Console forum locked?

[Saem]

The spin-off site has some good points and some bad points. I think ultimately it's the only way to work things. This way the site admins such as Dave won't get hammered with PMs whinning about crap giong down in the Console forums. I've gotten a few PMs from people about just that and I can only imagine how frustrating it'd be for Dave -- the volume must insanely high.

The segregation would mean that kids wouldn't go whinng to the people who don't have enough time to deal with them. The disadvantage is the reduced ease of use and a greater split in the community.

Banning dial-up users is an issues, but a quick email to their ISP saying they're harassing the folks here and not respecting bans usually has their account revoked -- I've done simillar in the past to many a nuisance.

 

[cthellis42]

I don't currently have enough coding skills--if that would be required--but I'm certainly willing to help out in any way folks would find useful.

Offhand I don't think it would be necessary to split off to a whole different site, but I CERTAINLY think it would benefit by being split into multiple boards, and with a bit more attention paid to "poster-spanking" for those who get out of line.

Can phpBB support the creation of a sub-directory? Basically, so the Console Forum would take no more room visually on the main board than it does now, and when you click on the link it takes you to a sub-menu page which show the various console forums. That way it could be split off into however many areas people want, but not affect the flow of B3D proper.

 

[cybamerc]

zurich:

> I think a segmented console forum would be best, ie: hardware,
> software, business.

I would have to disagree with that. Not only is there not enough traffic on the forum to warrant any kind of segmentation but I also don't see the point. How would it solve the issues the led to the closing of the console forum?



jvd:

> THey can post news on the main page and then have the forum broken
> down to respond to news

Seriously, what would be the point? Like there aren't already a million other news sites. If the console forum can't continue under the B3D framework I say don't bother.

 

[Dio]

I would have to disagree with that. Not only is there not enough traffic on the forum to warrant any kind of segmentation

I would have said that the console forum was one of the highest traffic on this site. It was rare to check it and not find 10+ threads with new material in.

 

[Dio]

is because it is the sanest forum where I can expect to find news on PS3.

Things must be pretty bad out there.

I still haven't heard any theories as to why the pro- and anti- PS3 people take up the positions they do. Without understanding the problem, can we realistically create a solution?

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

I think this thread is slowly replacing the console forum.

 

[cybamerc]

Dio:

> I would have said that the console forum was one of the highest traffic on this site.

It may be that Console Talk had more activity than the other forums at B3D but that alone doesn't justify segmentation IMO.

 

[mat]

i havent red the whole thread, so if this is allready answerd, just ignore this.

If Dave closed the Console forum for Bandwith issues that i think its ok to close a Off Topic forum like this.

Id its just closed because its an "off topic forum" than i think its not really the best idea.
look for example at 3dcenter.de's Forum they are a German page focused on 3D Tec like B3D, but they have Forums about TCPA/TCG & Palladium, LowNoise/Silent, Retrogaming & Emulatoren, Politics, and much more...
I personally would like to have more Forums here to choose from.

For the flames there... a ignore User function could solve those problems very easy.

 

[maskrider]

PHPBB doesn't have that. vBulletin have that and more and is pretty ok and relatively cheap indeed (US$160) for an unlimited single site license which includes a year of updates.

Anyway, if the site owner decided that the console talk forum could stay, I think the best way to keep it will be a separate forum, and keep an archive of the old forum for reading. A dedicated site just for consoles may be considered later on if there are enough people to sustain it.

The separate forum would be better using something like vBulletin or better, which I am sure there will be people who are more than willing to pay for the license (me included) and be a mod to police it.

 

[London Geezer]

I think completely losing the Console Forum would be a real shame. I had stopped posting there, however the information provided by those few serious posters surely kept me going back just to read what was posted.

The console forum was bad and i admit i was part of it, not in the continuous bickering between Sony-Ms fanbois, but in the off-topic jokey kind of things, which i can't help because it's part of my personality, and some people loved it, some people didn't. Oh well i stopped for a reason.

I agree that keeping the forum open to those few serious insiders who made me come here in the first place would be a good idea. At the end of the day This forum has the biggest amount of insider/developing information than anywhere else i've seen in my life on the internet. Losing this would be a real shame.

It seems those few but very valuable Devs/insiders kept B3D forum at heart and that's why it was so full of GOOD information.

The stupidity of few should not in any way put an end to such a treasure. I have stopped posting there, and i will not post there if it were to open again (well, maybe not completely, but surely not as much as i used to), i can let my jokes go in the general forum. I understand that while many people liked me/my posts, some others did not in the least, and it starts being a problem when those people are mods (BIG oooops here).

I will always go back to the only place on the net someone can find REAL information. And especially now that next gen consoles are being revealed, it's just too much to lose. Make it open only to those few who have proved they will not get into fanboi-fights. They're not actually THAT few. If i'm too much of a drag with my jokes (i got better though ) and such then cool, i'll still have a place to read cool info i cannot possibly find ANYWHERE else.

 

[Dave Glue]

I'll have to cost my vote in for just nominating a seperate moderator for the console forum that will clamp down hard and fast, rather than a completely seperate spin-off site.

If no Beyond3D moderator wants to bother with the console forum, then naturally it's going to degrade - all popular web forums I've been on require some form of moderation, or else it's Usenet (and who wants that?). Having an "ignore user" option isn't enough, there's always going to be someone who's not familiar with the usual troublemakers and respond - you may ignore the original poster, but not the responses. Moderation, moderation, moderation.

The error to me seems opening up a forum in the first place, completely leaving it alone (mod warnings were extremely rare in the console forum as most have noticed), then simply dumping it due to the inevitable.

That being said, the console forum has always been the bastard stepchild of Beyond3d. I like it occasionally, but if it's the "best of breed" of console discussions across the Net, then that's pretty damning commentary on the state of console discussion as a whole.

 

[Paul]

How? Did I run the board into the ground with an excessive amount of garbage posts or threads? Have I been warned on numerous ocassions to stop a certain behavior? Have I religiously "participated" in numerous threads that have been locked over the past few months? No, I haven't.

I never said you did, infact you have nothing to do with it. Noone that has posted in this topic is at fault at all, because the problem is deeper than that.

However it's all opinion based.

Let's take an example... say Vince.

Some could say Vince is a core problem in all this, others such as myself see him as a great poster.

All opinion.

 

[kaching]

I had been lurking at the B3D console forum for awhile before I just recently decided to start posting. Not because I have tremendous technical information to impart about console hardware but rather because I was disappointed with how certain patterns of behavior were allowed to occur largely unchecked. Console Talk just needs some dedicated moderators and I would hope that finding a couple of people with the time to moderate (no offense to jvd and sonic as I realize that time is the biggest hurdle for them) would be easier than finding people to build, admin AND moderate a new site.

Dave Baumann, if you don't want to handle the PM traffic related to the Console Talk forum, then just establish a rule that all PMs and any other type of request related to the Console Talk forum will be ignored if sent to you or any other main B3D site admin/mod. All Console Talk issues/requests must be submitted to that forum's mods.

If people around here knew more about me and could vouch for me, I'd offer my services as a mod. I'd hate to see the Console Talk forum disappear for lack of simple moderation.

 

[Saem]

I'm taking next semester off -- I'm going to be working. That means much of my evenings are free and even at work I have to do um... research at Beyond3d. I'll have enough time to work with the site. Additionally, I know one of the producers at IGN and have talked to him about such a site and he's thinks it'd be fairly easy to do -- relatively speaking. He also gave me a few pointers as to how to setup the volunteer staff to keep the site running well.

 

[Sonic]

The problem was partly the moderating of the forum, but me and jvd really couldn't be hard. I wouldn't mind a police state that encouraged intelligent discussion in certain ways. The fact is that when you are away for a day or two, as I sometimes would visit my girlfriend's the next day I come back and check on it all hell breaks loose. There would be a few days without too many problems that would go on after editing, deleting posts and locking threads. Things would be ok for 3 days at a time then it all happens over again. I think the best option would be to allow the moderators to have banning powers that way there is a real punishment if a poster acts up. Editing/deleting posts constantly does work, but any one moderator doesn't have that much time to do it. I think that by doing the spin-off site there could be more control over what goes on, but by adding banning powers to moderators that would be a big step in getting rid of 90% of the problems.

Still, no matter what happens I am available in the future. I'll still come to Beyond3D on a daily basis and make that visit to the 3d tech forum just to read all the intelligent posts.

 

[Dave Baumann]

OK, a few things.

First off, there isn't the facility for giving more ban rights on this board - the only people that can control bans are forum administrators and forum admin have all kinds of access to "special secret things" here so that ain't going to be given out!

Second the forum software will not change - we've got a large history in this forum now and I doubt there are convertors from php to another (paid) forum, we've also hacked our own portal into it and it drives the news on the front page, so altering the forum software will be an issue - the only time the forum will change is when phpBB2.2 becomes available.

My idea for a second site would probably be to use a console.beyond3d.com subdomian (which would resolve to a beyond3d.com/console/ directory) and then you can have another forum in there. If you wanted that forum could also have a portal such that you can have a front page with updates and news - there are some good phpbb portals out there and I assume that Digital Wanderers Elite Bastards is one. IMO would you would probably need for this is a person to manage the "site" / area, a few volenteers for news posting (if you want news) as well as one or two forum admins (that have control over the forum itself and bannings etc) as well as a number of moderators.

 

[Sonic]

I think that idea works out pretty well. Would the person maintaining the site have to be very good with HTML or are there utilities that can aid and help along with the process? I'm just curious as I would like to help out as much as I can.

 

[Panajev2001a]

As far as content ( news, editorials, Q&A, etc... ) and keep-up of the new site ( and moderation duties if the curent B3D admins agree ) I volunteer.

I have time in evenings ( and in some after-noons as I havea trusty WiFi card and there is an Access Point in the Dining hall at my college so I could check for a biut while I eat too ) of most days as I normally like to visit and read B3D console forum quite abit, even int he background when I am coding for my classes or doing other stuff.

 

[Saem]

Well if there is going to be a daughter site or whatever you want to call it, then I figure the first thing should be an admin or admins (I'm up for it) for it, setup the forum and let it run like that. If more things like news and maybe even articles are needed then they can be rolled out later, that'll keep the "paperwork" to a minimum in the begining and people can grow into it.

 

[jvd]

Dave as allways just point me to what needs to be done and I'm there to help. I don't know as much as others here but if there is anyway I can help make the site better just put me to it .