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Jov

This forum is weird (Look a new topic!)

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I think I joined in 2005, and I still have deference to certain posters, and some of those people joined after me.

 

This is definitely a weird forum, it was the first one I joined and it is the only one I have stuck with. There was a moment for a few weeks (months?) where the forums were closed down -  I didn't really know what to do and was relieved when they came back.

 

I couldn't imagine trying to get used to another.

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The only other forum I visit regularly has a thread with 1400 pages (that's after everything was wiped out about 18 months ago). It's also very clique-ish and probably not overly welcoming to new people. Still, that's the only kind of forum I'm willing to post on nowadays, I think. I'm also new here and I understand the feeling of alienation, but I think it's worth sticking with it!

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I think I joined in 2005, and I still have deference to certain posters, and some of those people joined after me.

 

This is definitely a weird forum, it was the first one I joined and it is the only one I have stuck with. There was a moment for a few weeks (months?) where the forums were closed down -  I didn't really know what to do and was relieved when they came back.

 

I couldn't imagine trying to get used to another.

Sometimes when forums get a complete makeover it does feel like getting used to a new one. There are some places I no longer frequent because of that hehe.

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I'm pretty new to this forum, having only been listening to the Idle Thumbs podcast for about a year. I like talking about video games, and I usually post in the threads for specific games, until I realise I am dominating the conversation and there are only one or two other people talking in there with me. I don't post much or often in the megathreads but I do like reading them pretty often. Sometimes it's surprising how long a single conversation can be held in there, like several days to weeks.

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it looks intimidating, but its lots of fun.

 

and i like the people here. 

 

so, uh, take a lil to get used to it. its totes worth

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So basically, the answers to your questions:

Why is the forum like this? Does it need more subforums? More/better moderation? Would you argue that this forum has a unique dynamic due to its setup?

are: because it works for us; no; no/no; no.

Lock the thread!

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So basically, the answers to your questions:

are: because it works for us; no; no/no; no.

Lock the thread!

 

I don't think the forums even support locking threads. Threads are either gigantic mega threads or not there.

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Hmm, in that case the only alternative is to create twenty Xmas threads to push this one down off the page.

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Hmm, in that case the only alternative is to create twenty Xmas threads to push this one down off the page.

Why stop at 20? We need to have a discussion of every Christmas future and past. Just go forever, making Christmases happen and spreading the Yuletide cheer.

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I have been here since the start almost, probably 2004 or something. Over time the community has changed somewhat, some people have left, then come back, then left again. Lots of new people started coming when the podcasts started.

I don't actually remember when the mega-threads started (maybe with the new user welcoming thread); I kind of like them, but sometimes I miss a year's worth of posts in them. And at other times I catch up with a year's posts in an evening or two.

I really hate the "Recently completed video games" thread though, and I think I locked it at one point, but then everyone started complaining.

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I think I joined in 2005, and I still have deference to certain posters, and some of those people joined after me.

 

This is definitely a weird forum, it was the first one I joined and it is the only one I have stuck with. There was a moment for a few weeks (months?) where the forums were closed down -  I didn't really know what to do and was relieved when they came back.

 

I couldn't imagine trying to get used to another.

 

Pretty much exactly this. I remember being weirdly defensive when the podcast started and all this "new blood" started showing up... 7 years ago.

 

It's been weird for me because I can actually track my own growing up by looking back over my posts. I was still a high school student when I joined IT, now I'm nearing 30. I definitely said some cringe-worthy shit over the years, and some of it to other people who are still here. The "Life" thread in particular is fascinating. It only stretches back to 2009, but there were others before. If I went back to that era, I could probably find a post about meeting this new person at a birthday party and wondering if there was potential there, and now we are as close to married as it's possible for people who don't care about marriage to be. Strange stuff.

 

And Erkki, if I remember correctly, the first thread that went "mega" was the Movie/TV discussion one. That, or Life. Both of those have been running nearly as long as the forum.

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I like that there is history and that things are typically organized by subject. For instance, if I play game from 5 years ago, I like to read through the thread that started when it came out and look at the responses to the games by members of this forum. If there was a thread for every time someone picked up an older game, I would lose that ability.

Agreed. I'm gonna speak as yet another decade old Idlethumbs member on this, since I guess I should?

Yeah, I hate megathreads, this forum wasn't always like this, but the last 2-3 years it's been ramping up. And since more members than ever are here, it makes the catch all threads especially chaotic and pointless. It makes it impossible to do what I originally came to Idlethumbs for long long ago: to talk about games. A lot of the reason is I want to read opinions or discussions of games a while back that I missed because I didn't play it plus the other thing is no one talking about individual games ever gets acknowledged much unless it goes in the proper thread. As much as I wanted the way I think it should work, with the search function and unlocked forever threads, I've been shy of posting threads about games I want to talk about now because it doesn't feel like it matters anymore unless it's an AAA game, that's not what most people want here now. It's kind of a downer for me too honestly, Jov.

 

The recently completed games thread is a cancer. I've seen people type more about a game in there than the respective thread it should go in.

 

However I think megathreads in the idle banter area are fine, since you can post whatever here, basically what Bjorn is talking about.

 

I don't know with the Idlethumbs chat going on I don't really even care to post here anymore about games. Look at this thread, I should have posted way sooner but I haven't been here in a week apparently. Even I tried to keep it going the old way these forums used to with using the search threads to bring up the respective game and keep the thread going even if it's years later. I thought that was the neato thing about not locking threads, which I hate seeing on any forum. The only thing that makes this difficult is just some people don't want to search or the other issue is a lot of threads, especially older threads, have a jokey title that doesn't lend itself well to searching (anyone remember those awesome "[game] more like [lame] threads?" I blame toblix even though he had some great ones.

 

Pretty much exactly this. I remember being weirdly defensive when the podcast started and all this "new blood" started showing up... 7 years ago.

 

It's been weird for me because I can actually track my own growing up by looking back over my posts. I was still a high school student when I joined IT, now I'm nearing 30. I definitely said some cringe-worthy shit over the years, and some of it to other people who are still here. The "Life" thread in particular is fascinating. It only stretches back to 2009, but there were others before. If I went back to that era, I could probably find a post about meeting this new person at a birthday party and wondering if there was potential there, and now we are as close to married as it's possible for people who don't care about marriage to be. Strange stuff.

 

And Erkki, if I remember correctly, the first thread that went "mega" was the Movie/TV discussion one. That, or Life. Both of those have been running nearly as long as the forum.

 

Haha yes, me too Miffy. Everyone keeps growing. Plus a lot of these people here (Jake, I think you are the only person who saw me post in elementary school on Sam and Max Inside the Web forums (if Jake is reading this)) have posted even further back on Lucasforums and Adventuregamers, of which this forum is a move away from. It's really fucking weird how much a part of my life a lot of these people have consumed from the internet and I see them forever but we are all not really close friends since we are all separated by so many states and countries.

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As a semi recent semi regular who felt like two kids standing on each others shoulders in a big coat at an upper class dinner party, the realization that there are regulars who have been posting here for ten years has now upgraded that feeling to drunkenly stumbling onto an ancient sacred burial ground

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I think we should really drop the Recently Discussed Games thread. It makes it seem like very little discussion about games is going on because game-specific threads are often really empty, unless it's a game with a lot of hype behind it.

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I think we should just not be afraid to make new topics for games. I like to think anyone is welcome to start a thread on a specific game whether they signed up yesterday or are old fogies. Unless they are bots. Bots are not welcome.

 

I don't know, maybe there's a way to draw more attention to the search function. It obviously works well because Ben managed to dig up every Christmas thread ever made and create the most chaos.

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I came over here from the adventuregamers forums a bit more than ten years ago, though as my post count shows I haven't really been participating much. Even so, I do come by about once a day, mostly to check out the megathreads. I try to learn as little as possible about games, films and books before playing/watching/reading them myself, meaning that I mostly rely on the recommendations of people I trust for what media I consume. This community has been very much in sync with what I enjoy over the years, so I've used it as a place to pick up interesting tips I wouldn't find elsewhere. The short discussions in the movie/TV and "recently completed video games" megathreads are perfect for this, and I also like to keep up with the social justice related threads for a quick update on what's been going on. Oh, and of course those sweet, sweet baby animal gifs.

So, I'm all for the megathreads, though I guess that I may not be the typical user of the forum.

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I don't think that locking the Recently Completed Games thread will have the desired effect, because in the last few years the breadth and diversity of the medium has exploded. If I start a thread about Rhem, or The World Ends With You, or DROD, it won't get posts not because people have already discussed it in one of the megathreads. It won't get discussed because no-one else will have played it. The AAA games are really the only things you can guarantee more than one person has played.

 

I like the games megathreads because it's fun reading about games I might never have heard of.

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In addition to what Merus said, I find myself skipping over threads for most games I've not heard of. So I hear about more unknown games through recently completed.

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I very rarely even go back and look at more than a page or two in mega-threads, but I still feel like I can get the gist of what's going on. I tend to find the posting on here quite cliquey sometimes, but I guess like someone else said earlier that's because I haven't really posted consistently on here and got involved. I actually barely post on here compared to a lot of long time members. I mean I've been a member for almost 6 years now and I've got 200 odd posts to show for it. I really stick around for the few threads I do post in, and to read people's non-toxic, non-aggro opinions about topics I'm interested in. Most of the time I want to express an opinion but found another Thumber has beaten me to it and in a much more eloquent way so instead of posting "I agree" I just read their opinion and leave. 

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(Jake, I think you are the only person who saw me post in elementary school on Sam and Max Inside the Web forums (if Jake is reading this)) have posted even further back on Lucasforums and Adventuregamers, of which this forum is a move away from.

 

Nope, I was there too. I just changed my name between there and here. I will never reveal my original name, because then you'll realize that you've actually known me since I was in 8th grade.

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This topic will become the new Megathread.
Members, old and new, with post counts low and high, will come to post in this thread about threads.
Some posts will be jokes, some insightful, others contentious.
But all will be an editable record of our private thoughts made manifest.
 
//
 
When the year is 2016 and the page length is 208, no one will read this post.
The cycle has continued and new posts made, repeating the things that have already been posted before.
But it's ok, because no one wants to make a new topic about megathreads.
And no one minds rehashes of older posts because reading through a year's worth of pages takes ages.
 
//
 
This topic will survive while others fade.
Games will come and go, movies too.
But everybody wants a thread to talk about threads.
 
--
 
Is this peak Idle Thumbs?
Will the name of Jov become hallowed in the pages to come?
I expect to see people make this same post in the future, because how can you even search for this?
And I look forward to your comments, and being proven wrong/right/in-between about how self-self-fulfillingly meta this meta-commentary can get.

 

*Or if I've killed it. Like a boss.

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