Game Thread Resets

[Bob Hubbard]

Just a notice that in the near future (tomorrow, next week, next month) we will be doing a bit of reorganization. Game threads are going to be locked and ones such as the LPT have 'winners' picked.

We will be setting up a new area specifically for game threads, and seeing what other new ones we can add for your amusement.

This is being done as some have grown quite large an there are some site performance issues occurring due to this.

 

[terryl965]

This I do not understand, but you are the one to make the decissions around here.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Clean slates, seperate area, more toys to play with.

 

[terryl965]

Clean slates, seperate area, more toys to play with.

Ok

So what threads exactly will be locked and taken away?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Last Person and Next Person are now locked, with new editions in play. There are also 20 new games for y'all to consider.

Old games won't be deleted for now, just archived.

 

[MA-Caver]

Because of site issues I can now understand why you closed that thread... honestly I was pleased to see it doing pretty well for a while. It was a bit taken aback returning to MT a couple hours later after running an errand to find a whole new room/forum ... you've must've been a madman typing and creating all those new games there Bob.

Lets see how well they do...

Nice distractions from all the seriousness we've been having over at the study lately.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

The short version is, those threads are so large, there seems to be some performance issues when accessing them. The suggested solution was lock n restart. Plus, it gave me an excuse to do some cyber carpentry and put in a real game room.

 

[terryl965]

Bob what about our post counts why did I loose over 15,000 post? This is not acceptable to me atleast.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Posts made in the game threads will no longer be counted.
We will also be looking at pruning the chat areas of old dust covered topics.

If you're concern is what your "score" is, I can't help that.
You're all still able to chat as you were before, you still have the relationships you have forge, you still have all of the features, content, abilities, etc.

But 100,000 posts of a single word and random chat that no one looks at a week later aren't going to be counted anymore.

If that is a world ending, heart breaking, emotional wreck creating disaster for anyone, I'm sorry.

 

[terryl965]

Bob I would suggest that this not about post counts but the LPT was a chat room for pepole talking about school resources and such.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

There's a section for that already set up. No one would read through a thousand pages of chat looking for a discussion on school building, but they would look in the schools section. I don't start skimming every book at the libary hoping to find soup recipies, I head to the cook book section. Also, the B&G isn't indexed by Google.

If you've gotten good info that's great, but it's a chat room basically, not intended for serious stuff, not intended to be part of our long term archives. The original plan for the B&G was to flush old posts every couple of months. We just haven't done it in a few years.

 

[arnisador]

I agree with Kaith and think this is a good idea, but keeping it searchable if possible isn't a bad idea as some real martial arts discussion has broken through on occasion (and Search functionality means you're old-fashioned search analogies are borken). The info. is where it is. But if the size of it is a performance issue, nuke it!

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I'd have to allow Google and other bots access, and that would slow the site down signifcantly. (Yahoo's bots are SOB's on forums, causing 5+ minute page loads).

They should still show up with the sites built in search function.

Bottom line is, I know some people are going to be upset, but I can not please everyone.
Any time I make a change, people get upset, some emotionally so.

There were a number of people opposed to my setting up the B&G and the Locker Room. To splitting off the politics, to separating the chat from the arts. In the end, some people left, new people came in, and the site has continued to grow. I get hammered about our profanity filter, about not allowing people to bash whomever, for insisting on certain things, for my views on things, for daring to speak at all on my own damn site.

Martial Talk has stopped being fun for ME a number of times. I've stepped back, and forward, reimagined things, expanded and added features that when new were complained about, and today are loved.

I don't ask that people agree with me. I welcome your feedback, your opinions, and I've said it many times before, my phone is open. How many other forum owners will give you their phone number and say "Call me"? How many? I can't think of any other ones I've run across.

The bottom line is, the B&G isn't intended for long-term archival stuff. When it was first launched, we didn't count the posts. We changed that when people demanded it. When I setup the game room, I didn't expect it to recalculate post counts.

So, here's the deal.

I'm reediting the forum so posts count.

Anything that's in the old games -that should/could- be a resource in another part of the site, please report there.

At some point in the future, old posts in the B&G area are going to be deleted to clear out the dusty space.

Anyone whining then about losing a couple thousand points then will have their MT Belt changed permanently to Pink PolkaDot.

 

[jks9199]

So what threads exactly will be locked and taken away?

Bob said you'll get MORE places to post... you should be happy!

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Software is processing all million plus posts. Counts will be updated shortly.

 

[MA-Caver]

Bob said you'll get MORE places to post... you should be happy!

There ya go Terry... you'll restore your crown in no time!


One thing is that I wish folks would scroll up from the last post of a game (especially a word game) to ensure continuity so that there won't be a double or redundant post... I'm guilty of that meself and try to go up a few posts to make sure the flow is correct when I make my post.
i.e. Bob and I already on the Good News Bad News posted two "good news" in a row... so I posted a bad news in response to Bob's good news...

 

[arnisador]

The post counts are the most fundamental game on the site, it seems.

 

[terryl965]

The post counts are the most fundamental game on the site, it seems.

If you say so

 

[Lisa]

The post counts are the most fundamental game on the site, it seems.

I wouldn't say that. Most of us don't give a crap about our post counts. There are only a few that would be worried about that dropping. If one is so wrapped up in the numbers, then you are here for the wrong reason. If having a high post count is how you judge your success here on the site then you really need to look inside yourself and find your self worth elsewhere. I would hope that posting useful information and sharing your knowledge would mean more to you then a number by your name.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I'm looking at an add-in that will track multiple levels of post counts allowing us to see Total Posts and Non Chit Chat posts.

Case in point, if I remove all posts from all non-art areas (includes game threads, mod area, etc), you (Arnisador) drop from 31,269 to 13,216 (-18,053), Terry drops from 32,834 to 8,186 (-24,648) and I drop from 28,710 to 5,172 (-23,538). Mind you, that's subtracting everything other than the Martial Art section.

If we just drop the Locker Room and its sections (B&G and Games), You drop 7,784, Terry drops by 16,798 and I drop a meager 1,533.

If we do the entire General Talk section (Study, LR, B&G, Etc.), You drop 12,400 points to 18,869 posts, Terry drops by 18,695 points to 14139 posts and I drop 6,927 points to 21,783 posts.

So, it depends on how you look at it. To me, it's like asking "how many books do you own" and one guy says 100, and another says 1,000. The former is counting novels and well respected manuals, while the later is counting each comic in his Archie collection. One has substance, the other doesn't.

But, if people think that 5,000 single word posts is just as valid as 100 5 page posts full of insight and depth, then all I have to say is Archie.