Topics becoming scattered?

[stumpjumper]

Howie, imho there is too much specific development chat going on in the pub, tending to let threads outside the pub intended for such talk get stale. I personally think you have too many formal categories open, although I am hesitant to suggest a different configuration.

Maybe it's time for a rejig and rationalisation. This happens occasionally at pprune.org where I have been posting for several years.

Thanks in any case for your devoted work with S-A. I've recommended the forum to a lot of people who have found it very useful.

Cheers

SJ

[ricecrackers]

I'm afraid to post anything outside of the pub for fear of being reprimanded for going off topic!

Personally though, i like a certain degree of disorder.

Conversation is organic, therefore disorder is a natural byproduct. Evidently however, that goes against the generally orderly nature of this forum.

Those that are interested in "things" probably outnumber those that are interested in people and tangential concepts here.

[AtD]

Maybe it just seems that way because with the GFC not as much new is going on in the development forums, other than idle speculation on future infrastructure spending?

I prefer the idea of the 'top half' of the forum be kept for serious business and the 'bottom half' for the rest, because:
- It's very annoying to trawl through pages and pages of inane chatter when you're looking for a long forgotten piece of information. The forums are a very handy archive of recent events.
- We have a few members here in official capacity, the most visible being the Deputy Lord Mayor, but several others (such as people from the Fusion team behind Rundle Convergence). They're not here to talk about last night's episode of Home and Away. Attracting these people is this site's highest achievement, but they can easily find better uses for their time if they're not taken seriously.

[Howie]

All duly noted guys. If something gets off-topic or doesn't belong in the thread, click report and either myself or one of the moderators will check it out.

[stumpjumper]

Thanks Howie, and fair comment ricecrackers and AtD.

I hesitated to say anything because I'm sure that the view from Howie's administrative chair is different from mine as a mere participant, and because S-A is Howie's creation, after all.

Seems to me the value and popularity of a forum like this depends greatly on 1) its relevance and 2) its freshness. An effective structure and format promotes both of these.

Never having managed a forum, I have to stop there, and again say what a good job Howie is doing. I just wanted to raise the point in the hope that this forum will grow in stature and influence.