this has been negatively affecting the forums as a whole. Further there have been several incidents in GC that could potentially pose legal/financial threats to the forums. As a result, we are removing it. We will be opening a General Discussion forum for our most dedicated members, but access will be restricted to those who have demonstrated a commitment to the forums through their posting in other areas. It will be impossible to spam your way to that forum; don’t bother trying. However, those who consistently post in the non-discussion areas will eventually get there.
4. All discussion forums (Vendor Discussion, Cyber Deals, Forum Comments and Suggestions, and General Computer Related Discussion) will require a minimum post count of 100, just as the classifieds do now. We are trying to increase the proportion of our members who are here because they are interested in performance computing and decrease the proportion who are here merely to chat. Discussion forums will not generate post count.
Thank you for your participation in these forums. We hope that these changes will improve your experience here and ask that you bear with us as we implement them.
Forum Staff
tread70
07-23-03, 07:27 PM
I couldnt agree more with with this decision. I have seen the degradation of the topics of this forum and was thinking of finding another one. The only drawback is this is the best place on the net for this type of discussions. I am ready for this to be done now, but of course good things come to those who wait. I hope the outages will be kept to a minimium.
Thanks for the improvements,
Tread
Beast Of Blight
07-23-03, 07:49 PM
No general chat..
So where the hell are people goign to talk?
I mean, its general chat. Its not always going to produce intelligent covnersation, but its a place for fun.
Some of us come here to chat about computers, and other things.
Not everyone wants to talk about computers ALL THE TIME. I mean, even the most hardcore geektard wants to have atleast a little time of, well..for lack of a better term, General Chat.
tread70
07-23-03, 07:59 PM
msn,yahoo,aim,icq,eyeball,etc
As someone who wanders into this forum once or twice a month, it would be nice to see this in other forums.
Of course, I assume this will be posted on the front page tomorrow, and all will be well.
It's also posted in GC and placed as an announcement at the top of each forum. I didn't place a thread in every forum as that would be off topic. Do you think I should?
Cjwinnit
07-23-03, 08:28 PM
Originally posted by nihili
It's also posted in GC and placed as an announcement at the top of each forum. I didn't place a thread in every forum as that would be off topic. Do you think I should?
You shouldn't need to as the announcement is there, but it might suffer from "No-one reads the stickies" syndrome.
You are correct. I don't agree.
Well, I do agree that the reconstruction is in order and the 100 post minimum will prevent people from posting computer problems in CGRD that would be more appropriate in other sections, but there is a lot of non-computer related technology discussions that would only really fit in GC.
And what is going to come of the California Overclockers Get Together stickie?
If you lose general chat, you lose part of the sense of community.
Originally posted by nihili
It's also posted in GC and placed as an announcement at the top of each forum. I didn't place a thread in every forum as that would be off topic. Do you think I should? Ah, so you did. I missed it, because I wasn't looking at the stickies, as Cjwinnit said.
A thread in every forum would be a but much... I imagine you would have to read them all If you think a cross post is annoying...
I think there should definitely be something on the front page tomorrow
Unfortunately I don't have control of the front page, but I'll pass the suggestion along.
One more thing: Are you going to lose Technical Discussion? I know it was your baby and seemed like a wonderful idea, but it is becoming more of a General Chat with a slight addition of technology or philosophy.
Yes, expect to see TD evaporate. We may attempt a ressurection if we can figure out how to solve the problems we've had with it. But for now I expect it to dissapear.
Awww...I liked the philosophical debates that were going on in there recently...
deRusett
07-23-03, 09:20 PM
People who have a Majority of there posts out side of the focus forums as it stands now will they go down below 100 posts?
I'm not sure how many posts I have now, nor do I care all that much, Unless, after these changes take effect, my post count drops me down so I am sub 100 posts.
TD was a great idea when I first came across it, I have no clue if it was because I suddenly got a higher post count, or that it just was created, but I enjoyed reading many of the topics of discussion, I think it would be sad to lose it, it should be more strictly moderated to remove the general computer related topics and stick to some of the more technical topics.
to address the lost sense of community, is there not an oc.com IRC channel? if not, could we not get one set up in lue of the general chat an admin bot to keep things clean, keep with the feel of general chat.
I am sure it would get good use, there is also e-mail/ PM's. and IM's to keep with the community feel
No, there is no official oc.com irc channel. That would have to be moderated the same as GC. There is, however, an oc folding chat room and stuff.
Also, I noticed something that has made me change my mind a little bit (only a little bit!). The exact same post was made by nihili in both GC and GCRD. The GCRD post is not even 2 pages long yet. I posted here, then checked GC. It was 3 pages when I started reading, 5 pages when I finished reading, and 6 pages before I began posting. There obviously is WAY too many people focusing on GC (including me).
Over the past 6 months or so, my posting has focused in GC, GCRD, General Hardware, and cyber deals. All of the other forums have questions answered too quickly for me to get an informative post in before someone else already says it like it is.
Originally posted by Krusty
Awww...I liked the philosophical debates that were going on in there recently...
Oh, even if the forum goes away, the threads will just get moved to GD or GCRD. You can still talk about that. We had orginally envisioned it as a sort of engineer's paradise, but that didn't happen.
I'm not sure how current post counts will be affected, or even *if* they'll be affected. I'm just the front man, I don't flip the switches. Once the dust settles, PM a mod if you have a question about it.
deRusett
07-23-03, 09:36 PM
Originally posted by Krusty
No, there is no official oc.com irc channel. That would have to be moderated the same as GC. There is, however, an oc folding chat room and stuff.
That needs to get rectified then,
a link on the Main page to a Oc.com IRC channel, as well as in the forums,
a Mod Bot could be made as well as giving all Mods from the site admin powers on the server, possibly Sr's as well if the task of keeping things clean gets out of hand,
but since it is not permanent print like GC is/was things should be easier
It has been discussed and the mods and admins decided they did not want an official oc chat channel.
deRusett
07-23-03, 09:38 PM
Originally posted by nihili
I'm not sure how current post counts will be affected, or even *if* they'll be affected. I'm just the front man, I don't flip the switches. Once the dust settles, PM a mod if you have a question about it.
thanks, so long as I don't fall to far out of the Forum by my post count dropping I don't care, I don't have much input for the core OC forums to build up any sort of post count until Prescott/PCI Express/ SATA are all run of the mill ;) or I win the lotto
deRusett
07-23-03, 09:38 PM
Originally posted by Krusty
It has been discussed and the mods and admins decided they did not want an official oc chat channel.
that was probably before they chose to remove general chat though,
Edit, this would be a time an IRC channel would be useful, this is the IM like conversation that is mentioned in the first post.
The problem with an IRC channel is that it's almost impossible to effectively moderate. If we have an official affiliation with a channel, we become legally liable for it's content. Moderating a forum is much much easier.
deRusett
07-23-03, 09:47 PM
can you make an ICR channel that you must be registered to use? that way we can moderate our selves and use the forum PM to report members who abuse it,
I have not used IRC much in the last 5 years so I am not sure what can and can't be done with it
Even if there were an IRC channel, I don't see it as a viable alternative to General Chat. When I ask people a non-computer related question in GC, it gets answered over a period of several days. In an IRC room, it will have to be answered by who is there before it scrolls off the screen. It's a significantly different experience.
CharlesHF
07-23-03, 10:59 PM
Nihili, it sounds like the forum staff has spent quite a while thinking this over and it sounds like it is in the best interests of the forums. I think they'll work out great. :)
What exactly does it mean when you say "We will be opening a General Discussion forum for our most dedicated members, but access will be restricted to those who have demonstrated a commitment to the forums through their posting in other areas."? I mean I have been a member here for over a year and have close to 1700 posts, I would like to be able to post in there but if you mean you need a rank of 'dedicated member' then I would need another 3000+ posts...
Is there a set number of posts or amount of time that one must have spent here? (I have a feeling this is still being worked out and you are not sure yet but a rough idea would be good) I understand what is being attempted but as is always said around here "it's not the number of posts, it's post quality that counts", I may not have as many posts as some people who joined only a few months ago but (at the risk of sounding a little vain) 95% of my posts greatly contribute to the topic at hand.
I understand that it would be virtually impossible to let people into the new general discussion based on the quality of their posts but I don't look forward to the prospect of not being able to see GD for the next 2 years (assuming my number of posts per day stays about the same), especially when it's not really me (or others like me) that you are trying to keep out... after all I could probably count the number of posts I have made in general chat on my hands but I do read through it fairly often.
Basicly I want to know if I will be able to see the new GD? If not would it at least be possible for all members to read it but only the "dedicated members" be able to post in it.
There will be a post count limit that grants default access. We'll also consider members on a case by case basis as needed.
I'm not going to give a specific number, but I don't mean the rank of Dedicated Member.
I'm not giving the number because we dont' want a sudden rush of spamming. Also we've made our best judgment about what the number should be, but we may change our minds once we get a little farther down the road. Not announcing the number makes it easier to adjust it if we need to.
UberBlue
07-24-03, 02:01 PM
Aw man... gripes and moans was my favorite section... I'll live with it since I like the other changes.
When's all this goin' down?
deRusett
07-24-03, 07:01 PM
was it not already done by the time you posted this reply?
It's half done. We're still working on implementing things. Then of course we have to see if things work the way we expect them to. There will undoubtedly be some minor adjustments.
deRusett
07-24-03, 07:15 PM
like lowering the dedicated member post count ;)
notice my count down
Originally posted by nihili
Yes, expect to see TD evaporate. We may attempt a ressurection if we can figure out how to solve the problems we've had with it. But for now I expect it to dissapear.
I had fun reading that thread (generaly computer people have a wide range of intrests that they know alot about. I recently had a post there about elements that I was learning alot in) I hope after the reconstruction there would be a place for discussions like this.
I'm also worried about the post count. I don't post alot because by the time I read these most of the questions have been answered. I'd rather be silent that repeat stuff to death.
looking foward to the changes.
Says you need 997 posts to post in this forum (not to me, as someone with less than 997 posts :p ).
stoopid
07-25-03, 01:40 AM
Originally posted by Pinky
Says you need 997 posts to post in this forum (not to me, as someone with less than 997 posts :p ).
It's general discussion, not this topic.
Having been here since Aug 2001, and finally breaking thru the 500 post milestone tonight, I am not looking forward to it taking another two years to get access to Gen'l Discussion...
C'est la vie...C'est la guerre... :D >
Originally posted by DAGO
Having been here since Aug 2001, and finally breaking thru the 500 post milestone tonight, I am not looking forward to it taking another two years to get access to Gen'l Discussion...
C'est la vie...C'est la guerre... :D >
as well as I.
Rob
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