"Official" topic groupings

jeffyjones · Basic Member Joined: 16 May 2003

I enjoy popping into DDRFreak periodically to find out what's going on in the DDR world. However, I find the forums very, very difficult to manage because of the decision to create "official" topics in the various forums.

For example, if a single topic is designated as the UltraMix 2 thread, it might go sixty pages, which renders the search function useless because it doesn't find the page of the search match.

Just a suggestion, but perhaps sub-forums (if the software does it) would be in order. Keep up the great work.

VxJasonxV · Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 10:42 pm Post subject:

Sub-forums:
phpBB2.2, after the major board upgrade some time after phpBB2.2's release, this will be a viable option.
[/typical response]

You can search in threads. Just switch the little option in the lower-left from topics to posts. When it comes to threads like UM2/Extreme/etc. Just read the first post, that's all the known information that matters.
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AuntieM · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 1:32 pm Post subject:

Thomas Hobbes · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 7:09 pm Post subject:

Bleh, I still think we should have two threads for each topic.

Ie.)

Information Thread - Extreme US
Discussion Thread - Extreme US

As was mentioned before hand in Version 2 of the Extreme US thread or whatever stage it was before the release....
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sherl0k · Maniac Member Joined: 27 Jan 2002 Location: the internet

I personally don't like having one big huge thread dedicated to game, because yes - questions do get lost, and if they do get answered, you have to search the thread just to find it. A little too much effort for asking one simple question.
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CStarFlare · Maniac Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

But if we scrap the "all stuff for this game in this thread" system, we get a flood of new threads about the game that overwhelm the board. We'd have to deal with tons of repeat threads, and questions would still get buried under all the threads that are posted.

At least when we keep everything to one thread, the chaos doesn't take the rest of the board down.

Cutriss · Staff Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

You mentioned to me that you're a librarian. Having briefly lived with a librarian myself and otherwise having her as a surrogate mother, I think I've taken a few of the compulsive information-gathering impulses unto myself as well.

Desoulman · Trick Member Joined: 25 Apr 2002 Location: Vermont :(

Ideally, there would be seperation of n00b and vetran, where n00bs can complain in one thread about how butterfly isnt on us extreme, and how that is stupid because its on arcade extreme, while the vetrans can discuss halfway intellegant things on another thread. But like I said, that would be ideal. If you made different threads people would just get confused or be stupid and post in the wrong thread. I mean, mods can delete posts that are in the wrong spots, but I doubt any mod wants to do that much work.
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sherl0k · Maniac Member Joined: 27 Jan 2002 Location: the internet

Maybe what I need to do is sort through that big EXUS thread and put together one big FAQ with every single question and answer, that way there's one central page for everything.
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[quote:ed1f6848c5=\\\"jaeness\\\"]get your change from obama, he apparently has tons of it.[/quote]

Thomas Hobbes · Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 2:30 pm Post subject:

Yeah, that'd work. Just have one big buttocks FAQ for the information wanters in one LOCKED thread.

Then have another Discussion Thread about songs, one about the mix in general, etc.
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AuntieM · Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 3:09 pm Post subject:

I like that idea. Could you do it for all the other threads as well?

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Cutriss · Staff Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

sherl0k · Maniac Member Joined: 27 Jan 2002 Location: the internet

Oh hush up, you know you like the idea.

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[quote:ed1f6848c5=\\\"jaeness\\\"]get your change from obama, he apparently has tons of it.[/quote]

Nightime · Trick Member Joined: 28 Jan 2002 Location: anywhere else

Cutriss · Staff Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

spam-vt · Trick Member Joined: 26 Apr 2002 Location: Blacksburg, VA

Imagine you went to the library and you were trying to do some research about volcanos. You ask the librarian and the librarian says "oh, that's in the SCIENCE BOOK". And you look over, and there is one giant book 30 feet long taking up an entire wall, titled "ALL SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE GOES HERE." And you try to look something up in the book but it is completely unsorted and the topics are covered in random order. That is about what we have with the mega "Extreme thread." Do you know why libraries have more than one book on science? Because it covers more than one topic!

I remember reading the forums before the mods instituted the mega-threads, and the forums were far more useful than they are now. Yes, you got a lot of dupes ("Has anyone heard about this plastic hard pad on ebay?"), but even the dupe questions would get answered. And most people would at least browse through the first couple of pages to see if it has already been discussed. Right now you have to go through the entire 100 page thread to find anything.

Seriously, if you have to lock 2/3 of all threads in the name of preventing dupes, aren't you doing more harm to the forum than good? Why don't you just disable new threads?
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Cutriss · Staff Member Joined: 24 Jan 2002

As I said above, your analogy is flawed. If you really want to use the Library analogy, here's how it works.

You walk into the library, and before you even try to find something yourself, you go to the Librarian and ask "Excuse me, but how do volcanoes work?" She looks up a book and gives it to you, but then you just say "I'm sorry, but that doesn't answer my question. How do volcanoes work?" She then points you to the Table Of Contents in the book and walks away.

You guys always balk at the Console threads, but the first post always, ALWAYS has pretty much all the info you could want, and it doesn't take that long to read. It's like a table of contents. If it doesn't have what you need, then you can use the Search tool (none of the complainers have mentioned that...) or ask in the thread. If there's something *missing* from the first post, then bring it to my attention and I'll fix it.

I *guarantee* you - 95% of the people that complain and bitch about this aren't are just lazy. They *don't* want to read a book. They *don't* want to do any research. They just want immediate gratification.
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diddrstrait · Trick Member Joined: 01 Jan 2004

except a science book has a table of contents. likewise, the extreme thread has the first page, which covers all information relevant to the main subject in a discussion thread. it is the responsibility of the poster to read the first page, the last few pages, and then add to the discussion.

yar, cutriss beat me to it. slippery admin...

Phrekwenci · Administrator Joined: 27 Feb 2002 Location: New York, NY

spam-vt · Trick Member Joined: 26 Apr 2002 Location: Blacksburg, VA

But the first post doesn't have all of the info. For mission mode, the post just has the text "To be revealed! ". For the Eyetoy, it just has 3 sentences that you could read off of the back of the game box. An actual table of contents would have pointers to where you could get detailed info. Right now there is no easy way to do that.

I tried using the search tool and it didn't help. A search for posts on mission mode gave me about 20 pages of results, most of which were irrelevant posts that just happened to mention mission mode. It would be a lot easier if there was actually a separate thread for this.

I am just asking that the mods relax a little bit on what is considered a duplicate thread. I can think of at least 5-10 different topics with extreme that could easily support their own threads (eyetoy, mission mode, corner issues, song unlocks, bragging about AAAs, whining about the song selection, etc). If a newbie posts a duplicate mission thread because the previous one fell to the second page, you can still lock it and tell them to check the second page. Right now you just lock it and tell the person to ask in the 100 page extreme thread (where it will likely be ignored).
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"High technology product, do not apart, separate or fix it anyway. Or the damage can not be guaranteed."

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