Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyFlame
I'm not dissapointed whatsoever. The amount of meaningless threads in the OT section is becoming overwhelming. In fact the number of just pointless threads in the hockey section is ridiculous. The site has become the one liner, flacid thread king. The site could use an overhaul. Here are some suggestions by a longtime Calgarypuck member(I'll let you guess who) that make good sense :
1) Reorganize the site and make hockey the primary focus of half of it, promoting it accordingly. The hockey site is for hockey related discussion and nothing more. The other half is for all other stuff. Turn the OT forum into something where serious issues can be discussed. Push all other stuff into part 2.
2) Create a social networking area to the forum. They can call it CPSN (CalgaryPuckSocialNetworking). This is also a revenue stream opportunity for the site. They can force all discussion of social situations related to Calgary and the local Calgarians over to this forum and ramp up their hits in this area. This will give them opportunity to search out direct advertising opportunities that help the posters as well as local business. There are X number of CP sports teams, so a sponsorship deal with one of the local mom and pop equipment stores seems perfect (Tuxedo Sports as example). This will give the socially oriented posters an area where they can focus their energies and meet their specific goals of coming to the site.
3) Encourage the posters that can talk hockey and want serious discussion . Then they get the guys that are willing to have a lively debate back involved and they will get back the level of discussion they desire. CP used to be an incubator for story ideas in the media about the hockey team. How many times did we discuss something on the board only to see it in the papers the next couple of days?
The amount of fluff on the site is embarrassing! Calgarypuck had a rep for being a place with knowledgeable posters engaged in debate. Not threads filled with one liners, inside jokes brought over from the OT forum. I'd agree with the thoughts above that it's high time to separate the two portions of the site and concentrate on pulling up the level of debate. I'm all for a joke but not for the whole site becoming one!!!!!!!!!!!
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1) What are you looking for here? FoI and the Backburner are already hockey. How would you re-organize it further?
2) Interesting. Although I'm not really sure how you would localize a forum like that, or even why you would want to. There are many former Calgarians who seem to like to hear about the local happenings or take the occasional stroll down memory lane. Putting something like the Random Thoughts/Confessions/Chat type stuff in a sub-forum may not be a bad idea, but I'm still having trouble seeing how those threads "decrease the quality" of the rest of the OT forum.
3) That still happens. Regularly. You've posted before how you miss the old days when you used to be able to go at it tooth-and-nail with Lanny. Well, with a more popular website also comes more responsibility. More popularity also becomes more scrutiny. There are things you say around your small cadre of friends that you cannot say in a large group where people don't know you as well and don't know how to take you.
Ad as for the "amount of fluff", well using the
wayback machine and in '04 (there was a "Calgary Stampeders" forum?) in the OT I see hard news topics like, "Seven of Nine balks at kinky sex club", "Survivor All Star Jenna Lewis Sex Tape", and "Olsen seeks treatment for eating disorder". Of course there are Election threads, healthcare threads and so on as well. The point is I don't believe those days are quite as idyllic as you make them out to be.
I'm just not sure why there was an issue. If the sheer size of the thread was the problem (and I'm not sure of the DB architecture with vBulletin) then perhaps that would be a viable reason.
It would seem that pulling a number of marginal topics into one thread would allow many of the more serious threads to stay on the first page. But it also was a place people could post their thoughts without making a big fuss. One poster thanked the thread for making him smile before heading off to his father's funeral. Why? Maybe he just wanted to share with someone, needed to say it out load, but didn't want the focus that a whole thread would have elicited. Only he knows. That is the type of thing that a "chat thread" can do. It can foster a bit stronger sense of community.
Yes this is first and foremost a hockey site. I don't think anyone would want it otherwise. But more than a few people take refuge in the OT when the hyperbole and angst in the FoI seems to get out of control. The OT is an important facet to the whole CP experience, and I believe the Random Thoughts Thread was an enhancement to that experience for many people.