This forum is weird (Look a new topic!)

[Patrick R]

I think a forum is a tool to be used as it's users deem it appropriate to use. Clearly, for whatever reasons, the Idle Thumbs fanbase has optimized towards a megathread situation. Works for me. 

[SecretAsianMan]

I feel like our tendency towards megathreads is at least partially due to the podcast.  They revisit lots of ideas many times without necessarily going in depth.  Also lots of one off statements that don't necessarily warrant entire discussions but someone wanted to mention it.

 

As for older topics, I like when they pop up again.  I'll gladly post again in an old thread if I have something to add, even without going through all the other posts.  I probably repeat others quite a bit but a lot of times a new post can lead to new discussion or a revisit of an old idea.  The main reason we redirect people to existing threads is just to cut down on the confusion.

 

The idea of this forum being actively moderated (or even needing it) is strange to me.  Tobacco does a good job of keeping out the trolls (although somehow Twig is still here...*) and I've never felt the need to invoke a mod for... well anything.  Topics tend to just go where people lead them.  I feel that strict enforcement of that is only going to stifle conversation.

 

And in terms of forum age, I'm younger than I look.  I started this account when I first began listening to Idle Thumbs (around episode 3) but I didn't become an active member until after the Kickstarter campaign when I met Chris, Jake, and Sean in person.

 

Also yes this forum is very weird.  It's the best.

 

*Just kidding Twig, I love you

[Twig]

[Jutranjo]

The idea of this forum being actively moderated (or even needing it) is strange to me.  Tobacco does a good job of keeping out the trolls (although somehow Twig is still here...*) and I've never felt the need to invoke a mod for... well anything.  Topics tend to just go where people lead them.  I feel that strict enforcement of that is only going to stifle conversation.

 

There's a topic or two every few months with a newly registered account sharing a kickstarter or similar, Tobacco(or someone) removes those.

[Ninety-Three]

I think a forum is a tool to be used as it's users deem it appropriate to use. Clearly, for whatever reasons, the Idle Thumbs fanbase has optimized towards a megathread situation. Works for me. 

 

I'm not sure it's right to say they've optimized towards it. Once you pick a solution like that, it tends to stick by the power of pure inertia.

 

That said, I prefer this to the normal model and I think it really is better.

[Cordeos]

There's a topic or two every few months with a newly registered account sharing a kickstarter or similar, Tobacco(or someone) removes those.

I am on the forums way too much and end up reporting a lot of those threads.

[Deadpan]

Welcome, new person!

 

I find it a little strange that you suggest long-living threads lead to stagnation. It's actually been my experience in those other kinds of forums you describe that the short-lived and quickly replaced threads there lead to this repetition of ideas. It's definitely exciting at first: a thought hits you, you make a thread about it, people discuss it and everything is great. But once you're around for a while, you begin to notice people having the same kinds of conversations on certain topics every few weeks (or months) and never going anywhere with them. Somebody posts a known controversial opinion, then people trade back and forth the first dozen points/counterpoints that come to mind, and then the thread is locked or deleted or buried under an avalanche of new short-lived conversations.

 

So I kind of enjoy that there's a sense of history to the megathreads we keep around here. I don't imagine anyone here thinks you're obliged to read the entirety of them before posting anything in there, but because we have people who have been active in them for a long time and because all that earlier stuff is still there (rather than being swept away when some script auto-deletes locked threads after a while), there is at least the option for somebody to go "actually we talked about this before" and tell you where to find that conversation or just use their experience to rephrase what they took from that. Sometimes these, frankly, absurd page numbers are needed to really dig deep into a topic.

 

Meta-commentary contribution: When I came here I just assumed that everybody who was already here had been here forever. I like the laid-back liberal bent enough that I staid, even though I'm increasingly worried what people will do when they find out I haven't even listened to the podcast in half a year or so.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I haven't even listened to the podcast in half a year or so.

 

TAKE THEM TO THE DUNGEON

[Jutranjo]

I've already reported his post.

[Deadpan]

Look, I just forgot to do it for a couple of weeks and then I felt like it would take so much time to get up to speed again and now every week it gets worse.

[Bjorn]

[Problem Machine]

Hey Deadpan have you heard of this Idle Thumbs podcast it's pretty rad you should give it a listen

[Problem Machine]

if you know what's good for you

[osmosisch]

To be honest, this is how all the forums I've stuck around in for any length of time have operated. Misetings and its offshoots, Somethingawful...

[James]

Maybe just keep this one alive with 600 or so pages of posts?

Yes, more megathreads please!

Well I was thinking more along one of those one-post locked pinned threads, but sure, megathreads are fun. It was a silly idea, anyway.

[tabacco]

I am on the forums way too much and end up reporting a lot of those threads.

Thanks!

[Deadpan]

Hey Deadpan have you heard of this Idle Thumbs podcast it's pretty rad you should give it a listen

 

Have you heard of this cool indie game Samorost?

[Badfinger]

Hey Deadpan have you heard of this Idle Thumbs podcast it's pretty rad you should give it a listen

 

You should bring this up in the podcasts thread! I bet people would be interested.

[BadHat]

I feel like I still count as a new member? I tend to feel the same way OP does whenever I join a new forum or whatever. I guess the only difference here was that the tone of the forums is somewhat informed by the podcast? So I felt more comfortable expressing certain views than I might have elsewhere because it felt more like everyone was on the same page, somewhat.

 

That said, I haven't listened to a Thumbs episode since like... ep 205? I really need to catch up. 

[itsamoose]

I can see how new members might not like the megathreads here, but really all you need to do is go back a page or so to see what the thread is about at the moment. If we didn't do this there would be a million threads here, because our conversations tend to go on all kinds of crazy tangents, but surprisingly most end up making their way back to the original topic. Plus we tend to make topics on broad subjects as opposed to specific events, and I personally think this might be a good counter to the typical trolling you see elsewhere since you get a lot of the same people going back and forth over something as opposed to that being diffused over more threads. You get a better sense of the personalities around here and, for me at least, I get a better sense of the things I would want to talk about with said group.

[Mawd]

I like the megathread format. I'd miss it if it were to go and I'd probably encourage other small forums to entertain it too beyond staples like "What made you xxx today?"

[Merus]

I think megathreads are only toxic if people expect everything in the thread to be read. No-one's got that kind of time,.

[eot]

I'm sometimes surprised there isn't a thread for game X or Y but I sure as hell ain't going to make it

[BadHat]

It also depends on the quality of the posts. Megathreads were banned in another forum I visited because they all degraded into in-jokes, spam, and shitposting, which just turned away newer members. There seems to be more of an expectation here that people say something halfway worthwhile? Even when things get in-jokey it doesn't go for pages at a time (that I've seen), because that just gets obnoxious.

[Merus]

I think a forum is a tool to be used as it's users deem it appropriate to use. Clearly, for whatever reasons, the Idle Thumbs fanbase has optimized towards a megathread situation. Works for me. 

 

There's some solid research showing that social software and its userbase are co-dependent, and the same kind of software can give rise to radically different communities depending on the userbase. Take 2ch and 4chan; the same software, except only one spawned a hate group. (Similarly, the same people using different software will behave very differently on each.)