Those damn super long "Random Thoughts" and "Awesome" threads

Viper007Bond

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I feel like I've brought this up before but it's been a while so I'm doing it again.

I fucking hate all of the various random/awesome threads that are hundreds or thousands of pages long. How am I supposed to keep up with them and avoid missing anything? I suspect that like most people who browse these forums, I don't read every single post that's made. I skim thread titles and read things that look interesting. How am I supposed to do that when a large number of topics are crammed into one thread? I mean the extreme version of this would be every single post on this forum in one big thread. It's not that bad but sometimes it sure feels like it.

The server doesn't care if you make a new thread. You aren't charged a dollar per thread you make.

Forums are supposed to be asynchronous -- you write a post and wait on replies. If you want to shoot the breeze, then hop on IRC. IRC is all about the now and no one is expected to scroll up and read past conversations like you are here on the forums. I mean that's the whole purpose of the "New Posts" functionality and skipping to the first post in a thread. If a thread is getting dozens or hundreds of posts a day, how is anyone supposed to keep up with that?


I would like to suggest that we try locking the meta threads. We should have a separate thread per discussion subject. Find something cool? Make a new thread! It doesn't hurt anything and people will actually be able to see it instead of having it be buried on page 638 of some random thread.

Or am I alone in this feeling?

- - - Updated - - -

I should clarify that I think there are some exceptions, such as the New Toys thread. It doesn't make sense to make a thread about my new monitor. The aviation thread is another example.

But the awesome automotive thread? So much cool stuff gets buried in there, such as this movie trailer.
 
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Yeeeeaaah, Random Thoughts crackdown! Bring it on!

EDIT: Seriously though, that's how many forums operate, just a ton of new threads every day. I too prefer it like that. For whatever reason this way of doing things hasn't caught on here :(
 
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I prefer discussion topics over thousands of new threads. Hell of a lot easier to follow threads you subscribe to with topics that interest you instead of sifting through hundreds of threads per day which you have no idea peaks your interest or not - if we had the ability to preview threads easily like Reddit, then maybe. But this is a forum, not a "rolling news/information" community as you explain yourself - to me you are contradicting your own words.

EDIT: Or crack down heavily on proper title use, that would help too.
 
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Hell of a lot easier to follow threads you subscribe to with topics that interest you instead of sifting through hundreds of threads per day which you have no idea peaks your interest or not

How is it easy to follow a super popular thread that discusses tons of different things that are only tangentially related (for example being "automotive" plus "awesome").

Also that's what subforums are for -- to group threads of similar subjects. If you want to find motorsports discussions, you go to the motorsports subforum, not some massive thread where everything is thrown together.
 
Super long mega threads are pretty much how I've been using FG since I'm there, I feel like I would miss out on a lot of stuff if not for those threads. While I will agree that small threads for specific subjects have their place, I feel like having to subscribe to every little thread that is around that I want to follow but not necessarily participate would be a pain in the ass.

IRC is also great when you're talking all day long, but it's very easy to lose the flow of conversations and miss out on stuff quite quickly.

I sometimes go through days of Random and Awesome threads when I've been too busy to keep track of it. I wouldn't be able to do that with IRC, and I feel like it would be a pain with smaller thread.

All in all, I feel like I would be a lot less active on the forum if not for these threads.

Just my occasional-poster view :)
 
I echo the above posters views, I find opening the random thoughts thread and go back maybe 2-3 pages and skim through until I find something to comment on is easier than sifting through ten new threads. Basically if we didn't have "random" observations to reply to and tangents to go off on we wouldn't have as much to talk about.

I think we could end up with a whole lot of "mini-marcos" threads. There's nothing wrong with that thread per say, but it's kind of dull. With people programmed to somewhat stick to the topic, it runs out of steam fast. You could argue that that is fine and the whole purpose of having threads, but I'd argue that if anyone posted the same pictures and little story in the random thoughts thread it'd garner more replies and perhaps fuel a discussion about other ugly cars.

One can of course say that "well post a new thread then about another specific ugly car you know", but I think many aren't motivated enough to do that, and if you created a thread nobody else found interesting enough to reply to you might even become a little disappointed...
 
For me the issue is filtering out unwanted content. There is simply no time to read all the random thoughts, and it's impossible to follow without reading them. Having a title for each discussion makes all the difference. Basically what you guys want is a slow moving chat. But it has now attracted all the content away from the rest of the forum, because as you say, it's easier to reply than make a new thread.
 
The Random and Awesome threads do have their uses. For example posting some pictures or videos that do not require any or much discussion, but seem to be of interest for the people in this community.
However, quite often these threads are used for fairly lengthy discussions about a topic that is not covered by an existing other thread. If two or more discussions develop in one thread in parallel, it becomes difficult to follow. Plus, it's really hard to search for things that way.

I suggest to just open a thread in case you want to discuss something or need to have a question answered and feel that you get more than just a couple of reactions. And please, choose your thread titles well! :)

Another, related thing: A bit more moderating activity is probably necessary to make these forums less confusing to read...for example, just moving posts into their own threads if the discussion clutters up an unsuited thread.
 
I'd rather like the superlong thread. I mainly follow this forum through my subscribed threads in User CP.

Als, this thread is useless w/o a poll. :(
 
I prefer one long meta thread to a bunch of one-to-five post mini-threads. Seems easier to handle.
 
How is it easy to follow a super popular thread that discusses tons of different things that are only tangentially related (for example being "automotive" plus "awesome").

it is when you hardly ever go out of userCP. sometimes it takes weeks before i notice a new thread...
and the random thoughts are just what they are. random thoughts...go in it if you're bored, but you won't miss anything noteworthy if you don't...
the only random thoughts i'm subscribed to, and hence the only one i ever visit, is the F1 one...

and i think in the past, there have been to many replies "you found this interesting enough to make a new thread for it?"
and when you create a new thread, someone is sure to dig one up from 5 years ago, saying it's a repost
and when you were to bump that thread, other people start bitching you shouldn't do that, just create a new one

maybe it just should be easier to split a discussion from one of the random thoughts to a new thread?
 
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I agree with DanRoM and Dr Grip.
I like the epic threads for just random observations, that don't necessarily merit new threads of their own. Plenty of new topics have been started out of conversations that began in those threads.

I would find it kind of annoying to log in of an evening, and find 70+ new threads on top of the threads I had participated in earlier. Yes, I'm aware I can subscribe to those threads, but I have to be VERY interested for that to occur. I think even now I only have 2-3 subscriptions set for this forum.

Perhaps we set a limit for pages on the epic threads? Once it gets to X number of pages, it gets locked and a new one started? I know the Skylines Australia Forum do it that way.
 
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I really like the Random Threads. With limited time to read through the forums I find it a lot more convenient to just check the last few pages of Random Thoughts to see if something interesting has happened. All those small threads with minimal amount of replies, I cannot be bothered to open them all.
 
Perhaps we set a limit for pages on the epic threads? Once it gets to X number of pages, it gets locked and a new one started? I know the Skylines Australia Forum do it that way.

This. Maybe a 1000 post limit?

I'd have to have to go through a ton of threads just to post my inane crap that really doesn't go anywhere else.
 
I too like the long threads, easier to follow.
The long threads could become sub-forums, "Random thoughts" sub-forum (almost) exists as "Random Threads [Automotive]".

The rest should remain the same :)
 
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The Random Thoughts threads are the only ones I read unless I spot something particularly interesting and yes I still miss things, I'm just not sure if I'm really bothered about that fact. I'm not sure where the recent posts about squashed steering wheels would go. :think:
 
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