Proposal: merge Boxoffice with General Discussion?

[Champion of the Force]

Ok people - here's a proposal that the staff have been kicking around for a little while and we want to know your thoughts.

As most of you are aware, the Star Wars Boxoffice & Other Entertainment forum is more than just a place to discuss boxoffice and entertainment in general - it's the community forum for this section of the board for everyone to chat about anything in general.

Unfortunately however, this means that General Discussion is virtually a ghost town - its primary use is to test signatures and dump other threads that don't go anywhere else.

For most of us this isn't a problem - we all know where to go to get discussion. However over the past month or 2 some new posters have headed straight for there - thinking it's the community forum when it isn't. It isn't a real nice introduction when they find a forum virtually dead and practically no one responding to their 'Hello' threads.

So what the staff is proposing is that we merge the 2 forums into one single forum under the following name:

Star Wars Boxoffice & Other Discussions

The net result should be the same - we'll talk about the same stuff in here as we've always had. The combined forum will retain the same location as the present boxoffice forum (2nd forum under SW Films :)). It also retains the old 'boxoffice' title we've come to love so much. However as a result of the rename the forum will encourage further general chat as well as (hopefully) direct newer posters to our community in here.

Let us know your thoughts. :)

[darth_mcbain]

I'm not against it - I agree that the General Discussion board is pretty empty and it would be nice to have one place where kind of general stuff gets thrown out there.

On the other hand, it is useful to have a forum where you can post things that you don't want to "clutter" up the threads in another forum (for example, threads to test sigs and such)

I'm somewhat ambivalent - as I said I certainly wouldn't be against it. Other opinions?

[Champion of the Force]

it is useful to have a forum where you can post things that you don't want to "clutter" up the threads in another forum (for example, threads to test sigs and such) ...
That's what the Preview option is for. :)

[JMK]

What about renaming this one, but creating a test sig forum? is that at all useful? I know that those sig testing threads can get long and annoying and they generally hang around a long time.

Just a thought, otherwise, go for the merge.

[Darth23]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

We already merged Box Office with Entertainment.

Do you really think General Discussion people want to hear about how Harry Potter only dropped 32 % in its fourth weekend of release? Or how many theaters Spiderman will open on? I think not.

This discussion started out (when I got here) as the Star Wars vs Titanic board. It was specifically aimed towards box office discussions. I think that history should be respected.

[JMK]

Do you really think General Discussion people want to hear about how Harry Potter only dropped 32 % in its fourth weekend of release? Or how many theaters Spiderman will open on? I think not.

I think the point is that there are no General Discussion people. :D

[Darth23]

Well then maybe there aren't meant to be any General Discussion people.

Bouncing the regulars around will only decrease traffic I predict.

You want to increase traffic there? Then posts some interesting
topics for discussion. if you build it, they will come, and all that.


Sorry, Some IDIOTS at TF,net just moved some old, long lasting thread from the Phantom Menace forum and the OT forum to the ROLEPLAYING forum - - to build traffic there (idiots).

I don't think their little sceme there will work - it only had the effect of pissing people off and reducing traffic.

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.

[Jedieb]

I don't see any problem with the merge. General Discussion is a dead zone. Unfortunately that's where the newbies head for first. Bringing them to where the "action" is a good idea. Hopefully they'll get interested in B.O. discussions and contests and they'll start to contribute.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Has there ever been any major discussions on the General forum, the longest one was about the sigs that JMK was passing out and that was it. How about if we just change the general name to test forum or something (or create a new one) and rename this one as Davwj suggests. And I understand your point Darth but it is silly to have a forum that nobody goes to other than to test sigs. I think it might be good to have a test forum, I doubt the newbiews would go there.

[Champion of the Force]

I think the point is that there are no General Discussion people ...
Not quite. :)

There are people here that do post general discussion from time to time. The point though is that they are posting it in here.

It's not that we're necessarily trying to get some general discussion going - it's more of an attempt to rename the forum to accurately represent what in fact goes on within.

Jonathan probably summed it up best a while back:


Let people post what they want where all of the regulars hang out. Does it matter MORE what the NAME of the forum is (box office), or more that we all visit that particular forum to talk? I say we should not all have to change, the name is just a very poor reflection of what is discussed in that forum.

That's the main aim of this exercise. People see this as more than just the boxoffice forum - it's a community forum where you hang out and discuss other things besides how much HP has dropped in the pass week (to use Darth's example). So rather than try ordering people around to try and get them to post 'in the correct forum', we instead propose to simply rename this forum to more accurately reflect its contents.


It was specifically aimed towards box office discussions. I think that history should be respected.
That's why we've proposed to rename it as mentioned above - Star Wars Boxoffice & Other Discussions. The boxoffice discussion is still a very important part of this place and that's why we're emphasising keeping the boxoffice part in the title.

Still though - it's up to you posters what comes out of this. If you want to keep it the way it is, we'll oblige. That's why we're asking for your input on this before any decision is made. :)

[ReaperFett]

D23, they didnt do it for that reason. They classed it as a RPing thing. the EU Defence Force went too :(


I dont like the merger idea myself

[Darth23]

I think if the words Box Office are in the forum title, then people not interested in the BO will mostly stay away. If you remove the name that non BO people wil ask "why are you talking about how much money a movie makes?" over and over.

I think a specific forum that discusses Box Office numbers, awards, movies and other Entertainment in general is a good idea.

[Doc Milo]

I think the name change is a good idea. You tend to get General Discussion as well as boxoffice discussion in the BO forum anyway.

Just wondering, though, if "General Discussion" is what attracts new posters as believing it's the primary community for this section of the board, why not keep General in the title as well? Like, "Star Wars Boxoffice and General Discussion"

Oh, and I'm also in favor of the idea of having a separate forum for the testing of signatures and stuff like that, because people would then use the BO forum for sig tests, since it will have been merged with General Discussion. So, instead of eliminating the General Discussion board, I agree with whoever said they can change the name of General Discussion to a signature testing forum -- maybe called "Signature Testing and Help Forum" or just "Miscellaneous"

[JMK]

There. Nuff said, that's clearly the way to go. :crack

[Champion of the Force]

Sorry guys for not being around - computer's been playing up and I've only just been able to log on for the first time in half a week :x. Anyway ...


... why not keep General in the title as well? Like, "Star Wars Boxoffice and General Discussion"
No problems from this end - my own concern when posting the aforementioned title was to keep the 'boxoffice' part in it, since Eb and carr insisted it had to be kept regardless. So I'd be happy to have that name instead. :)


I agree with whoever said they can change the name of General Discussion to a signature testing forum -- maybe called "Signature Testing and Help Forum" or just "Miscellaneous"
Again no problems here - I'd personally prefer to have it called Miscellaneous since there's a lot more things people can test and muck around with than just signatures. :)

Any other comments? Thus far we appear to have 2 in favour, 2 not and 1 sitting on the fence (this total doesn't inclue myself, Eb and Carr who all support the merge as well). I'll probably hold off making any final decision until later on in the week.

PS. Yeah sucks about the movement of all thos threads by TFN - I've already posted my disapproval of the moving of the EU Defence Force. :(

[Champion of the Force]

Thread moved to mod/admin forum for future reference.