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

I generally don't read the Random Thoughts threads, purely because they move way to fast. I don't really care enough about most of the topics discussed and the ones I do care about are discussed and discarded before I have a chance to reply. So in this respect I agree with what Viper is proposing.

I do however like the Awesome thread, specifically the automotive version, it's a good place to dump a cool picture or something not really worthy of a new thread, but still worthy to share. I skim a lot of it, because some doesn't interest me, but the thread moves slowly enough that I can usually keep up.
 
I like the mega threads: most of my BS ramblings aren't worth a new thread anyway: they'd get like 2 or 3 replies tops. Not to mention that I really don't feel like I miss much if I don't read every page....not everyone shares that reading style though...

Sure its just software and Its not like were physically killing trees to print these convos out but creating a new thread for something stupid like a photo or random observation that doesn't merit a full blown discussion seems pointless.

I like the middle approach: keep the random threads but when a convo becomes its own thing, it should be split into its own thread.

Locking the thread and starting anew can also work. Granted the other forum I'm on does it mostly for performance reasons but it has the side benefit of keeping things manageable for the members who want to read every page.
 
As a possible solution, why not keep the random threads, but If a conversation goes over say, 10 replies, it should be pushed to a new thread. Thoughts?
That's basically what I was saying earlier. I realize it'd be going to be a lot of work.

So, people should consider if their post contains a question worth discussing at length beforehand and if yes, post their own threads. It's not that difficult...
Especially in the Automotive Random Thoughts there is a tendency to post every question related for instance to some mechanical problem on a car just in that thread. I think those topics are specific enough not be be treated as random.
 
This, mostly.

You'd also end up with duplicate threads all over the place as once things fall off the first page of General Automotive they rarely resurface. Although I do agree things get buried, I feel the problem is not so much with the idea of big threads to cover a general topic but people being unsure of what is worthy of it's own thread and what's not... A lot of the stuff in the Awesome threads is awesome, but probably not worthy of an individual thread by itself.

What he wrote, couldn't have said it any better.
 
Let's review some of the recent posts in the Awesome Thread (Auto):
The "Awesome" threads are actually a bad example of this. Those threads work fine as mega threads, because awesome things don't usually spark longer conversations anyway.

The biggest culprits are those "random thoughts" threads. Random thoughts is such an all encompassing term that pretty much everything can go there. Yet in reality very few thoughts are actually truly random, there are questions, opinions, ideas, things that are almost guaranteed to start conversations. All these conversations will get buried in those mega threads, only to see the light of day once they are going on and for even that you need to follow those threads almost religiously. After that they are gone, never to be seen again. Maybe there was some interesting idea in there, maybe an useful advice, all lost.
 
One suggestion would be to direct people over to the Q&A section more, as the Random Automotive Thoughts thread has often been the place for "This shit doesn't work. Why doesn't it work?" kind of questions.

And yeah, it feels like I've been more eager to post something as a random, trivial thought. If the idea was to rather create separate threads, it would more often generate the feel of "Is this really worthy of posting", resulting in deleting the text in the posting field. Randomness invites more spontaneous thoughts.
 
I'd like to see the mega threads kept, but I'd also be fine with encouraging people who have actual questions or topics they want replies on to start new threads and if the discussion starts picking up to do so as well. I personally find it more information heavy to go into a forum and see 20 new threads than 30 new replies in a single thread as now you have a bunch more topics to sort through and you have to open them separately to participate in them. It works to have a ton of smaller topics for everything, but I find the process of opening so many new threads and having to go back to the index to see what the next one is to be more annoying than dealing with one all encompassing thread when there are only a handful of replies on any one subject.
 
Another one for the 'keep em' side, sometimes it's just nice to read/participate in some random conversation without the need to go on IRC and deal with the less nice things of IRC.....like direct human contact.

As for monitoring these threads, is there really such a big need to check every post? It's mostly regulars posting there, and if someone gets out of line/ posts something that does not belong I'm sure those posts will get reported no?
 
That's basically what I was saying earlier. I realize it'd be going to be a lot of work.

So, people should consider if their post contains a question worth discussing at length beforehand and if yes, post their own threads. It's not that difficult...
Especially in the Automotive Random Thoughts there is a tendency to post every question related for instance to some mechanical problem on a car just in that thread. I think those topics are specific enough not be be treated as random.

You'd think it's not that difficult to realize when a topic deserves a new thread and yet people abuse those threads like crazy and post tons of stuff in there that should be a separate thread. Hence this thread here.

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The "Awesome" threads are actually a bad example of this. Those threads work fine as mega threads, because awesome things don't usually spark longer conversations anyway.

The biggest culprits are those "random thoughts" threads. Random thoughts is such an all encompassing term that pretty much everything can go there. Yet in reality very few thoughts are actually truly random, there are questions, opinions, ideas, things that are almost guaranteed to start conversations. All these conversations will get buried in those mega threads, only to see the light of day once they are going on and for even that you need to follow those threads almost religiously. After that they are gone, never to be seen again. Maybe there was some interesting idea in there, maybe an useful advice, all lost.

Exactly! They move too fast for me to be able to follow but I'd like to participate in topics on certain subjects. :(

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"Is this really worthy of posting"

Sure, why not? As said, threads are free.

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As for monitoring these threads, is there really such a big need to check every post? It's mostly regulars posting there, and if someone gets out of line/ posts something that does not belong I'm sure those posts will get reported no?

It's more I'd like to participate in more threads but as someone who only checks the forums at most once a day, it's impossible to keep up with all those posts.
 
I prefer one long meta thread to a bunch of one-to-five post mini-threads. Seems easier to handle.

Agreed. It?s easier to scroll through 20 posts in 1 Thread that contain nonsense I don?t care about, than 20 single threads that I don?t care about.

It?s always the question "does this need/warrant a seperate discussion" - and let?s be honest - 80+% of posts here (totally quilty myself) do not warrant a seperate discussion. And if a post does not require it?s own discussion (most don?t even generate any interest by others at all) - just let it be in one of the big messy threads. The Forum would be a right mess without them ...

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You'd think it's not that difficult to realize when a topic deserves a new thread and yet people abuse those threads like crazy and post tons of stuff in there that should be a separate thread. Hence this thread here.[...]

Maybe just give the "repeat offenders" a talk about what should go in a seperate thread - and what not? Personally, I think I can tell very well what is best posted seperatly and what not.

Other Forums I know also have a "threads started" counter in the short user-info on the left. That also motivates some people to start new threads (just like the post-counter motivates some people to post many small posts). That may also may help ease what you seem to see as a problem ...
 
It's more I'd like to participate in more threads but as someone who only checks the forums at most once a day, it's impossible to keep up with all those posts.

So, perhaps time to look for some 'CnP MiniMod' (cut n paste) who are responsible for a RT or Awesome thread, and hit the report button for the mods to split the convo once it goes over the 5 post limit for those that don't self moderate. Means the Mods proper don't have to read every post in every thread, but can still keep the house in order, as it were.
 
Agreed. It?s easier to scroll through 20 posts in 1 Thread that contain nonsense I don?t care about, than 20 single threads that I don?t care about.

But the threads you don't care about only take up as much time as reading the title...you don't need to read, or even scroll through, the 11 posts about it that thread that wouldn't interest you.

:dunno: I don't have skin in the game either way.
 
I tend to check very few threads regularly. Random Thoughts and Awesome Thread are two of them. I'll check something else if the title catches me but if it doesn't, I never see it. I like the super-long threads because I can check a couple pages of posts and quote the ones that I want to butt in on with my (generally) worthless opinion.
 
The "Awesome" threads are actually a bad example of this. Those threads work fine as mega threads, because awesome things don't usually spark longer conversations anyway.

The biggest culprits are those "random thoughts" threads. Random thoughts is such an all encompassing term that pretty much everything can go there. Yet in reality very few thoughts are actually truly random, there are questions, opinions, ideas, things that are almost guaranteed to start conversations. All these conversations will get buried in those mega threads, only to see the light of day once they are going on and for even that you need to follow those threads almost religiously. After that they are gone, never to be seen again. Maybe there was some interesting idea in there, maybe an useful advice, all lost.
Now with a multiple thread idea, that interesting conversation is lost as new threads pop up and bury old threads that lose active conversation. It's the same endgame just in a different way.
 
Now with a multiple thread idea, that interesting conversation is lost as new threads pop up and bury old threads that lose active conversation. It's the same endgame just in a different way.
At least threads can be found and understood by searching.
 
For what it's worth, I find it far easier to scroll through a few mega threads than having to filter out individual ones. One my phone, I'll hit the mega threads only and mark the rest of the form as read.
 
You can search within a thread as well.

Why should I have to search first for threads and then within individual threads?
 
Why should I have to search first for threads and then within individual threads?

It would depend on how you searched, wether by threads or by posts. If by posts, it would probably come up with the info you need without searching twice.
 
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