[bolshevik]

To add on top of what Arno has already said, everything can't be left to the GD team in order to keep the board popular. True, they could post fifteen topics a day but the popularity of said topics is derived from the people who actually do post on them. There are a few consistent posters on the board, some of them the GD staff, but in order for the board to be as popular as people expect it to be, people actually need to post consistently.

[Sin666]

GD's quality in topics has gone down extremely. Not only is the board misunderstood and the first 2 pages (at least, the majority of them) are cluttered with locked threads that have nothing to do with what this section is really supposed to be about, many of the active topics that 'are allowed' really are not serious discussions.

http://forums.zybez....akes-you-angry/
http://forums.zybez....d-in-runescape/
http://forums.zybez....s-vs-runescape/

While the parents thread could be directed in a more serious direction, it is not. I may make my own thread regarding the topic of parents and RuneScape though it would be a completely separate idea to the other thread but it would still most likely get locked.

The other two threads are people just stating x and x. Then people post 'that stinks', 'oh no' and so on.

Come on.

[Carbinedevil]

GD is boring. Most topics are RSB styled topics that I could probably get more decent replies if I actually went to RSB myself and found the same thread there.

[bolshevik]

Carbinedevil, on 31 January 2010 - 09:23 AM, said:

GD is boring. Most topics are RSB styled topics that I could probably get more decent replies if I actually went to RSB myself and found the same thread there.

Then go there and read those topics, but if you plan on staying here, don't expect a huge amount of variety, nor a large amount of posts. It can be very busy here occasionally, but most of the time it tends to be somewhat stagnant and the discussions may not be the best; yet it's a fun place if you look at it from a laid-back view.

Vision Ex, on 31 January 2010 - 08:58 AM, said:

GD's quality in topics has gone down extremely. Not only is the board misunderstood and the first 2 pages (at least, the majority of them) are cluttered with locked threads that have nothing to do with what this section is really supposed to be about, many of the active topics that 'are allowed' really are not serious discussions.

While the parents thread could be directed in a more serious direction, it is not. I may make my own thread regarding the topic of parents and RuneScape though it would be a completely separate idea to the other thread but it would still most likely get locked.

While the staff should take a more active role in pushing the board towards into a more clean and effective direction, it also lies within the community itself to take some charge. The CLs and the leaders take care of a lot of things that you actually don't see, the spam and such, yet it lies within you and others to take some of said action. Create topics that you feel are worth talking about, something that a lot of people may or may not actually post on, but actually take the chance. General Discussion isn't a board where there are the same people on a consistent basis, people tend to come and go as they please. There isn't a huge attraction here that draws in a lot of people, which is a tad sad, but nevertheless.

General Discussion is a place of light discussion, some debates here and there, but a board that is pretty free with what you can do. The difference between making threads that are somewhat similiar, and exactly alike is that there are so few topics that leads to your topic being closed. I dunno, there's a lot of work that needs to be done in order to make General Discussion the great board that it use to be, but it needs to be a dual process, not one-sided.

This post has been edited by bolshevik: 31 January 2010 - 01:32 PM

[Arno]

I had a quick peek at the first page and funnily enough I don't see any topics made by you two. So that leads me to the conclusion that it is easier to criticize than to actually post a topic and 'improve' the 'bad' situation. I'm always ready to accept some critique, but you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and "put your money where your mouth is". If you two made 2 topics each -and I'm assuming they would be extremely interesting, since you seem to know what is uninteresting and 'bad' about GD these days- the board would have gained 4 new, worthwhile topics.

[amar]

They didn't contribute, so what? It doesn't change their opinion on how General Discussion topics are. If you're going to ask for thoughts and feelings expect people to reply honestly.

[Josef]

amar™, on 13 February 2010 - 09:51 PM, said:

They didn't contribute, so what? It doesn't change their opinion on how General Discussion topics are. If you're going to ask for thoughts and feelings expect people to reply honestly.

No one likes a whiner. Just as the political dissident is supposed to do something to change the current state, someone posting critisms of a board has the responsibility to make a change. Sitting and saying "boo hoo" gets nothing done. Opinions are welcome, but they must be backed up by action.

If you're saying (a) is wrong, you should do (b) to improve the it. My food was cold, so instead of sitting and telling someone, I told someone, and then put it in a microwave. Yes, an odd example, but the point is clear: you must back up your words with actions.

[bolshevik]

amar™, on 13 February 2010 - 09:51 PM, said:

They didn't contribute, so what? It doesn't change their opinion on how General Discussion topics are. If you're going to ask for thoughts and feelings expect people to reply honestly.

No, of course it doesn't change their opinion at all, but it would be a little better if there was some weight behind it. As is, if they don't contribute, their opinions aren't as heavily weighed as those of the people who do take an active role in the forum. We're not discouraging any free thoughts or feelings, but be a part of the forum before you criticize it as heavily as you do/they have.

This post has been edited by bolshevik: 13 February 2010 - 09:58 PM

[Arno]

amar, on 14 February 2010 - 03:51 AM, said:

They didn't contribute, so what? It doesn't change their opinion on how General Discussion topics are. If you're going to ask for thoughts and feelings expect people to reply honestly.

You're right, it doesn't change their opinion. But do you know what it also doesn't change? The state of the board. That is changed by making good, interesting and lasting topics.

[Robert 1992]

Arno, on 14 February 2010 - 03:26 AM, said:

amar, on 14 February 2010 - 03:51 AM, said:

They didn't contribute, so what? It doesn't change their opinion on how General Discussion topics are. If you're going to ask for thoughts and feelings expect people to reply honestly.

You're right, it doesn't change their opinion. But do you know what it also doesn't change? The state of the board. That is changed by making good, interesting and lasting topics.

If you have an interest in General Discussion, but feel a lack in severity of debate, originality, or just in overall effectiveness—and have a topic you think would befit this "worst case scenario"—feel free to put your best foot forward. But don't come to us and demand change when you haven't given it some effort.

[T opaz]

Honestly, I like General Discussion usually, but it seems like a ton of the topics get closed down because the peopel posting don't know the purpose of the forum, or don't observe the 5-sentence thing.

[Josef]

T opaz, on 14 February 2010 - 05:00 PM, said:

Honestly, I like General Discussion usually, but it seems like a ton of the topics get closed down because the peopel posting don't know the purpose of the forum, or don't observe the 5-sentence thing.

And, unfortunetely, there isn't much the leaders of the forum can do about that. Most of the time, posters wisen up after their first offense, but the sheer number of people on the forum will mean people posting rule breaking topics.

[amar]

Arno, on 14 February 2010 - 03:26 AM, said:

amar, on 14 February 2010 - 03:51 AM, said:

They didn't contribute, so what? It doesn't change their opinion on how General Discussion topics are. If you're going to ask for thoughts and feelings expect people to reply honestly.

You're right, it doesn't change their opinion. But do you know what it also doesn't change? The state of the board. That is changed by making good, interesting and lasting topics.

Fair enough.

I still don't know what your responses would be if someone who argubly did contribute posted the exact same thing, though.

This post has been edited by amar: 14 February 2010 - 05:34 PM

[Robert 1992]

amar, on 14 February 2010 - 05:33 PM, said:

Fair enough.

I still don't know what your responses would be if someone who argubly did contribute posted the exact same thing, though.

That's because as of this moment, we haven't had any problems with people who have contributed to the welfare of this board.

[amar]

Harmony, on 14 February 2010 - 05:42 PM, said:

amar, on 14 February 2010 - 05:33 PM, said:

Fair enough.

I still don't know what your responses would be if someone who argubly did contribute posted the exact same thing, though.

That's because as of this moment, we haven't had any problems with people who have contributed to the welfare of this board.

hypothetically speaking

[Robert 1992]

amar, on 14 February 2010 - 05:42 PM, said:

hypothetically speaking

Well, in layman's terms, I'd say that those who are actively contributing to this board don't have the need to argue because they actually enjoy their time here in General Discussion. The people who I see coming here in this topic are usually the people who have locked topics somewhere in the board, or all they do is post in the topics—they'd had never made one of their own. It's more often the usual pattern of things.

[Hersch]

Josef, on 14 February 2010 - 05:59 PM, said:

T opaz, on 14 February 2010 - 05:00 PM, said:

Honestly, I like General Discussion usually, but it seems like a ton of the topics get closed down because the peopel posting don't know the purpose of the forum, or don't observe the 5-sentence thing.

And, unfortunetely, there isn't much the leaders of the forum can do about that. Most of the time, posters wisen up after their first offense, but the sheer number of people on the forum will mean people posting rule breaking topics.

I agree with you that there isn't much the CLs can do about closed topics as this is where a lot of topics get posted because of the "general" in the board name. What is ridiculous, however, is the fact the amount of closed topics is nearing the fourth page, especially after this was pointed out before.

[bolshevik]

amar, on 14 February 2010 - 06:42 PM, said:

Harmony, on 14 February 2010 - 05:42 PM, said:

amar, on 14 February 2010 - 05:33 PM, said:

Fair enough.

I still don't know what your responses would be if someone who argubly did contribute posted the exact same thing, though.

That's because as of this moment, we haven't had any problems with people who have contributed to the welfare of this board.

hypothetically speaking

Oh, i'm sorry, were you here for the months of little to no posting? There were long periods of time from the summer until mid-fall when there wasn't a lot of activity, but quite a few people still contributed to the board. It's obviously different if someone with experience and a decent amount of activity did post with a concern as such, simply because they do have a certain amount of knowledge about the inability of the board to be what it actually could become. I think that your opinion is a fair one, there are a lot of things that back it as well, but before judgments are made based around the inactivity and the inability of the board itself, take an active interest and post topics and help contribute to the board, instead of bringing it down.

T opaz, on 14 February 2010 - 05:00 PM, said:

Honestly, I like General Discussion usually, but it seems like a ton of the topics get closed down because the peopel posting don't know the purpose of the forum, or don't observe the 5-sentence thing.

It's not like the five-sentence rule means that people under the limit don't have great topics, it's just that with more information, there can be a lot more room for discussion. I agree that people should learn the rules in order to make topics, and that's what partially is criticized as the reason why many topics are closed or die after a short period of time. I think that even though the topic limit is a bit strict, it does give a lot of freedom to the poster, and actually helps create a great topic, rather than have one like the aforementioned.

[Arno]

amar, on 15 February 2010 - 12:33 AM, said:

Arno, on 14 February 2010 - 03:26 AM, said:

amar, on 14 February 2010 - 03:51 AM, said:

They didn't contribute, so what? It doesn't change their opinion on how General Discussion topics are. If you're going to ask for thoughts and feelings expect people to reply honestly.

You're right, it doesn't change their opinion. But do you know what it also doesn't change? The state of the board. That is changed by making good, interesting and lasting topics.

Fair enough.

I still don't know what your responses would be if someone who argubly did contribute posted the exact same thing, though.

It would be this:

I appreciate your commitment to the well-being of this board, as is apparent from your insightful topics. Even though the board may sometimes appear to experience a lull, it's people like you who make sure that this board nevertheless remains the most interesting corner of this forum. We, the CL team, are always trying to make sure the environment remains discussion-friendly, so don't think that we sit around not caring about the people, not caring about the future. We have just released the Debate Tournament, and we encourage our CL's to make interesting topics themselves. But with every community, there are ups and downs, which proves that this is a dynamic community above all.

[amar]

ok bro(s)