Merge Boxoffice & General Discussion?

[Champion of the Force]

Now that I've 'officially' started holidays (:)) I've now decided to explore the idea of merging the boxoffice and general discussion forums together.

I know we had a discussion about it not too long ago, but I just wanted to double-check to see what everyone's thoughts on the matters were before I proposed anything to the normal posters.

The net result of the merge would be that there is one less forum on the main page, and the boxoffice forum would probably have a title along the lines of Star Wars Boxoffice & Other Discussions (name will probably be hashed out by the posters in the end). Posting itself will probably not be effected much since most posters use the current boxoffice forum as their community gathering point already.

With Christmas next week and New Year a week later, we'll probably have to propose the idea either this week or wait 2-3 weeks until after New Year (Christmas & New Year tend to be fairly quiet with everyone away). I restart my diploma in mid-January so I would rather get it done sooner than later personally.

Let me know our thoughts. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

I'm good with starting it soon, but I am also not a large part of that section of the community.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I agree I think we should merge them, as soon as we can.

[Champion of the Force]

Well if no one has a problem I'll probably start a thread on it tomorrow then.

:: goes away thinking about what he could say ::

[Jedieb]

I think that's a good idea. It would really loosen up the B.O. thread for newbies and grumpy old timers would be in heaven. The only threads we'd really have to move out of there would be Film, EU, and Collecting threads. Of those 3 Film topics are the only ones that ever really cross over. Basically, I'm all for it, fire at will commander, blah, blah, blah...

[Champion of the Force]

Proposal has been posted. Check out the boxoffice forum for the thread (I've stuck it to the top so everyone will see it).

If you think it needs rewording, changing, editing etc etc etc just do so. :)

[Champion of the Force]

UPDATE:

Well ... the results thus far have been ... interesting.

3 people have thus far replied:

* McBain and JMK like the idea, but think there should probably be an area for testing sigs etc so they don't clutter up the forum.

* Darth23 on the other hand is completely against it - he thinks the forum should be boxoffice only (he *still* isn't happy about how entertainment was merged with it way back in 2000).

Just in case it becomes an issue, are we prepared to put in a sig testing forum? I think the preview option should suffice already, but some of the posters are probably stuck in old habits. :\

[Jedieb]

Darth23 was pretty funny. Nag, nag, nag, and then this:

The truth is that I don't REALLY care about this board that much - you guys do what you want. I realy should be trying to build up traffic at CCnet anyway, rather than spending so much time on both boards.

Then why complain? Anyway, I think a sig test forum is a good idea. It's not bound to get much traffic, but it would help to clear up the other boards.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think its a good idea too Jedieb, I voiced my support for it I hope thats not a problem Davwj, and I thought Darth was funny too, if we don't do I will just say I changed my mind:D Also I think Darth's remarks were funny. I think its interesting to say that he is going to leave but he never does.

[Champion of the Force]

I just posted my own reply.

Thankfully Jon himself has provided the perfect defense for the merge. :)

As for a test forum, maybe we can simply rename the current General Discussion board to be that (since 90% of threads in there are just tests).

Although I still think such a forum is unneccessary - anyone can just use Preview to see what their post with sig/avatar looks like. We all did that on ezboard - I wonder why it's an issue now? :huh

[Jedi Master Carr]

The only thing I can think of is that this the new board and not use to how they make the sigs besides that I have no idea.

[Champion of the Force]

We could make a greater mention of it in the FAQ (which I hope to update soon - it's been over a year since I last wrote them and they could do with some refining in places).

We could also just delete test threads after the person has done testing their sig/avatar/whatever. That would keep the board clean.

(In all honesty, how many times do people post test threads? Once - twice a month?)

[Champion of the Force]

Well it's been a week now since the proposal was first posted.

I'm thinking of holding off until at least New Year before making any final decisions, however I must say I'm drawing a blank in regards to what we could do.

Thus far the proposal has received the input of 5 posters. The boxoffice community is small, but I would have thought the discussion would have drawn more input than that. It's not due to people being away either - most regulars have been popping in and out responding to other topics, just not this particular one. :\

I think it's almost a definite that we'll rename the discussion forum as Miscellaneous. Everyone (who has responded) seems to like the idea of having a forum just for tests and the like. Besides which, it would seem pointless to keep the original 'General Discussion' title regardless of what we choose to do since it's a dead zone and not drawing any real discussion in.

As for a decision on the boxoffice forum however, I'm still sitting on the fence. Out of the 5 responses - 2 favourable (Doc Milo, JMK), 2 unfavourable (Darth23, ReaperFett) and 1 uncertain (Darth McBain). Now of course there's us 3 who support it but I don't like resorting to counting mods/admins in the final tally since we're supposed to be making the final choice and we don't want to bias the results.

The safest route (IMHO) would be to rename the boxoffice forum but stick to my original Star Wars Boxoffice & Other Discussions title (not using Doc's proposed title). It's only changing the one word plus it still doesn't appear as if we're over-generalising the place.

Any thoughts?

[Jedi Master Carr]

That sounds like a good plan to me, I think one reason why some people haven't responded is that they don't care one way or the other, they don't go there so it doesn't bother them what happens. Darth23 just likes to complain plus I think he was mad about that whole theforce.net fiasco.

[Champion of the Force]

UPDATE:

Screw it - I just went ahead and did the changes. General Discussion is now called Miscellaneous, and the boxoffice forum is now called Star Wars Boxoffice & Other Discussions.

I also did a bit of editing of the forum descriptions for those 2 forums as well - let me know if there's anything wrong or something could be worded better.

The reason why I decided to make the changes now instead of after New Year was because - as Carr said - most people probably don't give a damn either way and it was just time wasting to hold off. The proposal had been up for over a week and everyone has visited the forum at least once and had ample opportunity to respond, so I decided the make the changes today.

[Jedi Master Carr]

That works and I think most people won't even notice it. I'm sure Darth23 might complain but other than him most won't say anything.